Nice Games Jam: "Triage Simulator" episode artwork

EPISODE · Jul 23, 2026

Nice Games Jam: "Triage Simulator"

from Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast! · host Lydia, Stephen, and Mark

This week, Ian emerges from the clubhouse vents to fill-in for Stephen as Dale gives us a bare minimum prompt with maximum implications.Prompt"Make a game called 'Triage Simulator'"Game typeDesign documentPlayer count1RulesTriage - the verb Learn about the consequences of your actions later Papers Please-like interface   Situation/Scenario Buckets to sort in - limited space within the bucket Every level is a different situation  Level 1 - Hospital Level 2 - Pizza Day at the Elementary School Level 3 - Water Station at a Marathon Level 4 - Planning a Foot Route as a Courier Level 5 - Anubis is back from vacation and he’s backlogged ???Level 7 - In the pizza store making the pizza for the elementary school A system-based puzzle - Scheduling and ordering  Information you don’t have   How many more of each type are coming in? Information that lets you anticipate incoming situations  Events happening in the background that mean something going to come in at some point You get the case  Outside context as a bulletin on the side that is in natural language and would have some influence on the level that the player doesn’t know yet Time constraint known (5min, 90s) The Puzzle  Sorting - the simplest system possible of how much resources go where   Highest PriorityPretty ImportantMid-tierLow PriorityMehCannot rank within the bucket (eg. cannot say there is a highest priority of highest priority items) Put in buckets or stamp it with a stamp Each item gets ranked on certain variables which then designate which tier it should be assigned  No right answer - aiming for highest efficiency Walkthrough a level - Sandwich lunch orders   BIG TRIAGE MACHINE that gets plonked onto a desk  Area of the broader context of what’s happening (updated throughout the shift time) Deck of cards with variables for that level (eg. Order for 3, the order, how much it cost, extra paid to rush, for or to go) Timing element - different form per level  Punches into the card to annotate the cards (with unique shaped punches <3) with before making the final decision that you can’t UN-punch either as a 1-5 scape or YES/NO bool:  UrgencyImpactSeverityScaleConsequenceExceptional (YES/NO)Feed the punch card into a different part of the machine which crunches the punch numbers and gives a recommendation that the player can then either follow or ignore Want to be able to punch as much as you want into one card If punch 2, will average the numbers out  Or always read the lowest number? What if more than 2 punches? The machine is snarky at you? Put the card into 1-5 slots in the contraption that then stamps the thing and keeps it in its own mail slot as the final verdict (can’t get it back) with counters of how many went through each slot.   Someone picks up the tickets periodically and gives vague body language feedback on the ticket Accessibility features: Pause while reading Time scale adjustments 0.75x, 0.5x, 0.25x

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