Ludum Dare #50compo
Delay the inevitable: College Addition
Who wants to graduate and grow up? Not me. Delay your inevitable graduation and party it up in this game I made for Ludum Dare 50.
In this game the player is dealt 3 cards at the start. You can then choose to either play a card (click "Do It") or save it ("Maybe Later"). Each round is ended by clicking on the "Next Week" button and new cards dealt at the beginning of each week/turn.
Try to see how high you can get your party score before the inevitable happens: graduation. Also try not to run out of money, let your grades drop too much, or starve to death because any of those would put a downer on things.
P.S. I know the UI doesn't scale right (try it in fullscreen to fix it) and there's no sound, but I ran out of time. This is my first ever game, first time using Unity, first time publishing a game on Itch.io, and first Ludum Dare ever so just getting this far is a win for me :)
Let me know what you think!
Jordan Pavlic
In this game the player is dealt 3 cards at the start. You can then choose to either play a card (click "Do It") or save it ("Maybe Later"). Each round is ended by clicking on the "Next Week" button and new cards dealt at the beginning of each week/turn.
Try to see how high you can get your party score before the inevitable happens: graduation. Also try not to run out of money, let your grades drop too much, or starve to death because any of those would put a downer on things.
P.S. I know the UI doesn't scale right (try it in fullscreen to fix it) and there's no sound, but I ran out of time. This is my first ever game, first time using Unity, first time publishing a game on Itch.io, and first Ludum Dare ever so just getting this far is a win for me :)
Let me know what you think!
Jordan Pavlic
Comments14
MAT4DOR4 Apr 2022, 15:17
Nice for a first game. Couldn't figure out if there was a lose/win screen or not, but I played quite a bit.
BrettSchiff5 Apr 2022, 00:36
Congrats on your first game and Ludum Dare entry! Hope you stick around to make more!
There are lots of complex things you'll learn to do as you make more complex games, but here are a few quick tips that are super easy and help make things a bit smoother:
- Use a consistent color scheme - I'm terrible at picking out colors, so I use a color scheme generator when I need a new one, like https://coolors.co/e9d758-297373-ff8552-e6e6e6-39393a. If you don't like the colors you can just reroll them, or lock some of them in and just reroll the ones you don't like. Even with no other changes, your game would look pretty solid if the colors matched each other a bit better
- Use rounded squares for textures - get paint.net (https://www.getpaint.net/download.html) if you don't already have it, you can draw out a rounded corner rectangle in whatever dimension you need in a few seconds, save it, and drop it into game!
- Pick a fun font - There are lots of default fonts installed, but if you don't like any of them, you can pick out a custom one from a site like https://www.dafont.com/ (just make sure the license permits whatever use you intend it for), download it, drag it into your Unity Assets folder, and it's ready to go! It's actually kind crazy what a different font can make; getting one that matches the vibe you're going for can completely change feel of the game!
There are lots of complex things you'll learn to do as you make more complex games, but here are a few quick tips that are super easy and help make things a bit smoother:
- Use a consistent color scheme - I'm terrible at picking out colors, so I use a color scheme generator when I need a new one, like https://coolors.co/e9d758-297373-ff8552-e6e6e6-39393a. If you don't like the colors you can just reroll them, or lock some of them in and just reroll the ones you don't like. Even with no other changes, your game would look pretty solid if the colors matched each other a bit better
- Use rounded squares for textures - get paint.net (https://www.getpaint.net/download.html) if you don't already have it, you can draw out a rounded corner rectangle in whatever dimension you need in a few seconds, save it, and drop it into game!
- Pick a fun font - There are lots of default fonts installed, but if you don't like any of them, you can pick out a custom one from a site like https://www.dafont.com/ (just make sure the license permits whatever use you intend it for), download it, drag it into your Unity Assets folder, and it's ready to go! It's actually kind crazy what a different font can make; getting one that matches the vibe you're going for can completely change feel of the game!
Defrag5 Apr 2022, 01:01
Nice job getting smart on game dev, Unity, Itch, and game jams all in one fell swoop. The game needs a little work to be round out the core game loop, but I think I can see where you were headed. Just getting a submission in makes you way ahead of many others.
LDJam user 2874245 Apr 2022, 01:03
Congrats on your first game! I liked the basic game loop, and the idea of trying to max out your partying while keeping everything else balanced. Having all the card influence all the categories means I'm factoring a lot of things into my choices. It was a little overwhelming. I'd preferred it if each card had smaller set of tradeoffs to consider, but others may find that too simplistic, so to each their own.
Great work on getting a completed game done! That's a great achievement!
Great work on getting a completed game done! That's a great achievement!
Tulio5 Apr 2022, 01:07
I liked the idea, I can see this being a very fun "game of life-ish" game. I was able to fix the UI but some the "maybe next time" button was not working. Congratulations on your game! Hope to see you here in the next jam!
KewDev5 Apr 2022, 09:10
Good job on your first jam game! It has a promising concept, even though i feel like a game over screen was missing, i had waaaay too much fun clicking on the cards. I now have a 1.00GPA im suffering from extreme starvation, but at least i have over 30k$-s!
Castitatis5 Apr 2022, 17:55
I was trying to balance money hunger and grades but I realised you could pick only the red cards and not lose :D
Nice humour too :D
Nice humour too :D
PoshDan6 Apr 2022, 00:27
Congrats on releasing your first game! If you're looking to build a career or hobby in game development, you're on the right path: many people never release their games. It's THE tangible way to study player behavior and user experience.
That being said, I wasn't sure if there was an end state to your game here. I went into the negatives, i reached a completely red bar (i thought red means bad, but I guess i achieved graduation?). The game continued on regardless.
If you're interested in game design, you might want to focus on directing the player's journey through your game, and weeding out obstacles. For example, the "maybe later" button should have some sort of feedback on click, otherwise it might feel broken. I couldn't tell if there was much nuance to the numbers offered by each card, but you might want to consider encouraging a variety of options, even if the player has set their mind on partying or graduating. What mechanics or rewards could you add for steering off the direct path? That would be the thought-process of tickling people's brains in a game about choices.
EDIT: Also, black text on blue background is a bit rough on the eyes. I do like that you picked different colors for the "type" of card, though, it's intuitive.
That being said, I wasn't sure if there was an end state to your game here. I went into the negatives, i reached a completely red bar (i thought red means bad, but I guess i achieved graduation?). The game continued on regardless.
If you're interested in game design, you might want to focus on directing the player's journey through your game, and weeding out obstacles. For example, the "maybe later" button should have some sort of feedback on click, otherwise it might feel broken. I couldn't tell if there was much nuance to the numbers offered by each card, but you might want to consider encouraging a variety of options, even if the player has set their mind on partying or graduating. What mechanics or rewards could you add for steering off the direct path? That would be the thought-process of tickling people's brains in a game about choices.
EDIT: Also, black text on blue background is a bit rough on the eyes. I do like that you picked different colors for the "type" of card, though, it's intuitive.
CrocodileTuesday6 Apr 2022, 02:42
I'm in this game and I don't like it.
Jokes aside, congrats on finishing Ludum Dare! Making games is haaaaaard, and this is a really cool idea. Keep at it!
Jokes aside, congrats on finishing Ludum Dare! Making games is haaaaaard, and this is a really cool idea. Keep at it!
Harmadillo6 Apr 2022, 16:27
Congrats on you're first game. I liked the concept of avoiding graduation. Game never seemed to end so I think I was playing a lot after I should have graduated.
hmightypirate9 Apr 2022, 20:03
It was also my first entry (mine with godot). It will improve after you know better the tool so dont worry!.
LDJam user 27954612 Apr 2022, 12:52
Nice first entry! Really cool idea! The game didn't end after the bar at the top went all read and my numbers wouldn't change sometimes. It was really neat and I'm impressed. Good job!
zimny1112 Apr 2022, 21:31
Congratulation on your first game and welcome to the Ludum Dare community! Pretty cool idea for a game. A bit unpolished, but that is understandable. Not bad for your first game, keep it up :)
I like the idea of balancing party and grades before graduation, and the hunger complexity was a nice touch.
One quick tip since it's your first jam, using something like https://coolors.co/ to choose your colors instead of those harsh Full RGB colors can really help boost your game's aesthetic and is super easy to do!