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[klingon13524]

http://richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/

I didn't find a topic for this, so I've decided to make one. Cart Life bills itself as a retail simulator, but it's really quite a bit more. The best way to find out what this stroke of genius is about would be to download and play it, which can be done for free at the website. If you're playing for the first time, I suggest choosing Andrus Poder, as he has the most straightforward start. Cart Life is made by Richard Hofmeier.

[Sirus]

Is the whole game in black and white? That's unusual.

[nenjin]

There's a lot about this game that seems to be unusual.

[klingon13524]

It is indeed unusual, but in a good way. My question to anyone who knows what they're talking about:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you decide to swap permits with Vinny as the newspaper seller, he says to talk to Annie to help you move. Who is she? Where is she? When can I speak to her?

[1piemaster1]

Oooo was waiting for a topic on this. I saw this on jefmajor's youtube.

[ConscriptFive]

Wow, this is the best emotional engagment I've had since "Digital: A Love Story."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was horrified that I might lose that cat.

[Megaman]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was horrified that I might lose that cat.

Same here. Who know the life of a Ukranian news vendor would be in such turmoil?

[Sowelu]

This is an amazing game.  And I actually kind of love the sense of complete and utter urgency it gives, with the absolute lack of ways to pause.

It gets into your head to the point where, after shopping in real life today, I found myself nearly running back into the store. "Damn it, I forgot cat vittles!"

EDIT: The only problem is that it's crashed or become unplayable three times in six days for me.  And when you can't save mid-day, that's pretty god damn bad.  Sometimes it's an inescapable conversation, sometimes it's a scripting error, one time I tried to shelf my newspapers when some was in front of me and it got stuck doing both at once and couldn't get out...yeah.  Needs moar quality control.

[trees]

The game's art (not to mention the rest of it) is really, really beautiful in a way that I never thought pixel art could achieve. The dream sequences, in particular, are incredible.

[Megaman]

Yeah, I have problems with the game getting frozen up when some guy talks to me when I'm fiddling in the menus trying to get a smoke, I have to reload from the damn beginning of the day again just to be able to continue.

[Paul]

I gave it a try. First day I did the little tutorial, went and got a hotel room, went went out to buy food, got cat food but the store closed before I could buy food for myself (was trying to figure out what to buy for food, heh). Went back and went to sleep, had a dream I guess.

Next day I fed the cat and went to my stand. All the shops were closed, was unable to figure out what time it was, and my char was starving. Traveled downtown and wandered around a while, it became morning, and I bought a sandwich for 5 bucks from the grocery store when it opened. Returned to my stand. Sold 15 papers to the same 3 or 4 guys (one cop kept coming buy, bought 6 all total - another guy came by 7 times to ask for coffee which I repeatedly told him I didn't have) for 99 cents each, earning a meager 9.85. People stopped coming so I guess it was late. Stopped by the pawn shop and bought a watch for $80, saw it was 8 pm, and went home via the bus. Got back at 9 and the cat was missing. Checked the bed, the dumpster, then saw a lady walking around. Character wouldn't talk to her, I assume because he was too tired. Couldnt sleep or leave the area. Game ending bug. Yay.

[Zangi]

Interesting, can't say I'm a fan of doing fancy quick time stuff per customer though.

[klingon13524]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was horrified that I might lose that cat.

Same here. Who know the life of a Ukranian news vendor would be in such turmoil?

He meant so much to me when I was playing, you're right.

[Hofmeier]

Thanks, klingon, for sharing this thing here. While developing Cart Life, I joined the many humans who've truly fallen victim to DF's infamous obsession trap. It's been nice to throw a few bucks from my game at Toady and Threetoe, because they create an impossible standard to live up to - it's an endless and deep thing they've made. Besides, who knows what the future holds for Dwarf Fortress? I sure want to know.

Anyway, I spent a few months pursuing a failed attempt at videogames journalism and interviewed both fellas in Seattle last year. I'm thinking of posting the interview (which was really a lot of fun) but first I want to talk Occoris into letting me bookend the dialog with his beautiful piano arrangements of Toady's game music. Now that I've heard it, nothing else will do.

Oh, also:

My question to anyone who knows what they're talking about:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you decide to swap permits with Vinny as the newspaper seller, he says to talk to Annie to help you move. Who is she? Where is she? When can I speak to her?

Her name is Alice and her machine shop is in the Collins district. Make sure you stop in before she closes at 7pm.

Also, Megaman, thanks for making note of this bug. I'm trying to isolate it within the scripting, but until the next build it's just safer not to smoke while running the stand. Besides, it's a fire hazard.

Paul: Ugh - that sounds really frustrating. I just witnessed a "let's play" of Cart Life on Youtube where this happened and my jaw dropped. I'm looking into this tonight - hadn't heard about this until now. If you ever feel like it, I'm always really grateful when folks post these troubles on this bugfixery forum. Anyway, I hope you can give it another shot, since you absolutely had the right idea.

Sowelu: Thanks for your notes and you're right about quality control. Seems like it's related to the same crash Megaman is reporting. BTW, Are you using version 1.4? Some of these may have been fixed in the latest build.

Well, anyway sorry for barging into this thread uninvited - thanks again everybody for your thoughts!

[chaoticag]

Don't worry about barging in. I think at this point, we expect indie creators to drop by the forums when we talk about their games.