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Historically Accurate Game Jam 5

Hosted by Holmgang, Gogani, Humane Tiger · #hagj5
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A jam submission

An Drochshaol (The Hard Times)View game page

A farming game set in Ireland during the Great Famine
Submitted by Morpeth Jetsan — 5 hours, 57 minutes before the deadline
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An Drochshaol (The Hard Times)'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#463.0623.455
Gameplay#482.7403.091
Audio#492.7403.091
Thematic Relevancy#513.5464.000
Graphics#582.9823.364
Historical Accuracy#622.9823.364

Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

On what countries' history is the game based ?
Ireland

Put anything you want to be immediately visible on your jam page here:
An Drochshaol - The Hard Times

This is a farming game in set in Ireland during the 1800s - starting shortly before the Great Famine. You play as a tenant who uses their land to farm cash crops to pay their landlord, and food crops to feed their family.

Each in-game season is 14 days long, and rent is due at the start of each season.

To grow a crop, you till the ground with a hoe, plant the seed, and water it every day until fully grown. Then you use the shovel to harvest it.
Oats take 2 days to grow, potatoes take 3 days, and barley takes 4 days.

Controls:
WASD to move
1-6 to change equipped tool
E to use equipped tool

Every season you survive slightly increases your chances of success when sailing to America.

Credit the makers of any assets you used below:
Senbazuru by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4334-senbazuru
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Transition One by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4544-transition-one
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

“Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com“

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Comments

Errol 🦇Submitted2 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Good little game with a lot of potential! I didn't have any issues with the controls.

Some things to look at:

  • The font is a bit hard to read.
  • The time passed very slowly - I don't think I got past 10:30AM on any one day, which dampened the sense of urgency.
  • Were some of the crops supposed to get blight? None of mine did, but maybe I didn't play for long enough.

Otherwise, a great game! I especially liked the pixel art - the farmer's little flat cap is adorable! It's great that you're highlighting tenancy farming as one of the major causes of the great famine, since there are a lot of misconceptions going around.

Submitted
The Curse of Nodens
Reply
Morpeth JetsanDeveloper2 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah it takes a while for the blight to kick in - the game'll show you newspapers and you'll get letters from the landlord when the blight is about!

And yeah I'm glad I got to spread some awareness about the various aspects of An Gorta Mor,  even if only for a small audience I did lots of research for the game!

Reply
jonathanmccSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

This has the potential to be a very moving game (I'm Irish). 
It needs a bit of work though - I didn't seem to be able to plant any oats.
I grew barley and spuds, but once I used up all my seed, I couldn't grow anymore barley.
The harvest seemed to go direct to the rent - there seemed to be no way to replenish them.
 A shop was mentioned but I couldn't figure out how to visit it.
I died unexpectedly before the end of the first season even though I appeared to have eaten enough.

If you work on the above items you could have a game that highlights the tragedy of the famine in a very powerful way - you're nearly there!!!

A very thought-provoking jam effort.

Submitted
Scéal - The Story Of Ireland
Reply
Morpeth JetsanDeveloper2 years ago(+1)

Hi! Thanks for playing;

Odd about the oats - seems to be working fine for me?
As for the shop, you can get to it by going down the path! The money going towards rent can be spent there, it just gets deducted at the end of the month

Reply
Morpeth JetsanDeveloper2 years ago

So I looked into it a bit more and I think I know what happened!

You did plant oats - not barley. You start off the game with 15 oat seeds and 15 seed potatoes so maybe the UI got mixed up on your device?

While some of your potato harvest gets added to your  seed potato pile, the only way to acquire more oat seeds, or any barley seeds, is to go to the shop and spend some of the money that would be going towards rent

Reply
jonathanmccSubmitted2 years ago

Ok that sounds right - I may have pressed the oats button and then the barley one (which obviously did nothing).

Some visual feedback could help here - like showing an icon somwhere showing what you are about to plant.
Or make the little highlight on the button (took me a while before I noticed that) stand out more - could be much bigger and in yellow maybe.

If its any help, the crop grew into stalks which I couldn't walk through.

Reply
luthfialdiheSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Reminds me of Harvest Moon! Took me a while to figure out the keys though. Pixel art looks great! Overall, really well made!

Submitted
Bandel Battalion
Reply
TehKevMasterSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

I love farming games so I already liked this game before I pressed start. It's for sure the first farming game I've died in. I enjoyed it though, great game.

Submitted
Tea Toss
Reply
Tymedust GamesSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Nice idea with the whole farming simulator, fits the theme. I liked the retro style graphics too and the peaceful music. However, I couldn't get the farming to work, I tried different keys, mouse clicks, read the instructions and my guy didn't want to plant anything. I'm probably doing something wrong so I'll come back to it later I guess hehe.

Well done :)

Submitted
The Skirmish at Bender
Reply
TehKevMasterSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

It took me a while to figure out, I had to spam my keyboard until I randomly did something. Ended up being the "E" key, not sure if you tried pressing E to try.

Reply
Tymedust GamesSubmitted2 years ago

Thanks, that did it! Must have missed using that particular key, hehe. :)

Reply
TehKevMasterSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Good luck, I ended up starving on like day 3 or 4 lol.

Reply
MaiGamesDevSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

I like farming part

Submitted
The Battle of Bubat
Reply
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