[Feedback] The Truth About Game Development

[gummikana]

Week ago I released a new done-in-under-7-days freeware game by the name of The Truth About Game Development.

The game is about creating a game. You play as the executive producer and try to produce as good game as you can as cheaply as possible. The main tool in your arsenal is death. You motive the lazy ass game developers by killing them.

Download:
Tagd.zip (8.1 Mb) (Release 1.0)

Screenshots:


The game has few inspiration sources that I'd like to point out. First of all it was Darius Kazemi’s game design challenge that was the inspiration for the core gameplay. The ea_spouse left an unforgettable image to my head, that was the source of the game development sweatshop theme. Also Jack Thompson's game idea influenced me to create the game. Finally it was Nigel Simmons' music that inspired the visuals of the game. Nigel was also kind enough to let me use his music, for which I'm very thankful to him.

I'm looking for all kinds of feedback and critique, but I'd love to hear some criticism and suggestions about the core gameplay.

[tewe76]

From the game: "Originality is good for reviews but bad for marketing"
Probably true, but funny also

It's very nice for a 7-day baby. I really like graphics and music.

[Lukas_CTXM]

AWESOME!!!!!
I'm the executive producer. I think I could use some management actions shown in the game.

[gummikana]

Thanks for the feedback.

Nigel's music really creates the mood for the game, and thus makes my crappy graphics look much better than they really are.

I wouldn't want to work in a game production where Lukas was the executive producer It frightens me to know that there are executive producer's out there who wish they could use the games management tools

[TeeGee]

Great mini-game. Especially for something done in a week.

At first I thought it's going to be just a simple-and-funny game that won't occupy me for more than 10 minutes, but after I've realised that there is some strategy involved, I've got hooked for quite some time.

Good job.

[gummikana]

Thanks TeeGee.

I've heard similar comments from other players as well, saying that the game has surprisingly deep gameplay. Which was a surprise to me, because I designed it as a quick 10-minute game

[Maupin]

The music is excellent - really fits the game perfectly. The graphics are great, too. Simple, but stylish.

Is there any way to get the developers to continue working when they've slowed to a halt near the end of development? They just slowly stopped, and if I would have killed any more they would have revolted.

[TeeGee]

I've encountered a nasty bug - after having the slave revolt, I've recieved proper message two times and the review/summary screen had doubled text too. I wasn't able to restart or quit the game - I had to ctrl-alt-del out of it. I guess you should look in that - it appears that the "revolt" event might occur twice.

Also is there a way to actually finish the game without having the revolt? Every time when the game was complete (milestones 5/5) I've just lowered the sallary to 0$ to cause a revolt as there seemed to be no other way to "publish" my game.

[gummikana]

If the workers are really slow at the end of the game, that's because they have ran out of motivation. They have lost their fate on the project and there really isn't a good way to cheer them up anymore, you should have done the cheering before

There are two ways the game can end. Either everybody revolts or then you run out of time and the board of directors decides to ship your game as it is. I think I should add there an ability to ship the game after it is done, because the ending of the game has become the biggest confusion for players.

Thanks for finding the bug. I have to look into it when I get back home.