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A jam submission

Alice's AwakeningView game page

Alice's life begins to unravel as she struggles to protect Basin Lake City!
Submitted by ShibeyFaceGames (@ShibeyG) — 1 day, 9 hours before the deadline
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Alice's Awakening's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Magical Girl Concept#14.3004.300
Overall#14.1364.136
Audio#24.3004.300
Polish#24.2004.200
Engagement/Fun#24.2004.200
Graphics#34.3504.350
Genre Mashup Incorporation#53.7503.750
Originality/Creativity#63.8503.850

Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the Magical Girl Genre?
Alice is the main MG, summoning allies and other magical girls with her magic card deck!

Which genres from categories A and B did you choose?
Tower Defense & Card

How does your game mash those genres?
The battles are Tower Defense style, and the player must build a deck of cards to use in battle. Different deck builds are important for strategizing..

Were the graphics/audio assets for your game made during the jam?
Graphics were started after the themes were announced. Most were made during the active jam period. All music was created during the jam period. Most SFX were reused from previous projects, but all by FacemeltingSolos.

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Comments

(+1)

Great game! Excellent art, very clean linework! I'm curious to know why you changed off of pixel art for this one, but you didn't miss a beat. I really loved when the soundtrack started distorting. The story was great, I was glad to finally get an insight into what Nexus HQ is doing. Gameplay wise I certainly did feel encouraged to somewhat change my strategy with the different level designs and hazards, which was satisfying to do. Although, it doesn't feel like it really incorporated the card aspect, since it's basically bringing a particular loadout. Plus I'm pretty sure any level could have been overcome with spamming many many cheap towers. Most of the late game hazards disincentivized setting up just a few strong towers, which makes the tower upgrade cards and magical girls feel less strong, which is a shame because those are cool. The polish and content level you put into your games never ceases to amaze me . Great work!

Developer

Thanks so much for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Artwise, I wanted to try something new for this jam! I'm glad you still liked it. I'll likely still be doing pixel art games, but part of the reason I keep jamming is to try new things and see what sticks, before (eventually) embarking on a larger project.

I agree that there are balance issues, and the game can definitely be completed just using basic towers. Though I will say that my favorite build  only deploys 2 attackers, Tama & Paisley, as a tag team. It's OP hehe...  admittedly it takes a little luck on the final level, but I've beaten the whole game with just them. I also agree that the card incorporation ended up being a bit on the light side.

Kudos to Facemelting Solos for the distorting soundtrack, he nailed the vibe I was going for! He made a huge OST for this one, I can't thank him enough!

Thanks again for playing, and all your feedback! I really appreciate it. :)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Very well done all around. Already talked to you directly that it reminds me of PvZ, a game that I really liked ^^ Overpowering everything with thousands of energy feels fun. The art and the music are really nice as well. And also an impressive amount of effort went into the CGs and backgrounds.

Small suggestions from me:

  • The bullets could feel a bit more impactful and a cause a more detailed hit effect. 
  • When placing a turret an on-field preview for the attack range / pattern would be helpful. 
  • Numeric 1-9 (0) Hotkey for directly placing a turret from the top list
Developer

Thanks for playing, and thank you for the feedback! Those are all great suggestions. I might add some of those if I get around to a major update at some point.  I have a minor post-jam update ready to go, but I'm pretty swamped with life and other projects right now...

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

An excellent game all around and very well put together! There are a lot of things done right with this game, from the opening hub, to the magical girl towers all the way to the ending. Graphics, sounds, all of them amazing. The info panel on the top-right when anything is hovered is very helpful and it’s all these little things that add up to form a pleasant game experience. I thought the levels are varied enough and presented different types of challenges, enough to spice up the gameplay and offset the card effects and mechanics which I thought were too simplistic (I was expecting more strategy). I don’t think the gameplay mashup is all that unique, but it is very polished and feels good to play. The amount of care that went into the game deserves a lot of praise.

A minor issue is that the placement of towers can be improved, have some leeway so the player doesn’t need to be super precise. Other than that, there is only one critique that I have, which is the deckbuilding. It’s not a deck builder… it’s a hand builder! Is this a bad thing? No, not at all! However, what it does is simplify things and weaken the strategies and intricacies that often come with card game mechanics; e.g. dealing with probabilities, taking risks, resource management in deck and hand size, etc. In essence, Alice’s Awakening does not encourage players to plan ahead for a deck that handles dynamic situations, it encourages the player to look at the level, then change their hand to suit that level, making the pre-planning more linear (related to illusion of choice) and less rewarding. There is no spoon, there is no deck, there is no “card game”, but there are cards.

Yet, I did had good fun, and this is all thanks to the high level of polish, the story, the characters and everything. The sense of achievement in getting more backstory and pictures on my wall after completing every mission. So what if it’s just get glamor and spam towers? I still wanna spam them towers, kill everything, it feels good. The levels change and things are different. I like it, and I think it’s one of the top submissions of the jam. If anything, Alice’s Awakening solidifies the idea that progression, rewards and ensuring a pleasant experience through charm and polish is much more important than I originally thought. They might even be key. Anyways, very well done!

Developer

Thanks so much for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it! The art and polish were definitely where a lot of my time went, so I'm happy that stood out to you! Also, kudos again to Facemelting Solos who killed it with a great music and sound design as always!

You're not the first player to comment on the tower placement. I'd definitely consider some sort of grid/snapping system if make another game in this style going forward.

You however, ARE the first person to note that it's a hand-builder rather than a deck builder. I honestly hadn't even really thought of that, but you are entirely right! I also agree the card aspect is fairly light. I originally had more ideas, but as the jam rolled on I had to simplify aspects and move on... but that definitely weakened the mash-up.

Your feedback is very helpful, thanks again for playing and taking the time to share your thoughts!

(+1)

This is insanely good, and hard to believe it was made in a month. Then again, every ShibeyFaceGames title I've played has been superb (even the ones I didn't like), and you've followed on from every tough-act-to-follow title with aplomb.

Does that ever get stressful?

The graphics and overall polish are excellent. The UI looks nice and responds well. Music and sound effects are also great, and used well. It's almost par for the course, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

I won't spoil the plot twist, but it was well-executed if a bit of a downer.

There are a few things that could be a little bit better. Placing towers can sometime be finicky, and the animation when a card returns from the deck is slow. I think it's telling that my only complaints are minor UI nitpicks.

I think the only major complaint I have is how short the game is. It took me about half an hour to finish the game, with a few failed levels. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not. The game certainly feels fresh and doesn't start to drag, but the narrative also feels very rushed like it's over before it began.

The balance might be off- I know some people have built degenerate decks in Discord- but I didn't personally find it to be this way. I did find most of the levels were a desperate rush for glamour in the beginning and then ended with a huge amount of tower spam. 

Developer

Thanks so much for playing, and for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed this one. (Especially after the Camilla Vs incident)

Your UI feedback is helpful. Honestly, changing the card returns speed is insanely easy, I'll play with that when/if I get around to a post-jam patch. Both the balance and game length are probably victims of it being a jam game. I think I've concluded that balance-wise, it's BAD for a full/commercial game, but probably about right for a jam game. I've seen several players lose rounds on stream, and you had a few failed levels, so it's not quite too easy. But if I was to make this a full release, more play testing, balance, and variety in enemies/abilities would be a priority for sure.

Story-wise, I see this as a character-intro of sorts. (I actually revealed this character, in full, on my twitter almost 2 years ago. Lucky for me my posts aren't popular) So in that sense, I didn't want the story to be too long. But I can't deny that part of it was just the jam-time restrictions. As the clock ticked down, and there were still piles of art to draw, I simply couldn't add any more stages... and I didn't want the exposition to stage ratio to get too out of balance.

And now a very specific response: "Does that ever get stressful?"

YES. I have no idea where to go with this next, though I'll probably think of something. But it's definitely a ton of work, and this month-jams turn into a sort of obsession. Probably the most unhealthy aspect is that as the clock ticks down, I find myself having trouble sleeping because I'll lay awake stressing over the goals I've yet to hit: Stages, story, and most commonly, art assets. I haven't really found a good solution to this problem, because I really love MGGJ, and I also don't see myself scaling back (unless life/work absolutely forces me to)

But lets just say, I'm actually looking forward to TwoGoku a lot. No deadlines, no expectations, just something to make that hopefully will be breezy and fun. It'll also be interesting to see how a non-jam game performs. I think that'll be a first for my itch page.

Submitted

I could not make heads or tails of this game. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do anything. Sorry I couldn't offer more feedback.

Developer

Sorry to hear that! I suppose a tutorial mode might have been helpful... Alice's dialogue clearly isn't enough.

It's tower defense at it's core, so you need to place units (towers or magical girls) by dragging cards to the map. You can also use a variety of other cards to buff units, or cast a few other effects such as heal or a special attack. (You can change the deck at the table in the bedroom)

The main problem I've seen some players run into is that you need to generate enough energy to keep casting cards... it's best to start by placing a few glamour-source units first. (These are the "glamour spring," "glamour fountain", and "glamour well" cards.) Without a sustained energy gain to power additional card usage, you'll quickly get overrun by enemies.

Anyway, your feedback has been helpful actually...  I should probably add a tutorial stage that better explains how to play.

Submitted

I won't lie to you, there hasn't been ONE tower defense game I have been good at. They are all a mystery to me. 

Developer

Fair enough, hehe. TBH, it's not a genre I have a ton of experience or skill at myself. Plants vs Zombies was my main inspiration, and the only tower defense game I've ever played. (Well, I guess the Fort Condor mini-game in Final Fantasy 7 too... but I usually just let the enemies reach my party and did a normal RPG battle instead of the Tower Defense game...)

Submitted(+2)

I loved the game! The concept of the night hero is great, the game have nice graphics and musics too. Congratulations! :D

Developer(+2)

Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Shout out to the composer, Facemelting Solos, who always does amazing work. He went above and beyond on this soundtrack. 

Submitted(+2)

I like tower defense games, and I like card games. What a perfect combination.

Things I liked about this game:

  • The art is GORGEOUS!
  • Each scenario has unique challenges that keep me on my toes and forces me to use different cards.
  • The story is intriguing and dialog isn't too lengthy

Things I didn't like:

  • It's kinda hard to tell where valid placement locations are. I would try to arrange the towers in a grid but it's not clear to me where exactly the tower will be when I drop it and whether I have enough space in the area for another future tower.
  • I can't predict what cards I will need for an upcoming scenario without first playing the scenario. Some sort of preview of the location, like a layout on the mission select screen, would be helpful. The mission difficulty rating doesn't tell me much.
  • It's a small thing, but the Alice's closed-mouth expression looks unnatural. I guess it could be argued that it makes sense given what she is, but it's a sore spot in her design IMO.

I played this game to completion and enjoyed it the whole way through, despite some rough points. Way to go!

Developer(+2)

I'm glad you enjoyed the art, that was probably where 75% of my time went.

You're the second player to note that placement would be better with a grid... I thought I was being clever with the free-placement, but clearly a grid system would be better. Definitely something I'll remember if I try another game like this one.

I think your comments on the mission preview is spot-on... the "difficultly" is more what I imagined it to be when making the level ideas than how they turned out in the end. After the jam period I may go back and update that to instead list some attributes/hints about the level's design.

Thanks so much for playing, and all your feedback!

Submitted(+1)

i tried the strategy people talking about, which is quickly boosting the energy source, but even with that, the final levels still is kinds challenging. i am not sure if it's a good thing. because once the  energy source is built and the character is not killed yet. it basically just repeatly adding towers until the end. but i don't know a way to fix it. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for giving it a play, and your feedback!

If I was to expand this game I'd probably work more on weaknesses/strengths of different enemy units and towers. For instance, the main one currently is that flying enemies are weak, but are speedy and can pass barriers and towers. I've got some ideas in mind, but being a jam I ran out of time unfortunately.

Everyone seems focused on the basic "build energy, use basic tower" strategy which is fine and to be expected... but I promise that there are much stronger deck builds that can be used! There's a Paisley x Tama deck that's nearly unstoppable, and only involves 3 units total on the map. I'm sure with experimentation there are many other strategies that could be deployed too.

As the developer, it's on me that the game doesn't encourage more experimentation... so definitely something I'll have to think about going forward! Thanks again for the feedback, it's very helpful!

(+1)

Definitely the easiest game in the series ... I think if you spam the basic energy and basic tower you can beat all the levels easy enough, well at least until you take off 300+ energy and then just place whatever you feel like. 

I think the story is well told, but maybe the themes are getting repeated in your games too many times ( friendship/love, being left alone, subterfuge by the central organization) . I mean I guess its hard to really demand much from a jam entry which required shoehorning with the genres and all. 

I agree with Ran, its a sad thing that its so fast paced, because I don't really get the chance to enjoy looking at the animations and bad guys and stuff. 

I don't really mind having the whole deck (almost) unlocked, but sadly there didn't seem to be much use or need to have so many things. I think if you were to keep on working on this, you'd need to add weaknesses and advantages to things and really make sure each thing has a use.

Anyway it was fun, colorful and overall well done. 

Developer

I agree that balance is one of the biggest issues for sure... I was afraid it would be way too easy, and maybe it is. But on the other hand, I watched it streamed on discord, and that player struggled quite a bit at times, with many defeats. It may depend on one's experience with the genre.  I definitely agree that more variety/strengths/weakness could help a lot... I had some ideas I wanted to add, but the end boss mechanic was the only one that made it in. I was afraid of introducing bugs in the 11th hour and played it safe...

Speed is something I could definitely consider changing. I guess I defaulted to "fast paced" because it's a jam game, but so far it does seem like a slower pace might be welcome. Probably wouldn't be hard to implement either.

I'll consider your thoughts on the theming as well, though I make no promises haha... at the very least, 2Goku will probably be an action-fantasy lark.

Thanks so much for playing, and all your helpful feedback!

Host (1 edit) (+2)

As always it's a high quality, highly polished game with great graphics and awesome music by Facemeltingsolos; and add interesting story as a bonus -- amazing job.

I must say though I thought TD x Card were something new but I just realized that... PvZ is TD x Card isn't it lol damn it XD

Gameplay wise though... I think playing your game I realized exactly why most TD games have wave system and are usually way, way more slow-paced than this. I guess with the fast pace this game has I was given little time to think; though luckily the game balance is somewhat in the favor of the player so mostly I could do whatever I wanted and still win; except for the boss stages I suppose where I needed to put some decoys -- very commendable design decision.

With some tweakings and maybe let's see... making the cards unlockable let's say so that it's not so overwhelming at first (a more introductory stage would be nice)... I think this has got some potential to become a bigger game.

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it overall.

I knew the game balance was probably going to be iffy, but glad that you were able to make it work! I had original planned a Gatcha element for the cards... but in addition to feeling crunched on time and not getting to it, I felt like for a game jam, locking cards would just mean most players wouldn't see a bunch of them. But if this was to be expanded into a full-length game, I would definitely have some sort of card-buying system. Either packs, random rolls, or just straight up buying them.

Thanks again for the kind words and feedback!

Host(+2)

Ah right of course because it is a game jam game you want to show everything up front XD

Tho I think even outside game jam games this can also be important and I have heard of this thing called "starting from the middle" or "having everything then losing them" trick XP