Making Ends Meet

This game definitely creates an atmosphere by very simple means. Feels kinda raw though.

i guess taking that mortgage wasn't such a good idea lol
enjoyed the kind of dry humor on the game over ))

fits the theme pretty well. :v:

_had some problems with text size (i saw just a blank page). got it fixed by reloading the page, several times.._

While the concept is interesting, I'm not entirely sure it's entirely possible to win it...? Upon finishing a few playthroughs, events seem to happen randomly and in ways I'm not entirely sure is necessarily tied to the player's decisions (although, I could be wrong).

The idea to show how the family deteriorates as time goes on was an interesting one, but the text quickly becomes repetitive. Sometimes it's not present for long enough to read it. I'm also fairly certain that the message about how the baby is crying will always show twice in succession (at least, that was my experience with it).

(Also, was the fact that there's blood on the walls during those interludes intentional? It does, if nothing else, make one think that the family is one of serial killers.)

Thanks for all the feedback. I have made a couple of tweaks to the game balance so hopefully the chain of cause and effect is clearer and the game is more winnable. I've also tried to hack around the font problem.

That's a really clever little game. I totally feel involved is the story and regrets any bad choice. Really well executed narrative game good job :)

This game really nails the mood and theme. While I failed to see how my choices mattered much, the storytelling aspect is quite good. Nice work!

This game got really close to the real life. I almost started a tear while playing. Is it possible to win? (The game, I mean, not life)

@evgeniya-zapolnova You can definitely win, the trick is to make sure you are looking after all your family members.

So I get home from work, I find my energy company has charged me a late fee despite sending the money from my end on time. I put this misfortune aside to play some Ludum Dare games. I did not expect to have this bleak reality I occupy mirrored back at me. 8/10 would whimper again.

Excellent interpretation of the theme served by a good musical atmosphere. Your entry is very original for a jam and sadly realistic outside the limits of the jam. In any case it's an interesting game. Good work!

Thematic concept and pleasant graphics (once the font works). The interactivity is suspect, though; getting to the end of the year seems to require exploiting a broken system! I'll elaborate.

Tying certain costs to personal problems is clever, but the old options stay available and effective for some reason. If I cut down on heating, the baby gets sick opening up a new, more expensive medical option. If I turn on the heating again and strike out the medicine, the baby is just fine!? Weren't they supposed to be sick? This same issue is applied to the teenager, father and mortgage payments options.

I would instead replace the old option (say, "dad's tickets" with "dad's drinking tab") forcing you to pick the more expensive option. It becomes worse (in this case, "playing at the casino"), if neglected again, or it becomes better if chosen once. This would make the mortgage situation make a whole lot more sense. The fine has to be paid once every time you skip the normal payment, not continually for the rest of the year.

Additionally some surprise (randomized?) income options would be appreciated, such as: lottery (must spend money for a chance to win), second job (stressful, can result in mental breakdown), illegal activities (shoplifting, insurance fraud, etc. Can get caught!) Variety is always a bonus in titles like this.

Good effort; extra content and design tweaks needed. Also the music is somewhat annoying due to the very short loop.

Overall: *Above average (3.5)*
Fun: *Terrible (1.5)*
Innovation: *Above average (3.5)*
Theme: *Good (4.0)*
Graphics: *Good (4.0)*
Audio: *Below average (2.5)*
Humor: *Above average (3.5)*
Mood: *Above average (3.5)*

Awesome submission, great take on the theme :)

This is very good. Simply but fun. Fits the theme perfectly and as someone who has to balance the family budget I feel this family's struggle. Is the game beatable? I tried a couple of times but couldn't get close. It's a bit depressing if it isn't. Good stuff :8ball:

Nice atmosphere! You captured the theme quite well, and the game-play was simple and easy to grasp, and the music fit nicely as well.

Well this brutally ended :D Left my baby sick and left the house lol.
But overall the game is nice, and it was fun to play it.
I actually felt a bit bored when between months you have to wait the text to go forward, there wasn't any button for that so waiting was a bit of a downside.
Other than that, nice entry :)

@HuvaaKoodia you've hit the nail on the head. The approach you describe is the only way to reliably beat the game. Its not broken as such, it was a deliberate decision. I guess the argument for it is that you need to make sure you're looking after everyone in the house and that trying to cut back on them too far just leads to greater costs (maybe there's an analogy there for modern-day fiscal austerity?).

Balancing the game was definitely the hardest part and I think we managed to do an OK job in the time that was available. The game is beatable and in a way that is sort of thematic. Its true that some of the thematic details are a bit of a stretch (e.g. putting the heating on makes the baby better), but I think it kind of makes sense. Thanks for the great feedback.

@oddballdave Yes the game is beatable, see @huvaakoodia's post for details.

@corbak I wanted to make it so you could click through the text in between months but didn't have time; I was using an unfamiliar game engine (Phaser 3) so got a bit stuck when trying to do some basic things like that :-)

Thanks for the feedback everyone. We're new to this but encouraged by all this fantastic feedback, thank you everyone.

@HuvaaKoodia we certainly had some high ambitions related to extra income, random events and knock on effects but given our inexperience and slightly too casual approach to the whole thing this is what we ended up with. I think the next thing we would have implemented would have been additional income from those that are happy (part time jobs, bonuses etc) to balance the negative impacts from the cuts but we didn't even really manage to do play testing prior to submission.... so sacrifices had to be made.

An interesting idea, and a fun little game. The graphics and music is overall simple and pretty good.

Simple and well made. I like concept and the use of theme. Good luck!