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Dreizehn Katzen (13 Cats)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #59 | 3.364 | 3.364 |
| Gameboy Soul | #66 | 3.636 | 3.636 |
| Secondary Theme Interpretation | #72 | 3.091 | 3.091 |
| Overall | #84 | 3.152 | 3.152 |
| Gameplay | #90 | 2.727 | 2.727 |
| Graphics | #96 | 3.227 | 3.227 |
| Quirkiness | #109 | 2.864 | 2.864 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game meet GBJam's theme?
This game is all about bad luck, the number 13 and black cats. Could I be more on the nose?
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i think the mouse control is a bit annoying, as was the message you had to skip every loop telling you to press start, but aside from a couple of display glitches actual game plays well enough.
I do have one question: is it actually possible to win the coin toss or am I just unlucky?
nice work
The coin flip is absolutely winnable and displays correctly if you do, after that there's another game of cards and the final level is a D4 roll, which works mathematically but has a glitch where it always displays "4" regardless of the roll result. Thanks for playing!
Today I learned the rules of black jack thanks to this game XD
It’s a simple but proven gameplay, tho the change to 13 as the upper limit makes each game really quick I laughed at the coin’s tails which is a literal tail! Audio & graphics are straight to the point and efficient (+ cats)
good work!
Das Spiel fühlt sich wie ein Game Boy Spiel an und ich mag den Sound. Super umgesetzt!
Danke!
I love when little card games like these are ported to Game Boy, I find it super appealing. The general presentation is nice as well. I'd personally prefer just selecting the boxes with the cursor instead of pressing the tiny button sprites, but as a whole, the presentation and UI feels right at home with this game. You definitely don't need that pop-up message about starting the game at the beginning, I think the menu itself gets the message across well. The use of cat photos also makes for a charming touch.
An altered version of blackjack makes for a fun approach, I quite like this kind of thing. I think there's room to add a little more strategy to this; like how blackjack has aces serving as either 11 or 1, or with the increased odds of 10-value cards. With this one I was typically just staying on 2/3 losing odds, and hitting on 2/3 winning odds. That said, with the jam being about luck, maybe that's the point. Regardless, I did get a little obsessed with it.
The music is great, the title screen theme is a bop.
I appreciate the nuanced feedback. I had to give up on making aces work as 1/11’s early on, I gave it a shot and at a certain point it was problematically buggy so I had to drop it for scope.
similarly, I tried using large Triggers for the hit/stay buttons but things weren’t going well during my limited playtesting time. Opting to use actors just made the game more playable. It was more important for me to ship something that played well and that meant compromising some quality of life stuff. It’s a weird trade off, like if the menu doesn’t take as long is the feedback on the music as good? Idk these are just game jam thoughts.
Mostly though “I got a little obsessed with it” is the highest compliment I think anyone can get as a dev, truly, that’s the goal. It sounds like you really took some time with my game and I appreciate that.
As far as the cat goes. That’s my Brother’s cat Tina, she lives in Hawaii and regularly hunts geckos, it’s a pretty good gig.
Also, played your game last night and really enjoyed it!
Yeah, that all makes sense. The urgency of a game jam will certainly do all that. I've definitely had issues with GB Studio triggers in the past. A done game is always preferable in my eyes.
I'm not sure what I'd personally go for in attempting something like this, but it makes for a fun design exercise. I do find the 1/3/5 approach to be a clever way to approach it.
I'm glad you liked my game!
Simple game, was nice, though it was a bit annoying how you got thrown right back to the menu and had to dismiss the start button message every time.
I love games that run on actual hardware, so kudos for getting this to work as an actual GB game. I had fun with this and liked what you did with black jack as a base. Good job!
Katzen!! Nice twist on blackjack. I liked the twist at the end, when winning against the dealer and I played it until I got to the good ending (this actually took some tries - I guess I was a bit unlucky :P)
Also great that this works on original hardware!
Glückwunsch und Danke!
Always impressive when games can run on real hardware! I like how you put a new spin on blackjack that feels properly distinct from the original. As said by others, I didn't love the cursor, but understand it was a technical limitation. Charming art on the coin guy, and very nice music!
That was a neat game of chance! The cursor is a little clunky, but managable. That coin person is quite mysterious!
Good work! Congratulations on the submission!
I really enjoyed the 'mini' version of blackjack that you created for the game. The controls were a little frustrating only because the cursor was so slow, and sometimes you had to be right on the buttons to select them instead of being within the frame the buttons sat in. Otherwise I liked the concept and the music!
Nice concept, blackjack & 13 & black cats ! But I can't say that much for the controls, it is very frustrating to control a mouse cursor for such a simple game. The game could benefit from having the total score shown and having a retry button so that we do not constantly go back to the title screen.
I certainly thought about adding some sort of HUD but i was already pushing the sprite limits of the GB and it would have slowed things down even more.
As far as the cursor goes, I’m curious what browser and controls you were playing with, I tried to test everything on a number of machines but it seems like you’re not the only one that found it slow.
Thanks for playing I appreciate the feedback.
I played using Firefox on PC with Keyboard
Yeah I understand for the sprite limits haha, we had the same problems
Cool little vibe, and it makes sense to chop blackjack more in less in half for the gameboy experience too!
Really enjoyed your soundtrack for this! It seemed strange to have to start a new game every time I lost a hand. I probably would have gotten into it if it didn't kick me back to the menu every time. This could be a fun little blackjack game!
Thanks for playing.
As far as the kick back to the menu, it looks like you’re not alone there, I’m seeing a few comments about it. My intent was to create a certain amount frustration as part of the “unlucky” theme. I wanted to try to get that near miss feeling that makes you want to run it back and try again in games like Celeste or Dark Souls. It sounds like the frustration is there but it’s not creating that spark I wanted. Definitely valuable information to take into future projects.
The cats are interesting, but it would have been nice to see more of them around the game. Other than the concept of black cats being unlucky it didn't feel like there was any reason for the game to use cats specifically.
It really feels like a player can get "unlucky" while playing the game, but it would be nice if the player had the ability to draw more cards to let themself dictate their own risks. I had a round of drawing 5 cards for a total of 7 hand value and was forced to stay when I really wanted to be able to dictate my own stopping point.
thanks for playing! I appreciate the input, it’s always nice to get some specific examples on where to improve.
There was a point where I thought I’d have cats, ladders and mirrors all in play but ten days goes quick.
As far as more cards go, I really wanted more but at a certain point I had to favor having a smaller set that worked correctly. Part of it had to do with the GB’s sprite limits, most of it was a skill issue on my part. I tested a version with an additional dealer and player card but it was far buggier so having a certain amount of unsatisfying hands was the lesser of two evils with a looming deadline.