[SA Game Jam 2019] Midnight Auto Supply
Midnight Auto Supply
Hobbyist*, Overall
48 hour entry
"Team 7", comprising:
@ashashza, @blanket, @damousey, @dangermcjane, @GreatHeightsAudio, @NickCuthbert, @watman
*Grey area because DangerMcjane is paid to make educational games.
Jam Submission Version
itch.io (Windows 64 bit)
Password: sagamejam
The link above also contains a post-jam-fix build plus an untested Mac OS build.
Hobbyist*, Overall
48 hour entry
"Team 7", comprising:
@ashashza, @blanket, @damousey, @dangermcjane, @GreatHeightsAudio, @NickCuthbert, @watman
*Grey area because DangerMcjane is paid to make educational games.
Jam Submission Version
itch.io (Windows 64 bit)
Password: sagamejam
The link above also contains a post-jam-fix build plus an untested Mac OS build.
Comments
But I did get to put gorilla arms on a car, do I need anything else in life?
Also the telegram table scene looked polish!
Update: Itch installer says no.
itch.io API error (400): /games/486706/uploads: invalid game
Update: Recorded fyi -
But it crashes a lot
I’ve just uploaded a new version with an attempt to fix the crashing. I’ve struggled to reproduce the crashing here... so if you get a chance... We’d really appreciate it if you could try the latest upload and see if that resolves the crashes for you.
Holding thumbs!
Changelog:
- Removed a shader that was causing regular crashes.
- Added a small fade to the first screen so players know their mouse click worked.
- Reverted some mission criteria that seemed to get lost in the jam build.
- Fixed a bug so that an extra Twelegram shows after the final mission.
Please note that there is now a display error on the mission 4 briefing screen. The text should read as follows: "I’m heading inland to Bloemfontein to photograph a top-secret GMO flower."
P.S. We left the whiteboard markers & wiper on your corner desk ... hope they found their way back to you :)
Had lots of fun crafting crazy crafts, and they all looked great! The Twelegram's were also very entertaining ;)
All/most of my crafts seemed to cause anarchy though D: I suspect there was something I didn't quite understand, and I will avoid becoming a crafter for spies irl...
Very well done!
For me at least, the text on the mail/messages after you give the spy's their cars can be made clearer to what the effect of giving the spy a modular car.
For functionality an exit game button would be awesome during the game play.
PS. i'm sure whoever modeled their wheel got A+ ;)
During development we discussed having icons on the car components so you could see what they would do (speed, water, explosion, etc) but we didn't have a chance to implement it and I'm also not sure it's a good idea because then it makes it too easy to pick a correct configuration for the car. If we work on this game further it's something we need to discuss in more depth as we've had players who were able to hit world peace intuitively with the clues and those who haven't. You don't want to make it too easy but you also don't want to make it too hard.
Thank you both for your feedback!
- The presentation is great, the music is almost awesome (gets a little repetitive but not a big deal considering a jam)
- The graphics are beautiful, all the bits fit pretty well, good shaders, cool effects on the day/night thing.
- Initially, I thought the game didn't really have any real goals. Mission after mission I just thought the game continued without much change. I only realised the peace/anarchy thing was changing one way or another when the needle was basically on the left.
- And when I realised the meter was there I thought it was more related to the car I was building than the overall game goals. I think the placement of "game goals" should be more conceptually away from the car, like together with the money, or something. The association to the current car was stronger than it should be.
- The link from the selection to the outcome was very difficult to see - yes some of them were obvious, if it mentioned pictures, add a camera, etc. But most of the time it's difficult to feel consequence.
- I think the twitter telegram thing should be clearer on feedback. I think that's what they were trying to be but I couldn't really make it out half the time. And maybe it was too much text, or the gameplay-relevant bits were buried too deeply.
- Basically, I want to be able to learn from what I'm doing/what results I'm getting. I find it hard to do so right now. Like something telling me "duck feet would have been good" or something, without being so clear maybe.
- It was also near the end of the game that I realised that money was a thing. I wasn't really even thinking about money. Is there any need for it, really? If you ran out completely, could you be in a situation where it was impossible to beat a mission? If so, then maybe money isn't really important to have in the gameplay loop you're targeting?
Overall nice polish, just really wanted to feel more like I have agency about my experience!
- We intended to focus in on the meter at the end of each mission (the way it does at the end) to make it clearer that it has swung closer to peace or chaos but there wasn't time to get this working properly.
- The first Twelegram is a clue as to whether the mission succeeded or failed but in a post jam version I want to make it slightly clearer with a #worldpeace or #worldchaos hashtag. Currently those are only used at the end of the game when you hit one of the endings.
- Related: I've been thinking about adding more to the game intro to explain that a successful mission adds to world peace and an unsuccessful mission contributes to world chaos. Basically, in our game all the spies are people working for global good but we don't state this. (I think if you mixed it up and had a bunch of people with different agendas it would get really confusing and complicated.) At the same time we - as the designers and via the gameplay - make no judgements about which end state is better and the player is free to aim for either (intentionally or unintentionally). The ending Twelegrams, for example, are a mix of pros and cons for each state but a player won't see all of them in one game ending and therefore might not realise this (I think there are around 17 for each state that can randomly be chosen). Also, it's spies doing weird stuff. You can't always predict the outcome.
- We discussed, scoped, and visually designed a feedback system that would occur while you craft the car but didn't have time to implement it. We were also ambivalent as to whether it then makes the game too easy.
- I note your note on perhaps offering more mission feedback via the Twelegrams. That's another possibility that would require coding that we didn't have time for during the jam but in a future iteration we could test that out.
- The money is always 500 bitcons per job and allows you to add five things to the car. It's also to stop people from adding everything to the car, although that will force chaos in some scenarios because there are positive and negative consequences for objects, depending on the mission. Ideally we'd have a more complicated money system but I also think it works quite well as is. You don't want to be fighting with 50 bitcons that you don't know how to use. Rather you know there's a max five-item configuration to figure out. That's what you can do with the cars. That's what every spy pays you for.
(These are my explanations - your feedback is all noted, however. Agency is important and it's difficult to perfect in 48 hours with this kind of game.)
The sort of newspaper articles/tweets after each mission reminded me of This is the police, but with some great humour. I loved the small touches you made to each one with the usernames and likes/retweets.
Having to choose between the wackiest modifications for each mission was great, and it wasn't too difficult to figure out what I might need from the information given to me.
Fortunately, my game did not crash, so I was able to play through.
I wasn't entirely sure about the peace and anarchy system, and the build I played didn't have a way to close the program.
Overall, I enjoyed playing this and I would love to play a fully fleshed out version of this at some point!
The visuals and music are beautiful, and it immediately felt like I stepped into a jazzy lounge with a bunch of spies. Immersion off the bat was really nice.
That said, the resolution seemed to suffer a bit on my 2560 x 1080 monitor. The sliding bar for doohickies was hidden behind the build button so it took me a while to figure out that was a thing.
I loved the crafting being implemented as a puzzle. Having to figure out what the spies wanted vs what the car needed was a fun little puzzler that felt great to succeed at every time I did.
The 'Twelegrams' were also really nice additions.
All in all, beautifully executed. You have my applause!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the game!