No Way Up

tomlbarden 2021-04-27 08:37

I've not seen an auto-scrolling deck game before! I really liked the urgency it gave my decisions when I realised that the game was going to just keep going whether I was ready or not. By the time I'd descended a few floors I was in a pretty steady rhythm and found I didn't need to worry too much about which cards to use, so the challenge waned a bit. If you ever made a v1.1 of this game I reckon it'd be awesome to see some more choices for the player to make, e.g. descending down a left path or a right path.

sedna 2021-04-27 08:41

@tomlbarden thank you for your feedback! Your suggestion would be a nice twist, indeed! Thanks! :)

human-writes-code 2021-04-27 08:42

That's a lot of fun! Those spiders can bite the big one, though. It's a great concept and plays well. I feel like some sound/music would have added a lot to the feel but, overally, great job! Well done.

mitch-heisenberg 2021-04-27 08:45

Very nice concept

nice-gear-games 2021-04-27 08:45

This was a cool take on the idea of deck-building dungeon crawler. I like the autorunning aspect, it gives the game a sense of urgency. I do wish there was sound effects or music. The sprite work is really nice, especially the animations. A very cool idea that you can definitely build on to have more cards/monsters, maybe even branching paths and the like. Great game!

iman 2021-04-27 08:48

Awesome game! Some sounds and a clearer UI would have helped, but this game is definitely very enjoyable!

vrerabek 2021-04-27 08:48

This is very good idea for a game. I think there is plenty room for expanding this game. The graphics are simple, yet very cool. Reminds me of an old game I used to play as kid, can't remember it's name. Wish there were some sound effects, but hey it's a game jam! Overall great game, had fun. Sweet dead animation btw! :)

stlunatick 2021-04-27 08:49

Unique concept. I got to a point were I had to fight the snake and spider at the same time. That was kinda hard. But it's realy fun.

joni-brooks 2021-04-27 08:51

the overall animation in the game is great! i really liked that the pictures on the cards weren't stationary and that the character did more than just endlessly move to the right. my only trouble with the game is that it was difficult to tell if and when the cards took effect. half of the game for me was wondering if the cards were just buffs and health potions rather than the actual method of fighting enemies. other than that though, i enjoyed playing! the death animation made me laugh lol. i didn't expect her to just die like that. 100% better than a fade away!

redspine 2021-04-27 08:52

Very very very interesting concept and interpretation of the theme ! One of the best concepts I’ve been able to test so far :D It doesn’t look very good but the gameplay is smooth and interesting.

vuvuzela80 2021-04-27 08:59

I'm a fan of the art style! The concept is cool and the game is hard, I try a few time and i cant reach the level 10. Congrat!

vanleiden 2021-04-27 14:16

Really cool twist on a usually round based genre, very interesting!

webox 2021-04-27 17:13

Not a big fan of "auto play" games, but I really enjoyed this one, and it seems like it has potential!! There's a huge ground to cover with new cards, enemy tipes, elemntal cards etc. Kind of like dicey dungeons cards. You could add cars that add a benefit but also add a debuf and stuff like that. I really like the art, it's a neat style and every sprite is super coherent with the rest. Off course music and SFX will add another layer of goodness but you probably ran out of time with that. Great job!! Really liked it!

eugenik 2021-04-27 19:02

This game is full of surprises

simayen 2021-04-29 12:51

Cute and suspenseful game! You could take this idea and make a fleshed out game, for sure.

I felt it was hard to distinguish your current HP from your total HP.

gagapete 2021-04-30 12:24

I hope to find the time to address all this valuable feedback at some point, but for now I spend my evenings rating your games and trying to provide helpful comments for your games. But there's one comment I'd like to address now.

@webox Thank you for pointing out the debuf type cards. One card was actually implemented with that effect but due to a bug :bug: it wasn't handed out to the player. I fixed it now so the player can access that card as intended. Thanks a lot!

olddog 2021-05-03 05:18

I need some audio and particles! but this game is full of some funny things, and idea is great

japayne 2021-05-06 10:56

This was a really cool concept, and fun game. I liked the art which reminded me of dos games from my childhood. My only complaint would be how similar the health heart colours are.

madbookstudios 2021-05-08 13:50

Really cool blending of the genre's here that also used the theme really well. Would be really cool to see a polished and refined post-jam version, because this idea is really great!

wizard-sino 2021-05-08 21:53

clever, but difficult.

sephy 2021-05-12 09:47

Wow! Really cool concept and I like the graphics! I got pretty far but got stuck with only anti-spider cards and no heals in the end :) Not sure if I did anything wrong or just got unlucky. Feels like card games are hard to balance. This was very impressively done within only 3 days!

remco 2021-05-12 12:43

So I finally found some time to not just play, but also comment...

I found that most of the things I had to say on this one where in advice form, so please ignore if the following comes off as too patronizing.

First: I _did_ enjoy playing around with this, to see how far it could go. It has a sort of 'old DOS game' feel to me (but maybe that just shows my age). The way the main menu is handled is innovative (though not everyone likes unlabeled choices as a design choice -- I think it's a bit of a debate UX wise). The intro sequence above-ground on starting the game is also very nicely done!

That said, I do have some criticisms:

One the one hand, (and it could just be that I'm missing something here!) it felt like there weren't much actual decisions to make (deepest I got was level 12, and to me that seemed mostly luck based -- most of the runs take me to levels 7 ~ 9), since every card has a somewhat obvious application on the other, while luck or idle games can be valid, it does need your attention basically all the time. If you want to expand this game, I think it would be advantageous to decide which of these you'd like to be, so you can focus on delivering that experience.

A lot of effort has gone into doing a little animation for nearly everything, and having all kinds of different backgrounds, which means that the quality of the art seems to be all over the place (now I don't think technique is everything, but: the spider has outlines, most other things don't, lighting seems to come from a different direction for lots of elements, the way texture is handled is different for nearly every single object ... I guess what I'm trying to say is that it lacks consistency?) For jam games, it's probably best to focus on a few standouts, rather than try to do everything with the same quality.

I have been 'guilty' of lack of SFX myself on multiple occasions, but consider this: Sound-effects can be generated within 15 minutes (just search online for 'sound effect generator'), and most of the time, it makes the feel of the game so much better -- lately I've started actually recording SFX instead of generating them, and even then it can still be a done deal within the hour. If you don't leave it as literally the last thing, it will never really eat that much into your time (music is a _little_ different, in my experience).

P.S. I played both online and on Linux. Both run fine! I appreciate the scaling and full-screen (toggle!) options you have. Always nice to have more than the bare minimum of functionality!

ausstein 2021-05-12 12:50

Hi,

here is my Youtube Playthrough of your game as you requested.

I hope you enjoy!

https://youtu.be/4agLRfgVG4c

gamebuilder 2021-05-13 19:24

A very good game! I only wish the cards were a little less randomized — I got stuck with 3 "anti-spider" cards at once, for example. I also wish there were a few sound effects, at least (ChipTones would be useful for this). However, overall this is a fun game. Nice work.

epb9000 2021-05-16 19:56

Fun little game if limited. I had an incredibly hard time seeing the amount of health present due to the lack of color contrast between full and empty.