The Path of Least Resentment

by vilcans
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.42
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.83
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.83
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.71
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.58
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.50
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.40
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.13
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★40%
In the War on Terror, education is our weapon. It is the key to work, it is the key to a home.

Children that don't get a chance to go to school choose join terrorist organizations. Adults who can’t find a job get resentful and go to the nearest terrorist recruitment center. Lacking a place to build their house, would-be parents will join these dreadful organizations. We have to put an end to this! Children who have an easier path to the nearest terrorism bootcamp than to school must get better roads. Adults must have a shorter commute to work than to the terrorists’ recruitment center. After working hard, they deserve an easy way to find a place to live. Fortunately, charity organizations have donated the groundwork for several houses in a village. Unfortunately, the infrastructure needs improvement. This is where you come in. As a master roadworker, your job is to build the roads that will help adults and children find their way. Because if it is faster to reach the alluring terrorist recruitment center, that’s where they are going to go. If all houses are built, peace wins. Good luck!

WASD to move. R to restart level if needed. Esc to quit. Game ends if a terrorist cell gets 3 members.

TIPS from Wednesday Apr 22nd: There is no way to make it *harder* for a person to reach the terrorist house. You can only make it *easier* for them to go to the right place. Take care so you don't make an easy path to the terrorist's bootcamp. Keep in mind that a child will turn into a worker who then turns into a home builder, and a home will spawn three children. Make sure they have somewhere to go.

FIX on Monday Apr 20th: The downloads were messy mixes of a test project and the final release. That's now fixed. Use the updated links. (Thanks dreadzilla for testing on Windows!)

screenshot

Comments20

tininsteelian
tininsteelian20 Apr 2015, 02:43
A very interesting concept! I'm not sure now to prevent the workers from becoming terrorists after they finish working though.
mattfox12
mattfox1220 Apr 2015, 02:55
Neat idea, but I found it hard to determine why people walked the directions they did. It seems like there should be a way to remove pavement to deter or change their movement. It seemed like I couldn't change minds after they started heading to the bootcamp.
Martin Vilcans20 Apr 2015, 07:21
@tininsteelian: Make sure you create a road that makes it easy for them to reach an empty lot instead of going to the terrorists once they get out of the factory.
Martin Vilcans20 Apr 2015, 07:22
@mattfox12: They will actually change their mind if you create a path to another place. But since they're already on their way, it's pretty hard.
hypp
hypp20 Apr 2015, 17:33
Nicely done as always. Great idea with using education as a weapon.
Tommislav
Tommislav20 Apr 2015, 21:15
I love your unconventional game ideas! And the voice over really cracks me up. I haven't been able to win the game yet, but I spent a lot of time with it. Simple but still fun.
Huo-cuo
Huo-cuo21 Apr 2015, 19:32
Very good concept and well designed game. I had a lot of fun playing it. The sound part is a masterpiece.
dreadzilla21 Apr 2015, 20:03
It works well on a Windows machine! Nicely made game. Only drawback is that the terrorists always win when I play!
RegsaGC24 Apr 2015, 10:42
Actually quite ingenious way to comment on a very serious issue.
Gameplay is solid in its simplicity(And I didn't mannage to find any bugs)
Only thing is I would've liked to be able to cross the terrain without making a road sometimes. But all part of the experience I guess
arkelite25 Apr 2015, 03:20
I liked the concept, was a bit difficult to get a grasp of it at first.
NoSoupForYou26 Apr 2015, 02:46
I really enjoyed the premise of this game. Was nice to see a sort of strategy game on LD instead of the usual platformer or shooter fare. I enjoyed the citizens voices as well!
Ludonaut
Ludonaut26 Apr 2015, 20:03
Oh wow, this is some well executed political commentary.
lizard455
lizard45526 Apr 2015, 20:56
Interesting game! Would help if there was a better explanation of which building is which.
careless
careless26 Apr 2015, 21:12
Very nice idea, very unconventional. Nice music and a simple look and feel to the game.

I struggled a little with knowing if I was using tactics.
Dege
Dege26 Apr 2015, 21:13
Damn, that is difficult. I'm not bad on first minutes, but at the end terrorists always wins :( I liked the graphics, it looks a lot like a tabletop game. Very interesting gameplay, good use of theme. Congrats!
misterwalter26 Apr 2015, 21:20
The voices were great. I wish there was a little more depth to it, but it's a game jam so that's fine. Maybe a post-jam version?
kunzbe26 Apr 2015, 21:23
interesting game concept. it was already fun just to see the chain reaction happening.
xtty26 Apr 2015, 21:30
This is a fun concept, but it's hard to determine what's the idea of "easy" the people are using to choose where they go - many times it seems like the easiest thing to do would be to go to school/work/build a house, but people end up deciding to become terrorists.

Also, I'm not sure whether it's actually possible to *beat* this game. :)

The music was awesome, I love the slight political irony too.
Martin Vilcans28 Apr 2015, 21:25
@xtty: I used the pathfinding algorithm's cost calculations for the speed too, so "easiest" is the same as "fastest", if that helps.
gnx28 Apr 2015, 21:56
The concept is certainly original. I like the basic mechanics of the game and the voice acting was really great.

The actual objective of the game and what the different buildings mean don't really come across from the gameplay alone though.

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