RedditLudum Dare 20
April 29th-May 2nd, 2011
Theme: It’s Dangerous to go Alone! Take this!
More Info: Ludum Dare 20 Has Begun! (Keynote), Theme Voting Results.
Have You Considered the Benefits of Life Insurance - crackerblocks - Competition Entry
This game is not very self explanatory.
Story:
You are an ugly life insurance salesman, and you must purchase gifts for your trophy wife. This is sneaky, because when you go bankrupt your wife will still have all her gifts.
The gifts are at the bottom of the screen. When you have enough money, you can click to buy them.
To earn money, click on a little person to sell him insurance. He will pay you a life time premium of $1 per second. Should he die, his family will collect $100. So try to insure people with a long life expectancy!
The only life hazard for these little people is pits! They will constantly be opening up. You may click and hold on a pit to close it, at a cost of $20.
Good luck!
dev notes:
- I wish I had time to explain the story in game. And to draw the salesman and his wife. They were going to say funny things.
- I spent too much time tweaking variables trying to find a fun economic game. I don't think I found it.
- It might not be possible to buy all the gifts. This might be a good thing because there's no winning screen. It always ends in bankruptcy.
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Ratings
 | Innovation | 4.39 |
| #4 | Humor | 3.95 |
| #18 | Overall | 3.70 |
| #24 | Coolness | 21% |
| #26 | Fun | 3.65 |
| #29 | Theme | 3.61 |
| #103 | Audio | 2.74 |
| #107 | Graphics | 3.13 |
| #224 | Community | 2.00 |
Comments
OH MAN. As usual, your game is friggin' hilarious and unique.
I LOVE THIS.
Right off the bat I got a POPULOUS feel. Even though there are no instructions, I was able to figure out what to do really quickly. It's very intuitive. The visual style is rad and consistent, the gameplay is fresh and challenging, and it's HILARIOUS!
GAH!
I WANT YOUR POWERS!
Nice little concept. I managed to buy all the gifts on my third run - if you get five or so people signed up in one corner early on, you can keep them safe, then once you have ten or so people in that corner you can start closing trapdoors faster than they open. You just need to get ahead of the curve :D
I played without reading your blurb and in a minute knew what was going on that for -some- reason I wanted those things.. Snd hated myself just a little each time I bought them. Great game, intuitive and fun.
Fantastic.
Reminds me a bit of that game that the UK indies made recently about the life of an American stock broker. Very biting.
Great work!
That was fantastic. The back story and the desperate struggle against the inevitable really makes the game interesting.
Original and out of the box. Until you fall into one. Good design. Now bank those high-heels! OMG Shoes!
Awesome self balancing gameplay. Nice take on the theme. Good job!
Crazy but fun. This I think is one of the more creative uses of the theme.
Insidious twist on the theme. I like it.
Nifty graphics, got a wonderful simplicity that fits perfectly with the scheme of things - a somewhat bland expression that speaks to the very life of the insurance salesman. Are we, perhaps, seeing the world through his eyes, filled with cattle ripe for the milking with simple pitfalls that to avoid?
And you're getting a third thumbs up for the ludicrous dev notes... "they were going to say funny things". Lol :P I guess that's what Valve had written up for Freeman in Half-Life, too X-)
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Awesome! I love it!