| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #6 | 4.086 | 4.333 |
| Originality | #8 | 4.164 | 4.417 |
| Narration | #8 | 3.928 | 4.167 |
| Theme | #16 | 3.457 | 3.667 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
This was really engaging.
I loved the mechanic of clicking on the map to choose the next action. Though reading the other comments, I think I missed out on a lot of the nuance by being scrupulously honest about prices and never going home again, but instead staying at the inn.
I’d be very interested to keep playing this if later the journey continues onward to the tea plantations.
I think Ju/smwhr's feedback below is really helpful, but this was excellent. Each story beat and choice was interesting and meaningful, and the setting was well fleshed-out. I probably would have kept playing if there was more - I have to send my kids to a nice school.
The story and the settings were really engaging. The thrill of lying and getting by without getting caught is very nice. The character of the wife may need to be pushed a little beyond just being needy, though.
All the mechanics are clever (money, quest, ) and I see great potential in the drag and drop interface if you expand the story and add choices in there too.
However, I think the text presentation needs a little more polish (not much : a little padding, more contrast, better alignement, differentiating choices) and it would make for a true 5-stars game !
I liked this. It had a really good sense of place, and an interesting interface. I hope you get the chance to expand on this - I'd be interested to see what happens as you head in to the Chinese interior (particularly if your money lies start to catch up with you!)
I really enjoyed this—the sharp descriptive writing of both place and characters, the focus on the text yet with visuals (maps are so powerful to storytelling experiences and give a sense of agency). The quests. The money system. All of it. My one lingering question is what might have happened if I lied more about about how much things cost. I'm not sure how much the consequences of lying play into the story/game design but I am intrigued. (I played it pretty honest.) If it is important, then I would have like to been forced into a situation where I needed to lie/inflate to get something and then experience the knock-on effect/consequence of that lying because that moral dilemma added another layer of compelling to the story for me. Great job on this!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
*** Spoiler alert ***
If you lie about the cost of things you can afford to get the things your wife asks for, I think if the story continued it'd make sense for there to be a long term consequence. However, there's a couple places you can cut corners for some short term consequences in this part.
Super interesting and engaging topic for a game--I love the setting and it felt immersive and informative. I really want more historical games! The map looks really good. The money mechanics felt solid and balanced. My issue was the controls--having to drag people from the top bar felt clumsy and unnecessary since only one person is ever available at a particular location at a time, and there's a bug where sometimes people appear multiple times in the top bar.
This was so well-crafted and engaging; I played through to the end but didn't manage to put my kids into a good school - daaaaarn!
Though I don't know much about post-opium war Shanghai beyond what's taught in schools, this felt very, very authentic - foreign money, western influence, the power dynamics of what happens when you speak English... and the haggling. Oh my, the haggling. You captured the dance just right.
The interface was also so intuitive and fresh, and I felt like I was playing a board game at the computer. I'd forgotten for a moment that I was playing a game jam game and rolled my sleeves up for the drama that would follow once we'd sailed in-land and just wanted more.
This has been my favorite entry thus far.
This was a lot of fun!
I love the concept, the era, the map, the moral dilemmas, the money management - it felt like Chapter 1 of a game that I'd want to play through multiple times - THIS time I'll be nice to my wife, and THIS time I'll cheat the Englishman out of more money and THIS time I'll be honest and loyal but give less to my wife...
Exploring was fun, using limited resources was fun, would happily play more!
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.