kveg 2025-04-09 01:24
Tough game. Art is way cool.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → Nightmare Descent
By drsmey, Noctiluca, pentragon and Tyrrer
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 119 | 3.98 | 34 | |
| Fun | 128 | 3.87 | 33 | |
| Innovation | 177 | 3.75 | 34 | |
| Theme | 347 | 3.82 | 34 | |
| Graphics | 239 | 4.06 | 34 | |
| Audio | 239 | 3.65 | 32 | |
| Humor | 383 | 2.94 | 29 | |
| Mood | 161 | 4.01 | 33 |
Tough game. Art is way cool.
Amazing art. I love the designs for the different enemies. I was a dummy and forgot I could right click to view the details of the cards. An in-game popup could be good for that (unless I missed that too). At the end, the bad cards pushed my good cards off the edge of the screen, so I couldn't use them. Not sure if it was intentional, but it was cool.
Great game! It was a bit obscure at first but once I got going, I almost went to the end... And got defeated while the final enemy only had a couple of HP left!
Great art, and a very interesting idea. Congrats!
Really interesting game, I really liked the style and sounds. It took me a few tries to reach a good ending and get through the game, but it was really addictive
Such a cool game, I really enjoyed it! Took me a while to understand all the mechanics but once I did it was so much fun, love the card variety! Almost finished it, but the final enemy was left on 2 hp and killed me, yikes! Loved it tho, might be my favorite game of the jam so far, will come back to it again later!:)
Few improvements I thought of (mostly qol):
The fights seem unbalanced, most of them are pretty easy once you get the hang of it and the last one is a bit too hard I feel.
I'd like it if you could replace the cards, as it is now, if you have one selected and change your mind you have to first remove it and then put the other card in the slot.
It would be cool to see all of the stats of all the cards (maybe on hover?), might be just my resolution but I only see the fear one and have to draw each card to see the rest (see screenshot) Screenshot 2025-04-11 191456.png
@kuboi Glad you like the game that much, we really wore ourselves out making this^^;
Yea, the balancing is pretty off, would have required a lot more time. If you get cards early and manage to get more, it becomes nearly trivial, while if you don't, it's very tough.
Swapping cards out of slots makes a lot of sense for sure, that would be a good change.
And you can see all stats of a card by holding right click, but yes, maybe there could be a better solution still.
Great gameplay and cool graphics
This is a great game. Very interesting and unique, and one of the most fun and playable I've seen from the jam so far. Graphics are cool and you did a great job balancing the cards and coming up with reward/punishments for things. Could use some balance polish with the enemies (I think it could be harder) and some more exciting and dynamic music. The biggest bug I ran into was the hand size - might be good to limit that anyways?
Fantastic work - you should be proud of this one.
Really cool game! The cards are different enough playing with each one gives a different experience and feel. I do think a condition should be added for running out of cards, currently seems like a soft lock situation.
This is so cool, the idea to split the abilities of the cards really made it a lot more interesting to think of what to play when. On top of that the card art looks amazing, and I really liked the small polish added with the brain changing size based on the heartrate. I do feel like it would've maybe benefitted from a bit of balancing though (making enemies have more health gradually till the final boss, and having them inflict more heartrate) and having it be easier to see all your cards without having to slot some in just to see the rest of your hand. Otherwise it's awesome, everyone did an amazing job :D
I like this game) That's truly well balanced card game, with interesting setting. I win only on my second attempt, and it wasn't difficult, but still challanging. Sure, I loved art so much, vibe is perfect)
Awesome game. I got to the final boss but could not beat it, but it felt like I could have if I had been more careful. Game felt unique, polished, functional, and engaging to play.
@aaronjnc
Glad you like our game! A condition for running out of cards should already exist. If your hand is empty, a "Scream of Terror" is added into your hand, which has twice the value of a normal "Remembrance" at the cost of raised heartbeat. With that, you can try to stabilize yourself and even get your "Remembrance" back.
It's very easy to have a hand overflowing with special cards right now, so this scenario shouldn't really come up much anyway.
@ogladian
Thanks, and yes balancing is not at a great spot since that requires the most time, which we didn't have^^ Enemies do get stronger as you progress, just like you described, and the boss has even more stats so you have an opportunity to spend the rest of your resources trying to defeat him.
The hand overflowing is not an optimal solution for sure. We had multiple ideas to fix that, but none of them could be implemented in time.
never woke up but got really close, nice art and enjoyed experimenting with the mechanics!
Okay, this is reallllllllly cool, you nailed every single aspect! I love the mechanic of using cards on different slots for different effects, weighing each strategy, actually made me think and plan ahead! The graphics and music are all beautiful, and each card had really distinct effects that made them useful in different situations! This is really tightly designed and I'm impressed!
The game might feel unclear about how to play at first, but after a few tries, things start to make sense. Also, the audio is fantastic!
Nice - first run was spent figuring out the system. Second run I finished off the boss and myself in the same move with Scream of Terror. I think I was awarded the victory -- the screen went dim and I thought I'd lost, but then it dealt me like ten Hopes and I saw the credits.
Game has a nice brutal resource limitation. It's pretty limiting when you are stuck in a battle with nothing but Remembrance, so I felt clever figuring out that a few turns down the road I would be able to maybe-win by venting all my cards and getting the Scream that can deal 2.
I think you got some extra mileage out of the air of mystery while I explored the systems, which is always nice in these small-scope jam games. I appreciated the lack of tutorial.
Nice work! I enjoyed this entry.
Aaaaaaggrrrrrr... I lost to the (presumably) final boss :D - he had 6 points left!
Obviously that's the *final* challenge.
BTW I've never played card games BUT now I can see why this is so cool! I quickly got the hang of it. Congrats for this gem of a game! Very hooky! (bow)
Took me a while to get at first, but after I got the hang of it I really got into it. Such a unique way of making a card game, and satisfying too! I found that sometimes the card wouldn't let me place it in the slot, had to try a couple of times before it let me. I also would have liked if you had found a way for you to be able to see all your cards at all times, either by scrolling or by overlapping the cards, because right now if you get too many cards you can't play the ones at the ends. The card designs are super cool though, and the monsters too. Great work!
At first I didn't understand that the four lines on the card would activate when played on the different spots so I just tried playing one card on all of the spots on my first turn which immediately then told me how to read the cards. The only thing I'm still not certain about is what the [symbol]=[heartbeat] meant.
The enemies were creepy looking and the style they were drawn in was great and fitting for the uneasy feeling of the game. The sound effects were good and the soundtrack fit the vibe very well but I wish the animations for when the enemy increased the heartbeat or when I attacked the enemies would've had more oomph as now they felt a little weak. Other than that I really enjoyed the game and at the moment card games like these are one of my favorites so I was really happy to get to play one in the jam!
Your game definitely deserved higher scores everywhere! Loved it
Whattttt!!! You guys were robbed! This game was one of my favorites!