Daring Discourse is a game about defending an argument and acquiring ten seconds from the crowd of people disagreeing with you. I am glad to have finished a title for my first Ludum Dare, something I was not sure I could do! Good luck to any other participants and, should you choose to play it: Enjoy my game!
An online version is coming soon. The Submission form implies a Windows version is required, so I made the first version to run out of an exe. I need to change a couple things before I put it on a web page.
I may post a link here in the coming days to an updated version, but it will be kept separately from the Ludum Dare 27 entry at a similar location on my server.
Interesting idea: I like it! And I like how you represented the ideas coming in as planes attacking you, and you have to remember which kind of arguments the sender is receptive to.
(See the PS to the following paragraph! I still left it in so you can understand my confusion:) It seems I am missing some part of explaination though. When do you lose an argument? When you miss too many planes? When the planes throw to many Xs at you? I had nearly everyone at my side, then suddenly the game ends and says I have lost this argument. (Again.) I am really not sure what happens there.
I think the game might've worked better with less people, so you can actually memorize it - or maybe a few rounds, each with more people in? Additionally, not everyone is good at using colors as associations; names, numbers, letters in a certain color could've been used as additional identifier. It works well for me in the first two rounds where they come in order, but after that I just give up and simply shoot planes.
The graphics are simple, but they work out well! I like the little shooting thing that tells you that your shot is fully loaded. The sound effects are perfect. The music is nothing too special, but fits and doesn't annoy.
Is the theme anywhere in the game, or is it just this "You get 10 seconds from the crowd" plot thing? If so, that's, uh, pretty weak theme-wise. (What does it even mean to get "10 seconds" from he crowd?
All in all, pretty solid game with a pleasing look and an interesting concept. Good job, and congratulations on finishing your first LD entry!
PS: Is just played the game again, and now I get it! I thought the planes drop the Xs at me, but they drop it at this... thorn thingy in the middle, which probably represents my argument. I finally won: 4811.
While I think this game is far to hard to win without taking notes or memorizing, it is very fun and original. I love the use of the theme. Overall, it was very enjoyable, and I just wish I was able to keep 10 things in my short term memory :)
I actually liked the argument mechanic so much I've been thinking on how it could be made more accessible. I hope you don't mind a suggestion!
I think that the last 2 arguments used on a juror should appear on them. Not if they were right or wrong, just a running display of the last 2 used. The remainder of the game would stay the same.
This would let the player shift the memorization task to "which jurors have I successfully figured out", which would be much easier than "which argument for which juror"; and hopefully still be challenging.
That makes it way too easy, nevermind. The 2nd round of shots would all be successes... Maybe if the juror launching the next argument flips their Vote sign around briefly before their plane appears. So you can't just straight compare.
It's a strange metaphor for an argument, but it's quite fun. I'm glad you didn't make me remember all ten people the whole time. That would have been near impossible.
Interesting idea, I didn't realize it was a memorization practice rather than having some deeper pattern, but it does feel like a good way of representing argument!
Strange game, I like the visual style and the audio is nice. I also found it awesome that you could hit things during the period when the ball moves downwards. Kind of like a boomerang :D
I just kept at shooting the planes until I won.