Ludum Dare #53compo

Codename: STORK

by matt-green

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.82

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.62

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.72

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.26

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.72

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.88

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.98

First days are always hard. Especially when you're working for the system's most powerful organization: Stork Delivery Service (SDC). How does a delivery service become the most powerful organization in the solar system? I don't know. How does an online bookstore send a man to space. The Economy is insane.

But your job is simple:

1. Allocate ships to send deliveries

That's it.

Luckily, your boss will be watching over your shoulder every step of the way. Judging you. Quacking.

Start with one ship!

`It's not much, but how many spaceships do you currently have?`

Every year you can select from three random boons

`Pickins are slim this year`

Soon you'll be commanding a small fleet

`Rakin' in those ducats (storcats?)`

Note from the developer:

Thanks for checking out my game. I figured there would be a few space-themed games (a la Futurama), and I thought there might be a few Stork-based games. Hopefully there aren't too many more stork-based space-themed games. :shrug:

This is my second LD and I really focused on the feedback I got from the last one.

I cut a lot of features for time, so the main gameplay loop should only take about 2-5 minutes.

Let me know if you make it to the end!

EDITS:
May 5 23:00 - fixed a bug that prevented that the final success/credit screen from loading

Tools: Unity

Comments29

LDJam user 3380912 May 2023, 21:46

I gave you 5 starts in the audio department just for the duck noises. :smile: A fun little management game, and I really like the effort you put into the post-$10,000 ending. Side note, the "Back to Main" button at the very end doesn't seem to respond to any input so I had to quit out (web version).

Matt Greenauthor2 May 2023, 22:00

@piano-forte Thanks! I always have fun with the sound effects. I appreciate you playing into the "end game"!

I was happy with how it all turned out!

Braveskin2 May 2023, 23:02

This was really cool! I liked controlling a delivery fleet and I thought the writing was quite funny. Slick DBZ reference as well, haha

Shiiigear2 May 2023, 23:07

Really good game, I feel like there is a lot of potential for a great idle mobile game!
I enjoyed everything in your game, congrats !

NEO972 May 2023, 23:08

Nice work! The duck noises were on point. The UI was quite nice, I love the story you managed to tell in such a small game. Endgame was great, although I also got frozen at the end with "Back to main"... but in my head I imagined it was because the communications with the ship cut out after the final... delivery.. was made :)

Cheers! Nice jam game!

hammerfrenzy2 May 2023, 23:15

I was not expecting Stork Lore, but I'm glad I got Stork Lore. Fun concept, great job for a compo entry.

Paulsams2 May 2023, 23:34

In general, I didn't really like the plot built on rofls, which is still loosely connected with the gameplay, but maybe this is just my problem.
But the atmosphere was cool.

LDJam user 3459693 May 2023, 14:34

This game is so much fun! It also has the most sensitive scroll wheel on the planet.

Very funny. I love resource / time management sims like this one. You should take it forward. I'd love to see what it looks like at scale.

Matt Greenauthor4 May 2023, 06:07

@frabjous-studios Thanks for the kind words.

Callooh! Callay!

LDJam user 2792334 May 2023, 18:37

Another stork delivery game! Unlike mine, yours is actually good though XD

Great art, fun game-play, and compelling story/humor! I think i ran into the same issue as piano forte (the return to main button), but I had a lot of fun playing your game. Nicely done!

fargred5 May 2023, 08:36

Very impressive entry for a Compo game! Neat little management game with a lot of potential for more. It wasn't particularly difficult when you get the ball rolling, but I assume balancing something like this in such a short amount of time is quite the task. And I obviously really enjoyed the end sequence, well done!

gmaker5 May 2023, 21:36

Great game, it hooks you in almost immediately. It's a pity it's quite simple; I just controlled the right menu and waited for the airplane icon to be without an order. I didn't quite understand the differences between the planes, as they all seemed to do the same thing. I never took any money. In the end, I got an order for a distant planet, I thought I would spend all my earned 18k on it, but it just flew there and everything disappeared, except for the non-working "Back to menu" button. Great game, I think it's not worth abandoning at this level, but it's worth continuing and making something complete after the competition, it seems there's every chance of being successful! Great job, thank you!

Matt Greenauthor5 May 2023, 21:42

@gmaker Thanks! I had some other dreams for mechanics that were half-implemented. In a previous LD, people said my game got really hectic. So this time I intentionally scaled down or removed some of the difficulty-mechanics in hopes most players would get the finish the game.

I certainly might clean it up after LD. There's more stuff I want to add and I really like the character haha.

Langotriel6 May 2023, 02:03

That was simply out of this world :P. Developed by a single person, yet it had everything one could ask for: fantastic tutorialization, impressive compo visuals, and fleshed out audio, complete with music "voice" and sfx. The game's premise, working for a stork delivery service in space, is a creative and honest interpretation of the theme and the story was told in an immersive an fun way. It is evident that you worked hard the game, and it shows in every aspect of it. Great scores all around!

Johnsensei6 May 2023, 02:21

Saw this game featured on a stream. FYI I couldn't see the third and farthest planet in full screen mode. And the ending seemed to freeze up.

Matt Greenauthor6 May 2023, 02:36

@johnsensei I appreciate the feedback. There was a scrollwheel zoom but it wasn't indicated in any way. Hopefully it didn't ruin the game fundamentally for you.

And yes, the Back to Main button is broken. I may do a bugfix update.

Matt Greenauthor6 May 2023, 02:59

I have fixed a minor bug that prevented the final game completion screen from loading. For those of you who already finished the game and were marooned in the empty void, I owe you an ending.

SPOILERS: https://thegreen.haus/ld/success.png

YurisCat6 May 2023, 06:11

Great creativity! The design of Stork reminds me of Bill from Left 4 Dead. Also, please don't worry about whether there will be stork-based games or not, as only your Stork is the high commander! Great game! Like it!:cupid:

cheesepencil6 May 2023, 16:47

i like all the cool stuff that you got in there for a compo entry that's awesome as heck. its so tough to add real depth in a game with those constraints and you did it!

Kirbloid6 May 2023, 18:07

The gameplay and UI were really intuitive and in many ways it's my favorite kind of gamejam (compo game especially) where not only does it immediately feel engaging but you can see a lot of possibilities. I like that the tutorial was part of the gameplay and once the game was in place all the sound effects and graphics really sold it. Shout out the UI too!

noskro6 May 2023, 18:08

Is it just me or why can'T I see the full game on Itch? The viewport resolution seesm to be too small and fullscreens seems to be disabled. I like the first look of the game, but sadly cannot play it right now

Matt Greenauthor6 May 2023, 18:16

@noskro Sorry about that. I uploaded a bugfix build and I thought itch would keep my build settings, but it didn't. It has been fixed!

noskro6 May 2023, 18:42

Thanks for fixing. This game has a lot potential. What is there is really done well. But as mentioned before, and as you said, it could use some varienty over time.
But as I said before regarding the constrains of the jam this is a cool game. Maybe I would have changed the design of the 2 grey buttons. The first minutes I was trying to do anything to enable them until I realized that they are just greay and not disabled :)

snakemuho6 May 2023, 23:18

bababa ba babababa babab (I liked it a lot)

PoshDan7 May 2023, 20:14

Played this on stream, it's unfortunate the ending screen didn't work properly at the time. Stork Lord's voice was hilarious! I found a surprising amount of potential symbolism within the plot, and I had a fun time unraveling it. The added layer of features could've really spiced up the brief lull before reaching the 10k goal. That being said, it's a compo game, so you have my respect on getting as much done as you have!

Danyclockworker13 May 2023, 22:06

Good game, but I would like a little more the size of the objects.

Michelle_go15 May 2023, 22:06

well designed graphic

Haustgeirr15 May 2023, 22:49

I made 20k and nuked the storks. Fun game, although I figured out early on just selecting the highest value destination was the best strategy. Later on I would skip turns to get the nearly 2k value ones, but otherwise it was just fast ships, big money. Good job

Matt Greenauthor16 May 2023, 19:13

@haustgeirr thanks! and yeah, the game was pretty easy to min/max. I overtuned a bit intentionally so that people could finish the whole game in a reasonable LD review time.

Next jam I might add difficulty settings/modes so that people can play the 'real' version if they want the challenge. Or the EasyMode if they want to play through the 'story'.

lessons learned.

Other games by @matt-green

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Summoner's Circle: A Murder Mystery

★3.31

LD55

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Fairy Tale 2: Big Trouble in Pixie Hollow

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★3.42