Cardwork Cycle

frogravity 2023-01-09 21:49

Managed to beat it on hard! It was really nice. I liked the concept of farming as a mysterious magical art :) The minimalist graphics were very nice too, and I liked the calm background music. The game-play was pretty cool too: I especially liked how you went from being almost unable to grow a single plant without it dying of thirst, to growing the mystical fruit with 10 health remaining. In general, the idea of growing plants to get new cards to help you grow more plants was super cool - I kind of wish the Quality Seeds were unlock-able too, if only to reinforce that feeling of growing. The game did feel a bit unbalanced, though (like most game jam games, but still), mostly due to some cards and shop items feeling much better/worse than others.

The core problem was (in my opinion) that there were a lot of turns where there were no enemies - even on hard mode - wasting all attack and most resistance cards. This led to an unfortunate situation where picking attack cards always seemed like a bad option, as they'd be completely useless half of the time. And when enemies did arrive, I usually didn't have enough attacks to deal with them as I mostly took watering cards. While this wasn't a problem on normal - where the default attack & block cards were enough to deal with all enemies for the entire game - it was on hard. Generally, on normal, I think I only took one card which wasn't about watering (Free Energy notwithstanding), and that was the vampire card.

Speaking of vampire cards, those felt incredibly powerful, and I just took them instead of normal attack/block cards. Besides having both attacking and blocking properties (which already made them better than the normal attack/block ones), they were also useful even without enemies, as increasing plant health increased the reward quality. I just filled my deck with vampire cards, Watering Cans and Rainfalls (the best card in the game in my opinion), and the rest was pretty much a cakewalk. The high energy cost was easily offset with the energy upgrades from the shop and Free Energy cards.

Regarding the shop, while I liked the concept of increasing the farm size (especially for stuff like watering bucket), it just wasn't worth the price in my opinion. Money wasn't that easy to come by, and getting more energy each turn was incredibly powerful. Perhaps if the 2x2 land slot wasn't available by default it would be more powerful? Because I planted almost all my plants there for Watering Cans.

All in all, I really enjoyed this game - I played it for almost an hour - and I probably overthought the balancing of a Ludum Dare game. Also, I think I'm the actual first farmer to grow the mystical plant :)

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honey-pony 2023-01-09 22:33

@frogman Thank you for your thoughtful analysis of the game balance!

Balance is, of course, the obvious issue with this game. I tweaked it so often during the jam that it is at this point almost random.

Unsurprisingly, I myself did not play the game until after the jam ended. In my playthrough I had the exact same experience with respect to attack cards... I almost never used the powerful ones, they mostly just clogged my hand. I think the enemy rhythm ended up being lower than it should have been for sure (due to over-nerfing on my part).

With respect to the double-usage of the vampire cards--that is a very good point. I actually made them more powerful at one point, as I was considering how they would work in an attack scenario... but I completely forgot to take into account that there would be many turns where they would be useful without attacking.

With respect to hard mode, here's a secret: the way the enemies work is that there is a big list of which set should spawn next, and "hard mode" just puts you further down the list at the start. It does not increase the spawning frequency at all... in fact, it may decrease it, as enemies spawn less often when they are alive longer.

But yeah, thank you again for putting so much time in my game and giving so much helpful feedback!

primateprime 2023-01-10 10:47

Probably the best game in this LD I've seen so far.

lone-wolf 2023-01-11 02:55

Not sure how you did it again but this is the second LD game of yours I've spent an hour relaxing with, I haven't even tried hard mode yet :P

The enemies kept my eyes open, especially with the quality plants, but I never worried about them unless I was experiencing a drought, which was a rare occurrence with my card selection. Despite that they felt like an addition to the game, rather than a half-implemented feature

tomssuli 2023-01-11 10:34

Awesome relaxing fun game! Played it through and enjoyed the card system.

I wasn't sure when the plant seeds are added to deck. I didn't seem to be able to pick them myself. Balancing of cards seemed very good, having played this kind of card games irl, I felt I had good choices when picking cards or discarding them for gold. Too bad there was no use for the excess gold in the end when I wanted to just discard the card. Maybe it could have been spent to get a fourth card to choose from. (I thought about discarding cards from deck for a price too, but it could be too powerful)

I loved the peaceful mood with the tranquil soundtrack and graphics were nice and clean. I never felt that I would like to quit. I played it for about an hour I even continued to grow a second mythical plant just to see if there was different output :smile:

Only criticism is that the background graphic could have used some variance and the growth patches could either fade better to background or alternatively have distinct shadowed edges. Now they look a bit out of place in the harmony where everything else fits. That is only a minimal complaint though, but those things gave a hint of unfinished feeling in the first impression. As soon as I got to playing I quicky forgot about it.

Overall it was top notch polished game! Great job!

tomssuli 2023-01-11 10:37

...Also, I see how this could be expanded upon. Taking the gold or maybe picking your favourite 5 cards with you and moving to a harsher environment to new challenges :slight_smile:

alaah 2023-01-11 19:45

Another game that takes give or take an hour to beat (on normal, and I'm not going to replay it). I played until I bought all upgrades. The game reminded me why I don't play card video games, because I kept getting fully offensive hands in turns with no enemies and vice versa. The +2 damage card is completely useless on normal and I never used it once; by the time enemies started getting 3hp I already had much better cards. The loop is very nice and relaxing, and my problem with RNG is probably a "me" issue.

willoxs 2023-01-16 12:54

Thats so good! I loved pretty much the whole experience. I guess it was a bit easy - but i now have to play it again on hard mode. I thought the mystery plants would give some kind of crazy bonus - I was actually a bit shocked after i just won xD

The music is nice and calming. The cards are well designed (there are balance issues with attack cards though) and even though there arent really any combos it felt like i slowly built a competetive deck. This is (one of) the best cardgames i played in all my LDs on par with that one game where you play with/against animals (i sadly forgot its name).

Really great job! Make some advertisement/rate some games - it would be a shame to get so few ratings!

simon-rahnasto 2023-01-16 21:33

I personally love board games, and this game really ticked a lot of those boxes. It was really nice to be able to sit back, relax and think about what my next move should be.

The game has a lot of juice going on as well. For example I really enjoyed the fact that the cards all "handle" really well, making them not feel like static images but actual cards. The sound effects are also very much on point, making it satisfying to interact with the game.

Very much appreciate the fact that everything is snappy, all animations are quick and the turns that were obvious could be done in a matter of seconds.

Great choice to allow the player to select gold instead of a card, made it so that I felt like I was rewarded even when drawing no cards that were of interest. And that allowed you to have another way to progress apart from the deck building, the items from the shop, which was a neat feature.

I haven't seen any other game which reminds me of this, and the farming really was the core of the game, not something that was shoehorned in to meet the theme.

Overall I have nothing but praise to give, excellent job :medal:

pkenney 2023-01-17 03:56

Wow, really complete system with a slick implementation! Very nice job!

I spent a bunch of time with this entry, and became the first farmer ever to grow the mystical plant.

Must be so hard in a jam setting to get so many UI elements working right, but I really had very little friction! Ditto for the balance of the deckbuilding cards. If I had one critique of that, it was that I didn't see the biggest difference between basic/middling/quality seeds all that much, and that once my deck felt relatively complete I didn't really want to add to it and to avoid dilution I cashed out cards beyond the shop's ability to sell me stuff.

But the choices felt impactful, especially in the early and mid game... should I improve my suite of watering cards, or should I save up some gold?

The bugs could be tough sometimes, but always felt fair. I re-opened my mind to buying new cards to shift my lategame deck a bit toward combat, which was a nice late wrinkle.

The art and sound also carried the game really well. The music created a nice chill atmosphere and the way the plants grew with each watering was a great guide for what I needed to protect and push over the finish line.

Overall a very impressive entry, great work!

retrisma 2023-01-17 23:40

I enjoyed the gameplay, and the dynamic of damage/water/shielding worked pretty well, although for the most part the shielding didn't seem to come into play much. I think difficulty scaling with the enemies could have been a bit tougher, as they didn't really apply much pressure to growing new plants. Cool idea, though, and I enjoyed the deckbuilding mechanic!

matank 2023-01-18 04:50

Wow, I liked this a lot! Very nice rhythm to the game, I got very relaxed and absorbed while playing it. Music and art are simple but perfect for the experience.

fancyreckless 2023-01-18 12:10

Like the intro, it started a game with bonus mood added onto it. Overall UX design is simple, yet very readable, it gives me a bunch of inspirations of how I could improve my own game. Card animations looks polished, while the card graphical design itself is very clean. My only problem with the game is that there are some situations that require specific cards and sometimes you just get unlucky, like when enemies attack and you might not get any damage cards for few turns. Guess in this case planning and keeping plants high health and protected helps tho. Otherwise gameplay wise it is very well balanced game with good variety of cards and some combinations to explore as well. Meta progression is a nice touch too, quite incredible how much you could fit in such a short period of time. Ending was quite satisfying as well. Good job!

rodel77 2023-01-19 00:05

I spent a lot of time on this one, nice entry! My only complain may be that you don´t need a tutorial that long, I think the UX is that intuitive for anyone to understand (maybe just a skip tutorial button in-game, instead of the checkbox when starting the game)

kuro 2023-01-20 06:16

On the surface, it might have seemed I was gardening. But in reality, I was preparing for the doomsday, when Satan would walk the earth.

pony.png

I stacked enough force to one-shot him when the final confrontation finally came. And if that didn't work, hopefully saved enough money to bribe him to f**k off back to hfil.

So as you can see, I enjoyed your game, and for quite longer than was probably intended.

A splendid game. Thank you for making it.

kuro 2023-01-20 06:17

P.S.: ponys.png

honey-pony 2023-01-20 06:30

@kuro

Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed! I'm curious if you encountered any bugs in such a long playthrough? In particular, earlier I realized there is possibly a bug that suggests enemies will potentially stop spawning at somepoint, which it seems like you may have run into.

Also, I love the drawing, thank you for making it! Fits the game's graphics pretty well too, which is super cool! :smile: I would have loved to add more enemies, including such a grand encounter, but never had the time. Perhaps you were at least able to encounter the enemy bug that (is supposed to have) 9 health? That's the most powerful enemy that is (in theory) in the game.

kuro 2023-01-20 06:42

@honey-pony i didn't actually draw the big baddie, just googled something that fit your style :sweat_smile:

Yes, the enemies stopped spawning at certain point, but tbh I welcomed the fact, because they turned into a nuisance in my autistic amassing of wealth and power :sweat_smile:

A couple of observations: - I'd welcome an option to get rid of certain cards - I never succesfully used more than the first "patch" of usable tiles (apart from expanding it to 6x2 from 4x2). I tried to start a "field" on a second patch, but that turned out to be a huge nuisance, since I couldn't water it properly, and in the end it just slowed down my amassing the resources I needed before The Doomsday would come (the animations for waterless plants are twice as long as for the watered ones, with the "no water" label appearing, and then HP reduction anim on top of that.)

If you plan on working on this further and ever manage to finish next version please let me know .)

honey-pony 2023-01-20 07:01

@kuro

Oh, well good eye for style in any case. :smile:

Thank you for the observations! I did not think about the length of the no water animation at all, despite playing through a couple times now with lots of sacrificial plants who got no water at all, lol.

kuro 2023-01-20 07:12

pony2.png This has to be enough for the coming of the antichrist, right?

RIGHT?! :laughing:

Also I'm not sure about this one, but when you get a choice between coins and cards, I think the screen lets you click "confirm" without choosing anything - unless there's a default choice of card that isn't hilighted. The button does turn disabled after you unselect your choice.

fishmasterino 2023-01-20 13:33

Capture.PNG

Man these other farmers ain't got shit on me. Nice game, very relaxing music, the animations at the end of turn felt a bit slow and it was confusing that scrolling doesn't work when you hover over cards.

andidebob 2023-01-20 22:08

This was super cool! I am really impressed with how well your balancing works! The cards are all intelligently designed and the mechanics of the game are super easy to pick up. I am surprised that you did not add AOE damage cards, instead the vampirie blast felt a bit overpowered. Either way I could really see this developing into something truly awesome, all the groundwork is done. Really well done!

justin-c 2023-01-20 22:14

I played this game for a lot longer than I expected to play a deck-building farming game. Everything about it was well made. Enemies were a bit easy to deal with and there were no consequences for losing all of your plants, but it's a jam game.

I "won" and then kept playing for another 15-20 minutes anyway. Solid game.

fluburbio 2023-01-20 23:05

I played for hours, which is saying a lot. Great work, it's a great system! I found the play area a bit big and empty for the number of plots you can have, and I would have loved being able to buy from the shop "indefinitely" (with increasing prices).

Definitely one of my favorite games. Awesome work!

blue-pin-studio 2023-01-21 08:38

Awesome entry! Its pretty hard, it took me a long time just to get a few gold pieces. Would be nice if the camera movement and plant actions were faster after the first day. I think i spent roughly 50% of my time playing waiting for the plants to fulfill their actions. The music and sfx was a good addition, looking forward to seeing your future entries!

chompdev 2023-01-21 22:08

Amazing deckbuilder! I really enjoyed playing this one, and found the mixture of mechanics very fun and rewarding. I love the idea of smaller plants needing less water to grow, and rarer seeds taking extra care and more water to grow. I think you could do a bunch of cool things with that concept in a post-jam version. Maybe even have rare seed cards you could buy for gold and could only plant under certain conditions, or while playing in certain levels/biomes.

I'd really like to see what you could do with this game by adding more plants, enemies, and upgrades later. The art, sound, and design is really excellent - great job!

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chase-of-bass 2023-01-23 16:20

This was amazing!!! I played this for an hour and had a great time all the way to the end! :D

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The whole experience felt polished and really high quality and well thought out -little quality of life additions like letting the player lower their cards to look at the plants was appreciated. The upgrades were fun and the sound was good too! Awesome job on this!! :D

gamebuilder 2023-01-23 23:00

This game was a tremendous amount of fun. I played it with @genie. We were both impressed with how well-designed this game is. Definitely one of the best here. I got hooked within the first few minutes, and couldn't stop playing. Eventually played the game through to the end, and enjoyed every minute.

Only suggestion I can make is to have a more exciting Win screen. But that's no big deal. Superb game.

digital-bacon 2023-01-24 13:37

Had a lot of fun playing this, had the right balance of building up the crops with dealing with invading insects. Loved the nice clean graphics, and the music suited the game well. Well done!

dk5000p 2023-01-25 22:37

I built the mystical plant. I didn't really feel any sense of danger from the enemies but I enjoyed the overall gameplay loop and had fun.

trexxak 2023-01-27 19:18

This is such a cool interpretation on the whole farming theme. I love how many cards there are and that you even put in an alternative progression system in form of the shop. Everything feels fair, The cards are actually super creative in function and theme, and the overall impression fits so perfectly to a farming game - it's zen, quiet, forgiving, patient and fun.

Amazing entry!