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[Daniel Benmergui]

This is a game involving love relationships and Uruguayans. I don't hate Uruguayans, and picking them has not been an easily taken choice, so don't assume I want to break their hearts.

Some relationships (any kind) sometimes doesn’t work. And some other times they just barely work, but can’t bear themselves to break for fear of suffering the pain that comes with the breakage. At the same time, the pain is actually fearsome, and if taken in large amounts can be lethal.

It's just a game for playing around for a minute. There are 3 possible endings, though.

You can play here.

Update: I've done several fixes and improved the game overall.

What did you think about when you tried it?

[Melly]

First thing, you should place the PG icon next to your topic.

Second thing, I'm going to download it and try.

[Daniel Benmergui]

First thing, you should place the PG icon next to your topic.

True. Fixed.

I'm completely exhausted. I hope the game withstands the punishment of someone actually playing it.

About the download...it's actually a web game...and an applet, which is far worse. But I can't stop myself from doing them .

[Melly]

Mmm... well, it was certainly very interesting. I played twice. Once I got a bunch of suicidals, the other none.

I'm guessing the message is that you have to break weak relationships to try and find better ones?

[Noyb]

Oh, wow. This can be either sweet or twisted depending on how you play it. Nice concept. It gave me a shock when I saw what happened after *that* object pop up in their thought bubbles.

[Daniel Benmergui]

I've updated the instructions to make the rules clearer, in case someone does not want to experiment

[superflat]

I really like your games. Experimental but still fun.  SoS64 was one of my favourites from the last compo.  This is cool too. 

[Daniel Benmergui]

I really like your games. Experimental but still fun.  SoS64 was one of my favourites from the last compo.  This is cool too.

Thank you...it's really heartwarming for me to hear that. Especially now.

[increpare]

Ah: really like the concept for this game!  And: it plays pretty nicely as well! (but, maybe you should make the cursor invisible? at least on my macbook my normal mouse cursor is still visible when moving in the applet window).

[Daniel Benmergui]

(but, maybe you should make the cursor invisible? at least on my macbook my normal mouse cursor is still visible when moving in the applet window).

Shit. I don't have a macbook around to debug it...in windows it looks fine...I'll try to blind try a fix.

[Melly]

By the way, OOT, but I've totally been curious, who's that fella on your avatar?

[increpare]

(but, maybe you should make the cursor invisible? at least on my macbook my normal mouse cursor is still visible when moving in the applet window).

Shit. I don't have a macbook around to debug it...in windows it looks fine...I'll try to blind try a fix.

(well if you want me to test it out, just let me know!  Also, it crashes safari about 40% of the times when I refresh the page.  But then again: so do many things, so I wouldn't worry about that too much)  .

OH WAIT.  THE CURSOR THING IS FIXED NOW. ...

oh wait, it's broke again.

Erm: actually I'd just forget about it if I were you; you should get to relax, now that your entry's finished

AWWWW; I got everyone to fall in love.  AWWWWWWW.

I like the ropes move a little when you move your mouse over them.  You seemed to stick to only having neutral/positive relationships, as opposed to having more actively destructive ones as well: was this a conscious decision?

[Daniel Benmergui]

You seemed to stick to only having neutral/positive relationships, as opposed to having more actively destructive ones as well: was this a conscious decision?

Initially, there were "destructive" relationships as well as different degrees of attachment...

But I realized that the game was getting too complicated and you started losing agency on the consequences of your actions. I mean, you could not even remotely predict was would happen when you cut a relationship . Some funny chain effects ensued. Which might have been amusing, but I wanted the player to do something meaningful, so I cut all those out.

Removing those mechanics reduced the amount of debugging too .

[alphasmart]

Pretty nifty, though I'm a bit confused.  After changing some of the strings and letting new ones be made, all the lights go out and you get to put the moon in the sky.  what happens after that?

[Daniel Benmergui]

If you got the orange moon of rebuilding, be proud. Most people get the death moon.

[Zaphos]

I thought it would be a sim game, so I spent a bunch of time waiting for something to happen (and just rarely snipping threads) when I first played.  Took me till the end of the second try to realize that the threads are different shades, and you have to cut the grayer lines for the game to end.  I guess figuring out how to play is supposed to be part of the fun, but it'd be nice if you had some indication that it's not actually real time -- waiting for something to happen when nothing will is really not fun.

Even when I didn't understand the game, I always got the orange moon.  Is that the end of the game?  If so, again, it would be nice if it were more clear, again because waiting for something to happen when nothing will is not good.

Once I understood the game, it was too simplistic to be very interesting.

Also, it crashed firefox every time I tried to refresh the page, so replaying it was pretty obnoxious.

[Melly]

Also, it crashed firefox every time I tried to refresh the page, so replaying it was pretty obnoxious.

I think I got that too, once.

[Zwergesel]

Also, it crashed firefox every time I tried to refresh the page, so replaying it was pretty obnoxious.

I think I got that too, once.

Got that too, but figured out that you can restart it by pressing R

[Daniel Benmergui]

I guess figuring out how to play is supposed to be part of the fun, but it'd be nice if you had some indication that it's not actually real time -- waiting for something to happen when nothing will is really not fun.

mmm...I didn't want to include a tutorial. Maybe I should and see what happens.

Even when I didn't understand the game, I always got the orange moon.  Is that the end of the game?  If so, again, it would be nice if it were more clear, again because waiting for something to happen when nothing will is not good.

Fair enough. The endings were something I added at the last minute.

Once I understood the game, it was too simplistic to be very interesting.

I'm glad you used the word "very". Otherwise, I would have thought you found the game completely uninteresting.

I mentioned it in a previous post...the model was actually more complex, but then the rules made the simulation behave a little freaky. At some point, I had to make a tradeoff between simplicity and richness. I erred on the former.

Also, it crashed firefox every time I tried to refresh the page, so replaying it was pretty obnoxious.

I'm sorry about that. I didn't have time to debug that. That's why I included:

Got that too, but figured out that you can restart it by pressing R

I'll make it more visible on the instructions.

[increpare]

FWIW, I was perfectly okay with exploring the game to figure out how it worked.  I can understand your conundrum: the game wouldn't be much interesting at all if you explained everything.