Clients from Hell
Did an 8-hour mini-jam at Free Lives today, around the emotions of "indignation", "doubt" and "relief". I made a freelance graphic design simulator. I've never done an 8-hour jam before, so I was pretty sceptical that I'd be able to keep my scope small enough that I could finish. By some miracle everything ended up being on track, and while I personally feared it wasn't very good, I was told it had a lot of potential. I personally think people were just being nice, but I feel pretty pumped that I got it done in a pretty short amount of time.
There is no sound. I didn't think it needed sound. In retrospect, I could've used sound. :P
Everything was done from scratch on the day except for the colour palette in the painting app, which was cropped from here.
The pixel art painting part is unfortunately pretty framerate-dependent, and not quite pixel-accurate. This is much more of a problem with the web build where the frame rate is capped pretty low. My PC would run it at some 4000+fps which was pretty great for drawing smooth lines... XD
Some of the client briefs/feedback are based on stories from http://clientsfromhell.net
GAME LINK: http://techartjon.com/unity/clientsfromhell/
There is no sound. I didn't think it needed sound. In retrospect, I could've used sound. :P
Everything was done from scratch on the day except for the colour palette in the painting app, which was cropped from here.
The pixel art painting part is unfortunately pretty framerate-dependent, and not quite pixel-accurate. This is much more of a problem with the web build where the frame rate is capped pretty low. My PC would run it at some 4000+fps which was pretty great for drawing smooth lines... XD
Some of the client briefs/feedback are based on stories from http://clientsfromhell.net
GAME LINK: http://techartjon.com/unity/clientsfromhell/
Comments
I actually had a genuine emotional moment of "they're right, I'm terrible, my life choices are all pewp" ...so yay?
on a technical note, I was getting a lot of "What? you barely did anything..."s if it's random, you might want to look into if it really is, if it isn't, maybe adjust the threshold for web player. I'm talking 8-10 times in a row as I'm getting progressively closer to filling the entire canvas space.
The actual rules that govern that message popping up are to do with how many clicks on the canvas you've made since you last sent it to the client for feedback. I believe is currently set to 5 clicks, so if you make 4 very long brush strokes, the game still thinks you haven't changed enough, and will reset the counter. I could decrease the number, or try counting the number of pixels you've drawn/changed (which is what I kind of intended to do, but opted for the prior because I wasn't confident I could get it to work in the jam time limit).
The game relies a lot on your not knowing how these rules are set up though, because a lot if the simulation is about how the client feedback is nonsensical and seemingly random.
I'd like to link the client feedback more accurately to what you drew, but it's hard to know what you actually drew. I could at least detect specific colours, and complain that the blue should be red, and then trigger feedback that says no, change it back... :P
I think linking a series of linking feedback, even without the knowledge about what is on the canvas would be a better first step, add the nuance of those faux relationships that form with clients. For example: first feedback comes with an addition of "also, here's an adorable picture of my cat" before the one talking about the death of client's cat.
Ultimately, I'd like to create a set of criteria for whether a brief was fulfilled,and have feedback that fits the type of product that was asked for. You shouldn't be able to click 5 times and send. (And the experience relies on your actually spending effort on the art somehow, only to be told you're useless by someone who doesn't have any idea what you do.) But I'm not sure how to code/cheat that. Maybe it's good enough to work partially.
It's just important to create an environment in which the player feels invested in the art she makes, even though the client is being an asshole. I dunno, maybe the point of winning at freelancing is not to care, not to put your heart into it anymore, spend as little time as you can on barely-adequate work, and just game the system?
Or maybe the game can somehow recognise if you've spent a lot if effort on a piece, and rewards you with higher-paying jobs immediately afterwards?
Maybe there should be some concept of reputation. Quitting jobs penalises your rep. Overdelivering helps with future jobs.
(It's also really stupid to be doing work without contracts that protect you from abuse. Perhaps that should be in the game too somehow...)
(I'd like there to be more progression, both in terms of being in debt (end game state of losing your apartment and computer, thus ending your career) and having stuff to buy if you're financially successful, but those sound easy.)
Huh. I guess I see the potential now. XD Thank you!
I really liked the idea, but just quickly made really poor pixel drawings and my clients were SO HAPPY they doubled my pay. I figured just colouring in with different colours was often enough to get the client happy. I really like these ideas :)
I didn't even think of sound, but it does feel like it could be interesting to add some. Having some ambient background sound could be cool (occasional meows from your cat would be an awesome touch). Otherwise sound effect for notifications could be great and maybe some potential for added lols or groans from the player!
I really think you should pursue this idea further; it really is a cool one!
Can you add something to reward players for treating good returning clients well.