pocketdog 2026-04-21 01:49
cool card animation
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD59 → Beacon
By mostlikely
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 595 | 3.33 | 38 | |
| Fun | 334 | 3.50 | 38 | |
| Innovation | 680 | 2.91 | 38 | |
| Theme | 799 | 2.45 | 38 | |
| Graphics | 573 | 3.43 | 38 | |
| Audio | 547 | 2.57 | 37 | |
| Humor | 636 | 2.01 | 34 | |
| Mood | 730 | 2.98 | 37 |
cool card animation
Resolution seemed a bit off on itch, but the game was super fun! I did an archer focused build and won the last two levels with only the archers haha. Was really satisfying. Nice job!
@derek-glennon Thanks for playing, it's awesome that you played enough to have a build and won. What was wrong with the resolution?
I had a good time with this one, and kudos for doing cards for a jam, that's tricky! Like another player, I had an issue with itch where it only drew in the top left quadrant, but otherwise everything worked well.
I managed to get my infantry _behind_ the trapper, which was a bit of a surprise!
Whew close! I one with 0 defending 10 infantry and 2 archers. I stacked up 100 damage archery cards and as many infantry revives as I could.
cool take on the theme! had fun playing it, nice work!
@mostlikely yeah sorry I should have been more specific! As bearcage said though the game was only rendering on the top left quadrant of the screen on itch
@derek-glennon Thanks for helping me debug. Difficult to fix since it doesn't happen on my browsers on Linux or Max. I made a change to the scaling in godot and added a fullscreen button on itch. Let me know if it's fixed.
I like the balance and there is all cards and units usefull. Also I like the graphics, style and polishing. You really made short, but complete game. I couldn’t make it to the end on the first or second playthrough, but I found that you can abuse Revive cards, so it looks like good strategy and it feels nice. Cool stuff!
It's always hard to explain actions in a tactical game but I think you managed to do it very ellegantly and simple. The one dimension battlefield really works out for your game. Great job!
The visual is very cool. I would like to animate attack units to feel the damage of archers and swordsmen. The game turned out to be very good, keep up the good work. Like
I liked the element of chance, without making it random. I thought it was well balanced. Good job!
I died just before the tower, so I guess no aid for us. Really well done here, I love the art, and balancing the three types of troops while also moving around within the columns to make certain cards synergize was something I haven't seen before. Good work!
This game is so cool and super fun to play! The content is rich and the experience is excellent, well done! It’s really admirable that you finished this great game soon. If you can, please come and try our game, we’re eager to hear your fair comments, thank you!
I have never seen a game like that, it's really cool and works great with the theme. With more units and more cards it could be even better. I hope you had fun doing it!
The game looks visually good. The card-based controls are a nice touch — they seem to add an element of randomness. I didn’t fully understand the logic behind the allied shield units; as far as I can tell, they mainly provide buffs, while the sword knights deal the most damage and should be placed in front of them. I guess the idea is that you shouldn’t always go for aggressive actions without using shield buffs, but I tend to rush into battle anyway. The game is beautiful and interesting.
Pretty cool --- a neat way to combine military tactics with deck-building. It would have been neat to have had a little more visual feedback about which cards can't be used (e.g. because all the associated troops are dead), but that's more of a nice-to-have, and it's always hard to find time to add that sort of thing in just three days.
Nice concept. It would be great to have a way to remove all arrow cards once all archers have died.
Nice game entry, I like a card strategy game, quite intuitive mechanics too, good work!
It's a decent game, I like the graphics. I didn't make it to the tower, but well donephoto_2026-04-24_13-31-04.jpg
I tried two runs and was very close defeating the final boss on my 2nd run (but I only had archers left :D ). Almost won. My impression is, that you can learn this game and get better by time. I had fun playing it.
I think you should be able to bring defenders or infrantry back once they are gone. Maybe as an option instead of a new card?
The boss battles were fun. The progression bar or level overview is a nice touch. I like that you get upgrades a long the way and that you can skip them like in Slay the Spire.
I can see more content for this game (more troop types or starting armies from different kingdoms, more enemies and maps), but for a JAM-game there was a lot of content. Great job. :)
"Army management meets deck-building. Highly recommended!"
Oh man, thats my favourite genre! One of most self-explanatory games I checked so far. All is clear, nice. You totally should keep up with this game to steam.
Probably useful notes for you:
1. It was very satisfactory to spam my little combo - shield with defenders, than swap swordsmen forward and do damage wwhile being shielded 2. Swordsmen (infantry) feel bit OP compared to archers? 3. Trapper could be named giant trapper? Because he is kinda big and strong for regular wood fella :D 4. Game could use "advance forward" mechanic from time to time 5. Tooltip for enemy intention would be nice 6. You probably should be able to revive troops even if group is all downed?
P.S Kind of step difficulty spike when you reach winter region :) Couldn't make it pass further like some other reviewers
ff.jpg
Anyways, I enjoyed it!
Best mechanics I've seen this compo, I really like the idea and how the limited actions means you have to work out what are the best combos and the cards and the board fit together nicely feeling like one game not two.
If you need any ideas some "intel" cards would be nifty to get an idea of what the computer player's cards are
Very nice art and cool animation. Also i think the balance is very good.
Simple in terms of presentation, but gameplay is well thought out and addictive! I beat it twice with very different builds. Lots of strategy and good balance. Very fun to play 👏
Alternate take on Slay the Spire. I could see this being expanded out into a faction-type game where different fantasy houses have unique units/flavor/cards (catapults anyone?). Didn't need a user's manual to figure out how to play the game, which is great!
Felt frustrating that I couldn't revive troops when they were all gone, while holding a revive card in my hand. Maybe have an exhaust feature, where if all troops are dead, using the revive removes that card from your deck the rest of the round. That way, you get to bring back your troops, but at a cost. Would make more sense to build a deck around that strategy as well, otherwise it felt like I really only need one 'healing' card per unit.
I really dig the tactical line mechanic, and think there are ways to expand on that and make it more relevant. I think visual feedback for which cards affect which lines would be useful to the player.
Solid foundation for a bigger project if you decide to expand on it, which I think you should! Good job!
Felt great to play. It is a hard game to balance, unless you give free partial/full heals after every fight which would make it easier to see the end game with multiple strategies. Nice job including a game over screen that leads to the main menu.
Playing a second time I did much worse by straying from high-defense cards, because losing health snowballs into having less damage to survive further. Some other thoughts about the game I had are:
- Would be nice if you no longer drew cards for fully missing groups. - Surprised the _... Hold ..._ card still works without defenders. - Could make giving up Defenders early more interesting if the Defend cards were removed from your deck of cards. Maybe removing Defenders would make the game too hard though if I cannot block. - Swapping columns 1 and 4 does not do anything when the 4th column is empty. I would expect it to not be able to be played, kind of like when the cards that move a defender forward cannot be played when an enemy is in the way. - Fun to strategize with. - Not sure what the best deck would be, maybe taking the Close Shot and lots of defense, since blocking is difficult and often needed consistently.
Great job overall. I look forward to seeing what games you make in the future.