Ludum Dare #35compo

Barber Blues

by tijn

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.99

Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.12

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.99

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.64

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.26

Audio★★★★★★★★★★4.35

Humor★★★★★★★★★★4.45

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.72

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★50%

BARBER BLUES: living the dream
=======================

You've grown tired of your boring desk job and decide it's time to pursue your life long dream: to become a barber and have your own barber shop.

With just $1000 saved up, it will be an uphill battle for sure, as running an independent business sadly isn't cheap. Will you be able to SHAPESHIFT the beards & moustaches of your clients and sustain yourself in the fashionable but harsh world of hipster chic?

Make it or break it in BARBER BLUES: living the dream!

=======================

How to play:

- select a customer sitting on the bench in your shop
- memorise his requested hairdo
- try to recreate his wishes as close as possible using your trusty razor (controlled by mouse, click to shave)
- once you are finished, click the button labeled "done" and receive payment

=======================

This is my 4th entry for Ludum Dare, and the 2nd time I've used the LÖVE framework. I had lots of fun making this game over the weekend, I hope you have as much fun playing it.

Sadly I didn't have time to implement some variety in how the characters look. I wanted to add different skin tones and clothes, but I simply ran out of time. So please know that having them all the same was not my intention!

=======================

Here's a timelapse of my desktop, showing how I made the game over the course of the weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCIY2h88pf0

=======================

The soundtrack for this game is available on my Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/martijnwf/sets/ld35-barber-shop

Comments59

euske18 Apr 2016, 02:33

This is the first game I reviewed and I already know it's one of my favorites!

amras000018 Apr 2016, 08:08

Very silly game. Well-polished and well-balanced, too. Good work.

nopogo18 Apr 2016, 09:25

that raizor noise just cracked me up. Great game, really oddly satisfying. :)

rnlf18 Apr 2016, 14:29

Pretty neat game! I *LOVE* the sound the machine makes. It looks awesome, but it relatively hard. I guess I'm not made for the glamorous Barber lifestyle.

And as I told you before, the soundtrack is simply amazing.

WizzardMaker18 Apr 2016, 16:15

Great game, I had lots of fun ruining those peoples hair, I don't agree with those people that such a terrible hair cut would cost 334$ but hey who am I to disagree, nice soundtrack/sounds

Elemental Zeal Games Studios18 Apr 2016, 18:41

The audio was amazing, and the mechanic was quite fun. Great job!

glaze_9618 Apr 2016, 20:54

I don't know what to say but.. "WRRRRrrRRrrrrrRRrrRRrrrrrRrrrRRRrrRRr*dies*"
How could you hold that tone for so long?! Haha!

Super fun game! Definitely gonna show it some of my friends!

Dsnunes18 Apr 2016, 22:31

This game is among my favorites

bluszcz18 Apr 2016, 22:37

haha! Great idea, well done!

Rakowu18 Apr 2016, 22:49

Great finally you finish it :D Saw it at the beginning of the jam :D Congratulation

rockybdubs19 Apr 2016, 00:13

Very fun! I kept watching my bank total fall and just wanted to get the dang lumberjacks out the door. Turns out even lumberjacks want quality hair cuts. Great job!

Arvydas19 Apr 2016, 02:28

Hahaha this game (or simulation I should say) made me day. Hilarious on all parts. Gave a guy a messed up cut, and I get complimented...lols

Micah Goodhue19 Apr 2016, 03:08

This so far is the best game I've played so far!

sirtetris19 Apr 2016, 06:23

What at fun game! :D Great audio, appropriate visuals, good job!

ratking19 Apr 2016, 10:43

I don't think i want to become a barber after experiencing how much working it is. ;-)

Great entry! Wish it would show the photo again after shaving each client.

pixzleone19 Apr 2016, 14:26

That was awesome. Nothing more needs to be said. :D

iapc19 Apr 2016, 17:47

Wow, that's a fun game!!

ashdnazg19 Apr 2016, 20:30

The idea and implementation are really neat.
Music and sound effects are brilliant as well.
The perfectionist in me found the many pixels left uncut too disturbing which lead to my hair-styling empire demise.
I think the game gets a bit repetitive after a run or two, not sure how I'd tackle it though.

APantaloni19 Apr 2016, 23:05

I want to become a barber now! No really, this game is good! Music and sound effects have a big part on this, they're great. One of my favorites so far.

Syldarion19 Apr 2016, 23:08

I really loved the sound of the clippers. 10/10 audio, haha. Especially with the blues in there. I did feel like my money trickled down a bit too fast, but maybe I just suck at the game :P

Sheepolution19 Apr 2016, 23:30

This is pretty tough. I wish the shaver was a bit bigger. I get all these small spots I'm missing. That said, I really like this. The sound effects are funny and the overall style of the game. Great job!

neontropics19 Apr 2016, 23:34

Grrreat music and audio

I liked the constant choice between doing something "right" and just saying screw it this is close enough can't afford to spend more time on this dude.

Interface20 Apr 2016, 00:59

Pretty fun, Tijn. I did pretty decent on the cuts, I guess. As usual, fantastic audio! :-)

g1234520 Apr 2016, 15:43

That was a really nice game. Shaving as a game mechanic, nice!

And the soundtrack is definitely one of the best I've heard this LD.

Well done!

josefnpat21 Apr 2016, 08:05

I came here from the love forums - this is fantastic! By far my favorite part was the music and the sound effects! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! <3

ploerre21 Apr 2016, 08:40

this is soo ridiculous.. i started to laugh when the shaving sound turned up and did not stop laughing the rest of the game.. uuh and i lost badly. some people passed the shop window and i ran out of money... good one!

unfortunately the music stopped at some time, maybe there is some scripting bug.

i really like it overall! good job!

seitnerk21 Apr 2016, 08:49

haha what a great game :D best sound ever!

AnaGF21 Apr 2016, 09:11

Funny and addictive. Love the sounds xD

jk500021 Apr 2016, 09:12

Great humor and great game.

homeworld21 Apr 2016, 09:30

Absolutely hilarious, would've been amazing if the beard was physics-enabled, so you could shave a wide chunk of beard by severing its hold on the face in one fell swoop, but it was still worth the carpal tunnel! Also, if a barber earns $7 per second, why am i wasting my life making videogames??

panurge21 Apr 2016, 09:40

If I'd known being a barber was this much fun, I'd have quit my job years ago!

Can't really fault any aspect of this game. I had a blast and picked up some styling tips along the way. :)

Nesferjo21 Apr 2016, 09:51

I really like the concept. And definitely the razor sound is the best part of the game! Good and fun entry :D

AAGH Games21 Apr 2016, 10:25

The pixels flying everywhere while I used the razor were very satisfying! It wouldn't have been the same without that effect.

vctr_seleucos21 Apr 2016, 12:01

My gosh this game is funny as hell. Well done with such take on the theme, remembers my a mini-game from Wario Land 4, but men this game is hilarious. Loving that sounds effects!!! Great job.

Chikoness21 Apr 2016, 13:56

Omg dat shaver sfx ahahaha, great job! Had a bit of fun :)

Frozen Fractal21 Apr 2016, 14:51

Hilarious :D Love the sound effects and the music. Gameplay-wise, I got hit by the PRNG pretty hard, losing some $300 while waiting for customers to enter. And when there were two and I shaved one, the other one had disappeared.

Curious: how are you doing the comparison? Just pixel by pixel, or is there more to it?

Tijnauthor21 Apr 2016, 15:56

Hey Frozen Fractal,

The comparison is indeed done pixel by pixel. Based on that, you are given a score from 0 to 5 (0 is very bad, 5 is very good). Within each tier, a random cash bonus is determined. So it's a little skill and a little luck :)

DarkFieldGames21 Apr 2016, 19:50

So when will we be getting the touchscreen app of this game? :P

(Wrrrrrwrwrwrrrrrwrwrwrrwrwrwrwrwrwrwrwrwrwrwrwurrawurra)

giordanno9222 Apr 2016, 04:14

The mechanics were really creative and the art and sfx were super fun. At our first customer, we won something over $300, but we had spent more than that to get the haircut correct. When we tried to play faster, we were only getting less than $60, maybe we're not meant to have a barber shop :/ The audio is SUPERB! The music and the SFX are amazing, for two days you set a whole new bar. One of the funniest entries I've rated. Amazing job!

Idorrac22 Apr 2016, 20:01

It is really funny, and the music is amazing!

Tegu23 Apr 2016, 11:08

The first time I started shaving, I thought "Oooh, this sound is self-recorded, and not from an actual razor." Brilliant! I managed to shave 4 customers but the second to last I had to rush slightly unfishished with less than $5 left. I didn't know barbering could cause such an adrenaline spike. :D Got over $30 but the next one ended quickly anyway. There's also the trade-off between memorizing the haircut well and getting to action quickly as I keep losing money during it. Time is money, really.

I don't know, maybe it could show the initial request at the end just for comparison, but on the other hand, it probably just shows how horribly it's off in the end. The money received gives a hint anyway. Although sometimes they say like "You're an expert!" and give $9.. Shaving larger areas got quite frustrating as well. I felt like I'd need a bush cutter or something.

The fast background music really set the mood that you have to be quick all the time. It added the tension quite a bit. Even so that I kept clicking furiously the customers that are walking in. Except that didn't really work as then it skips the request as well.. Sometimes the razor sound got stuck on a loop even when not barbering, but it's okay.

Overall, a really fun game. :)

Toonhawk23 Apr 2016, 15:21

It was very hard to tell if there was any need for spending time with all the little specs that got left over when you did the main shape or if you lost more than you gained from it. Also I didn't like the pixel mishmash effect on the beards, I found it hard to look at.

Other than that, fun game with simple and easy to grasp concept and a fun theme.

JuDelCo23 Apr 2016, 19:34

Well done sir, but i don't understand why some clients pay more than others for the same ultra quality cut i provide (ha!), maybe it depends on the money I currently have?

QuestionableQuality24 Apr 2016, 06:54

I had so much fun with this one and absoloutley loved the gameplay. Perhaps it might need better graphics- although a part of that is the charm- and I found myself copying the brilliant razor sound.

It definitely needs an option to make the razor shaving area larger though as I spent most of my time trying to perfectionistly get all the little bits off.

I played it briefly on stream @ I:25:05: http://www.hitbox.tv/video/991443

Obvious_San25 Apr 2016, 17:29

Great entry! Shaving SFX are the best :)

Steve | tacospice25 Apr 2016, 17:51

wuaaaaaaaahhhhhhhrnrhnrnhrnhrnhrr
5/5 would shave again

SantiHisteria25 Apr 2016, 18:10

Ha ha ha ha! Funny game!!

dollarone28 Apr 2016, 00:24

Awesome game, man. Music is top-notch, the razor sfx is amazing, and graphics are fitting and fun.

Quite hard to get all those pesky little bits of beard off (just like real life!) - although I managed to snag $680 from some customer!!

Also I quickshaved 17 customer in one playthrough :) Great fun game!

Headmade30 Apr 2016, 11:06

Oh wow this one is a gem!

The music is mindbogglingly good, I couldn't believe this was made during the compo until I saw the timelapse. Much wow!
I love the idea and thanks to the hilarious shaving sound effect it is so much fun too.

Excellent job, definitely one of my favourites this Ludum Dare.

frogcheese1 May 2016, 08:59

This game is fantastic. Love the interpretation of the theme. The audio is great - not only the music, but special mention to the electric razor as well!

runvs3 May 2016, 20:18

Nice Game, +1 for the super cool soundeffects! When getting the bill, it would be nice to see the image as the customer wanted his haircut as a comparison.
Very well done.

ReactorScram4 May 2016, 18:00

Lots of fun but I only got 4 guys. Do I have to click on them to bring them into the shop? Was I taking too long? And I kind of wish I could see the reference photo while working but I guess that's the challenge.

I gave it a good score because the graphics were funny and the audio was really good.

Yumeito6 May 2016, 21:47

Nice Game:)

Yumeito6 May 2016, 22:00

Its addicting too

LeReveur8 May 2016, 16:10

Ha Ha it's really fun ! And not so easy at it seems ! I like the sound of the razor too, well done ! :D

ButtonMasherBros8 May 2016, 18:56

You were featured in Ludum Dare to Believe! Check it out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-orIwB_E_qw

voxel9 May 2016, 01:36

GOTY 2016

LP vid https://youtu.be/p0pg_dPocRY

WetDesertRock9 May 2016, 03:13

I think this may be one of my favorite uses of the theme that I have seen this LD. Enjoyed the music and the lumberjack feel.

My suggestions for improvement would be to:
Make it so you could click on people coming through the door
Make it less random when you get a customer, although this isn't really a big deal.
Make the razor shave in lines rather than splotches, so it draws a line of removed hair between where it last was and where the mouse moved it to.
Maybe have the razor not rotate after you start shaving?

I did enjoy how they never said anything negative. "I'm sure you will be a great barber someday!"

The sounds were also top notch, good job :D