SCAN OR SUFFER: Demo #2 is now out!

Showcase In Development
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Hi! MD Here.

Ever since my last post, I have been working tirelessly to make a second version of my project, SCAN OR SUFFER, mainly to fix what I didn’t like (and what YOU didn’t like) to make a superior version to leave anyone that would be willing to play satisfied to some degree until I release the full game in about two months of writing this (of course, keeping updated in my Discord server. Link in Itch page).

Nevertheless, game can be found at SCAN OR SUFFER Demo #2 by MDDigital and I hope to hear from anyone interested. Cheers!

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Back to the supermarket.. :slight_smile:

My notes:

  • The job music is very loud! It’s also quite repetitive.
    • Pausing the game and stopping the audio when losing focus would also be nice.
  • I don’t see a UI object to show how many things I can select (“beep”)? Seems like a good thing to have.
  • The top bar is quite hard to read - the relevant numbers are small, and there is not a lot of contrast between the pale font and the gray background.
  • The backpack items are a nice reward - it would be nice for the player to made aware of it, like a “you got this thing” popup or at the end-of-shift breakdown. Players like rewards, when they know they’re getting them :slight_smile:
  • It’s nice that there’s more of a progression now, I can imagine myself wanting to see the next character, and the next.
  • I’m still not sure about the benefits of throwing things away. It doesn’t seem to balance well, and doesn’t encourage the player to do it as a result. If you want the mechanic to be used, you could award some free throw-aways, for instance?
  • The key bindings are a bit weird, in the regular game mode and the meta game world. Why T and P / S and Y? S for Scan I get, but you could at least use the same keys for interaction in both modes, and have them fairly close to each other.
  • The meta game world is cool, it really feels like a total break from the job part, and a surprising downer. It almost makes you want to be at work instead :slight_smile:
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Awesome, my favorite customer’s back! Once again, VERY happy to hear from you. To be frank, you’re one of two people that are actively motivating me to turn this into something cool.

Now, to answer and clarify on some of your points (like I have before)

  • Job music is loud: This I can’t defend. I can JUSTIFY by saying it would fit the game’s theme (working at a supermarket and hearing the same stuff all day over and over), but I confess this was one of the last things I touched up as I had spent a shameful amount of time touching up mechanics. Will work towards making something bearable to hear.
  • UI object to showcase how many items you can scan: Agreed. I was looking forward to making a separate menu for new players to find and learn how the game works whilst also keeping language true to the world portrayed. This, however, would not be part of that and will be easy to identify. Will be added when I adjust the layout of some things (first thing I do).
  • Top bar quite hard to read: Agreed. This was, no joke, the last thing I did before pushing the game out. Will get fixed when I edit layout.
  • Backpack item awareness: I like this a lot! I don’t know how I didn’t think of that. Since I only have regular and rare items in the game, I’ll push one or two new rarities out to keep consistent and fresh with each item’s purpose and helpfulness during gameplay whilst also giving this feature purpose.
  • Progression praise: Glad that’s the case! This won’t be the last you see of Frac and its wonderful cast of wacky characters, as I’m working with my dear friend Pudding Man to make more with each day. There won’t be an absurd amount, but there will be plenty more!
  • Throwing away: This was already explained in-universe on my last post so I’ll explain my thought process behind the mechanic: Say you have a specific assortment of items planned that’ll CERTAINLY grant you the needed score required to beat the stage you’re in. You need Beef, but where it’d be is Cheese. To not waste your Scan to get rid of the item, I added throwing away to compensate. In the game’s last iteration, it was just pressing a button and HOPING the item you want comes. Here, I thought for a bit and reworked it so you can pick from three randomly-selected items that could take up the slot for you to select what would work best and continue strategizing from there. This is further accentuated with the stage gimmick of not being able to throw away anything and by the fact that Porridge (restores Throws back to 4 when consumed) exists, incentivizing the player to go after throwing away stuff they don’t want. I don’t see myself changing this anytime soon, but I’ll most certainly take into consideration the free throw mechanic you suggested.
  • Keybinds: Agreed, yet again. I recall making this one night, falling asleep on my desk, being woken up by my dad and forgetting what I had done. I remember making the actions bound to keys, not the order or what keys I bind. Will fix, this was 100% on me.
  • Meta game world: I’m super glad this was how it went. You can’t imagine the time I spent trying to make this something the player feels relaxation and some form of anguish/unease. Will keep it this way!

During the two-month development window I gave myself and Pudding to release a version of the game we can call “finished”, I’ll work on expanding the world and its characters. Two things I had in mind is a menu specifically for learning how the game works and a comic book expanding on why Frac is the way it is, why everyone acts the way they do, what led everyone to having some form of interaction/connection with Frac, all of this progressing and evolving into a story with a start, middle and end, 100% connected to SCAN OR SUFFER as a game. Hoping to hear from you, will update this post and Discord server (link in game’s page) with whatever I make for the game until its full release on July 6th. Cheers!

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I’m happy to hear that, even if there are only two of us :slight_smile: Making games is always a slog, and we each need all the support we can get.

Sounds good! It’s an interesting world already, but it could be shown more clearly. Establishing the town and the supermarket are definitely priorities in that regard.

I think it could fit the game with a 1st person monologue (like the talking head of a visual novel), to explain the world and the main character, kind of like the main character in Fight Club does - a cynical, detached commentary. Maybe he’s actually quite smart, which comes across in his inner speech, but he has to work a dumb mind-numbing day job to get by? Just a thought :slight_smile:

The customers could also do with a bit more characterization, like a simple speech bubble system. You could have each character’s resource file (or however you’re doing it) contain a few arrays of strings - opening greeting(s), comments when angry, comments when the player is idling, … I think that would bring them more to life, and also set the tone of the supermarket, where you might be dealing with frustrated and abusive customers all day.

Just an idea I had as I was playing - maybe our main character occupies his mind with little challenges for himself, that award more points, like 4 of a kind, all dairy, etc… that would give the player some more meaningful strategies, and it works well with the discard (throw away) mechanic.

And another idea - why not have the day progression represented as a clock? Staring at the clock as the work day goes by is a common trope for boredom, and there isn’t currently a way to see how far in the day you are.

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