Play prototype
How to Smile - Now that you can(?)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| ANTI-CAPITALIST POWER | #25 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Nice prototype! I love the retro style. Very good concept! The influence on policies with dice rolls mechanics are interesting. There seems to be a lot of worldbuilding, I'll have to check your previous work.
Thank you so much for taking the time to play and your kind words. :)
Not a lot of previous work to check out yet I'm afraid 😅. But "You don't have to smile" should be interesting, as it sets up the happenings in this one.
Aesthetically stunning! I really dig the old DOS look and feel. The main theme is an absolute BANGER.
Maybe something more retro for the "intro" sequence would fit better?
Even though it's just a prototype, it has some interesting ideas and makes me want to see a finished version.
Thank you so much, am glad someone enjoyed the DOS aesthetics, I know they are usually relegated to a more niche part of nostalgia below old consoles.
Not 100% sure what you mean about the intro sequence? The one where the game is loaded from the floppy disk? Or the sequence explaining what has happened? I'm uncertain how to make them much more retro to be honest 😅
I will continue to work on it once I managed to get through the other entries of this jam, but probably not at a very fast pace - but stay tuned, there will be updates. It's a bit of a passion project to find perspectives on the conundrum of a post-revolutionary, post-capitalist societal order.
Is there anything to do other than influencing the vote? I tried clicking around, but couldn't seem to progress past the first day. I know it's a prototype, so no worries there, just wondering because the concept is so well done I'd like to play more!
I love the references to You Don't Have to Smile!
Thank you so much for your kind words and taking the time to play it! <3
Unfortunately, yeah, I haven't implemented basically any of the actual "gameplay", most of what I had in terms of time and energy went into stuff in the background, like making news articles, proposals and issues dynamic and modular in terms of how they can be generated and processed by stuff. The main reason the influencing already works is actually because I wanted to have the "roll dice" function working. The exact mechanics will most likely get revised at some point.
But in general - this will get worked on further, so I hope to see you back when there are a few more updates :)
For sure, I added you and the game to my following, so I'll keep an eye out for updates!
It's a really interesting concept and I would love to check it again once you are done with the whole game :) For a prototype, it already shows personality and has a great feeling. Plus the RPG-management is a great way to represent the complexity of these choices in real life. Well done!
Thank you so much for checking it out and leaving a comment, it really means a lot to me to have people playing what I cast into the void here <3
Yes, having a bit of personality/rpg/visual novel/life sim elements was an important ambition to me, because the basic idea was to combine how a post-revolutionary state would affect everyday life, but also, what kind of dry, abstract organisation and work would actually be necessary for these changes in everyday life to become reality. Glad it is sparking interest, will continue to work on it and am excited myself how it will fit together when it's done :)
In love with the style and the elements currently included. Loving the main tune! There are so many little pieces at work, all of which feel very at home in the world you built. Would love to see how our journey through the world ends up affecting the politics of the world... Really interesting stuff and I'll be staying tuned!!
Thank you so much for checking this basic blueprint out. All credit for the awesome music goes to Retro Indie Josh and his awesome Adlib Music Pack! I will continue work on it after I am through testing out all the submissions for this jam, I think at this moment, we are both curious about how it will end up :D
im also really hyped for the full version this is really promising, I especially like the contrast it creates with the other game you submitted, its two very different mechanics that highlight that the challenges before and after the revolution are both pretty hard but also pretty different, it really shows that the revolution isnt the end after which everything is easy, but the start of a continuous process
I'm glad to hear that, and yes, that is precisely one of the things I find most important for media to tackle when it comes to the question of the status quo. It's ideologically very much allowed to criticise our current circumstances, but never in a hopeful way, if anything you can say that somehow, incremental progress will solve the fundamental issues. I'm also not too fond of depictions that then just show utopia where everything just somehow works, seemingly magically, or the answer is completely left to the viewer. That also impedes imagining a realistic scenario. Only time and further development will tell how well I will succeed at my own attempt, but I do hope to make alternatives just a little more imaginable.
I really like this prototype! It draws on so many aspects of revolution and societal change which grants your game a nice complexity without being overwhelming! I also like how you can see so much info from your computer, the local and national news was a good insight and the statistics are useful too. Also, the art style is unique and cohesive. Will be interesting in seeing more as work progresses on it.
Also, the loading messages as you start the game are hilarious!
Thank you so much for playing and your comment <3
I will have to see how it ends up when finished, it may very well end up overwhelming after all 😅. But I am glad it seems to be the right amount of information in this concept :). Work on it will continue after the jam, with plans for at least 3 different outcomes for the ending.
Glad the atmosphere I wanted to set with the DOS-startup sequence worked out :)
A fellow Linux gamedev and Godot user! 💙
I really, really liked the concept. I love these kind of political resource management games. It reminded me of the Half Earth Socialism game (https://play.half.earth/), but like closer? With all those news and the initial conversation with the secretary, it felt more like a real story with people than a simulation game.
It's a shame I couldn't see the result of my campaigning. I want to see how society changes after implementing those policies. If you ever follow this up and close the loop, I'd love to test it!
I also like the art style and the music. I don't know if you made composed the song, but it's a really good pick for a game like this. It's loops nicely without becoming boring, and it put me in a good mood ^^
Lastly, I wanted to mention that I really appreciate games that propose new ideas and alternatives to the current system. There's a lot of games that want to break down current injustices and oppressive systems, but it's still rare to see someone proposing what to do instead. Thank you so much for that <3
Thank you so much for testing it out and giving such a detailed response, it really means a lot to me <3
I'll have to check out the Half Earth game, it looks really interesting, and I didn't know about it :O
I definitely want to continue on this project and will do so, although at a less stressful and slower pace. It will most likely be a few months before it's in a feature-complete state, but it will get updates after the jam, so stay tuned :)
I'm completely inexperienced in both art and music, so I am relying on (modified) free assets for art, and free assets for music. (Sound effects, I was able to get enough know-how under my belt to get some decent beeps and bloops by now). The music is an awesome music pack by Retro Indie Josh, check it out here: https://retroindiejosh.itch.io/music-pack-13 .I was lucky that there was a free music pack with old DOS-Adlib style music that I could use fittingly like this.
I'm also happy the art style is coherent enough to land :)
And yeah, the end goal is to make it a mix of a visual-novel like experience, and a political simulation, with ultimately aiming to be an "anti-economic" sim. You can read a bit more about the early development was in my devlog here. Basically, it was inspired by old economy sims that were hugely popular in Germany (and some parts of Europe), made by German developers that often combined dry statistics-heavy gameplay with a bit of life-sim stuff. Like Der Planer is one I remember from my childhood, where you manage a logistics firm and also your real life petit-bourgeois life and marriage, actually quite an ideological nightmare of a game :D. Also, one of the bigger ones was MadTV, where you manage a private TV station, setting the programmes to be watched, getting money from ads that require high enough viewer counts - all in an effort to make money to compete in a very basic dating sim with the CPU players to win the heart of a talking show host of a philosophy/culture show (which you impress by giving gifts and broadcasting intellectually challenging cultural broadcasts, which always tank viewer-count, but impress her :D ).
The whole idea of making a different status quo graspable beyond Utopian thought, with a more down-to earth scenario showing both everyday life and not shying away from challenges and possible contradictions is a bit of a pet obsession of mine. So, yeah, this is kind of a passion baby, it will definitely not be abandoned.
Interesting concept, really got me to feel that office dread and hypnosis. Nice experience!
Thank you for having a look at it, will continue to update in the future :)
there's a lot of really cool ideas packed into the parts of the game you got done! if you end up finishing it, i'd be really excited to play a full version :)
Thank you for taking a look and giving feedback <3
I'll definitely continue working on it, but it might take a while - I definitely overshot the scope a tad bit for a jam project and overerestimated my own energy reserves when starting out. But it will continue to get worked on! So stay tuned.