itch.io

I'm a bit confused because it ended after the first fight and brought me to the "too lazy to make save/load management lol" page but I feel like I was able to get the "core mechanics/general feel" of what you're going for from my one battle and a few stops.

I think it has a great foundation.  You've put in the effort to get the pieces there and while the balancing is still in the works the general fun of deciding what to remove, improve, change up and how to work around the constantly incoming creatures onto the battle gives me Wildfrost vibes in a good sort of way.

My only concern that I'd really have to play more to get a true feeling out of is part of the mid/end parts of battle where you have all your cards out.  Taking comparison to Wildfrost again you have only four slots to put down creatures which after they are out it felt like I was just sending them back to the discard and placing down another one I had drawn.  There just felt like there was less choice there and that I was just "rotating in the next friend with full health".  I think if you can have a bit more player agency during the battles, either via spell cards or row manipulation tactics or something would be awesome but ..yeah you're the developer not me ;)

I really like how this is shaping up.  Will definitely follow and can't wait to see what shakes out.

Edit: Also as a heads up your discord link on your profile page is now invalid

I feel like you knocked it out of the park in terms of demo to showcase the features along with handing off notes to the coder to show how features worked allowed some player activity that helps keep me engaged while picking up the pieces.  I think the only outstanding questions I personally had after playing through the tutorial would be how possible is it to break outside the mold - aka the breakdown of options is helpful and succinct but is more then 4 options per screen possible?  For images - I assume to keep it a bit simpler, the image is purely static (aka - no secret rooms by clicking on a specific scene in the picture?),   Id imagine most of those could be answered once I started playing around with it.

Interactive fiction is a niche little audience but I definitely feel like someone who feels their story needs to be told could really make use of this.  Well done.

>>Wow! You beat the first act and completed this demo. Thank you for playing :D I hope it was fun.

Reached the end - Fun little demo!  I did have fun.  I'm genuinely excited to see more added to it.  

There were some small spelling errors and the like but the big issues I felt were:

* Playing Dining Hall with 0 food allows you to go into negative food , which seems like its an error.  Not sure how I can host a dining hall party with food without food hah.

* Butcher card, I feel, is incredibly overpowered.  2atk/3def that heals? Compared to the rest of the cards in play its basically a must play every round that it comes out its so good.  

Honestly - feedback would just be to keep adding more to it - the (what I assume is AI art) is fun, the gameplay is simplistic but with a little polish was easy to get into and fun to get through.  I think just making sure theres more player choices, more combat, more challenges and puzzles and tougher encounters - perhaps enemies that prevent you from healing at certain times or other card combos that work together - definitely a long road ahead but I'm excited to see where you go from here!

Hey there!

This is a really clever idea - I genuinely like the core concept and think you really have something cool to work on and create.  I really enjoy Slay the Spire and turning it on its head like this I think could work really well.

Feedbackwise - As you mentioned theres a lot of content you wanted to add so I think additional content and iterating on the content there will help improve things but at the moment the retro games fell a little flat for me.  Pong was fine, space invaders I feel should be more about "scoring X points in a set time limit" instead of survival - because survival I can pretty much just sit in a corner and shoot for 60 seconds idle.  More enemy types would help too but at this time it just felt a bit too easy to survive those.

Snake was particularly painful.  I'm not sure if its because it was too retro but the slowness of the snake coupled with the grid not allowing me to instantly move (aka pushing up would only register once im in the next square) just made it feel old school clunky.  If thats the vibe you're going for - it makes sense but for someone who doesn't mind the classics and is old enough to appreciate them I still feel that some gameplay elements should be left in the past :) 

I love the possibility here though I'm excited to also see what content is on its way because even right now playing a mini game while half the screen is filled with an unused UI makes me curious what its purpose will be.  I think with a few more changes and tweaks to the mini games and more content brought online this will be a helluva lot of fun.

Cheers!

Hah, I'm glad its not just bots reading my posts.  Having all the rolls done first might be worth a shot as it lets you sorta set the whole scene - might play around with that the next day!

I've been having some challenges lately but still excited to write more, hopefully feeling well enough by Tuesday. The fact that this game book got me up and writing again is a testament in itself :)  It's really been scratching a creative itch that's been missing in my day to day.

Thank you!  Also as I'm prepping tomorrows writeup and mulling over ideas - is the idea that if someones social resistance is a nat 20 that there is basically no option to talk to them unless you spend a maximum energy bonus (because 20 + interaction difficulty - 0 for books sold)? 

I think I'll  give the patron headphones or in the worst sort of mood but in this (odd niche edge case) there's literally no option for me to succeed even at a basic interaction, is that correct?

I saw your enthusiastic posts over on reddit so I ended up purchasing  a copy to play.  While I write as slow as molasses - I'm happy to share a link to the start of my first day and hoping I can try and write a little each day. Please feel free to let me know if I'm making any mistakes.

Its been a lot of fun so far!

Hello!

Gave the demo a shot.  Didn’t have a ton of time to play unfortunately but I felt I got a rough idea of what the game could offer had I kept playing further and continued to build out a better deck, gain relics etc.

I think right now I like the idea of the game but I feel the two genres don’t really play off each other much yet.  Id love to see more things like  swinging your weapon and starting a fight with an enemy allows your first card to be played off your deck before the battle starts.  Perhaps there could be cards that are added to your deck that help you double jump or do cool things on the platforming portion of the game but just clutter up your deck in the deckbuilding portion of the game.  As you mentioned it's really early on so you might have some ideas like that in the roadmap but …yeah I love what you have here to start I just think it needs just a little bit more cohesion before it becomes something truly addictive. 

 Some small types/confusion I ran into:

*The first tutorial screenshot says: "Combat Explaination" ( thinking you wanted: Explanation) 

*Some sentences have a period at the end, some don’t - I feel this is a typo of sorts and would recommend either sticking with all instructions having a period or none of them.

* “Turn order is decided base on speed” is grammatically odd - would say “based on your speed” or “based on your speed stat”

* Boot’s dagger - technically I believe inanimate objects cannot be possessive so you’d just say Boots Dagger unless your boot is alive which is really sorta cool thematically and I hope you draw eyes on it.

 * After Image card says Increase Blocking Value by 2 but mouse over mentions dexterity - should this card say dexterity instead of blocking value?

* Speed stat is a bit oddly written - speed up for example says increase speed by 2 but the mouse over says it increases base speed by 5 so an increase of speed of 2 is 10 base speed increase?  Just feel like it might confuse new players

Hope some of my rambling helps, cant wait to see where you head with it!

Hello,

• What did you like about the game?
  • I love puzzle / card games and this one was just well put together, pleasing to look at and just has a calm vibe that I could easily see myself playing more and more levels - you seem to really have a knack for building a user experience that isn't overwhelming or difficult to navigate
  • I like testing prototypes but I genuinely could see myself playing this one further if there was additional levels.  I think theres a lot of cool concepts you could explore with future levels and I'd be interested to see where it goes
  • Its just damn cute.
• What did you dislike about the game?
  
  • I didn't really feel like I understood the buildings enough.  The minimalist style is great but as a new player I was confused by what was combo-ing off of what and I couldn't easily figure out if that was documented anywhere.  Yes I can right click a card but big house has a small house with a bonus towncenter - okay Bonus is documented as extra mana but how does towncenter come into play?  What are the red blocks on the board and how do they differ from the green blocks, are any of those combo-able with cards I can place down?
  • Despite not knowing how everything combo-ed I felt the early levels were pretty easy to just push on through, especially once I understood that I could place bushes near houses for massive +3/+4 bonuses
  • I didn't realize flowers were blocking my building placement at first which caused some initial confusion as well 
  • Truthfully all my "dislikes" are just a bit more level cleanups and perhaps just my own stupidity about not understanding the rules - easy fixes 
• How was the difficulty level of the game?
  
  • Answered above - I'd argue difficult but only because I was grappling with how things worked.  Once I got moving the game felt pretty easy though I'm sure it would ramp up in time especially in later levels
• How was the performance of the game?
  
  • Flawless
• Did you encounter any bugs or glitches?
  
  •  Minor defect: In the options menu if you go to language - change language from English to Deutsch then Back to English and then attempt to view the cards (third option on the far left) - it will acknowledge the click but wont show the cards -you need to double click
• What features or improvements would you like to see in the future?
  
  • Better explanation of combos / how to play (even just a bit more documentation when I right click would be awesome)
  • More levels, this is a lot of fun!
  • Perhaps consider toning down the "gain random building" a bit - I feel like that can really swing the board to making it hard/easy.  At least when I finish the board with 2-3 more cards left it doesnt always feel that satisfying like I almost feel like I cheated the game.

All and all this is pretty damn awesome, I appreciate you sharing and hope some of my rambling helped!

I picked this up on a whim and really wanted to make sure to give you some kudos on putting some time and effort into the experience.  I appreciate the fact that you just dump the player into a realized world - you could've phoned in the story but the Imperial Warden feels like a scary imposing figure that others are trying to thwart.  I've only collected about half the cards so far but the battles get fairly crafty, requiring you to switch out kits to handle different fights.  While I'm not a huge fan of some of the huge health pools on some of the fights - I understand that you sort of need that to make sure the player doesn't just get a lucky draw to win.

You've really put a lot of love and care into the game while also keeping the scope reasonable and it shows.  Well done.  I'm definitely going to have to check out what you're working on next.

I tried my amateurish hand at drawing the Imperial Warden on a whim - he got a little creepy looking but perhaps its perfect for Halloween.  Magic of Autumn fan art!

3 kids and a fulltime job makes me feel completely lazy only having 1 kid,  a full time job and still not  able to motivate myself to finish my game dev project - I really have no excuse after reading that lol.

Feedback wise I've still only played 15-20 runs total so I'm not certain I have a full grasp of the mechanics on everything enough to offer useful suggestions.  Please feel free to ignore any and all of it, I'm just sort of brainstorming but I cant promise any of this is actually *good* - just my thoughts because I find it fun to discuss. :) 

* Elven Bow feels significantly OP - the ability to continually reuse it by spending 10 - in my mind - breaks most encounters if you spec your build right and get enough dice. I do love it because its incredibly fun but - taking a page from Slay the Spire - perhaps a 'time eater' type boss or enemy encounter where if you play a certain amount of dice or use a card a certain amount of times then your turn is declared over could be a good counter to this type of build.  I only bring this up because some fights become trivial if I can pick them off before they even get a turn and I think you spent so long on planning out some tough/challenging enemies.

*I'm not sure if this would be more or less effort then a 3rd level but I'm always a big fan of ascension levels and I feel like this could add some re-playability without too much game balancing as they'd be fairly incremental/small.  Things like the following that could compound the difficulty as you add them together:

- No starting bonus

- Smaller dice to start

- Negative blessing (a blessing that makes all your attacks like the bomb, harming yourself a tiny amount when you do damage, a blessing that gives you a chance to accidentally damage yourself, if you use all your dice this round then you lose one dice the next round) etc etc.

- Less gear slots

- Less HP

- All enemies gain an additional d4 to start

- All enemies gain an additional d6 to start

- Worse encounters appear (lose dice , lose blessings, etc)

- Certain gear breaks after a certain amount of uses, requiring you to look for new items

* As a (potentially easy to add?) mechanic -  I would love to have a score at the end.  Something to the effects of 100%  and then subtract points for each HP you lost at the end, for each dice you gained and upgraded, for each item you took, for each blessing you took, etc - basically something to challenge yourself into beating the game with the smallest upgrades possible.  Perhaps that's not a super *exciting* thing to add but I just feel that it gives me another reason to try to beat the game with a class again - a way to challenge myself.

I got way too many ideas  and don't want to bore you half to death with them but I appreciate the chance to ramble on about it.  Have a great weekend!

Finally beat it with the archer!  What an utterly fantastic experience - gives me the same vibe I had when I first played dream quest for the first time.  No rush of course but any rough estimates on when you might be adding the third world?  I am having a blast learning what strategies work and just curious what you have in the pipeline.

Keep up the great work.

Hello,

Ran into an issue on the last boss where the game eventually popped up with the following error and would not let me continue.  At the time I was on the very first turn - I kept using the bangle to reactivate my dice and then use the dice I had to attack and reset my bow again and again.  During this process the game began to lag.  When I reached one  reset left the error appeared and I was unable to continue, ending my run.

Thought I might've had them this time!  Ah well, theres always another attempt.  Love the game, keep up the great work!

I really think for 48 hours this came together really well.  Its neat to see the randomized weapon concept but overall I felt like in a full game it would get old pretty quickly.  The little six sided dice on the tile floors and 12 sided dice to light the way were amazing touches.  I was a particular fan of the poker chip mine - my favorite of the weapons you added.

Congrats on making something!

Been attempting to try any new card games submitted on itch.io  just to see what people are releasing and keep motivation on my own project.  Your matching game worked with no bugs or surprises and I just wanted to say congrats on putting something together and finishing it - never a small feat!

I see its marked as Release - do you think you'll add anything else to it or are you onto something new?  If its something new - any idea on what it is yet?

All of this in a jam? That's awesome.

 Yeah I'd imagine trying to create content to show what you're envisioning and also keep the pace going so that someone has a chance to demo it during a jam would be difficult.   Congrats to you both, then!  I saw Solo Australian Game Dev on your title but you're right - two names there, hah.

I was only able to play about 10 or so minutes during my break but honestly for a solo dev its quite impressive.  The 3d environment, battle systems and sizable amount of cards seems like it would've been a large undertaking.  I'll admit I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of card options dumped into your lap but I'd imagine you could smooth that out if you ever went past the prototype stage.

Wish I had more time to give it more of a go but I really appreciate you sharing it and hope you keep up the great work - really gives me a lot to think about and look up to as I work on my game.  

Cheers!

Dealer says they have 19 but I see an Ace and a two - unless I'm just really rubbish at knowing blackjack rules - am I missing something?

Really enjoyed the fun card art - would love to see the  ability to restart the game without having to refresh if possible.  Thanks for sharing and best of luck on whatever you make next !

Hello,

I beat the three levels - honestly I hadn't seen that type of gameplay before. Specifically I really enjoyed level 3 where I had to conserve energy and use the ball to help me complete the level - I think there is a lot of promise here especially if you leaned into the puzzle aspect a bit.

Appreciate you sharing what you made - keep up the great work!

That was a fun little game, well done!  All the controls felt intuitive and I felt comfortable jumping right in and understand what was going on visually.  Lost a few times on the first baddie so I'll have to give it another go when I figure out some better tactics.

Thanks for sharing!

I seem to be fighting/losing HP in the background even when I'm picking a card and if I wait too long (three battles) I seem to lose the first card selection( the next card selection pops up). Is that expected behavior?

Honestly I might pop on to the discord later just to help make an enemy or a weapon - sounds entertaining, hah.  

Seems like you're having a good time making it.  Appreciate you sharing it.

I tried the demo for about 90 minutes.  I’m somewhat familiar with deckbuilders though by no means am I any good at them.  I made it up to the “5th floor of the dungeon” quest, lost, tried again, got to the same point and I think thats where I’m quitting for tonight.

The atmosphere and vibe is fantastic.  I love the aesthetic you have going here.  Voice actors/actresses are fun and talented, the art and design and design is just a good time through and through.  The story is fun though I’ll admit in games like this I’m really not expecting any story - this makes for a strange dynamic but honestly everything is executed very well.

The combat is where I’m struggling.  It's not bad by any means - there's just a learning curve that at times I feel is a bit inimical to newcomers?  Building a dungeon won’t let me undo any choices I make. If I play “Cheap move” before I even enter the room, is that something that will activate or did I waste it?  Bash sometimes activates, sometimes it seems to ignore my suggestion which oftentimes is okay because combat is over so quickly so maybe I shouldn’t have bashed that enemy.  Should I be switching weapons a lot or remaining in shield mode where it's helping me out a bunch with the AOE attacks?  Some of these ranged attackers just eat through my health while my character focuses on the melee and despite multiple attempts I’m still at a loss as to what would work to circumvent my health from dropping horrendously here - not that it matters I used up all my action points on the previous room so here is where my homunculus ends its journey.

All of this I feel like you could say “well with enough time you’ll figure it out” and that's very true but it feels less of an “aha!’ moment and more of a “well that run is over and I’m not sure what I’ve done wrong”.  I’m not sure how to “get good” and at this point I think my only option would be to hop on discord and learn from your crew which ….I probably will do so pending I find some free time this week.

Hopefully none of this comes across too negative - you obviously put a lot of time and love and energy into this game and I had a really great time with it - I think there might just be a lot of mechanics in play and at the end of my last run I wish I knew more about why I was failing.

Thanks for the kickass demo.  Keep up the great work! 

Small Defects or oddities : 

• Upon speaking with the barmaid  it then shows a visual of the bar.  There is a “Back” button which has an icon of the escape key however hitting escape brings up the menu options - it does not take me back to the main area as expected, I have to click “back” in order to return to the main atrium.
• When I mouse over a card to try to read the text it seems to “bounce” up and down.  This is specifically challenging if I put my mouse to the bottom of the card which causes it to bounce incredibly fast.  If I mouse off the card and back on it seems to resolve the issue but not always.
• After speaking with someone in the mansion, the music cuts out completely once im done hearing them out.  It does not return until I click into the “build dungeon” section.  It's possible this is a result of my alt tabbing to type this up.
• Visit the dungeon with new cocktail effect is too long of a text and overflows into “Reach 5th floor of the dungeon” text