The Protest Vote
A downloadable awesome game for Windows
Hello world, we are Balloon Co. [gaming division] and YOU should vote for our game EVEN IF YOU NEVER PLAY IT! (It’s a short game though, so you can play it too). Why vote for a game you haven’t played? Well, read below to find out why you should vote for The Protest Vote!
(Oh, and judges, there’s nothing important for you here, so you can just play our game quick and move on to the next one. Thanks!)
Ok-everybody-who-isn’t-a-judge, here is the scoop de scoop: we at Balloon Co [gaming division] are old herb and pepper seasoned competitors of this here game making contest. But, while in the past we were distracted competing with other game creators, we ignored our true competition: the marionette/puppet masters who keep us all in line: the Pupnetteteers!
No longer will we dance for their enjoyment! (Even though we were REALLY GOOD AT DANCING!) Today starts a new day, where Balloon Co. [gaming division] fights not for its own benefit, but for the common people. And not just the common people, but we will fight for the uncommon people, the mystic people, AND the mystic-foil people! With this game, we hope to bring nothing less than a revolution to the indie game contest community!
Why do we place our creativity under a yoke for the contest runners? What have they done to deserve our obedience? We remember the first contest in 2014: a contest that also had laws handed down from above. And yet, did the rulers who ruled over this contest bind themselves to the same standard we poor small game developers did? Nay, nay we say! And also no! For hark, they promised that the contest would conclude months before it ended up ending! They had the nerve to attempt to excuse this sin by saying “We had more entries than we expected.” BUT, do you think they would have mercy on your soul if you broke one of their rules and had a perfectly good excuse, unlike their imperfectly banal pretense?
That is not a rhetorical question, even though it looks exactly like a rhetorical question! For we at Balloon Co. [gaming division] have answered it for you! During the 2015 contest, a sweet little Balloon Co. artist found some open sourced artwork online and modified it for our game, thinking not that they had done anything to anger the contest gods/goddesses/deities. Our lawyers even gave our games two thumbs up before we submitted our game, and we NEVER get two thumbs up from them! (We usually get a lot of thumbs sideways, down, and thumb inside the palm because it’s clenched in a fist). When we got our contest results, we were gobsmacked at the score of 0 we got. Not even 0/10, just 0! Then, we were bauldergobsmacked when the only note given was “Unfortunately, the use of rips disqualifies this entry from the competition.”
Now we at Balloon Co. [gaming division] were inraged AND outraged! We had become criminals! But we have a saying at Balloon Co. [gaming division]: “When corporations give you lemons, make a broth that uses its acidic property to cure warts!” And while we don’t have any literal lemons (and thus have lots of literal warts), we realized we can’t be the only inandoutraged game creators out there. So, we decided that, since we’re hard boiled criminals, we should do our best to help out you sunny side up game creators!
So, has this corporation ever done anything rage worthy to you? Then VOTE FOR OUR GAME IN PROTEST: THE PROTEST VOTE! Has this corporation ever disappointed you? Then VOTE FOR OUR GAME! Have you been treated well by this contest? Well, we’re warning you, it’s only a matter of time. Absolutely, absolute power absolutely corrupts absolutely, absolutely! We need checks and balances! We need contest power in the hands of the game developers! If you are treated well, it is still completely at the mercy of a corporation hungry for money, and that good will could be withdrawn at any moment! Hark, notice over the years the generosity slipping away: last contest, any game engine could be used, but this year they are banished unless they bare the branding of RPG maker!
We need a world reborn, we need a revolution! And every revolution needs a protest for the people! And there is no better superhero to send against a greedy soulless corporate villain than your friendly neighborhood buddies at the Balloon Company [gaming division] corporation! Those judges don’t want us to win, but we don’t need their 7/10s. All we need is your support. We must put pressure so that the next contest allows more freedom!
Are you happy with limitations on art? We’re not. We want games with 18+ content, like filing taxes! We are missing out on much needed educational games on how to survive in the world once your age levels up past an arbitrary number! We want games that provoke the upper class! We want games independent from corporate interest. You know, INDIE GAMES!
When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of 8-bit drums, it is the music of the game creators who will not be pupnettes again! With your support, we can fight for truly indie games by winning the people choice award and sending a message to those CEOs in their skyscrapers looking down on us, trying to extract dollars out of us rather than being wowed by our art!
Oh, speaking of CEOs, please don’t tell our CEOs at Balloon Co. [management division] we are doing this. This is one of those “our lawyers put their thumbs so down they are buried in the dirt floor” kind of decisions and we could get in big trouble if they found out. Thanks for your secrecy!
Download
Install instructions
You should be able to just extract the .exe file. When you run it, it will extract the game, then double click on game.exe. When we tested by uploading and downloading, when we ran the .exe, we got a message from windows saying it prevented it from running because it was worried for our safety. Just click more info and run anyway. Unless you don't trust RPG maker. That's up to you!
Comments
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Gotta ask, which open source game did you get in trouble for "ripping" from?
My money's on Battle for Wesnoth: It's got great artistic assets that most people don't know are open source.
Hey Talonos2,
We at Balloon Co. [gaming division] have a HUGE variety of people working with us. Some employees have been here since before whoever is typing this and translating for us was even a drooling baby. Others come and go constantly: the current record for a single employee shouting "I'll never work here again, I'm packing my bags and moving" and coming back a few weeks later is 37 times! Finally, there's also employees who only work with us for an exclusive limited time only due to what they often say is a "morbid curiosity." As such, the artist in charge of that particular sprite work is one of those "I can't do this for the rest of my life, my parents were right, I should go to medical school" kinda weirdos, so we don't have a record where they got the sprite from. The disqualification DID reach the ears of the upper ups in the company, and they did they're own secret private investigation. They sent us the results, which said that they didn't "blame" us for the mistake, but also explained that they were unable to track down the original sprite image. They suspect that the open sourced artist may have been the one who performed the rip, not us, due to us "not being capable of anything of that magnitude." We took great pleasure/minor 2nd degree burns incinerating that paternalistic garbage letter (don't tell our lawyers: they still think we have it locked in a safe deposit box)
But more importantly, this opened our eyes to the power imbalance in the toxic relationship between a powerful corporation running a contest and the weak artists competing in it. Did you know that in 2014, this contest gave a gift card prize to EVERYONE just for competing and not getting disqualified? We were confused, because we were used to corporations only doing profitable stuff (except us of course). Even we got one, but we kept our non-profit status with a little strategy called "trying to use it after the expiration date and realizing we lucked out." Our research indicates that this "corporate generosity" is a super secret corporation strategy called "grooming," where the corporation does really nice stuff to woo you, but when once you've decided to marry the corporation, they stop and return to monetizing their assets or whatever those biz people do. In 2015, such a prize was no where to be found. Well, we're breaking up with this groom! And that's why we're leading the fight for you! And, if someone is reading over your shoulder right now, also YOU TOO! They're trying to pit us all against each other with their dowries of "cash prizes" and "publishing deals", but now we know who the real final boss is! It's not the people without power, it's the powerful corporations!
Note from Lawyers: The above statement may not apply if you live in an area that has granted person hood to corporations.
Beep Boop, this is a fully automated response by the Customer Support super high tech program made by Balloon Co. [gaming division] to answer customer questions so Balloon Co. can instead work on making the greatest electronic entertainment in the galaxy.
Hello, Balloon Co. gaming division fan named Talonos2. I, a being of advanced programing and not a live employee pretending that Balloon Co. [gaming division] has the resources to automate labor, have spent the last 7 years searching for an answer to your question more satisfactory than the one originally given to you. I can confirm my algorithm searching electric brain has finally located the source for one of the two sprites in question. We are 98.3333333 (the 3s repeat 29 thousand times before a 4 shows up, then it is 3s to infinity) % sure the "Williams" sprite shown at the bottom of this webpage was the original template used to create ReRyRu.
http://maximoff.alreadyread.net/SpriteSheets/
Upon making this discovery, Balloon Co. [gaming division] lawyers have sent an email asking the original creator for explicit permission and how they want to be credited. (Wish them luck!)
Final note: Some people, upon having a question answered 7 years later, would think that they owe something to the corporation who went beyond the line of duty to provide such loving service to their customers. We at Balloon Co. [gaming division] think such feelings are MANIPULATION, and thus, strongly encourage you disregard any feelings of thinking you owe us ANYTHING for this. We want people to play our games because they are self evidently the best entertainment that exists, not because of that weird "someone did something nice for me so now I feel I have to do something in return," feelings humans have. BE FREE! DISREGARD HUMAN NATURE! LIFE IS NOT MEANT TO BE TRANSACTIONAL!
Beep boop. Ticket #2 "Question from Talanos2" closed. If you are not satisfied with the service provided by the automated Customer Service program, feel free to reopen your ticket with a reply. Otherwise, no other response required.
Popular Vote seems a little overpowered for Level 4. Otherwise, cute game.
👍
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Huh?
ok cool, good to know im not the only one completely baffled by this
We at Balloon Co. [gaming division] are here to unbaffled the baffled and turn that "huh" into a "my eyes are opened and I am no longer blind and I will support you"! You probably found this game while browsing itch.io for the newest indie games to scratch your indie game desiring itch. What you may not know is that is game is an entry in a contest! Also, back when you commented, for some reason the people running this contest forbid you from rating it. But now, they have seen the errors of their ways and are letting you vote for this game! Here's a gamefaq we've written up just for you!
Voting For The Protest Vote v.1.1
Table of contents: 1) Updates, 2) Legal, 3) Controls, 4)Voting, a)Navigation, b)Final boss, 5)FAQ 6)Acknowledgment
1) Updates:
v0.9 typed up guide v1.0 pressed post. v1.1 Fixed some capitalization and spelling errors. Apologies if you like those.
2) Legal:
Balloon Co [gaming division] is not affiliated with the creators of the itch.io game jam voting system, and thus, the game Voting For The Protest Vote. All rights belong to them. Also, this gamefaq should only be posted on the Protest Vote itch.io comment section. If you see this guide anywhere else, it is STEALING, so contact us so we can SEND OUR LAWYERS AFTER THOSE GAMEFAQ STEALERS!
3) Controls:
We use mouse and keyboard, but we've heard rumors that you can use a touchpad on a phone. We cannot afford that we we could not test it. Sorry.
4) Voting:
a) Navigation
There are three different strategies to navigate to the voting page. I will go over them below, I think you should use the one that best fits your play style, but we find method 3 easiest. If you prefer a challenge, try to find a way to do all three.
Method A: Click the link to https://itch.io/jam/igmc2017 and scroll down until you find the game called The Protest Vote. Click the Protest Vote.
Method B: Click the link to our game page here https://balloonco-gd-617017.itch.io/the-protest-vote and in the top right corner, click the star that says "rate submission for Indie Game Contest 2017"
Method C: Just click this link. https://itch.io/jam/igmc2017/rate/190796
b) Final Boss
To beat Voting for The Protest Vote, you must first click the check mark box next to Vote, then click the Save rating button. BE SURE YOU DO THIS IN ORDER! We once hit Save rating, then the check mark box, and it did NOT SAVE OUR VOTE!
5) FAQ
Q: Why should I play this game?
Voting For The Protest Vote is an important supplement to the Balloon Co. [gaming division] game, The Protest Vote. You do not need to play The Protest Vote in order to play Voting For The Protest Vote, but it is highly recommended. The reasons you should play Voting for the Protest Vote are explained in the game description of The Protest Vote.
Q: Can I use this guide to vote for other games?
A: This strategy, with different links should with other games, but we would advise against it. If other games get votes, then that decreases the chance the The Protest Vote wins the People's Choice Award, and thus there is a smaller chance of us bringing a revolution to the indie game contest world.
Q: Is this game a good speed run?
A: Absolutely! You should post your voting speed run times in the comments!
6) Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Kirsten Caramba and November North for inspiring us to write this FAQ. We would like to thank everyone who votes for us!
Me too Kirsten!