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SharedControl

[Released] Betrayal and Manipulation

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[RELEASE]

The game is published on itch.io.

I feel kinda bad that i missed the deadline but what can you do.

If you guys play it, say what you think of it, i think the random element is maybe to much on the game, but is still quite fun.

The awesome music is by @badatstuff

I may update the game through the week to remove any bugs, or fix some small things.

If you play it, tell me at what day did you manage to last!

 

Now i'll check what everybody did in these 2 weeks!

 

:peace:

 

https://sharedcontrol.itch.io/betrayal-and-manipulation

 

[ORIGINAL]

Hey everyone! Cool to see everyone else's devlogs poppin here!

I don't know if i will have a lot of time to work on this, but here is my idea for this Wizard Jam:

 

Episode: BETRAYAL AND MANIPULATION (Three Moves Ahead 85)

 

Idea: Some of the people in the city are secretly plotting a COUP against the local ruler. The problem is this city is full of SNITCHES who spy on theirs actions at night and send LETTERS with information to the local police on the next day. You are the MAILMAN of the city, and sympathize with the resistance, so you will have to MANIPULATE THE LETTERS so you don't atract heat to the coup planners.

 

Game: Into the Breach with no combat. Imagine you get a letter saying "I saw some strange movement across the street" sent from a certain adress, and you change the adress to seem like it's accusing another person.

 

map.jpg.2c7541dcd59fcee011a4853e6f120ea6.jpg

 

Old map of Venice, which is kinda of the inspiration to the world of the game.

 

Goals:

- Push this idea further, the example i gave is the only thing thing i got right know.

- Make a cool map with interesting ways the accusations can be made.

- Not worry much about art and programming, and focus a lot on the design of this thing.

- Have fun!

 

NEED YOUR HELP: If you want to contribute with some music tunes, please hit me up!

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Into the Breach is a great thing to be inspired by. Can't wait to see how this shapes up to be!

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Have you seen the board game Letters from Whitechapel?  It's not a 1:1 game idea, but the way the map is arrayed using nodes seems like it might be helpful to sort of "push" influences around.

 

I can take a photo of my board if you can't find a decent pic.

 

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1 hour ago, Koholos said:

Have you seen the board game Letters from Whitechapel?  It's not a 1:1 game idea, but the way the map is arrayed using nodes seems like it might be helpful to sort of "push" influences around.

 

I can take a photo of my board if you can't find a decent pic.

 

 

Thanks for the sugestion! I searched for the game you talked about and it seems really cool, i found a high res pic of the board and i see the similarities you talked about. The map i'm trying to do is very much like the one in the game, but smaller and considering individual buildings.

I already started programming a map editing system that would make and take in consideration streets, blocks and neighbouring buildings. It's a bit more complex than i expected but i think it will work great. When i have something cool to show i'll post here!

 

Letters from Whitechapel board:

 

Spoiler

pic971115.jpg

 

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On 6/8/2018 at 1:13 PM, SharedControl said:

NEED YOUR HELP: If you want to contribute with some music tunes, please hit me up!

Yo, what style you looking for?

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[DAY 3]

 

Just a quick update on what i worked on in this first weekend.

I basically just made the map editor, to be fast and smart enough that it sorts things like neighbors, buildings in same street, and buildings in same block automatically so i can keep editing the map not having to worry about tying everything together:

 

Spoiler

Buildings in same street:

5b1ddd4893741_samestreet.thumb.jpg.726ec9f7ec7951cf6abb7a9a2d49b182.jpg

 

Buildings in same block:

5b1ddd4acdfb2_sameblock.thumb.jpg.3bea3be56caf4e498cc36a2e1973cfd9.jpg

 

Neighbors:

neighbors.thumb.jpg.0d50a326c24b19f7afc0d045c64179e9.jpg

 

Some bulidings are kinda being constructed in a weird way for now, but at least the main gameplay stuff is working.

So now i think im ready to just try a bunch of mechanics of the original idea, and draw some little house textures to be put in those white meshes so the map can resemble a real map.

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Quick update:

The game is basically playable now, but it has a lot of UI stuff that i would like to figure out before the end of the jam.

Turns out strategy games need a lot of information on screen for the player.

I cut half of the map, because it really didn't add a lot to the game and make everything harder to see and understand.

I'm doing some portraits for characters to swap for these green icons i'm using for the rebels, and i think i'll make the buttons look like stamps to fit the idea of manipulating letters and envelopes.

@badatstuff is making the music and it sounds great! so now i have to match the game to it!

Overall the gameplay is a bit weird now, but i think some small changes can go a long way.

Here's a current Screenshot:

5b2a66461f6f2_betrayalscreenshot.thumb.jpg.98c47b5e5c82329064a14e34d58844a3.jpg

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This is really good. Reminds me of Pandemic or Into the Breach in that each decision carries so much weight, and that there's no room for error. Every turn ends up being very carefully considered. Haven't beaten it yet, but will continue to work at it. Very fun!

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@pdotjpg Thank you for playing and for the feedback!

 

I just uploaded a quick balance update, so that the rebels don't spawn in corners or neighbors to each other, so you don't get screwed by the randomness.

I also lowered the number of letters sent each day, so the game might be a bit easier and less random now.

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This was a cool chill game. I really liked that it was turned based and had nice music. It felt like a board game, which was nice. At first I wasn't sure how to move the letters around, but got the hang of it once I realized the letters contained the clues and I could click the rebels to tip them off. I feel like this could make a fun party game, kind of in the same vein as The Yawhg or something like that.

 

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Only one day left but then both of my free rebels got arrested :D 

Very cool and unique idea. Also very hard game. Sometimes I wished I could see the effect that e.g. swapping letters would have before I made the move. I think that would make the game easier... but maybe also too easy? 

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, well done!

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Thank you for playing and giving feedback guys!

@brendonsmall thanks, the music is all @badatstuff great work. I tried to give the game a tabletop vibe, like if you were looking at a map on a table by adding the moving pins and paper UI.

@fabian yeah, i thought about showing more info when mousing over stuff or adding an undo button like in into the breach but it was just too much work to be done in the 2 weeks

 

Overall i think the game may be still too random and hard too, i feel that by the end even perfect moves cant save you, but i like the feeling of getting to the last day and failing :lol:

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I like the gameplay a lot! The art direction fits well with the game too.

 

It took me a turn (of failing) to realize what I was supposed to do, but after that, the goal was clear enough. I also wished there was an undo button and a bit better indication of how my actions affect the board, but the game is very enjoyable as it is too.

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