itch.io

This game reminded me a lot of adventure book games, with the added bonus that it creates a more dynamic story every time. And you try to find a path to the end, just surviving long enough. Loved to read the story snippets and think about that mysterious manor.

Feedback:

• Coming back to that adventure book reference: What was missing for me where the choices of where to go, as the cards were random. I think, a cool metaphor could have been to actually represent the manor as a place I can walk in and visit. Using the cards as rooms. Then you could walk from room to room, which would give you a little choice on where to explore first. Maybe even develop a strategy, as you know the cards from previous playthroughs. Rooms could have a 2nd and 3rd copy that is identically on the front, but offers a different encounter on the back. In short: I would like to have had some agency, even if limited.
• Would be cool if there was some type of Endgame still, if you fail to find 5 fragments. And you had some remaining chance to fight the Elder God, but your chances of success would be slim.
  • Instead of having a “gate” of collecting 5 truth fragments you could just make the elder being easier to defeat the more you have, also rewarding getting more than 5. (Fragments already do this in a way.)
• It would be cool if the elder thing would have some impact on the overall game from the start. That could make the game more dynamic → The elder god should also probably tell you on the front what stats you need to fight him, so you can optimize those stats as a small strategy.

Nit-Picking:

• I wish you had added a generic image of a grey background for cards that don’t have an image. The purple box was quite hard to focus on (and is expensive to print).
• It confused my why you would “remember” your own memory with “willpower” on Forgotten Memory. I specifically picked that option, as I had bad willpower and assumed "resisting" was pointless with low willpower.
• When working on this game beyond this Jam, you should find a way to track stats that isn’t pen and paper.
• The Earie Grimore is strange: You pick one of two options, but one is just plain bad. But you already know this at the point which is good and which isn't. I assumed until then that I can deny or accept based on what reward I want, as that seemed like a good agency for you in the game. (And I can’t prevent myself from reading ahead anyway.)

Loved how well this game tied into the theme of the contest. Really well done! Also it added a fun and smart idea to the genre of tile placing that had not been done yet. I loved building paths for my ants, collecting stuff.

Feedback:

• Paying an ant every time I draw a tile did felt like a good basic rule to put some pressure on me when placing my tiles. But what the game lacked to me was a clear core mechanic that “granted you new ants”. Putting you in the loop where you pay more ants than you loose in general, but try to conserve them as much as possible, trying to reach one end of the board, before you run out.
• This might be a limitation of the jam, but currently you can realistically only built in a single directly. I wish this game would be more expansive like Carcassonne, where you start building a whole pick-nick blanket.
• Right now the game felt quite punishing and luck based to me. Especially with the cards that just randomly cost you -3 ants if you draw them (and double punish you by locking off that route).
• To me it felt very random and nearly impossible to complete a peanut butter or jelly set. You run out of ants fast. I was really looking forward to this “built fruits” or “sandwiches” mechanic to regain ants (or points) but it never delivered for me.

Nit-Picking:

• The rules read as if you would shuffle the finish line tile into the deck. But looking at the TTS mod that's probably not true. It would be helpful if the rules say to put it aside.

I enjoyed the double use of the cards, something that few games do in a way that works. PIC/NIX did make this easy to understand/read. Overall the push your luck mechanic fit well with the theme of the game.

Feedback:

• I believe it is unintuitive that cards only give +1 for rolls, when revealed even through they have multiple icons. This makes the game much harder to read and play quickly than necessary. It feels strange that those additional symbols only matter for scoring.
• Adding more and more burdens during the progress of your game felt excessive. I rather like the game more while there where only two in your deck and you could really lean into the push your luck element.
• I could see a version of this game where burdens you add later could be removed if you meet the right conditions - or only trigger once, and then got removed. Overall this mechanic felt least fleshed out and there could be interesting interplay when exploring how burdens are interacting with your own actions.

Nit-Picking:

• The rulebook does not mention how many dice you need or roll (its only in the game description on Itch.io).
• It’s not explained well enough that you need to shuffle your 4 cards + 2 burdens into a deck that you reveal from. I think at least that’s how the game works. It would also help to explain the concept of “push your luck” and that this is what the game is about.
• Can you use regrets after rolling? I assume not, but it should probably be spelled out in the rulebook.

The Feast was lovely. I enjoyed cooking food for my cozy witch-friends. I think this could easily be extended with new quests and new guests that add new challenges and variety.

Feedback:

• It’s strange that each ingredient has its own icon. But they aren’t even used on the witches to show you what you need to cook → It would probably be better, if those icons were the “3 types” so the game works for color blind people, who currently cannot identify the 3 card types.
• It is a little bit clunky how you need to “remember” who you cooked for yet, as you have to cook for yourself, too. I think it would be better, if you did just draw 4 other witches, and cooked for them. Then you could just place your own witch to the right of the cauldron, and the other 4 witches to the left. Then, whenever you finish a meal you move that witch to the right, and now can use her special ability. Once used the ability you turn that witch sideways (indicating that there is nothing left to do with this card for the remainder of the game). With this system there would be always clearly communicated what you still have to do and what abilities you have available.

Nit-Picking:

• Probably better to use “bottom” and “top” ingredient, as highest, lowest normally references numbers.
• The Evil Eye card seems strange, it feels like an event that happens, but if I understand the rules right, I play it to then NOT play an ingredient next. This could probably be replaced with a more interesting misfortune.

Dungeon PicNic has a wonderful theme. I loved how you had to eat the slimes and dragons to survive. I think this game has a lot of potential to become a fun solo dungeon crawler.

Feedback: 

• Skinning and crafting seems a little bit clunky → Most improvement could be found in that system. I'm a little bit lost right now in what to aim for. It kind of requires you to know the full system ahead of time to engage with it. I’m wondering if there was a simpler system that go rid of skinning. (And only being able to skin once per floor, feels like a fix to a system that isn’t properly balanced). It felt weird that skimming indirectly increased the probability to draw the boss now that the pile is smaller. See details on Boss feedback below.
• Maybe there could be a more simplified tech tree, where you start with 2 different cards that you can craft (costs on the back of the card) and when you craft it, you flip the card over to activate it. And then the card you just crafted tells you what the next upgrades are that you can craft moving forward from this that you can bring into play from the side deck. (Currently your system works in reverse, where people need to know the card that comes later, to upgrade their current card.)

• It’s currently quite random when the boss shows up. Felt like a bug to me, not sure if I played it right, but I shuffled the Boss into the Enemy stack. The intuitive fix for this that came to mind right away: Have the boss come into play when the pile is empty and you still need to draw a card.

• 2 Dice is very little space to manipulate dice. I’m wondering, if there isn’t “more to do” in that space if 4-5 Dice were used in some way → Maybe the game could have some type of Yaazee mechanic, where you try to roll certain specific results to activate special attacks. And reroll dice once or twice. (Without removing the roll high mechanic. Basically combining them into a more varied experience.)
  Example: You still need the total strength of monsters to beat the. But then if your result has a double, you can use your class ability/special weapon that automatically defeats an Enemy of a certain type. Or just increases the score. So it creates this design space, where you still try to roll high. But sometimes it is important to not do that and rather roll certain results to activate abilities.
  → When using such a system Enemies could also have “counterattacks” if you roll certain results. For example if you roll a 6 on a specific enemy they eat 1 water. So you have to strategize around if you want to keep the 6, or reroll that 6 but face the danger of rolling too low to defeat the enemy. (A similar mechanic is currently used on Slime Queen.)

Nit-Picking:

• It is unclear where or how Monsters return to their stack. Bottom? Shuffled back in?
• 3 Cards to track numbers under each other is hard to track. Outside the Jam this mechanic should probably be replaced with dice. (Could probably do this with a single card with a slot for 3 different colored dice.