Bartered

by aycan
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.44
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.94
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.52
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.80
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.87
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.06
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.15
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.23
In silhouette town, people don't use money, they barter to trade. You play as a common person in this town and in the beginning you have nothing. Find something tradable and start bartering. You can carry only one item.

Every item has a different and absurd purchasing power (orange juice is as valuable as television). When trading, + and - signs indicate the purchasing power of target items with respect to yours. When the sun sets, the item you have is your score (a round is 60 seconds - time stops when interacting). Try to help other people and don't do bad things.

ss2.png
Some npcs may ask for high value items for their low value items. Also some of them are very generous. If they need something, they're ready to pay with four times more valuable items. Each level has a trade path and every item in a level is reachable. If you have the item you want, just wait until the round finishes :)

- D to right, A to left
- W to interact
- Mouse to trade
- S to start the game

ss1.png

Complete Guide

- Stick to the candy kiosk and the supermarket. Their owners are nice people and they help you when trading.
- If someone needs an item, simply provide it.
- First check who needs what. Don't trade until you draw a path in your mind.
- You don't have to have the item with the highest value at the end. I personally win the game when I have ice-cream.

screenshot
Tools: Unity

Comments18

JoelLikesPigs
JoelLikesPigs6 Oct 2019, 21:43
It's an interesting concept - I was a little confused at first but eventually the game sorta grew on me - I did feel I got stuck a few times though, either stuck with an item I couldn't trade for a profit, or with an item no one would accept
Mathstr0fficial
Mathstr0fficial7 Oct 2019, 00:54
I enjoyed this game a lot, it definitely grew on me as I continued playing it.

Pros:
- Highly polished for a compo entry
- Graphics have a consistent, unique, and good style
- Surprisingly complex gameplay

Cons:
- Got stuck a few times with untradeable items
- Walking speed was painfully slow
- Audio would really help this game, just something ambient to let you chill out

All in all, a super solid entry, and I think you could do very well!
Aycan
Aycanauthor7 Oct 2019, 07:53
@joellikespigs @mathstr0fficial Thanks for playing and commenting.

When you obtain a high value item in the beginning, it becomes harder to make profit in the rest of the round. Also because of this, some other low value items become pitfalls :) Couldn't calculate that :)
Martynas
Martynas7 Oct 2019, 12:03
Interesting concept!
Evannex7 Oct 2019, 12:11
This was very well done, It did prove quite challenging to make progress without getting stuck, but overall a wonderful entry.
Odeyalko7 Oct 2019, 12:15
not fully understood the essence of the game
Hcursino
Hcursino7 Oct 2019, 13:48
I guess the idea is to trade as much as possible without putting yourself in a position where trades are impossible?
I didn't fully understand the game and what all those + and - sign means. Sorry I can't give you a better feed back than that D:
Aycan
Aycanauthor7 Oct 2019, 15:02
@hcursino "When trading, + and - signs indicate the purchasing power of target items with respect to yours."

@hcursino @odeyalko Deciding a target item and trying to obtain it is the goal of the game. You can help other people while doing that. Background music creates a stressed environment but actually it is a chill game :)

Thanks for playing and commenting everyone.
djee7 Oct 2019, 21:00
@mathstr0fficial summarized it pretty well, it feels like a waste to have such a good polish on a compo entry with graphics and gameplay depth, and fall short on move speed and a somewhat confusing UI. The universal "trade UI" is one trader on the left and the other trader on the right; I still don't understand the UI so pressed all possible buttons and got stuck immediately. I am not inclined to visit all shops and design a strategy when the character is slow and I have only 60 seconds :(
Twelvoo
Twelvoo7 Oct 2019, 21:27
Good game! I like the idea.
maxdmg
maxdmg8 Oct 2019, 03:10
Love the idea really reminded me of that story a couple years ago about a guy starting with a paper clip then trading it until he eventually got to a house. I know that isn't quite what the game is but that's the impression I got. Also holy hell that skyline is absolutely insane. Great humor too, totally stole off the food cart every chance I got. There is a beauty to smaller scaled games which have an intense depth, something you've managed to pull off here. While this is a little confusing to start once it has been picked up the game really shines. Great work
Corrade
Corrade8 Oct 2019, 09:36
It took a little while to get the hang of things, but once I did I found this interesting and enjoyable.

It would've been great to have some UI showing what item I was possessing. Displaying the player's entire barter chain at the end of each round would've been cool too.

Some of the dialogue confused me. Stores were offering to give stuff away, but accepting their free stuff meant discarding your own. I didn't immediately understand that I could only own one item at any given moment.

I also agree that the player's movement speed was rather slow.
Igoreshka
Igoreshka8 Oct 2019, 11:44
You can loss with AK47 or won with paper towel at the end :smile: Interesting concept)
merdeboi8 Oct 2019, 11:56
Well done, solid entry, fits the theem and nice idea.
hastro8 Oct 2019, 12:12
Awesome little puzzle game - really enjoyed it. The art was great and I really liked the UI - it's super simple but still conveys a heap of info, nice work. As others have said, movement speed could have been slightly faster.
Kirbloid
Kirbloid8 Oct 2019, 17:04
I really loved the take on the theme, and you captured it really well with your game. Takes a bit to jump into but only got more clever the more I played with it. Great job!
DS Nahogara
DS Nahogara9 Oct 2019, 06:20
Very cool puzzle game you made! a bit hard at the beginning to understand, good job! :v:
Caberu
Caberu9 Oct 2019, 18:34
Nice graphics and good idea! A bit hard to understand at the begining but still a good game!

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