Hyperdemocracy is a narrative game centered around the citizens of a city who have surpassed the need for government and are instead given total control over putting forward, and voting on, any and all decisions they undertake as a society. Freedom has never been so communal. Please do not try and leave your room until you have voted on the minimum agreed amount of motions for the day. Please refrain from using the chat to try and influence other voters. Have a pleasant day. Please click here to return to the TwoButton.com homepage.
If you are a resident of Dreyton, please remember to fill out an A0118 form in triplicate as per the motion agreed on March 25th before returning via the circle road. Our city thanks you for your tireless service. <<updated as of Motion 1222B>>.
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Hyper Democracy was completed in 72 hours by Mathew Arnold [@skyewardmedia] with assistance from the following contributors:
Niru - art and music [@nirufekriarnold] Noir - art and music Mai - writing Yaam (C010rized) - music [https://www.youtube.com/user/multitrackviolin] Kiana (Acrylic) - writing McKlumpFisk - sfx
Not all assets were implemented in time for the jam and not all ideas were fully realised. The game is meant primarily as a narrative experience as told through the fluctuating environment and the voices of the apartment block’s local chat on TwoButton.com. We hope you enjoy it!
Although the game didn't have much variation in features, the only feature available sure was detailed. I loved just watching the chat and enjoying the music until I lost connection.
Enjoyable little game. Reminds me of Papers, Please! Quite short, but more than passable for a game jam and, if longer, I probably would have been bored (without more exploration pieces). A nice experience as is. Growing theme seems a bit off, as it changes more than it grows. Still good.
Awesome game ! :D I assume the theme of the game is "Two buttons control", and to me this game is really close to that theme :D I love the contrast between the cold city and the funny chat. A really well made game.
It was a very fun start on a game that feels like it wants to become something much bigger. Nice work. It would have been nice if the interaction with the voting machine was mapped to buttons close to the keyboard controls so one didn't need to use the mouse. If the chat didn't clear on voting would have felt more "natural" too, but maybe insert a status into the chat "* You voted YES on prop 1420" or something. I would love to see this voting economy-dystopia continued into a full adventure/exploration game.
Short but sweet, good writing and sound design. Also liked the graphics. I understand it's a jam game but I would have liked a bit more actual interaction to make it feel like anything I did actually mattered. As a story it's wonderful and I definitely got interested in the universe.
This was so immersive -- the most of any game I've played in ludum. It felt like there really were other players on the other side of that chat. Hell, I wish there were I'd play forever (COULD YOU PLEASE MAKE THAT HAPPEN NEXT?!). Excellent job!
Running the .exe also doesn't work for me. The first time I saw what looked like an atlas of images, and then broken lines radiating from the center. I could hear the music though. I'm on window 8 x64.
It's an interesting dystopian setting for interactive fiction, but at the moment it's not very interactive.
The only interaction, the voting, has no effect. This is to drive in the point that a single vote alone has no power, I presume, but I inferred that from the chat messages alone so what's the point?
The one motion where a single vote does get a reaction from the chat is also scripted to always have that one vote no matter what I choose, why take a way the only vestige of agency?
That's one thing I really dislike about this kind of interactive fiction writing. It's all a smoke-screen easily revealed by replaying with opposite choices. Reading this as a novel or a visual novel would have given me the same content in a more compelling form, i.e. not as a slow chat drip feed.
Some suggestions:
- Make those few close-call motions matter. Don't force the outcome.
- The moving around bit is completely unnecessary and could be replaced by an image of a room where clicking the computer would start voting, clicking the window would look outside, etc.
- Come up with more ways to interact with the chat and people outside the chat, after all that would totally happen in this kind of world. Branching dialogue trees, hazy pattern matching, relationship simulations... There are a lot of tools to include meaningful interactivity.
The chat really makes this, even the "typing speed" is accurate, i just sat there reading it vote after vote, so good. I love how you created such a captivating setting and characters with such a simple interface. Super impressed!
One thing i might add: i didn't think to check if the environment changed after each motion was passed until the first day was done, and think i might have missed some content because of it. Maybe that could be fixed if you returned to the room after each vote, or each passed motion at least? It would break flow a bit, but it might be worth it.
Also, none of my neighbours have a computer; how are they performing their CIVIC DUTY?!
Comments29
I assume the theme of the game is "Two buttons control", and to me this game is really close to that theme :D
I love the contrast between the cold city and the funny chat. A really well made game.
Awesome Job!
great job :)
The only interaction, the voting, has no effect. This is to drive in the point that a single vote alone has no power, I presume, but I inferred that from the chat messages alone so what's the point?
The one motion where a single vote does get a reaction from the chat is also scripted to always have that one vote no matter what I choose, why take a way the only vestige of agency?
That's one thing I really dislike about this kind of interactive fiction writing. It's all a smoke-screen easily revealed by replaying with opposite choices. Reading this as a novel or a visual novel would have given me the same content in a more compelling form, i.e. not as a slow chat drip feed.
Some suggestions:
- Make those few close-call motions matter. Don't force the outcome.
- The moving around bit is completely unnecessary and could be replaced by an image of a room where clicking the computer would start voting, clicking the window would look outside, etc.
- Come up with more ways to interact with the chat and people outside the chat, after all that would totally happen in this kind of world. Branching dialogue trees, hazy pattern matching, relationship simulations... There are a lot of tools to include meaningful interactivity.
One thing i might add: i didn't think to check if the environment changed after each motion was passed until the first day was done, and think i might have missed some content because of it. Maybe that could be fixed if you returned to the room after each vote, or each passed motion at least? It would break flow a bit, but it might be worth it.
Also, none of my neighbours have a computer; how are they performing their CIVIC DUTY?!