Throne Room of the Merchant King

by mike-cullingham

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.05

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.95

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.70

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.50

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.74

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★44%

NB: Post-Jam version has a ton of graphical improvements, so don't judge graphics based on that version. Gameplay and algorithms are unchanged though.

To play:
* move the king with the mouse
* click on the merchants when you are close to see their offers
* select trade offers
* advance the week with the arrow in the lower right

Mostly an experiment in seeing what it takes to create an economic game with a bunch of variables. You can jump in and make trades and accumulate the most products, and the various factions will consume, produce, and trade amongst themselves (only between weeks).

Under the hood they have relationships with each other, happiness, and vices like gluttony and decadence. Of course, I haven't really revealed this in the UI due to time, so trust me, I guess?

Everything designed over the weekend by me.

Art: gimp
Sounds: bfxr
Engine: GameMaker Sudio 1.4

Genres: simulation

Tools: GameMaker

Comments17

tehPHEN13 Dec 2016, 05:28

Nice! It really emphasizes the magic of trading. I wish I could buy boots to make the king move faster. I can see where this can go, and can be very fun.

mike.cullinghamauthor13 Dec 2016, 14:58

Thanks for the kind words @tehPHEN. There were a lot of directions I thought I could pull it.

hijomo13 Dec 2016, 17:01

On its face a cool idea. It's all the "under the hood" that is the interesting part. With some kind of goal for the player, i.e. you need to get x red cubes, I could sink a lot of time into this.

EvilObjective13 Dec 2016, 22:38

It's nice to see a different take on the theme, haven't come across an economic/trading game yet!

hoqjed15 Dec 2016, 05:52

Neat little game!

Shivur16 Dec 2016, 16:53

Good concept. The proximity detection is not very efficient so it's difficult to pop-up the trade.

SbstnC16 Dec 2016, 16:57

I did'nt know that kings were that much involved with the details of the kingdom's economy, neither that so many merchants were lazying around throne rooms.

Joke aside, the trading is fun. I wish trading and moving weren't the same button, because, some times you just walk on top of a trader, and hide him, make it difficult to trade with him.

mike.cullinghamauthor16 Dec 2016, 21:45

Feedback responses round 2
@hijomo: thanks for the ideas
@EvilObjective: I definitely didn't see myself doing this sort of game
@hoqjed: thanks!
@Shivur: thanks for the feedback. i'll double check the proximity detection.
@SbstnC: Heh, yeah, historically accurate it's not. I intended it to be touch friendly, but I'll keep in mind that situation. Thanks.

MessinaBrothers19 Dec 2016, 23:09

Trading is always fun! Wish there was some sort of ultimate resource you were trying to gain. The "game" was pretty easy. Merchants near the top of the screen were hard to read. Loved the concept though!

LooksLikeSomething20 Dec 2016, 17:22

Nice little game!

Sarge3v25 Dec 2016, 18:28

Nobody sells me meat, argh! :D

comatomatoes27 Dec 2016, 02:21

Definitely a fun concept! However I think there were some major balance issues. Before I gave up, I went through many weeks

comatomatoes27 Dec 2016, 02:23

(continuing my comment because I accidentally submitted) ... I went through many weeks where people only wanted to receive gold when I didn't have any. The people who were willing to give me gold often wanted gold in exchange for their gold. XD

nick.bota27 Dec 2016, 08:37

Interesting entry! You don't see a lot of games focused solely on trading, and it would be nice to see the game polished and finished! That being said the game feels chaotic at the moment, the only indicator that a player has to see if a trade is good or bad is the quantity which is not really ideal. But don't mind my rambling, the game is awesome as a concept, and the fact that you've done everything by yourself makes it even greater, good job!

Squid27 Dec 2016, 23:47

Very cool! Had a few instances where someone would trade me one of the item I sold and got a good laugh. I really liked the concept behind this. Would love to see this if it was worked on as a real game!

Multiplexor27 Dec 2016, 23:56

Great! I like trading games! I got hooked on seeing how to get as many points a possible, tough after a few weeks it feels a bit repetitive! Nevertheless, I like a lot the concept!

Oh, and some funky music would've been great!

Keep up the good work!