Darn

He-Who-Is-Beyond-The-Sun by Joror 2018-12-15T15:10:49Z

As a lover of card games, I'm pleased to see an entry of the genre in the jam.

Remco wrote some pretty comprehensive feedback, but I'll add my own thoughts as well. He hit the spot when mentioning the lack of explanations (even with the edition with overlay text), although I think that could have improved a lot (more on that later). I also like the mechanic where you get a different reward depending on how you defeat an enemy. I didn't see the part about the secrecy, I could just find an enemy that doesn't reduce secrecy and spam the cards that make me gain it. It's a bit weird that some enemies only buff themselves/reduce your mana, meaning they don't actually do anything to you.

Other issues I've found: some cards have so much text on them that they are shrunk, and I can't tell what they do anymore. I feel like the map choice is a bit too overwhelming, with little indication of what to pick. Whenever the enmies have +something, they seem to recover up to their max, but I can't see that max whilst they're damaged. haven't managed to figure out what the souls do. Note that I did not manage to play much of the game, as I kept running into a game-breaking bug where the game would not spawn enemies, disallowing me to progress.

The inspiration from Slay the Spire is obvious, and I'd honestly encourage you to take even more inspiration from it. For example, your early deck should be as simple as possible, creating a natural learning curve (should help with the harsh initial load of information). Early levels could also have fewer enemies to get you used to the mechanics first. You should also treat secrecy more like Slay the Spire treats health, I'd ditch the card that gives you secrecy completely and instead gain it through rewards (tying into what I mentioned about just grinding secrecy). Note how Slay the Spire either lets you gain health through events, or through consumables that can't be used several times per encounter (potion, exhaust cards).

Overall, good job. I'd buy this if it was as polished and well designed as Slay the Spire.

Re:Call by Porcus_Pie 2018-12-09T15:07:13Z

The game did not recognize my Dualshock 4.

Re:Call by Porcus_Pie 2018-12-12T21:53:32Z

@porcus-pie It says Gamepad needed. To be fair, DS4 tends to be a bit of a pain, usually Steam handles that for me. Now that I mention it, I tried launching Recall as a non-steam game and DS4 worked!

Neat take on the theme! Overall I enjoyed it, although I found the throwing controls a bit awkward.

FTD : Fixin' to Die by nuclearfriend 2018-12-14T22:19:51Z

This is surprisingly well made for a jam game. The graphics and effects are on point. The voice acting is hilarious. Gameplay is solid, like how you introduce new mechanics over time. I found the controls easy to get used to.

ETA: Estimated Time Of Arrival by mechanicallife 2018-12-15T14:12:46Z

Obvious inspirations, but still managed to layer a new innovative mechanic on top. Well done!

Not sure if there's a bug or I'm stupid, but I could not figure the level with the isolated room. Can you open the door somehow?

Spiritual Sacrafice by alexhonor 2018-12-17T20:30:17Z

I'm surprised you managed to get an fps that plays and looks well as a jam entry. I commend you for that!

However, the game is a bit bland and uninnovative in terms of mechanics. I usually do some writeup about mechanics in my reviews but there's just not much there.

Also, as an FPS there REALLY should be an option to change mouse sensitivity.

Not so Magic! by VadeMetro 2018-12-17T19:49:56Z

I like how the mechanics are similar to classic trick taking games like Hearts or Whist, makes the experience really intuitive. This would work brilliantly as a physical card game, considering it's easy to explain and just play. I like the concept, although I have to say it's a bit too simple, and RNG-dependant. With some additional mechanics I think that could be improved.

Oh, also consider moving the gold indicator elsewhere, so it's visible without having to pick up the card (such as the top left corner). The cards don't have any other information to convey other than power and gold amount, so you should be able to reasonably have both be visible whilst the cards are in your hand.

Glow It Alone by egawag 2018-12-14T22:37:42Z

I gotta commend you for the graphics. It's gotta one of the be the best looking 3D game in the jam.

I don't like how you have to repeat the whole thing from scratch every death, in a game where you're literally meant to die to progress. I'd suggest either having checkpoints or splitting up obstacles into separate levels. Walljumping is just kinda there? Doesn't add much, I would rather have seen you explore the core mechanic more, like how you can also block enemy movements (which there was only one of, despite having much more interesting interaction with the dying mechanic).

Sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining, just giving out criticism/advice :grin:

The Path to Vegetarianism by PhillSerrazina 2018-12-14T22:05:18Z

Overall solid game! Despite what other people say and get stuck on (I did complete it, haha), I enjoyed the cheeky level design.

Queuest by MateusBoga 2018-12-14T22:13:55Z

Reminds me a lot of Crypt of the Necrodancer. I kept walking into enemies expecting it to work :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I like the core mechanic a lot, despite seemingly not working that well in practice. What often happens is just being surrounded by enemies. Bigger levels might have helped, the bow for example only gets used at point blank anyway, there's not much room to navigate. I can definitely see this working with larger, non-square levels, more enemy variety etc. Nicely done!

Endless Nungeon by Haustgeirr 2018-12-17T20:12:38Z

I like the concept a lot, it fits well with the theme and it's pretty neat. However, I think it was not that well executed. My main problem is that you can't hold more than 1 weapon, whilst you also don't know what's in the loot. I couldn't keep the battle axe even if I wanted to, for example (unless I track which items appear in which levels, but that's not particularly interesting. Combine that with the fact that the basic attack is not great, which means I don't want to sacrifice any weapon, going against the core mechanic. Allowing you to hold multiple weapons would be nice. I think the game might also benefit from having random loot/enemy buffs.

Overall a good entry, though. Super easy to understand and pick up, solid combat, nice graphics.

Happy Fun Death Cult by Darn 2018-12-09T14:52:02Z

@justcamh Thanks a lot for the comprehensive feedback, it is much appreciated!

In my defense (to be honest, it's just excuses, we should have done better) we worked with several people, but only 2 of us got the final playable version together on the last day (I know there's only 2 authors atm, the others haven't set up Ludum Dare account and I'm still waiting to hear back from them). With several people working, I wasn't even aware of some things, like the volume slider not working properly. Despite many flaws, I just wanted to get the game done for the jam, frankly there was no time to fix a lot of issues.

Sorry about the rambling, I am not entirely happy with the game myself, but I'm glad we managed to get a playable version before the deadline. Also shout-out to @yellafella247 for sticking it out with me on the last day and getting this thing done. Mega props to our artists as well, the map is honestly the highlight of the game.

And yes, the music was made by one of us. We only used a few particle effects, and the outline effect when selecting units (which breaks when changing the color of the units; I would have liked to do that but it's yet another flaw we ran out of time to figure out).

Again, sorry about the rambling, and thanks to everyone for the honest criticism and the kind words! <3

Gold is Heavy in a Dwarven Satchel by dwarfaparte 2018-12-14T23:09:48Z

I had a lot of fun with this, kept me playing for a while. Lots of interesting mechanics to play around with, and plenty challenging. I liked some clever design choices, like the enemy spawns if you take too long, discouraging you from just clearing the whole area and picking all the gold anyway (although maybe it should have been more punishing). The order of your abilities being random is a nice touch.

My complaints are minor. I don't like how you can get hit as soon as you mine through a block. The wait ability seems underwhelming, especially when you can just swing the axe for the same effect.