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Waste Not (IndieCade Climate Jam '24)'s itch.io pageGame Title
Waste Not
Developer Name
TAStier
Short Promo Blurb
You are a new worker with the Global Waste Management project. Sort waste from recycling as you learn about how what we throw out affects our carbon footprint.
Full Description
Those working with the Global Waste Management project are tasked with sorting trash from recycling using our revolutionary digital interfaces, allowing workers to process waste at scale remotely. Workers will drag cubes representing either trash or recycling to either side of their screen to dispose of it. Meanwhile workers will get the opportunity to learn more about what they are doing and how it helps the environment.
Promo Image(s)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u6G5jPoXanx5OnuuVqv1OlQMK9SGcfSt/view?usp=sharing
Promo Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNhi1j7y7nM
Artistic Statement / Use of Theme(s)
This game is about handling garbage, and how the mechanisms we have in place today for dealing with garbage are broadly ineffective at reducing carbon emissions. The way this is presented is through initially presenting an overly-simplistic take on how things like recycling help “save the environment” and then subverting that by drawing attention to the fact that our overall emissions absolutely dwarf the amount that our current systems offset. The game ends by directing players to turn their attention to the root causes of the current problems and encourages them to explore collective action as a means to fight those root causes. The overall style was broadly influenced by the style of webgames found on sites like neal.fun, games that are relatively simple but interesting and educational.
Development Summary
This was relatively narrow in scope from the beginning, as I was working as a solo developer and knew I wouldn’t be able to achieve anything too expansive. This meant that my overall plan didn’t differ very much from my final product, which is satisfying to say the least. Most of the time spent in development was spent on tweaking relatively minor things throughout the game to make it feel more polished wherever I could. The result is an understandably small game with a simple to understand gameplay loop and a generally well polished player experience. I struggled with researching and writing most, but feel quite proud of how it turned out overall. I worked almost entirely solo for this entire project, although I did get some help from a close friend of mine with editing and doing sound for the trailer.
Release Plan
If I was given another pass, I’d like to tune the writing a little more, and be more thorough with my research to better convey my ideas, and also take some time to fiddle with the visual style a bit to make it a little more interesting. Right now its workable but certainly still feels a bit like dev art. It is releasable in this state, but there is absolutely room for improvement on multiple fronts.
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Comments
It's been so great seeing this game develop. I really appreciated how you incorporated feedback from the Production sprint. This version includes many quality-of-life enhancements, including text progressing at the player's speed, and the background is visually improved. Wishing you the best of luck as we finish up the jam!
Your game is the most direct I've seen when it comes to tackling climate change, presenting information throughout the beginning to really engage me with the reality of our modern efforts against negative climate impact. The approach reminds me heavily of games that I'd play in middle school and high school as apart of a gamified learning experience, which if that's the thing you were going for, you nailed it. One major issue I have though is the mouse click and drag not working too well for me, but that could be because of my mouse. When I go too low in the larger sections it seems more finnicky. I feel this a good educational product you can market, and would like to see where you go with this.
I found the message to align well with the game jam but felt like it was more of an interactable presentation. There is no penalty for putting everything into the trash like a game over sequence unless the OH NO screen is the game over screen. The blocks would get stuck on each other and made it hard to sort correctly.
I really like the message and the concept of this game. I think the idea of sorting out trash is simple but still needs fine tuning. It's really hard to pick up the blocks which might have been intentional but it also makes the game a little less enjoyable. I think there's a unique way to add challenges in this game as the story progress. Overall tho this game has a unique take on a "game" and is very informational with a fun sorting element!
I really like the message and the concept of this game. I think the idea of sorting out trash is simple but still needs fine tuning. It's really hard to pick up the blocks which might have been intentional but it also makes the game a little less enjoyable. I think there's a unique way to add challenges in this game as the story progress. Overall tho this game has a unique take on a "game" and is very informational with a fun sorting element!
This is a good message and i think you captured the spirit of the jam but the gameplay isn't really there, there's no penalty for doing anything wrong, it isn't much passed an interactive slideshow unfortunately. I see where you're coming from though and I like the idea! Maybe if it was more like the bomb-omb minigame from Mario 64 DS then it would make it, ie getting faster as the thing goes on. You have a wisp of this in the game already with the hundreds of blocks falling at the end, maybe if it was a steady stream of blocks throughout the game getting faster it'd be more fun. But still, the physics is impressive and the look of the game is very nice, reminds me of pictochat in a way. Well done!
love how simple the mechanic is and the game is well executed! i wish the detection area is a little bigger so I don't have to drag the cube all the way everytime, but overall good job!
The ending with throwing away the buildings was a cool twist. Although, I wish there was some complexity to the mechanics. Maybe there's a conveyer belt so you have to do things within a certain period of time?
Loved the overall presentation and 'slideshow' lesson theme of the game. The cube's mechanics were original, but definitely hard to work around- it was really difficult to unstick them. Sometimes, trash flew all over the place and ended up on the wrong sides without me meaning to place them there. Overall, great game though and super educational!
I think the presentation is very solid, and once again I think you did a good job integrating gameplay with narrative during the part where there's no floor, but in my opinion the game is too mechanically simple. Maybe you could change the layout of the stages by adding more platforms.
The game is ok. Mechanics are too simple. Sometimes cubes get attached even if you click on only one cube. I think you could add more diversity to the trash we are sorting.
short and sweet — I liked this a lot! I think the mechanics are a bit rough: the trash interpolates towards the cursor so it moves very slow when close to the edge; the magnet is pretty finicky and imprecise when it comes to picking up stuff; releasing trash does not preserve momentum… but all that aside, the core idea is great and the execution is pretty solid. and, for what it’s worth, I think the minimal visuals work really well. nice entry!