itch.io

Saving doesn't seem to work for me on here

It would be nice to have one of those copy-paste string things

I'll play on steam for now :thumbsup:

Haha yeah!

It was meant to be an anagram of the jam theme 'Erase'.

Thank you for playing <3

And yeah, I think that's the most requested feature so far (I think more than sound?). I definitely underestimated how much people would want it!

I'll try cook something up after the jam is over :)

> These were ideas I had early on and I thought that they would be good, but then realized close to the end of the jam that they were not that good lol.

They might be?

My approach is pretty brute-force

I like to think there's a better way to find out, or manipulate what the trick card is.

But I'm not sure I know how to with the tools available (one of those tools being my memory of discards and knowledge of statistics)

Maybe someone else can find a more elegant solution :)

> such a beautiful breakdown and reading this made me so happy

<3

> Fun fact: Jokers can never start as the trick card, but can be changed into the trick card via the "Death Save" chip

I thought this might be the case!

I wasn't 100% sure, but it's cool to see how it was set up :)

> I didn't even realize that the end screen could be taken as which card was the trick

Hehe, I'm glad I could provide the suggestion then

> life got in the way of this jam

Life is life. 

I did my own things that got in the way of my entry too haha. Yours is way more complete/polished

But I'm glad that you had a chance do so much, and that we could have this interaction ^_^

that's awesome :D

If I could improve one thing -

it would be to somehow indicate to the player that once they've clicked a card, 
they also need to click on a monster part to activate it. 

• Maybe arrows indicating action (possibly first time?), 
• or force the player to "drag" the cards instead?
• Maybe a confirmation window for "are you sure you want to end the turn without playing?", 
• or the 'end turn' button being a 'skip turn' button if there are no attacks or defences selected?

I'm just spitballing

If I may make suggestions to make the game more accessible:

• Please make money visible all the time. This is a small thing, but would really help.
• Please add a counter for how many cards have been discarded. I am SO bad at that!

Foreword:

This game isn't completely bug-free. But overall, it's mostly stable?

Along with usual card-based randomness.

So just know what you're getting in to.

=================================

To play:

Click on cards in your hand, 

then a button.

P = PLAY

• Multiple cards
• earn money
• potential to lose game (hit 'landmine' trick card)

G = Guess - is THIS your card?

• Single card
• potential to win game

Each turn, you will draw back up to your maximum hand size (5 cards)

unless the deck is exhausted.

=================================

Setup:

Ace is HIGH ONLY (above king)

Deck = As far as I can tell...

• 2 jokers (additionally, can buy an extra one in store)
• 52 card deck? (or 50? I'm not good at card counting)
• I think none are repeated?

=================================

Play values:

(money is only visible in the case :/)

• Royal Flush (a k q j 10, same suit) = $30
• Straight Flush (run of cards, same suit) = $26
• Royal Straight (a k q j 10, different suits) = $23
• Joker = $20 ONLY SOLO!!
  • WARNING - playing alongside any other card, you lose this
  • WARNING - doesn't make money from 'guess', only 'play'
• Straight (run of cards, different suit) = $20
• Flush (same suit) = $18
• Full House (triple, and pair) =  $15
• 4 of a kind = $12
• 3 of a kind = $10
• Two Pair = $7 -- note: it's actually worth more to play the pairs separately
• Pair (Aces, 4s) = $5
• High card = $0

Shop:

Each purchase = ONLY ONCE per game!

Early Money:

$10 = JesterHat (1st spot) == Turn RANDOM card in hand to Joker

effectively a 'quick' $10

------------------

Risk:

$15 = '$^'(2nd spot) == "Double next money earned" -- But playable only once.

Extra money (effective over baseline):

• Royal Flush  = +$10
• Straight Flush = +$6
• Royal Straight (a k q j 10) = +$3
• Joker = baseline
• Straight = baseline equivalent
• Lower = not worth (flush = $3/-2$, full house = $0/-5$, rest = net loss)

Reasoning:

To make good use of this chip, you need ridiculous odds.

Playing alongside a joker, it doubles the card value from $20 to $40...

But It costs $15 to play. And you would have gotten $20 from it anyway.

So actually, it only ends up earning net $5

ie: as much as playing a pair would.

Strategy:

Possibly sink with a Joker just for the guaranteed extra $5.
Unless you get REALLY lucky.

------------------

Must:

$30 = Skull(5th place) == Lifeline (Saves from playing trick card once)

Visual Effect:

• Skull Chip appears in top right.
• Flashes "Saved" if it happens. 
  • Chip in top right disappears.

Strategy:

Can be used to "smash"/bulldoze cards (5 discard at once = you'll still be 'safe')

once you have $70 for endgame

------------------

Endgame:

$50 = '!' (8th place) == Tells if trick card is in hand

 Visual Effect:

• "TRICK CARD IN HAND!" popup, if is
•  "Trick card not in hand..." popup, if no

Strategy:

Last 10 cards, use this, it'll tell you if it's the first 5, or last 5

$20 = '?' (3rd spot) == Refreshes number of guesses

WARNING: won't save you if your guesses hit 0!

Effective guess number with this = 5 total

Strategy = Guess Guess - buy this chip - Guess Guess Guess.

Shit or bust.

------------------

Useless?:

I can't tell exactly how these work from the description, and frankly, they're expensive for what they are.

Might be worth in niche situations?
Or if you're accidentally loaded.

But I'm not going code-diving to check.

• $35 = 'A' (6th place) "Tells if trick rank matches rank in hand"?
• $45 = '<3' (7th place) "Tells if trick suit matches suit in hand"?
• $25 = (4th place) '<3->' / ?? "Changes rank/suit of trick card"?

=================================

My Strategy:

Overall:

Any jokers you get, play them on their own.

You can speed through first ~20 cards.
If you lose, it's relatively unlucky, start again.

Be wary of discarding too much at once.
Each discarded card 'advances the doom timer'.

Your ideal goal is to build up ~$100 for safety and endgame.

• $15 can come from Joker chip, and Doubling chip,
• $40 will hopefully come from in-game jokers
• meaning you wanna make at least $45 through combos over the course of the game

That's 

• 1-and-a-half Royal Flushes, 
• or 9 pairs, 
• or something in between.

------------------

Early (0-20 cards discarded):

Since it's early, you can play high-risk, and restart if it doesn't work out.

Try to get Joker, or a high value combo to get you set up for later.

Play any unrelated pairs

@ $10:

Buy Joker chip -> sell Joker = +$10

Alternatively: save for buying with $15 for safe $5

@ $15:

Keep an eye out for
Royal Flush ($15) / straight flush ($11) / Royal Straight ($8)

Joker ($5) = 'play it safe'

@ $30-$55:

Buy Skull (safety) chip

------------------

Mid (20-40 cards discarded):

Try to build back up to $70

You can discard one by one here.

After getting 'endgame' money, Smash cards (discard-5) with skull until you (hopefully) get near the end.

------------------

End (40+):

Buy '!'chip ($50 is trick card in hand)

• is = Start Guessing
• isn't = discard all 5 -> Start Guessing

Guessing = Guess2 -> buy '?'chip ($20 guess refresh) -> Guess 3

=================================

Win?

If you did everything right, and also the stars aligned, you might see the win screen! Hooray!

Note: the Joker/Ace is actually misleading here.

The trick card is completely different. This is a static screen.

It was interesting!

The bounciness mechanic kinda reminds me of this video I saw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVLJhYFOJBc

I think for controller it would work pretty well. 
But on keyboard lvl 5 (angled spiked corridor) was particularly frustrating.
Since it's sometimes difficult to perfectly hit two keys at the same time to start.

The 'usual' way of compensating for this accuracy issue in keyboard, is to use the computer's "accuracy" tool - the mouse.

But I'm not sure if that's the right call here

Anyway - cool idea :). Hope it does well

For those, 

you can use your pulse to jedi-deflect projectiles (turns them from red to green)

And then just drag them in to colliding, cause the drones follow you.

There's a weird tonal discrepency here

The music, and controles are goofy ahh

But the mechanics are at least somewhat decently thought out. With a variety of enemies that can all be countered

Not sure what you were going for, but it's definitely interesting. And on theme!

Haha I liked it!

And yea, I feel exactly the same as you :)

I tend to worry a lot about getting things 'just right', and then never really completing, or sometimes doing them at all.

This is a great way to improve without worrying

And I'm glad that I found a kindred spirit :)

Yeah, this bit was infernal (intentionally, or unintentionally)

The last part (windmills in to electricity) is also hard, but not quite that bad.

There's a couple more ;)

But yes. I did run out of time pretty hard.

Ok, THIS is how you play:

Basics:

• Ace is Low (1), Jack Queen King are 11,12,13. Joker is somewhere between 13 and 15. Probably 14.
• Suit doesn't matter. Only colour does.

From FlyingStupid's comment below:

• You Click on a card in your hand
• THEN you click on a PART of a monster.

Monster Stats:

• Monster HP is at the top (this stays the same until you kill it)
• Monster's attack is at the bottom, and changes each round.
• Multiple monsters will appear side-by-side as the levels go on.

Turn order:

• Draw Phase (player and monsters)
• Discards
• Play select phase
• Player does damage
• Monsters do damage

Draw Phase:

• Every round, you will draw up to your maximum hand size (4)

----------------------------

Damage you take:

Rules

• The bottom card is monster's attack
• Below the monster, is the number written out. This is the HP you are liable to lose from that mob this round.
• If you do nothing, you lose the sum total of all the monster's attacks from your health pool in the top left (starts at 30 Easy, 20 Hard)
• You can use cards of the SAME COLOUR as a monster's attack to block (or partial-block) the damage that round. To do that, you need to 
  • click on a card in your hand, 
  • then on the monster's bottom-most card.
• If you KILL a monster, you take no damage from it.
• Your HP transfers between encounters. Ie: if you take 2 damage from the first mob, you will be on 28 for the 2-mob round.
• Once your HP hits 0 (or below), Game Over. Start a new run.

Visuals:

• If you select a card from your hand, 
  • and it could be used to (partially) block a monster's attack that turn, 
  • then you'll see a grey shield appear next to the monster's attack value
• If you're going to block a monster's attack entirely that turn, the shield turns white, and number disappears.

Example:

If a monster has 9 of hearts as an attack, you'll see a -9 Claw marker under it. To block damage:

• click a bunch of red cards in your hand that add up to 9 or more
• then click on the monster's attack card

OR

• individually click on a red card in your hand
• then click on monster's attack card
• then keep repeating that until the damage indicator is 0-ed out

OR

• Put a card on top of the monster to kill it (removes the attack number instead of 'zeroing')

THEN

• Press Play Hand

----------

Killing monsters:

Rules:

• In a single round, you need to equal or exceed the monster's HP (top-most card)
• You have to use the OPPOSITE COLOUR of the monster's HP to damage it
• To attack, you 
  • click a card in your hand, 
  • then the enemy's top-most card

Visuals:

• If you click a card in your hand that will kill a monster, a grey sword will appear over its head
  • If a card would only 'damage' a monster, but not kill it, this indicator will not appear
  • If you select multiple cards, that together will kill a monster, this indicator will appear
• If the monster will die that turn, the sword over its head turns white. And its attack damage number disappears.

Example: 

If the monster's HP card is 6 of hearts, you can 

• click Jack of Clubs in your hand, 
• then click on the monster's HP card, 
• then "Play Hand"

-------------

Discards:

Sometimes you won't have the right cards. 

At this point, you can use one of your 'discard' chances.

To do so:

• Click the 'use discard' button
• (optionally) Click the cards you don't like in your hand
  • note: replacement cards are drawn in to your hand
• (optionally) Click all the monster attacks you don't like
  • note: replacement monster attack cards are drawn on to the monster
  • also note: this could make it worse for you
• Press the 'discard' button to discard and re-draw selected cards.

This does NOT use up your turn, or move a round forward.

Discard chances last for the whole run! Use them wisely.

Visuals:

• Cards that can be discarded are 'highlighted'

=========

Strategy:

Basic:

• If you have cards that can kill monsters, do so.
• If you don't, try to block the damage instead
• If you still don't, weight up whether it's worth taking the damage, or trying to discard some cards to make the situation more advantageous to yourself.

Advanced:

I won't tell you how to play the game, but here are some extra tricks

Sleight-of-hand:

If you don't want to keep cards from your hand, but don't want to waste discards

You can 

• Play 

or 

• just highlight at the end of the turn

cards you don't like. And they will be 'discarded' between turns 'for free'

Card Counting/Fixing:

From the dev's comments

• Played cards go to the bottom of the deck

Meaning, you can not only -

have a good guess at which cards are about to come up

As well as strategizing about which cards you can/want/need to use.

But actually - 

you can know which cards will come up for sure after a point (in theory. I'm not good enough for this)

========================

In closing:

I'm frankly blown away by the polish on this game, once you figure it out.

Good effort!

I liked that it felt like there was a world there

But also that I could see you ran out of time HARD. 
Feel slightly less bad about my own entry now lol

This game made me feel like I walked in half way through a conversation, and the first thing I hear is something WILD

with how precise you have to be with the movement, it kinda reminded me of Hollow Knight

Is it intentional that you can go out-of-bounds?

I'm torn!

I thought the art was really lovely, and audio was great

But also, I found the premise upsetting :(
sometimes I have difficulty remembering stuff, and I feel like this preyed on that, or accentuated it.

Yup, this looks like a flash game people would play in school over lunch

the build-up of the combos was oddly engaging!

nice entry!

Blast to the past rofl.

I liked the music, and nostalgia factor

Also, draw = grind rofl

I liked the 2D/3D art mix, and the music

I didn't like the insanity overlay, and presumably building up to psychological horror twist

I wish I could hold the mouse button down, instead of having to do individual clicks. As those make my wrist hurt (and if I keep going, all the way up to shoulders)

Is there any way to tell the mimics apart?

Bits I had trouble with:

- mouse sensitivity is too low for me, with no option to modify

- too much clicking (RSI inflammation)

But I saw someone else streaming, and I like the idea of wall-running at least

Too difficult.

I died about 15 times from either health, or curse before giving up

Really feel like I'm missing a 'spacebar to wait' here. Especially being chased by the boulders who keep step with me, and force me in to a corner.

Really nice ambiance!

The audio is actually bangin'

Very pretty :D

I think what you might have done is to .hide() the visible parts. Or maybe remove the skin of the blocks when they get hit?

Try .queue_free() on instead.

If that doesn't work, maybe try to .queue_free() the collision box, then the visual part

I kind of enjoyed re-playing this one just to see what I could get

What the memories will do isn't always intuitive (if you give the brother a giraffe gift instead of cake splash, his mind will corrupt. Conversely, if you try to give the criminal trauma, or a quiet life nothing happens)

But overall, it's pretty fun!

somehow (don't ask me how) I managed to complete the game by keeping some windows of the new os, on the old one.

And then re-running the downgrade tool :S

I wish there was more leniency with completion, like Wash & Dash or SnowErasers

particularly with the wacky controls, it feels weird not to

I really liked this

The audio was great

The graphics are absolutely lovely!

Between the 

• low mining/gun damage
• upgrades being locked to 1
• ramping ammo/repair costs
• slow walk speed with enemies spawning in any direction

this felt like I was drowning, just trying to get anywhere or do anything.

I wouldn't usually put it so bluntly, but also I felt like these were intentional design decisions in this case >.<

Thank you for playing ^_^

I agree with hidden objects / picture in picture games, sometimes it's difficult to tell what's interactable. I thought I had put few enough objects on the screen that it wouldn't be a problem. But yes, you're right. It can be frustrating.

I guess there are several solutions I've seen that could work. 

• There's what you say: highlight on mouse-over
• As well as making 'everything' interactable (give player feedback) like in Erase the Evidence. 
• Trying to make interactable things 'stand out' by the art, as some old games (but that can be a frustration in itself). 
• As well as 'hold key to reveal all interactables' like in newer adventure games (eg: Deponia)

Music, sounds:

This is kind of a dual-prong of 

• I've seen them done badly enough, that including them can detract more from the experience than just having nothing.

and

• I don't really know where to start.

I figure I'd have to make my own music, and sound effects. I can try making ones with my mouth, which I think would be funny. 
Or maybe record them around the house.

For the hands holding the cup, I took a picture of someone chilling, and traced over it.

What do you think is a good start?

Animations

I actually meant to use this jam to practice animating.

Clearly that didn't happen :/

Completed the game - Yup
Entirely on me.
I wanna say I ran out of time, but I'm honestly not sure how to 'end' it properly.
Maybe a thank you for playing, and an animation of a curtain closing?