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You are the new village architect! You're contracted to create small worlds for local residents across the land! But each village has its own ideas about what it should look like - place the allotted buildings and meet the specifications for each village in this cutesy architect-em-up game!

Unlock and work through sixteen villages and the bonus mode at the end, if you can make it through (some of those village planners are awfully particular!)

Controls

This is a mouse based game, Left click to interact / build, Right click to destroy / return, Middle click to measure and SPACE to check the rules for each village. To check a street name, deselect the buildings and hover over the road.

The Post-Jam Update

Thank you everyone who has enjoyed playing Village Inc.!
I've listened to your feedback and released Version 1.1 on itch.io (Download for free HERE)
Improvements are as follows:

  • Fixed the errors with Fiddasfield, Vinecaster and Wynncombe
  • Street names appear slightly faster
  • Better Clues! When your village breaks the rules, the clues are a little clearer as to where you've gone wrong
  • Stamp System! The long awaited feature, now you can stamp the rule sheet to make your own reference markings
  • Alternate controls for using the measuring tool available (Z/X/C on the keyboard)
  • You can hold the right mouse down to destroy multiple buildings
  • A boundary box will appear around the buildings when building them so it's clearer how much room they take up
  • Other small tweaks here and there!
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  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    This is a pretty neat game. The idea of making a puzzle around building a town to meet specifications isn't something I've seen before. It was quite enjoyable trying to figure out how to set things up. I like how there's some leeway with the placement so there isn't just one perfect configuration (at least not in the earlier levels).

    I think there could be some quality of life improvements though. I spent a lot of time swapping between looking at street names/layouts, checking the rules, checking the measurements, and placing the buildings. It would be good to reduce the swapping around. I'm not sure how to solve all of it, but it would be definitely be an improvement to have the rules always listed at the side of the screen. The game seems to be 4:3, so you could make it wisescreen and use the extra real estate to show the list.

    The gameplay aside, the game feels very polished. There seems to be a lot content. There's lots of nice smooth animations in the menus and interface. The graphics in general look very nice. The sound effects are good and music is okay, though it got a little repetitive. Perhaps something more quiet and down tempo would work better for contemplative puzzle solving.

    PS: As Eric (and possibly Illdie) mentioned, there's something wrong with the Fiddasfield level. For some reason the game doesn't accept putting the town hall above the street it's supposed to be on, but it does accept putting it below.

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Village Inc.

      3yrs ago

      Thank you so much for your feedback, I'm glad you've enjoyed it! I have made some quality of life improvements, easier swapping between them, a marker for the rule sheet, a few tweaks here and there and an improvement to the clues the builder gives you following the comments - so the post-jam update should fix these little issues. I did plan to do a 16:9 ratio and, far later than I should have (embarrassingly), I'd noticed it was in 4:3! That's something I can consider for a future update too :) I've not noticed the issue in Fiddasfield yet, however I will be investigating this as well! :)

  • 89o
    Lv. 18

    It's an interesting concept, and I love the art style. However, it was a bit annoying to play because:

    1. You can't just destroy one building at a time.
    2. The actual law you broke is ambiguous. So, it was frustrating when one single building was placed one tile too far, and I had to redo the entire village. And that frustration was enhanced by my non-knowledge of why exactly I couldn't place it there. All in all, this could be a lot more fun if you changed those two things.
    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Village Inc.

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for playing, I'm glad you've enjoyed it. The wreck button does destroy all buildings but I like the idea to hold the mouse down to destroy a few in a row for example so I'll add this feature. As for the rules being vague, this is something I've already addressed, in the post-jam update, when there's only one violation, without giving it all away, he is more specific about what is wrong - so keep an eye out for the post-jam update :)

  • Nyveon
    Patron

    This is really super impressive for a 48 hour game jam. The amount of content and polish is astounding.

    All the aspects of the game combine perfectly to make an engaging casual puzzle game. My main feedback would be that I would have liked to be able to cross items of the rules list, I'd find myself reading through them over and over again. Some small details that I didn't understand at first, and slowed down my progress (basically, I got stuck on): I didn't realize houses being diagonal counted as being on a road. Also I think the Fiddasfield rule for the village hall doesn't make sense (The top of the building counts but the bottom doesn't?)

    But really, super awesome game. Very well done, congratulations! :D

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Village Inc.

      3yrs ago

      I'm glad you enjoyed playing, thanks so much for the feedback :) Yes, it's hard to convey the message sometimes about what classes as a road but the village hall is a 2x2 building so it should count as on a road either on the top or bottom side of it, I'll consider a boundary box when building to make this clearer in the post-jam update :) As for crossing items off the list, it is something I want to do, I just need to figure out a way to make it work haha :)

  • serialkamikaze
    Lv. 5

    Read the rules!

    Nice building game, but you need to follow rules when building!

    Good to see that you had so much ready for the game in so short time, good job!

    Great looking art and the happy music will make the Village Inc. a good entry for the jam!

  • Atomic
    Lv. 19

    Though it isn't what I seek in a game, I still enjoyed playing. The art is nice, and the sudoku-esque gameplay is interesting. I wish the construction guy gave some more constructive feedback though, as it is frustrating not knowing what is wrong. I did rage quit on level 2, so there's that. I think the music is a bit intense for building villages, but it has a nice groove to it. I'm a fan.

    cat game
    Submitted

    cat game

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Village Inc.

      3yrs ago

      I'm glad you liked it and yes, I wanted to get the balance right with him not giving too much away but I've modified it now so he'll give slightly better clues in the post jam update :) thanks for your feedback :)

  • GameDevDan
    Lv. 5

    The presentation is good - the sound and graphics are very cute.

    The concept is really nice, quite different to the games I've played so far and an interesting take on the theme.

    It can be quite hard to juggle all the rules at once, maybe the game should start off a little simpler to ease you into the mechanics. But it was generally fun all round!

  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    It was good concept, though I would have liked the instructions be on side or something similiar, and possiblity to manually checkmark list, if I had done one rquirement or not. Automatic one could have helped, but it would have changed feeling a bit. But most what I would complain are polishing things, which take time. On outside it looks nice, so in this case polishing is needed in gameplay feeling. But not that much either ^^ But it was good entry :)

    edit. Yes, of course it would have needed bit rework in hud and game world view. Currently I had close and open it several times, couldn't have glance at 'first sight', which was the problem in game feel.

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Village Inc.

      3yrs ago

      Thanks very much, I did toy with the idea of having the checklist always on screen but I was worried it would take up too much screen real estate though there are a few things I'd like to add in the post jam update to polish it off a bit, I'm glad you liked it, thanks :)

  • illdie
    Lv. 12

    Nice! I really like the concept, and the aesthetic worked really well. It's already been said, but a little more to go on for figuring out which rules I'm not following properly would have been nice. Also my middle mouse button is broken, so I had to figure out how to measure distances myself (diagonals made that a bit hard.) All in all, very good game and a cool, fun interpretation of the theme!

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Village Inc.

      3yrs ago

      Thanks very much, glad you liked it! I was trying to keep as much of the game as I could mapped to the mouse for easier controls but yeah, I think I'll be remapping that in the post jam update for sure and giving one or two slightly easier clues when checking the village :)

  • Henry Haak
    Lv. 41

    This was a fun little game, although it did have a few somewhat frustrating moments for me. I recognize that a large part of the gameplay is figuring out what went wrong, but I had a layout on the 5th level (I think?) that I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was wrong with it, and that's when I quit.

    Still, I really enjoyed the levels before that one, and I think this could be a fun little puzzle game with enough conditions. If you do continue working on the game, here are a few things I would like:

    • An easier way to pull out the ruler. Middle mouse to bring it out and then scroll wheel to size it was a bit awkward
    • Checkboxes in the list the player can click when they think they've successfully completed a condition
    • Slightly better clues (for example, instead of "something about street planning" it could be "the boss says you have too many/not enough buildings on a street")
    • It would be nice if the street names popped up faster.

    Still, I really enjoyed my time with the game, and I would play the shit out of a post-jam version.

    • Tydecon Games
      Patron
      Tydecon Games Developer of Village Inc.

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game and you make some good points. I'd considered the checklists and individual indicators for rules but I wanted to get the blend of challenge and puzzle right, though I see what you're getting at, some better indicators might reduce the rage quits haha! I actually reduced the street sign timing already from 60 frames to 45 before publishing but yeah, a little shorter waiting time is a good idea, I'll push it to 30 or something - I'll put it on the to-do for the post jam update! :)

  • Nahoo
    Lv. 17

    Pretty cool game. I'd expect it to be on mobile or something. I hope you port it.

    Paze
    Submitted

    Paze

I really enjoyed making this one, game jams really give you an opportunity to try different avenues and genres that you might not usually do yourself. I would recommend it to anyone. I think what I have learned from this one (Aside from making sure every level is possible, sorry to everyone who couldn't pass Level 14!) is that people tend to only play these games for 5-10 minutes, so in future a faster-paced style game would probably be more engaging. I will definitely be participating again!

Result 16th
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