belonzik 2019-10-08 15:25
Very fun game, I like the aesthetic of it as well. Good work.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD45 → A Merchant's Adventure
By sharbelfs
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 669 | 3.35 | 43 | |
| Fun | 588 | 3.22 | 43 | |
| Innovation | 520 | 3.22 | 43 | |
| Theme | 854 | 2.89 | 43 | |
| Graphics | 505 | 3.61 | 43 | |
| Audio | 669 | 2.36 | 43 | |
| Humor | 669 | 2.47 | 38 | |
| Mood | 842 | 2.96 | 40 |
Very fun game, I like the aesthetic of it as well. Good work.
very cool game! Great job
Aw, of course... I'm a sucker for these types of games.
So, at first, I didn't quite understand how to play, but I very quickly understood the basic mechanics--I think that the game is simple and intuitive enough to require only minimal instructions. I do think that it is a little frustrating that the resources you buy are seemingly random and that the cost of buying resources grows VERY quickly, but I suppose that it keeps the player moving from city to city, but sometimes, it feels like since the resources are random, the game begins to feel like a game of chance and luck. I really enjoy it, though, and all in all, it was a great entry!
Kind of addicting :D I love the general gameplay loop, but with the rng it is sometimes impossible to win. I enjoyed the asthetics, but i found the audio quite annoying
I really like the game but it's quite unbalanced. It's better to perform a lot of small sales than big ones. We few adjustements (and some music) it could be a great game.
I really enjoyed the rhythm of the game. It looks like due to randomization it was really luck rather than good decision-making that would help me get further, so I wish there was more way to bring more decisions into it to increase your chance to win and progress. Still, good job!
Very challenging and quite addictive. I am not very good merchant though, could never reach the third city :cry:
thank you for the feedbacks guys, regarding the cards, my idea was to give them at random, but with some calculations for the the chances of each card, in the initial cities you have just a few resources that doesn't worth that much, but as you progress there are some resources that are more rare but worth a lot more. And about the price of the cards, it's to encourage to travel to more villages, it's like a balance between buying one more card and deciding to move to the next one.
I'm not really good to these kind of games so I've not really made it far, but I must say that the graphics and UI are very nice!
I feel like having exactly zero money shouldn't cause a game over if you still have goods left. The game says that you "attempted to buy more than you could afford", but I could afford it. Is this intentional?
Interesting idea! Maybe there should be more explaination. I would definitely play this game when you finish it, becouse i really like strategies like it.
@u-tsang-clan actually that was a problem I was having, until almost the end of the development I didn't have any idea about how to "game over", so, my idea was to allow the player to do anything but lose in case you get negative balance. @legolaz thanks for playing, and yeah, I already got some nice feedback here, so, after the LD finishes I'll continue updating the game on itch.io
thank you for playing guys.
I was confused for a while, I thought the first option at start was the easiest and I just kept getting nowhere. When I figured that out and got to play some more of the game it was quite nice. I felt a bit at the mercy of whatever the cards were going to give me, but maybe I just didn't get some of the strategy. It also felt a bit unfair that the game ended when I got to 0 even if I by getting to zero got enough resources (that according to the game wouldn't cost me any more) that would have allowed me to sell and gain back some coins.
Really nice trading game. At the start, I was a bit confused but I understood it quickly. Overall I had a nice gaming experience and I like the general concept of the game. I have one suggestion. The sound effect is a bit annoying, for me playing a game like this is I don't need SFX. This is especially true because the actions are always the same and you are constantly hearing the same sounds. Never the less I liked a lot the game :)
Quite fun game! I really like the art, the gameplay is quite original. The sound is a bit weird though. Looking forward to checking an upgraded version of the game.
As some other said the sound was a bit too loud, other than that you did a great job! art is great, and the game is really fun to play. It feels responsive and polished! Great entry!
Didn't really know what determined when the price of supplies would go up and having no control over the options besides travelling to a different city was not the best. I did like the cards.
@local-minimum that is one of the limitations I had to add because of the time. at the moment there is no way for you to see your current resources, the only option is to trade them, but at the same time, if there is no possible trade, you kind of get stuck with no option. I'll definitely improve that in a future version
@pedro-rosa yeah, in parts I agree that sound is not that good, but for me it's much better than without sound (perhaps because it's my game), but since I had to create everything during the jam (at least in my head), I used the site generator to add those sounds
@dk5000p that is kind of one core idea of the game, the more you buy the more difficult it gets for you to buy more. But still, I have to think about it, because also, do the other way around sounds an interesting idea (start with a high price and the more you buy the cheaper it gets).
thank you for playing guys =)
all these feedbacks are going to help me improve this game
A very innovative idea had a lot of fun playing.
Visuals are great, it's very neat and well polished. I enjoyed this game but it would be nice if you add a little music =D Good job.
nice funny game i enjoy it good job :D
Your graphics are quite appealing and the layout of the UI made everything easily understandable and clear so that I understood the game's concepts quickly without much tutorialization. Good job on that!
I feel like you choose the perfect scenario and setting for the theme but balanced it in a way that the merchant fantasy doesn't get fulfilled as you actually start with some money but it becomes less and less. I never ended up making any more money than I had in the beginning. It didn't feel like I was building something from nothing as a result but more like I was forced to drive myself into ruin. Hope that makes sense to you :)
I still had fun, playing your game by the way, I just feel like with some different balancing and with some more choices regarding what to buy (maybe with a limited selection with each card draw) it could be more fun and fulfill the merchant fantasy a lot more. Maybe it's also a comment on the difficulties of entrepreneurship though in which case, well done haha :D
I liked the approach and the artwork on the cards! The game lacked a real merchant feeling though. I think it should be balanced in a way where all resources and trades get more expensive / valuable with playing and you usually earn more money by selling than you spend to buy. That you're actually making progress and can become a wealthy merchant instead of trying to barely earn enough to continue playing.
@yaen yeah, makes total sense for me, thanks. I think I tried to focus more in the travelling and trading part than in getting rich by itself. My goal was to kind of discourage you to stay on the same place for too much time, that is why cards get more expensive with time, so, at the moment you need to get a little lucky with the trades that are going to be available, but the best way to try to progress is to move to a new village or city as soon as possible, and get only the 'best deals' of the city.
@yazara at the moment it's only in about city 5 that you start to see more money, in the initial cities you still don't see expensive resources. I didn't have the time to add all the features I wanted, but one thing you can see at the beginning is that trades that require more resources give you some extra bonus for the combination of items.
thank you for playing guys
@sharbelfs what I can say is that you definitely achieved your goal of making players want to move on as quickly as possible :)
Overall: A complex and difficult card game. One of those nice games where you can feel yourself learning a bit more of the strategy every time you play.
Fun: It seems good, but very hard! I enjoyed formulating a strategy, playing to see how it fares, and then refining it. But even on my best attempt, I didn't get very far - city 4 with 22 trades, after choosing the option with the most starting money. Every time I tried, everything would be going OK until the situation suddenly collapsed. Are we supposed to be able to get to the end? I'd love to see a strategy guide, or a video of you beating it!!
Innovation: I think it's very creative and original.
Theme: Yes.
Graphics: OK, but there's a mix of styles (pixel and non-pixel graphics) that makes it look inconsistent.
Audio: OK to begin with, but this is a long-play game and the high-pitched sounds started to get tiring after a while.
Humor: I laughed at my options in the opening screen. (Saw no jokes after that though.)
Mood: Music, and a more consistent graphical style, would help.
really cool game :) had alot fun :hearts:
Interesting take on the theme! I couldn't figure out what to do initially but the in-game help button sorted me out. Perhaps that could be displayed initially by default as a tutorial of sorts? I enjoyed your pixel work and color choice. The buying/trading mechanic is cool as well. Some balancing post jam would be great because it becomes ultra expensive to purchase and you don't make the money back in the trades. Fun game - interested to see where it goes! Nice job!
I enjoyed the aesthetic and theme, had a bit of fun with the resource management and pushing my luck.
I feel like it got quickly to a point where I was just relying on random chance for what the next card drawn was.
@reheated at the moment it's quite 'complex' to beat the game. Lot of parts in the game, like trades and cards, are quite random, so, for you to beat at the moment besides strategy you need to get a good portion of luck. (I'm working on some improvements and a better level balance, but that is going to be just for after the LD finishes).
and about the Humor, usually when you lose you get a nice phrase saying to greedy you were with the reason you lost.
@balance686 good idea about the tutorial, thanks. And about the balance, it will be for after the jam. I'm working on that already but from what I know about the rules I can't update, since it's not really a fix, it's an improvement.
For me the game idea was fun, and I love the games visual style. Like it is mentioned before the game is really hard. Overall is this an okay jam game, and with some balance adjustment this can become a really great game.
As most other people have said, the game really would benefit from having less RNG and more skill-based mechanics. Still, it manages to be interesting enough. Managed to reach the 4th city.
Edit: Played more and reached 7th...The game does keep you hooked hoping for better luck.
This was a lot of fun, and had some neat mechanics. I think it would benefit from the some means of recovery, such as trading trading two or three of the same resource card for a resource of your choice, maybe not exactly that, but something of that sort. Otherwise, really well done!
@philomory that is a really good idea =). I think I'll give a try and see how that plays with the rest of the game. thanks.