Hello, Operator?

Get your wires crossed and live the high speed life of a telephonist in this switchboard sim!

Plug and play! 🔌

THE GAME

☎️ Connect incoming calls to their desired recipients as fast as you can
⏲️ The faster you work, the better your score at the end
📞 You will lose points for dropped calls - callers are impatient so make connections quickly
⏳ The game ends after 3 minutes

HOW TO PLAY

🕹️ A blinking light on the switchboard indicates that a call is coming in from that jack
🕹️ Choose any of the 6 available connector pairs and plug the LEFT PLUG of that pair to the caller jack
🕹️ Flip the TALK SWITCH to hear the caller
🕹️ The caller will tell you which number they're trying to reach, e.g. for 2364 find 23 on the X axis and 64 on the Y axis to find the receiver jack
🕹️ Plug the RIGHT PLUG of the connector pair to the correct receiver jack
🕹️ Push the ringer button to signal the receiver of the call
🕹️ Close communications by flipping the TALK SWITCH to the off position
🕹️ A solid light indicates that a call is ongoing. If the light is off, the call has ended. You can click on plugs to retract them

CREDITS & TOOLS

💻 CLOAKEDNINJAS (Programming): Phaser
🎨 TRESLAPIN (Art): Adobe Illustrator
🎵 DORKULON (Music and SFX): Ableton Live 10 + Various Instruments

Voting results

Overall
1st
8.200
Graphics
1st
8.880
Audio
1st
8.680
Gameplay
1st
7.560
Originality
2nd
8%
7.760
Theme
1st
9.080

This game entered in the Team competition (13 entries).

Comments (20)

MrAmericanMike
 • 4 years ago • 

Really nice game, very challenging with a nice dose of stressfulness :P Loved the mechanics and the fact that you can also listen once the communication started.
Great game. Congrats on a solid entry.

plasmastarfish
 • 4 years ago • 

Nice entry! Graphics are really nice, and the whole thing is really polished.

I will say that on average I'm not too fond of the "navigate a weird UI and follow instructions really quickly" style of game, but this one really pulled it off in a way that was fun and interesting. I really wanted to know what was happening in the phone calls, but unfortunately my job description says that's a bad thing…

The music fit the mood really well and didn't get repetitive. I also really appreciate the garbled voice acting.

Great work for 72 hours!

Psychic_Ash
 • 4 years ago • 

Really nice. I actually had thought of this very thing. You guys made exactly what I envisioned LOL. Great concept. :P Excellent execution.

Mills !
(@Mills_Himself) • 4 years ago • 

Nice!

This game is pretty original, I liked it. I didn't quite undertand how the points are calculated, but apart from that that was a (relatively) intuitive game.

Congrats!

HuvaaKoodia
 • 4 years ago • 

Splendid audio-visuals. The chatting is funny and the animals are cute and ever so happy (even the angry looking ones). The take on the theme is outstanding and novel. Even though I had a similar, if fleeting, idea, I doubt I would have been able to hone the design this well!

A few small issues:

  • The "How to play" screen should have been displayed when starting for the first time as a tutorial.
  • Ringing doesn't stop when time runs out. Once the incoming calls also failed to start when replaying.
  • It is not possible to drag a plug from one slot to another. This would be a major UI improvement.

Had a blast playing! Will do so again once the highscore hunt gets going. Stellar job!

Overall: Amazing (9.0)
Graphics: Amazing (9.0)
Audio: Amazing (9.0)
Gameplay: Great (8.0)
Originality: Great (8.0)
Theme: Amazing (9.0)

Mr. Chocolate Salmon
(@mr_chocolatesalmon) • 4 years ago • 

Love it! This is a very interesting and engaging game. There's a lot to take in at the start, but once you get your head around it it's pretty fun. Being able to listen in on the calls was a nice touch, and how it stopped you from being able to see what numbers others were requesting. Also the graphics are gorgeous.

One bug I encounted was that after having finished the first playthrough, returning to the menu and playing again caused no calls to come in. And the phone keeps ringing if you're calling when time runs out. But refreshing the page fixes both of those.

CFusion
 • 4 years ago • 

This is a interesting take on the theme and it's fantastic. It took me a bit to figure out to play it properly but once I did, I had a blast quickly shuffling the connections around. The visuals and Sound are also very top notch. Well done!

elZach
 • 4 years ago • 

A simple idea well executed. Charming characters and graphics.

TomBuston
 • 4 years ago • 

Impressive entry! You really nailed the "work/game" aesthetics and the fact that you can listen to the conversation if you're curious is a really interesting design choice.
The main thing lacking was I think a better UX, as it was sometimes unclear what I need to do next if I'm doing multiple thing at the same time. Should I press the ringer ? When is it ok to switch off the communication ? Is this conversation over and can I get the plug back ?
But this confusion is also part of the game and keeping track of it all is also what's fun :D
Visuals and Sounds are on point too, the music is catchy and give you a real tempo for playing.
Well done :)

PR1M3 M0D
(@tolja003) • 4 years ago • 

Cool game, like the way you made everything so realistic in terms of possibilities is awesome, graphics are nice, music is catchy, but it is a bit complicated.

Yaro
 • 4 years ago • 

Wow, this is amazing!
The music, the characters, the sounds, the conversations you wrote - truly amazing!
That's a great team effort, it already looks like a complete game!

alyphen
 • 4 years ago • 

Really cute game, mechanic was fun & engaging, sound effects were very satisfying, and music gave it a good bit of pressure without being too overwhelming. Lots of fun!

Birdwards
 • 4 years ago • 

Hello, fellow operators! My game has been thoroughly outclassed by this one. This is shockingly similar to what I hoped my game would turn out like, and a lot of the stuff that I had to cut for time- seeing the faces of the callers, being able to listen in to the conversations, even the Animal Crossing-style babble vocals- can be found here instead! I suppose it helps that you had a team of three people rather than one. I also want to go back when I have more time and just read the conversations- what brief snippets I saw of them seemed pretty funny. Well done, all!

A few minor nitpicks: it was unclear from the instructions whether I should turn off the talk switch immediately after connecting the call or only after the conversation is finished. I assumed the latter at first, which resulted in a bit of buggy behavior as the conversation played on top of my next caller. Also, the right-click and "save as" method you suggested for capturing the high score didn't work for me: the image I received was just a black rectangle. So, I used Print Screen instead and cropped the screenshot.

TrustMe
 • 4 years ago • 

Oh wow damn this game is amazing with all the sounds and graphics. Really stressful as well. I am not fast enough though, I keep tripping over the the order of the tasks. Really nice stuff. The tutorial button in game didn't work for me though, not sure if that is a bug. Love thsi game probably one of the best here :D

thomastc
 • 4 years ago • 

Wow, an incredible level of polish on this game! Cute graphics (and lots of 'em), great sound effects and a smooth soundtrack to top it all off. It takes what would otherwise be a fairly uninteresting game and makes it fun. My first playthrough, I just listened to each conversation… sorry :)

cloakedninjas
  • 4 years ago • 

One bug I encounted was that after having finished the first playthrough, returning to the menu and playing again caused no calls to come in

@mr_chocolatesalmon I thought I had squished that bug on day 2, but it re-emerged midway through 3rd day and didn't manage to fix it.

@Birdwards thanks for the high praise indeed! The overlapping speech bubbles were a concsious decision, we were toying around with opacity for the bubbles but ended up having them overlap this forces you to reset the switch in order to continue answering phones.

We also had ideas for a murder mystery / love triangle story and when time ran out, you'd be asked by the police or jilted lover who the guilty party was … kind of like a meta game that would award big bonus points if you ignored answering calls for the gamble of listening into the correct call … Ultimately this was a bit of a stretch to implement in a game jam 😅

Also thanks everyone for all the kind words of praise ! Love this community

M2tias
 • 4 years ago • 

The art, the music, sounds, it's all amazing. What!? Make this into a the next Papers Please or something :D
I spent some time eavesdropping on a second run. Writing's pretty fun too :)
One major gripe though, I would like to be able to grab the cord from the board and place it somewhere else. Now it just zips back to the base.

dollarone
 • 4 years ago • 

Very nice entry! Music is fantastic, graphics are lovely, and gameplay is easy to understand yet comes with a challenge. The conversations are cute and funny, and I just want to listen in on them until they finish!

Very polished game for a jam! Great work!

Mr. Chocolate Salmon
(@mr_chocolatesalmon) • 4 years ago • 

Hey, congrats on the win! Well deserved

Mr. Chocolate Salmon
(@mr_chocolatesalmon) • 4 years ago • 

Ah, good job @Birdwards on the highscore ;)

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Links

Play GameGitHubSoundtrack

Authors

dorkulon
cloakedninjas
treslapin

Details

High scores Submit score

#UserScore
1@Birdwards1575 
2@Mr. Chocolate Salmon1497 
3@HuvaaKoodia1241 
4@TomBuston956 
5@dollarone854 
6@plasmastarfish794 
7@CFusion645 
8@alyphen622 
9@MrAmericanMike574 
10@Thrainsa554 
Total submitted scores: 11
View all 11 scores