Decade

by graebor
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.08
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.78
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.61
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.38
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.74
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.63
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★57%
Decade is a quick interactive fiction experiment made in Twine. It's not as in-depth or polished as I usually aim for, but I had very limited time for this LD, so I just wanted to do a random short game using a simple tool.

My goal was pretty much just to see how interactive and mechanical I could make a Twine game. It's probably not very well balanced, but I'm straight up out of time! If any Twine enthusiasts are interested in how it was made, I'm also including a download for the .tws project file, which includes all the macros I used (from various online sources + some modified/added by me).
Tools: Twine

Comments13

Holofire
Holofire13 Dec 2016, 03:02
A very unique resource management game, can be a bit tricky at the beginning but once you get going, it becomes quite clear. Ended up just switching between terrarium and sabatier for the last 5 years of the game though, got a bit repetitive. Overall I enjoyed the experience, good job :D
fullmontis
fullmontis14 Dec 2016, 14:03
A very interesting use of twine, I think you recreated very well the feeling of a terminal. The gameplay felt a little repetitive, but I think it is mostly because I don't like resource management games much.
radmars
radmars2 Jan 2017, 22:46
Cool! I like how food is running out at the start, adds some nice tension. Balance might need some work though, by about 40% progress I was able to get sustainable production without needing to upgrade the sabatier or solar cells, so it was just a waiting game at that point. Maybe that's the point though :P Nice work!
qzqxq2 Jan 2017, 22:59
I played through once. I have to say that I am really impressed this was made in Twine, of all engines (and speaking of Twine, I'd recommend looking at The Temple of No if you haven't played it before!).

Probably my biggest suggestion would be to cut down the length of the game (or add a fast-forward option, if that's possible). It was pretty engaging for the first 2 years or so when I was trying to get my bearings and worrying about my food/water running out; displaying and constantly updating your power/food/water on every screen really provided a sense of urgency. However, at some point around year 4-5 I got to the point where I could take my hands off the keyboard, so it got pretty boring and I only continued to see the ending.

I did think you balanced the resources/upgrades pretty well, in that I felt I had to make nontrivial tradeoffs at points, so good job with that. Also, I thought the writing, both at the beginning and the end, was well-done and did a great job at setting the scene. If you added some sound effects and a background track, I could easily give this 5 stars in mood.

Nice job!
rjhelms2 Jan 2017, 23:10
I'm really impressed this is made with Twine! You did a great job pushing the limits of that platform.

I agree with much of @qzqxq's comments - it's really engaging at first, but once you're established and have everything up and running there's not really much that you have to do.

Some random events starting in year 4 or 5 - nothing punishing, but things that would require the player to re-prioritize a bit - would keep things more engaging for duration.
nekoballs
nekoballs2 Jan 2017, 23:26
Great writing and fun gameplay! Got hooked
fabsy
fabsy2 Jan 2017, 23:39
Great game, great concept.

The only problem I found was the fact that after 2-3 years it sort of becomes an idle game.

- jcrmartini
Palmish3 Jan 2017, 00:01
Lovely presentation. The writing and the attention to detail in the presentation is excellent.

The game itself was enjoyable for a while, but I eventually got to a state where everything was just slowly increasing and there was really no threat or incentive to do much. I started trying to speed things up by increasing food production, using the ration decompression to get more materials and then creating more solar cells. That was fun for a bit, but ultimately there was no reason to do it.

There's a lack of progression after the first couple of minutes which really kills the game. I was hoping for some threat to appear, but none did. If you had the time to add that, I think this could be a lot better.

Overall it's a very good effort that is just missing some final pieces.
bigpan3 Jan 2017, 00:04
Interesting, but it could've used some audio to make the mood better
TerraCottaFrog
TerraCottaFrog3 Jan 2017, 00:31
Fun game, but I agree that the balance needs to be fixed. I just left the game idle from year 5. It was very engaging before then, and I love the feel of the terminal.
kernel panic3 Jan 2017, 01:14
I really like the concept. Unfortunately I became self-sustaining at around 30%, so it back a waiting game. Perhaps some sequence of disasters could make the game more challenging.
Wumbo
Wumbo3 Jan 2017, 02:37
Cool game, I absolutely love the way you did the background shift when it loads new text!

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