Post by Crescendo in HyperStar X Duel jam comments

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Thank you so much for playing! I have to admit it was more inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh! than Vanguard (that's still on my watchlist), but I did go for "as cheesy and unhinged as possible". Considering the development strategy of this game was "fuck it we ball", I'm pleasantly surprised the card game ended up being sort of enjoyable! I sort of embraced the moments of utter stupidity as a feature (e.g. Deneb one-shotting herself by playing her special, Astra being the strongest among the three).

I didn't think of it as a branching story (mostly due to time constraints), but the idea of an alternate ending depending on the last battle's results is cool! Wish I thought of it now, actually. I also wanted to make a special animation for, well, special attacks, but in the end I had to cut it out...

Making short games is easier when they're stupid (affectionate)! But for more serious stuff, I find starting from the end and having few story beats (and characters) clear makes it easier to avoid getting too much out of scope. Looking forward to the full version of Spirit Link!

EDIT: as for the visual glitches, I was aware of both but I just went "eeeeh... whatever, no time" and put in a fix for the first one which... didn't work much, apparently. I didn't think hiding the text box could work for the second one, so thanks! I'll definitely look into both for the next patch (which will come eventually, I'd like to at least add sound effects...)

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komehara338 days ago(+1)

Hm, in this case I suppose the anime version of Yu-Gi-Oh with virtual worlds and waking up in a cylinder, yes could be a greater source of inspiration. The movie also has incredible technology (I’m a manga purist on this one, although I do like some moments of the movie, so to me Yu-Gi-Oh is mostly about coming-of-age and friendship (a common point with Vanguard), crazy strategies using unwritten rules, respecting the game and one’s opponents, and a variety of games including tabletop RPG (my first contact with the genre) and some weird occult real-time combat game with unit management where your soul gets sucked in a jar if you lose.

But mostly meeting a friend at the very beginning, discovering a game and Cross x Engage made me think more about Vanguard (in Yu-Gi-Oh, the protagonist is an enthusiastic analog gamer to start with, then card games come later).

I see the weird things that can happen due to the limit of 3 actions each turn. In fact, for the final fight I tried to lose but it was just as hard as winning. Ending with a draw was, oddly, the easiest thanks for the card that hits both players. So yes, the fact you either hit or fully defend (not just divide damage by two) makes it pretty hard not to just win or stale once you start getting the advantage.

I found a serious short one in the meantime, exorcist killing lie! https://itch.io/jam/baf-jam-2023/rate/2112516 It uses a one-shot format, taking a key event in a bigger world, that includes some character evolution. Maybe I could do that next time. I realize I didn’t write my character evolutions properly though, so it was impossible in Spirit Link.

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