[Phaser] [WIP] Apocashop - "Papers, Please" meets "Lemonade Stand"

[kylechu]

I'm in the University of Washington's CS Games Capstone, and my team's been developing "Apocashop", a "Papers, Please" type game where you play a shopkeeper in an RPG world.

As this shopkeeper, you need to make sure the legendary hero of the week gets the items they need to save the world, while also trying to make enough money to feed your family and pay the king's oppressive taxes.

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Right now, our biggest concerns are gameplay balance, and whether the game can hold a player's interest. Please be brutal if the game's boring or broken. We would appreciate it!

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LINK TO GAME: http://apocashop.omnithon.com/

[ecv]

I really like this genre, but I found it a bit too difficult. Also, music and some fx are essential, why not set some random ones while working on the final ones? I found the time span short and stressing, while it can be expanded in-game, it's still too short for my preference. I'd like it better perhaps 10 times longer, even though that'd mean raising taxes by the end of the day or lowering prices. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to lower the taxes a bit too, to make it less stressful. The anvil's dialog is quite funny. I didn't like the end-of-the-day stock menu. I think the drag&drop is buggy, you can sometimes move some items in and out, depending on item and place and you can switch them by taking different steps. I was also annoyed I couldn't lower the number of already stocked items to get money back. It's also difficult to keep in mind the price of items by night versus the prices of making them upon request during the day. Perhaps some indication on the top of screen with both prices would help better. Other than that, yes, I liked it but as I said it's too stressful for me but perhaps other people will find it easy.

Edit: I have no idea if the difficulty level is supposed to increase, decrease or stay steady as you progress, but I have the feeling it's increasing in your game, which IMHO isn't a good idea since it already starts at quite a difficult a level. I think you should try to keep difficulty steady throughout the game to keep the player interested.

[_Sanjay]

Great game !! I played till the end, got 0.9/ 4.0  

[Arcanorum]

Needs audio, and I'm pretty sure I sold the shield to the hero but I still got robbed. I even gave the dog a free chicken in the hope that it would reduce the chance of me getting robbed, but nope.

[Toastgeraet]

On 26.6.2016 at 2:46 AM, Arcanorum said:

Needs audio, and I'm pretty sure I sold the shield to the hero but I still got robbed. I even gave the dog a free chicken in the hope that it would reduce the chance of me getting robbed, but nope.

Some side-effects like the idea with the dog would be interesting to diversify the game. Games like this are all about content. Can't be the same thing over and over again. The complexity is fine, i think - but the days are really quite short - compared to the taxes at least. Maybe i just need to step it up
@kylechu are you still working on it?

EDIT: Okay just did my second play (this time through to the end 2.9 / 4.0). Also this time was much easier. First time i didn't play on your link - maybe it was another version.
A lot of the mechanics seem quite intransparent. Especially those leading to the score. It doesn't need to be perfectly clear but some pointers would be helpful.
In my opinion the game was over too soon. Also - are there multiple possible endings? With the rebellion and so on? I hate to replay if i don't even know if i have got the chance to discover something new.
First play i was always low on money and went bankrupt on day 3 or 4. second playthrough money was never a problem - maybe i just got lucky - maybe it needs some finetuning.
And yeah - try to get someone to make you some music

Edit 2: Ok, Multiple playthroughs now. Too quick and easy. Gets boring after 5 rounds. Especially because, no matter what i do the ending is always the same (nearly). King hires me or gives me a sack of gold. Rebellion gets crushed. But it's got some real potential.
Counting letters sucks within that short timeframe.