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A jam submission

MagiCardView game page

A deck-building arena shooter!
Submitted by Devsagi, CROW'S NEST (@crowsnest_dev), Julio Reyes Dieck, CallMyLawyer — 2 days, 58 minutes before the deadline
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MagiCard's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Genre Mashup Incorporation#14.3044.304
Engagement/Fun#14.2614.261
Overall#34.0004.000
Polish#43.9133.913
Audio#53.8703.870
Graphics#74.1304.130
Originality/Creativity#83.7833.783
Magical Girl Concept#93.7393.739

Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the Magical Girl Genre?
The main character is a magical girl with the power to invoke magic cards to activate powerful spells

Which genres from categories A and B did you choose?
Shoot Em Up + Card

How does your game mash those genres?
You can set up your assigned cards as you wish and combine them into powerful patterns that are activated automatically during the shoot em up gameplay

Were the graphics/audio assets for your game made during the jam?
Yes, except the floor patterns, some particles and generic patterns for UI which were available for free

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Comments

(+2)

So many colors... lights... numbers...whoah. Definitely a sensory overload, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's cool that you made an effort to keep the enemy bullets visible, but it was still a strain to see them. Once the cards got more complex and started to effect each other, I found the card building pretty interesting, though it's hard to imagine a way to go too wrong, considering the sheer amount of bullets and fire rate. I personally would prefer the game to slow down just a bit so that I can actually perceive the results my decisions are having, but there is an appeal to just frantically throwing everything at the enemy. Great work!

(+3)

The visuals are really impressive. I don't think the graphics are the best in the jam, but the combination of decent-enough graphics, smooth motion, loads of effects, and tasteful bloom come together to form something that looks great together.

The music is fun and matches the game well, and the sound effects are well chosen (except maybe for the hit sound, but that's really splitting hairs).

The gameplay was really fun at first, and I love the idea of cards that more or less directly translate to bullets being fired on screen. I really enjoyed the first round, it was well paced, well balanced, and just really cool to see everything working together.

It did start to fall apart a bit as I kept playing, though.

How the cards work exactly is a bit confusing. It's not clear how exactly the effects will stack or what's beneficial versus redundant, and I didn't even realize the modifiers only stacked a certain way versus affecting all cards. It didn't really feel like I was making strategic decisions here, just throwing on the most powerful cards I had.

The pulsing indicators on screen during the game are pretty cool, though.

I found the game way too visually busy. With hit indicators and tons of projectiles with glow effects all around it's really hard to make out the projectiles flying toward you or the enemies they're coming from. However, I basically can't play bullet hells so I think others might have different opinions on this.

I made it three rounds and died, and by that point it was starting to feel a bit repetitive. The initial wow factor had worn off, and there's no narrative or goal to push me forward. Even the sense of progression wasn't that strong.

In a way it feels a bit like a demo, but honestly for a jam game that's not that big a deal. And it was a pretty awesome demo.

Submitted(+2)

It’s a pretty fun game, and I think the card effects that augment existing spells are implemented really well. The graphics and effects look flashy and good, music is awesome too. I particularly liked the sound that the enemies make when they all pop into existence, it is really satisfying to hear. The damage numbers and a plethora of bullets filling the screen is also very satisfying. Even with everything that’s going on in the screen, I could still dodge pretty well, so it’s great that the red glow of the enemy bullets is enough to discern from all the chaos. It is a very robust game that feels complete, very well done!

A minor issue I have is that it’s quite hard to get a feel for where my character’s hitbox is because of the isometric view, so perhaps some indication is needed. Other than that, the only criticism I have is that it gets quite repetitive. Similar to another submission called Zemstar Assault, it’s quite fun to play it for the first time, trying out different builds between waves and watch hell break loose, but it’s a one and done deal, I’m not going to be holding left-click for another second. I’ll give the same suggestion here as I did to Zemstar Assault, and that is to perhaps have more movement options or defensive options, some back-and-forth between the enemies (especially bosses) to spice up the monotony.

All in all, I had good fun and I am quite impressed at the effects and how satisfying they look and feel. Excellent job!

Submitted(+3)

I didn't quite figure out why putting some cards in certain places cuts off the sequence of spells, but when I had multiple spells going it was hilarious - if a bit deafening. I couldn't hear the music over the sound of my MAGIC GUNS OF DESTRUCTION!!! 🤣

Enemies were challenging enough with projectiles to watch for amongst the multitude of projectiles I myself was spewing. The bosses, on the other hand, were too easy; I just danced around them holding the fire button until they were dead.

It's otherwise a cool Robotron clone with an interesting deckbuilding mechanic. I think with a little more polish (especially in communicating how the card mechanics work) this could be a smash hit game! As it is, I had quite a bit of fun with it.

Submitted (1 edit) (+3)

the visual, and character/enemies design are cute. the music matches the game feeling. it successfully give player the joy of dominating the world by spamming bullets.

it's a bullet hell game that you bring the bullet hell to the enemies once you have a good build. this reminds me the game vampire survivor that i currently bought. So i feel this game has protential to scale up to be a product

Submitted(+2)

Really fun! I'll admit I'm pretty bad at bullet-hell style games, so I found it pretty tough! The shear volume of my own shots made it hard for me to see incoming attacks. I still made it quite a few rounds in though, thanks to the powerful attacks. I eventually lost when I accidentally made my deck setup worse, whoops!

The graphics look nice and the audio is good as well! It's a well made game that's fun to play.  I'd love a story or other goal to keep me wanting to push further, but as it stands it's still a lot of fun. Great work!

Submitted(+1)

The game was well made, but it was difficult to play on a computer. I had issues dodging and shooting, so I quickly died. I also had no clue what the cards did. I just picked the three they gave me.

(+2)

This was sorta hilariously fun !  Wish I could play with the deck build before running into battle, but it resulted in silly antics regardless. 

On the other hand, this quickly reaches a point where the amount of stuff on the screen is ridiculous and maybe game breaking since I got bored of destroying everything in less than 2 seconds... Maybe I just left the game too early before tougher waves? 

Anyway, I could see this game growing into an amazing experience, although might be challenging to balance.

Developer

Hello, thanks for trying and your valuable feedback.

Usually the enemies become tougher starting from stage 5-6 where you might have to adjust your build. But before that, I can acknowledge that it's possible to obtain a very powerful early game combo due to the nature of things being randomly generated. Limiting the stronger spells to later stages might be a solution to that.

Submitted(+1)

I loved the style and the idea, but I think that all the simultaneous attacks leave the game a little lost and without strategy. At times I had to stop shooting to locate and find the mouse. A cleaner attack would make it possible to set up obstacles and traps in the scenery, which I thought would be due to the different colors on the ground. Good job! :)