I totally agree with @Ham. While the present incarnation would work well as an alternative mode, its pace actively works against its potential. One of the neat things about card game mechanics is that they let the player consider what the right move is from a constrained set of options, choosing the best path out of some mixture of strategy, assessing risk and pushing their luck. All of that takes time.
At the moment, none of the strategic elements have any breathing room, because you can barely play cards fast enough to out-run the lava, let alone consider what the best long-term strategy is beyond which card won't kill me. It also means that the devil cards, particularly the lava rush, become a sort of instadeath, as any loss of momentum kills your run.
If you do stick with the rapid fire version, and perhaps even if you don't, it might worth looking at how a sort of meta game might work, so that players are encouraged to push further to improve the odds of the next run. Things like buying cards for a starting deck, one-off perks, upgrades, etc
One smaller point is that the health mechanics are a bit over-present considering how small a part they play in a run, as there's only one sort of tile that damages the hull without instantly killing you. It could be interesting if the lava tiles were somewhat survivable in very small doses, as that would add another layer of trade-offs to pathing.
This is so interesting. Early in the jam we had this exact debate. I was on the side of a more strategic version, though I ended up really enjoying the twist of trying to mix the strategic decision making of a card game with real time pressure. Still, I agree that we're pushing at the absolute limits of being able to make educated decisions given how MUCH time pressure there is. We're gonna explore some different paces based on the feedback <:
I think the lava should rise only when you move- like when you move one or two squares, the lava rises a square, almost like a turn-based game. That way you can plan out your moves better. Otherwise, you're slapping down cards at the speed of light with little to no strategy. You can't even look at the dashboard with all its information because you gotta put down cards so fast. If you did make it turn-based, you could look at the dash before putting down a card and know what you need to know.
There is so, so much potential here, but the lava runnin' at you at godspeed just ruins it. Keep working on improving this, maybe there can be separate modes for different lava behavior.
We considered a slower game with more strategy at first, that’s why the hud shows so many upcoming cards. But we settled on a more rushed game mode where you are under constant stress to react quickly. We intend to iterate and play test a ton more before going to mobile.
It’s definitely balanced for more experienced players atm and isn’t very welcoming to new ones. Some of us who have been playing it occasionally these past few days can get to the end on a good run, but we definitely intend to improve the difficulty curve at the start for new players.
I can see alot of work was put into this just by looking at it but I couldn't seem to figure out how to play the game on my phone.
Feel like I've missed a tutorial or something.
EDIT:
After restarting the game I realized that I didn't miss a tutorial, seems weird that I can't do anything except tap on the cards, the game looks designed for phones too as the screen aspect lends it straight to it, I must be missing some minor detail on how to play it.
You drag the cards onto the field to play them :) Also, I'm pretty sure that this doesn't work on phones yet. We did design it with mobile in mind as a target, but didn't have time to implement that for the jam.
Definitely a well made game! I could tell the developers put a lot of effort into this game! The art is cute and detailed. The mechanics of the game are fun too. This game doesn't look like it was made for a game jam, it looks more like a full game you see on steam's front page!
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I think the lava should only rise when you move but saying that it would remove a lot of tension. ether way its still a really fun game.
Really Nice :D
GG!
=D!!
I totally agree with @Ham. While the present incarnation would work well as an alternative mode, its pace actively works against its potential. One of the neat things about card game mechanics is that they let the player consider what the right move is from a constrained set of options, choosing the best path out of some mixture of strategy, assessing risk and pushing their luck. All of that takes time.
At the moment, none of the strategic elements have any breathing room, because you can barely play cards fast enough to out-run the lava, let alone consider what the best long-term strategy is beyond which card won't kill me. It also means that the devil cards, particularly the lava rush, become a sort of instadeath, as any loss of momentum kills your run.
If you do stick with the rapid fire version, and perhaps even if you don't, it might worth looking at how a sort of meta game might work, so that players are encouraged to push further to improve the odds of the next run. Things like buying cards for a starting deck, one-off perks, upgrades, etc
One smaller point is that the health mechanics are a bit over-present considering how small a part they play in a run, as there's only one sort of tile that damages the hull without instantly killing you. It could be interesting if the lava tiles were somewhat survivable in very small doses, as that would add another layer of trade-offs to pathing.
This is so interesting. Early in the jam we had this exact debate. I was on the side of a more strategic version, though I ended up really enjoying the twist of trying to mix the strategic decision making of a card game with real time pressure. Still, I agree that we're pushing at the absolute limits of being able to make educated decisions given how MUCH time pressure there is. We're gonna explore some different paces based on the feedback <:
I think the lava should rise only when you move- like when you move one or two squares, the lava rises a square, almost like a turn-based game. That way you can plan out your moves better. Otherwise, you're slapping down cards at the speed of light with little to no strategy. You can't even look at the dashboard with all its information because you gotta put down cards so fast. If you did make it turn-based, you could look at the dash before putting down a card and know what you need to know.
There is so, so much potential here, but the lava runnin' at you at godspeed just ruins it. Keep working on improving this, maybe there can be separate modes for different lava behavior.
We considered a slower game with more strategy at first, that’s why the hud shows so many upcoming cards. But we settled on a more rushed game mode where you are under constant stress to react quickly. We intend to iterate and play test a ton more before going to mobile.
It’s definitely balanced for more experienced players atm and isn’t very welcoming to new ones. Some of us who have been playing it occasionally these past few days can get to the end on a good run, but we definitely intend to improve the difficulty curve at the start for new players.
thanks for your feedback!
I can see alot of work was put into this just by looking at it but I couldn't seem to figure out how to play the game on my phone.
Feel like I've missed a tutorial or something.
EDIT:
After restarting the game I realized that I didn't miss a tutorial, seems weird that I can't do anything except tap on the cards, the game looks designed for phones too as the screen aspect lends it straight to it, I must be missing some minor detail on how to play it.
You drag the cards onto the field to play them :) Also, I'm pretty sure that this doesn't work on phones yet. We did design it with mobile in mind as a target, but didn't have time to implement that for the jam.
Definitely a well made game! I could tell the developers put a lot of effort into this game! The art is cute and detailed. The mechanics of the game are fun too. This game doesn't look like it was made for a game jam, it looks more like a full game you see on steam's front page!
Wow thanks for the kind words!!
It's comments like these that make us excited to further develop the game for mobile!
I like this~~!
I was here
me too
me three
And me!
even me
Me too