| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #58 | 3.545 | 3.545 |
| Graphics | #134 | 3.364 | 3.364 |
| Overall | #216 | 2.864 | 2.864 |
| Gameplay | #240 | 2.591 | 2.591 |
| Theme interpretation | #262 | 2.727 | 2.727 |
| Audio | #275 | 2.591 | 2.591 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/maxiluck/DiscountDisaster
Game description
Discount Disaster is a chaotic simulator inspired by the frenzy of Black Friday. Customers swarm your store desperate for deals, and you decide how to handle the disaster: do you help them shop and leave satisfied, or frustrate them with obstacles and ridiculous traps?
Each round brings a different goal:
- satisfy most of them,
- frustrate almost everyone,
- or complete special missions with unique items.
Meanwhile, the customer AI reacts unpredictably, creating moments of emergent humor and physical chaos that make each game unique.
Main features
🛒 Crowds of customers with dynamic behaviors.
🎯 Changing missions that force you to adapt.
💥 Items and constructions to block, divert, or eject shoppers.
⭐ Star system to evaluate your performance.
😂 Emergent humor and viral situations born from the chaos.
Theme interpretation
In Discount Disaster, we interpreted the theme as a chaotic twist on consumer behavior. Instead of guiding players through a traditional shopping experience, we flipped the concept: What if your goal wasn’t just to sell, but to control the chaos of shoppers during Black Friday?
We built a system where satisfaction and frustration are both valid outcomes, and missions challenge you to choose between helping customers or sabotaging them with traps and obstacles. The theme is reflected in every round: the player must adapt to shifting goals, unpredictable AI, and emergent chaos—just like real retail madness.
Okay, maybe because of the time I had I couldn't create a comprehensible tutorial of what you should do. These days I am working on a video tutorial since I didn't manage to do it inside the game itself.
The idea is that you are in charge of the shopping area and you have to make sure customers take the offer. In your case, in the laundry, there would be a discount, so if there are a lot of people in the laundry, you should slow them down using constructions so that everyone arrives without getting angry; otherwise, there will be crowded spots. In the case of Asian food, in that mission, you have to make sure that 70% of the buyers do not manage to buy and leave satisfied with their discount.
Also I see that you are updating the game after submission. Per the game jam faq you should only update for critical bugs! /jam/game-off-2025/topic/5489423/frequently-asked-questions-faq#:~:text=Can%20I%20edit%20my%20game%20after%20submission
Thank you so much for playing and for your feedback!
We’re glad you enjoyed the concept and the fun of knocking customers around, and it’s great to hear that the performance felt smooth in the browser even with all the physics collisions.
We take note of what you mention about the round length, we’re already thinking about ways to make them more dynamic and add new items to keep the gameplay fresh.
And just to clarify regarding updates: I haven’t really changed the game beyond the submission. Any ideas I’ve mentioned are for future builds after the jam, and if I do make changes here it would only be for critical bugs, in line with the jam rules.
Thanks again for the support, and I’ll be checking out your game as well, looking forward to seeing what you created!
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked the graphics. We take note of what you mention about satisfied customers not reacting much to explosions or other effects — that’s definitely something we can improve to make the experience feel more dynamic.
If you want to tell me specifically what you think is wrong, no problem, it helps me improve and find the exact problem.
That was so funny!
Very creative premise, and might be a recent memory for alot of us.
I thought the rounds were a bit long, and would have liked to try the other missions instead of repeating if the goal wasn't met.
Also, some of the NPCs would just stand in place jittering.
Great work on all the art assets, and the FPS/Tower Defense gameplay reminded me of Orcs Must Die!
Thanks again for your feedback!
I had replied earlier, but I wanted to follow up because you mentioned the rounds felt a bit long. I’ve been thinking about that — a few others have mentioned it too — and I’m curious what kind of round length would feel better to you. Hearing your perspective would help me balance pacing in future builds after the jam.
I really appreciate your thoughts on mission variety and the NPC jittering issue too — those are things I’m keeping in mind. And it’s awesome that the art style and FPS/Tower Defense mix reminded you of Orcs Must Die!
Your comments are super helpful, so thanks once more for taking the time to share them!
I just fired it up again because I couldn't remember how long the rounds were when I said that and saw the rounds are shorter (2 min) and I got a different mission (laundry instead of chinese food). While keeping the customers away is straightforward, I wasn't really sure what to do to make them happy. Anyway, 3 minutes is probably the sweet spot for me, or maybe start a countdown when a certain percentage of customers leave.
Ohhh, I wasn't aware of this, thanks, I will take care of it as soon as I can, thank you very much for letting me know, it must be hidden
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