I feel like this needed more time to build on. I'm not sure if it fits the theme that well at all either to be honest.
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I feel like either a pop up after choosing an option or maybe something before the option saying how it will affect you would be a good idea so you actually have an option to understand what each option will actually do, except the drunk dude I think having no idea what he's gonna do is funny. Like, an option saying "send a guard after the thieves" vs "Do nothing" makes me confused what the benefits would be to doing nothing cause it seems like a net negative. There are also just not enough options I feel like I was seeing repeat options on day 2 already.
Also, I guess I understand that "you're balancing three groups of people" but it's kind of a really really loose interpretation of the theme. It doesn't totally feel like an interesting take on the theme personally.
Appreciate the feedback!
Our biggest issue definitely was time. Due to this being our first game jam, we weren’t entirely adapted to the short time limit which is what made the game feel lacking. We spent a lot more time on ensuring that the game would actually function, which unfortunately made us work on a majority of the choices rather last minute. This is the main reason why the game seems pretty repetitive, simply due to the small amount of possible choices you can actually get.
Having a system where you could more noticeably see the result of your actions was something we wanted, but we had to take our focus off of that and a number of other intended features in order to make the core mechanics work before the deadline. We definitely were a little over ambitious.
As for the theme, we tried to make a unique spin on it. We went for a game that was a little more vague to what people would expect in order to attempt to have our game stand out a little. We personally think it’s able to fit the criteria, since the build portion is represented by the noticeable scaling of buildings when your population increases, and we spun around the scale aspect as not only the scaling of the buildings, but also to represent how building up your kingdom could tilt the metaphorical scale of balance which could lead into your people turning on you. However, I do understand why this could seem iffy as it doesn’t match the majority of what people would expect from this theme.
Overall, we’re really thankful you took the time to respond to us in more detail of what we could do to improve our game. Feedback is exactly what we need so that we can learn from our faults and do better in the future.