roughskin 2024-04-16 08:00
Hello there! You have a bug on the itch.io, after the first round all my text in the game disappears. It's a shame because I really wanted to play another card game!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Summoning Master
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 873 | 3.30 | 28 | |
| Fun | 604 | 3.42 | 28 | |
| Innovation | 809 | 3.11 | 28 | |
| Theme | 471 | 3.80 | 28 | |
| Graphics | 963 | 3.00 | 28 | |
| Audio | 594 | 3.17 | 28 | |
| Humor | 980 | 2.27 | 26 | |
| Mood | 1053 | 2.96 | 28 |
Hello there! You have a bug on the itch.io, after the first round all my text in the game disappears. It's a shame because I really wanted to play another card game!
@roughskin Hi, thank you for playing and reporting the issue. Yeah, it's a severe bug. How come I didn't find it!
~~For anyone else who comes to play here, I am working on fixing the bug right now. Please wait until it's fixed.~~
--- **Update:** bug fixed, please feel free to have a try on the game
Tough game. I made it to the final level but got a bad hand and the boss killed me instantly. Fun deck builder! Maybe there could be more options for building up the deck, like 2 cards per level instead of 1? Also the mana card seems to be bugged. I had the one that gives 4 for a cost of 1, but I used it when I had 1 mana and I only had 3 after using it.
@themixedmaster Thanks for playing and commenting!
Right, this game somehow heavily depends on luck. I think your idea of getting 2 cards instead of 1 is such a genius idea and will help this game become more fun a lot!
And yes you find another bug because I made the card's effect take place before mana was spent... Not sure if fixing such a bug is allowed before rating ends.
@jamesw i think generally it's fine to make tweaks to the game after the deadline for the jam. I see people fix bugs in their jam games all the time. I've done it too.
@themixedmaster Sounds reasonable, fixed the bug.
The idea is really nice and the gameplay pretty interesting. Although I'm not sure if reshuffling all the cards in your hand after each turn is that great of an idea. It was at first confusing to me when I wanted to leave a card in my hand (+2 minion and hero hp), stall for one turn and heal, but the card disappeared for next turn. I think it would be better and less random if instead of drawing 5 cards, you drew 2 or 3, but cards from previous turn stayed in your hand. Also I really agree with @themixedmaster - adding more than one card after round seems like a good direction.
I feel that the game is a good concept overall, the cards need a bit of touch up work in regards to a refreshing feel, great game though !
The overall idea is nice, I'm quite fond of deck building games and they can be pretty addictive. However here as you mentionned it lacks balancing. Here are my detailled reviews (and I know there is so much one can do during a Ludum, I'm just saying what could be better) : - I had a bit of trouble at first to fully understand some cards, like the one where you needed to have a "summoning unit" to play them, I only understood it later just my forgetting to summon my attacker before picking another card (and it was actually a nice surprise to see 3 of them pop up, I liked this mechanic, but I really feel the card description, or the visual feedback could be clearer). - Talking about feedbacks, would be nice to have some visual or audio feedback when playing bonus: I barely noticed I buffed my units health - I think before round 3 or 4 all my new cards options were cards that decreased my life of my health, don't know if it's normal ? - I lost in the end in one turn, I had nothing I can summon (only buffs) and my character got one shotted which is a bit frustrating.
Otherwise the audio is nice ! And so are the graphics, simple, but cute (I just think the background does not fit really properly with the rest of the assets and maybe the dithering effects reduce readibility of the game).
Anyway, I really think it could be very fun with just a few tweaks and balancing, so good job !
@lisek-gagatek Yeah, I agree with your idea of keeping all cards in hand, which will reduce the unncessary randomness and increase player's feeling of being able to make effective decisions.
@uthie Thanks for playing! Yeah, we didn't spend much time on the VFX part of the game including the refreshing feel, this could be improved a lot.
You've got a fun little deck builder here! I somehow managed to kill myself with the cars I had on my own turn, not sure how I did it lol, I managed to get to level 5 tho!
As for things you could improve on: I think making the background some kind of place in a world (i.e. grass land or something like that) would add to the atmosphere of the game.
Another thing which isn't a huge deal I just am bad at noticing things is the mana if you made that a little more pronounced, I think that would help with readability! Overall, it was a fun game nice work!
@tyrannas Thanks for playing and commenting with plenty of details! I think all of your points are valid. - Right, some of the descriptions are a bit confusing without an example, perhaps adding a tutorial or visual feedback that you mentioned would make it more clear, also I think the two-step summoning process might be a bit counter-intuition (which make it hard to explain those cards clear). - Yeah, the game is lacking of some necessary effects for feedbacks, especially for the buffs. - The new cards options are totally random, they're just simply generated from one card pool, there is no factors like level factor at all. - Yeah, this is a notable problem which could harm user experience a lot. I think keeping all hand cards (as @lisek-gagatek said) or adding an always-available hero ability might mitigate this issue.
The background actually bothers me a lot, but we just ran out of time, we should have replaced it in earlier stage. And you might also noticed, some sprites are much darker than others, we should also have adjusted them.
Finally, thanks for praising the audio! This is exactly the first time I composed the music myself :)
@ty-victorson I am glad you reached level 5! Yeah, a more concrete background seems much better and immersive. And it's true that the mana might need some VFX to make it more noticeable.
I'm certainly not a fan of turn-based games, but it's a pretty interesting concept. I also want to mention the excellent visual
It's a nice little deck builder! I found the card's a bit hard to understand at first. Once I got into things it did get a little more familiar, but they still feel not easily distinguishable or clear in some ways.
Tackling a deckbuilder in a short window like this is definitely ambitious. Particularly when it comes to balancing, since that is such a key aspect that deckbuilders really need to get right. While I probably didn't invest enough time to get a great idea of how things are balanced, it felt better than I expected it would, having been put together in 3 days!
Great job!
Awesome game! I played all the way 'til the boss, where I lost :(
It's hard to get the hang of at first, I'm not a fan of this type of game so it doesn't help! :)
I can't comment on the difficulty and balance of the mechanics, as I don't have much experience with this kind of card game, but it wasn't easy for me.
On the other hand, the pixel art is top-notch!
@fenix131113 Thanks for playing and complimenting the art.
@aj-atkinson Yeah, I have the same feeling, the difference between same kind of cards are not straightforward. Speaking of balance, I feel like one key is the HP of all units should be increased, giving player more chance to buff units. And you're right, it's super hard to achieve a good balance in 3 days. I was thinking of making a simple game, however it turns out this one is still more complicated than I thought.
@bochinator You've reached the last level! Damn the boss!
@k-toll Yeah, this game is not very accessible, especially for those who are relatively new to this type of this game. Thanks for praising the art!
Really neat little deckbuilder! I really enjoyed the summoning mechanic although once I understood the main mechanics I found it to be pretty easy overall. I think with some greater variety of deckbuilding options and enemy types you could have a really strong game! Overall a very solid proof of concept :)
Quite hard but entertaining game. The UI is sometimes less clear, especially the text description. But overall great entry :)
This game is pretty fun! I aplaud you for trying to make a deckbuilder in 3 days, that's no easy feat! I really like the mechanics centered around summoned units, and think its an interesting choice to let your damage go into negatives and heal enemies. Could use some more variation if you decided to come back to it later, but all in all great job!
@maxededo Yeah, the game is totally building upon the summoning mechanic. I am glad it didn't take too much for you to take the mechanic in.
@karlo5o Thanks for playing and commenting! Right, the UI and the description could be improved a lot to make the game more accessible.
@blazejmg917 Not easy at all! I also feel like allowing damage to go into negatives could be a super fun option, will take note of it.
I really like thi game, the art, sound, gameplay and mood everythings are great well done :)
I think concise descriptions for cards would be better. I managed to finish it :)
@jean-francois Thanks for playing and liking the game :)
@verbante Totally agreed with the desciption suggestion. And congrats! You're one of the few lucky guys who were able to finish the game :D
I love the sound but I feel like the descriptions are a little confusing, it's a good game. Good job!
@baluj Thanks for playing and loving the sound, totally agreed with the point of confusing desciptions :)