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A jam submission

CARD DRAWView game page

A relaxing deckbuilder where you construct equations
Submitted by Valdis Gunn — 6 hours, 54 minutes before the deadline
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CARD DRAW's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Game Mechanics#13.6453.645
Design#14.3554.355
Overall#13.7533.753
Interpretation of the Theme(s)#83.2583.258

Ranked from 31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

I really liked the game, but I really didn't understand what I was supposed to do. I kept adding cards, but I couldn't figure out the next step. Ended up just power clicking. Also, noticed a slight bug where sorting my cards by value leads to x3 being rated higher than x4 or x6. Love the polish on this title - well done!

Developer

Thank you!

The goal is to get the highest score possible with a limited number of draws (which you see on the top left corner), it should explain this at the beginning in a little tutorial, maybe it didn't trigger for you. The next step, the key to do this, is upgrading the shop level (refreshing the shop), so that you can get to cards (and also abilities) that are much more complex (as it says in the in-game tooltip of the shop refresh function) and that synergize with other cards and abilities to create strategies that can lead you to some crazy high scores (like the ones other players posted in the game page's comment). After upgrading the shop to higher levels, you get more powerful cards that open up the door to more strategies and synergies, for example these cards and abilities:


Another key point is also to "expand" the board other than only expanding your deck, by adding card slots, which ensure you'll produce more points for each turn, because cards stay on the ground for longer and thus help you craft longer equations which in turn lead to more points for your final score.

As for the sorting by "value", I'm not quite sure what you mean, these are the available sorting types for cards in your deck:


Maybe you meant "type", in this case cards are first sorted by their type (first +N cards, then ×N, then for example [dice] cards, then [coin] cards, ecc...), and then by descending value (if the type is the same), so in your case it would be "×3", "×4", "×6".

By the way, thank you for playing, I'm happy you enjoyed the game!

Submitted

Yeah, I kind of saw the tutorial, but didn't really understand it when I was in game. I saw the tooltips and those helped, but since I don't usually play this genre, I was just confused. I was trying to get a higher score, but just didn't understand how. That's okay though; that's on me.

As for the bug, when I sorted the cards by "Best", it went "x3, x4, x2, x1, +7, +6" etc. Not sure why the x3 card showed up first, but it also happened once I bought the x6 card so it was still "x3, x6, x4..." when sorted by Best. Hope that helps.

Developer(+1)

Oh ok got it, "best" sorts cards by the highest amount of points each card has ever produced for you in a single turn, hence the "best turn points" part. I should probably change the text of the tooltip to make it clearer, and in general I should definitely work on making the game more "beginner friendly" in this sense, thank you for letting me know!

Host(+1)

A really polished entry & there was tonnes to unpack and figure out! Great core mechanic. Thank you so much for participating!

Developer

Thank you for hosting!

(+1)

5 stars in everything. Will come back to play this again.

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you so much! If you have any feedback for the game too I'd be happy to hear it.
Also, I played your game too and it was very good, especially for a game made in 7 days! I left you some suggestions and feedback on its submission page, I hope they were helpful :D

(+1)

It's an enjoyable game, but when I first saw it it reminded me of the game "roll". There are obvious differences, but the main gameplay loop is really similar, even the sounds of the points being added seemed familiar. 

Developer (3 edits)

Yes, ROLL was the main inspiration for this game's gameplay loop, I love that game, glad to see other fans here!
Thank you btw :)

Submitted(+1)

Really nice game, I really got hooked, good job!

The only suggestion that I'd like to make is that at one point the cards become a bit too based on the random values, which is cool, but also I think that giving the players a choice between purely luck based card and more normal ones and to try and create a balance in the deck that way might be a bit more interesting.

Anyway great job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing, and for your suggestions! 

I'll try to add more "deterministic" cards in the future :)

Submitted(+1)

Yes, this game is clearly not for everyone (like me, who doesn't know the rules of all card games except UNO), but the visuals are great, and from what I understand, the interpretation of the theme is also top-notch(I really liked the minimalism of the graphics)

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you! 

I liked your game's minimalist artstyle too, I left you some feedback on its page if you want to continue with its development :)

Submitted(+1)

This game surprised me with how polished it was just the juiciness of the juiciness! Thanks for the game. I saw you talked about a customizable version that would look good because I thought it was a little too long to draw 500 cards one by one. Overall I quite liked it, even though this isn't the genre I usually play

Developer(+1)

Thank you!

Submitted(+2)

I love your game. The player experience is really good. I think this game will win the jam. The music, art and core of the game, complements each other well. I could tell that you have a lot of experience making games. The design is small, tight and it feels good to play. Especially if you get the big number. It gets you hype up. This game reminds me of Balatro, very addicting game, very satisfying to play, and enjoyable. 

I have nothing more to say in terms of advice or feedback. Because the game did really well expressing its well design experience for the players. As a game developer, I think you have enough skills to make game commercially.

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you very much!

Your game was very satisfying and addictive too

(+1)

Wow, this was really really fun!
It's extremely well polished and I love the music and the juice from seeing the chips fly up with the satisfying pop! The concept is so brilliant in building such an interesting, replayable game while keeping the scope small enough for a jam. Really well done, I loved this!

I played a few times, I think 5 in total, and my best was 109 billion (110 cumulated)

The turn limit completely morphs this game from a 'tape-down space bar clicker' to a strategic task of planning ahead and making smart decisions. I love all the extra features of polish, seeing the graph at the end, tracking the score accumulated by individual cards etc. An online leaderboard would be really cool to see other people's scores too!

I think the game would work very well as a mobile experience and I'd buy an app of it in a heartbeat. It was actually the first way I played it, but not being able to mouse over shop items without buying them or not being able to scroll down made me go to desktop.

The balance does feel good, especially for a jam game, things that stood out to me though are some cards and abilities can roll a 0 in the shop and end up being useless, like Areca Nut with 0 ability power always does nothing and a '=0' card seems like you'd never want it either. Very early game I've had shop items cost in the millions while I only made 200 total chips but other than a few things like that It's got a good amount of content! Would love to see more! especially abilities!

Developer (6 edits) (+1)

Thank you so much for the compliments and the detailed feedback!

I plan on expanding the game further by adding more content (cards and abilities), more game modes (I already have started working on one where you can decide in which slots to place the cards you draw and replace the card that is already in that slot, so the strategy will play an even more role in that) and also add options for the amount of draws of each run to allow the player to go for a quick run or a longer, more strategic one. I agree that a mobile version of the game would be nice too (with properly working tooltips obviously), so I'll probably also consider porting the game there in the future.

As for the cost of shop items, it increases when you refresh/level-up the shop, so the more you refresh, the more items cost, but you are right, abilities' costs need a rebalancing since some are really really expensive (I only had time to balance the cost of simple cards, I didn't really have that much time to balance the cost of ability cards instead...).

Lastly, as for "useless" cards, cards like a "=0" become actually very powerful if combined with some abilities (there is an ability that transforms every "-X" points slot into a "+X * N" points, so if you use a "=0", it means you are basically multiplying points by the corresponding ability's amount. The same goes for possible synergies with the "Areca Nut 0" ability, which synergizes with other cards.

P.S:: congrats on your high score, I don't even know if I ever reached that score myself without cheating with developer controls :o

(1 edit) (+1)

Oh wow, that's super cool thanks for letting me know! I had no idea about the "=0" thing, still can't really wrap my head around but I'll have to look out for that combo more. It was my understanding that Areca Nut changes your starting number from 0 to something else, so changing it from 0 to 0 seemed confusing.

Yeah, I'm assuming the cost also compounds based on what the card does so that might be why I found a few +5 mill shop options surrounded by 5-30k ones near the beginning of the game very rarely. But for a jam game, the balance and polish is excellent, can't wait to see it developed more!


Thanks! It was a fun run! I think the nature of these games the scores can go crazy exponential. This was my score on my next run after that!

(+1)

Played another game and got 1.2 quintillion! (18 0s) my deck was fully maxed size, three '8^dice' cards, and the rest were 'x7-9+dice', I had 1 clover that made all dice 6, fig for changing the starting number, and spinach for forcing the clover in each hand, I also had dices, clerk and elephant abilities, it was super fun to see the crazy combo!!!

Developer (3 edits) (+1)

I love the fact that you are enjoying the game so much even in its jam-only state, hearing this is probably the most rewarding feeling for a game developer!

I don't know how much the novelty and theory crafting experience for the game will last for you since the number of card combos strategies for higher scores are not a lot for now (I still need to add lots of cards and abilities to increase the possible strategic options available to the player), but I promise I'll expand the game as soon as I can with new cards, game modes and most importantly, with leaderboards! I feel you'd be dominating those given your high scores :D

Submitted(+1)

Really chill game and experience! Actually a lot of work for a week. Congratulations!

Developer

Thank you! I also played your game and it was pretty fun, I left you some feedback too if you plan on working more on the game :)

Submitted(+1)

Incredible job in 1 week! Vibe of the game is very relaxing and addictive. I enjoyed it a lot. I'm even curious to know how and in what program you make the sprites for the UI?

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you!

I created the all the sprites in Adobe Illustrator, but they are very simple sprites reused throughout the game using Unity's 9-slice system and some custom made code to procedurally generate rounded rectangles for cards, buttons and windows, so nothing special.

By the way, let me say your game is very very good too, and I feel like itìs an even more impressive project for the 1 week period of the jam, it feels like a complete game, very well done, especially on the atmosphere!

Submitted(+1)

In general I like the clean aesthetic, calm music and game idea
I initially thought it's a clicker game (I hate clickers) and I still can't determine whether it is, because it definitely has more thinking and planning into it than brainless clicking. However it has phases which are played that way, however in small batches it's alright (especially with the flag mechanic). But together with the high turn limit it begins to feel like a tideous gameplay. I would personally prefer to have shorter game and after finishing it I would start another one to see if I'd improve my score. There could be game-length options to choose so that everybody's preference is matched.
I feel like this review got too chaotic, so to sum up: don't think it's a negative review per chance. I really enjoyed the game, but would be happier to see the score screen after, say, 200 cards.

Developer

Thank you for your feedback!

Once you get to get more complex cards (like dices and coins) and to abilities, the game starts feeling more like a strategy game rather than a clicker, so if you stop before getting to at least a level 10 shop (10 shop refreshes) and 9 unlocked shop slots, the game does in fact feel less like a clicker and more like a strategy game, but it sure starts out as the former and takes a bit to become the latter.

It's this slower progression towards thee strategy aspect of the game that led me to consider 500 draws per game. since this is a good number to keep runs short but also long enough to be able to get to complex synergies with abilities and card types. 

I do intend to "expand" the game further and, other than new game modes, add more turns options (I have 250, 500, 1000 turns in mind), but this also requires adjusting and balancing the the costs and spawn-probabilities of shop items, so it's not just a quick addition to the game, and unfortunately I didn't have that much more time to do all this before the jam deadline (which ended at 2AM in the night here).

Thanks again for the suggestions, and good job on your game too, I enjoyed it (I also left some feedback too in the comments if they can help you).

Submitted(+1)

Really cool and interesting concept of expansion. And all the graphics are good! Minimalist and efficient :>

Developer

Thank you, your game was nice too, I left you some suggestions on its page if you plan on adding more levels :)

Submitted(+1)

This game is definitely a top contender for this jam! I'm genuinely impressed you were able to pull this off with such a short amount of time. (PS I'd really appreciate it if you could play my game)

Developer

Thank you, as I said in another comment too, I don't think the game could be a top contender given how many amazing games I played, but we'll see, for now I'm happy with just the feedback I'm getting from other devs.

Also, I played your game, and it is fun, though a bit too difficult for me, I'm not that good with more action-based games. I left some feedback too on the page of the game if you want to develop the game further, hope they can help :)

Submitted(+1)

What a great game!! I really enjoyed it, especially how neat the design is. 

Developer

Thank you! Your game was a very nice short experience too, very clever title and concept :D

Submitted(+1)

Oh wow this is extremely impressive, you managed to develop so many different and interesting mechanics in this short time frame I'm genuinely amazed. I also personally love these type of math deck building games especially after balatro popped off so had a lot of fun trying to minmax.

Developer

Thank you! But to be honest, I only made some card variations and some mechanics work together, while on the other hand, you and your team did an amazing job on your game actually. Your's was impressive, not mine.

I also left some feedback for your game, but I really don't think you need it as the game is already very very well made and polished as of now, feels like a complete game already, the only real thing I can see missing is a mobile release (which I'd be happy to play if you ever port the game there, let me know).

Thank you again for your kind words, and most importantly good job on yours.

P.S.: yes, Balatro was an inspiration for this, especially for the dopamine game feel, but I can't even dream about reaching the levels of the G.O.A.T. with a game made in less than a week.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

A real contender for first place in the jam! Really loved how polished and complete this game feels. 
Man I strive to become as proficient as game devs like you lol

Developer(+1)

Oh thank you! 

I don't know about the first place thing though since I saw a lot of other games which look and play amazing (including yours), but that doesn't really matter, for now what matters is that I am seeing lots of devs willing to give feedback and play other dev's games, that's the real point of jams.

By the way, I left you some suggestions too on your game's page, which are really just minor things to make your game pop even more since the game already looks very nice and has a very cozy feeling, I really enjoyed it. Hope you find them useful :)

Submitted(+1)

This is a really good and addicting game that fits with the 'Expanding' theme. the game loop is solid and I can find myself playing this game even after the jam.

I must of replay it several times trying to reach the highest amount while trying to figure out which cards would work well.

Good job on this game!

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much :D

I really liked your game too (yours is even more relaxing than mine), I left you some suggestions on the submission page if you plan on working on it more.

Developer (5 edits)

The game is a relaxing roguelike deckbuilder, you draw cards to construct equations and earn points used to expand your deck, so that you can earn more points, and expand your deck even more, and so on...

The expansion of your deck is crucial to gain more points: you start with basic, addition and multiplication cards, and can expand the deck with new cards from the shop to earn more points.

You can also expand the board by adding new card slots, which will allow you to have longer card sequences, so longer equations and generate more points.

I made every asset myself, including the 3 relaxing jazz music tracks of the game and also the sprites (apart from the ability icons, taken from flaticon.com, and the cards and chips sounds, taken from freesounds.org).

Hope you have fun, let me know if you like the game :D