Thanks for the honest feedback! We've been doing a lot of research and gathering a lot of feedback and trying to see how we can improve the game. We have A LOT of ideas floating around now to add to the pile of ideas we had to sideline to meet the jam deadline. One of the things I need to work on now is - a better elevator pitch. The idea I asked people around sound too vague - it sounds something like "What do you think about a game with a plumber jumping on turtles".
You're absolutely right about helping someone needs to spend time and listen to their struggles. We even talked about having a dialogue system or narrative with the cards, a visual novel aspect - but that already is scope creep. We can barely manage to fit in the features and polish we wanted in the game for the jam. We also floated around different types of cards like an investigation type or mechanic card where you try to find out more about the client.
You're right about deck builders about building power and excess. A couple ways I am thinking about that is:
- No limit card deck - design the cards around that
- The cards that life coaches to inspire others during the card game, buffs the player outside of the game that helps him get better cards
Another idea I am floating around is having the game split into 2:
- Life coach character development - where life coach collects cards outside of the card game, and each of these cards actually have different passive effects or uses outside of the card game
- Card game - build on the current life coach but still keeping it in simple to play format
The idea is that the life coach is power leveling himself in real life and the more successful he becomes, the better his advice he can give the clients then he can help clients with more challenging issues. (e.g. People would take advice more from a millionaire on how to be rich than someone who is in debt).
I played your game, and I can understand why you were talking about feeling and presentation. Your game was pure art! I really love that mentality and that's something I need to think about when designing the game for future iterations.
If you don't mind, would you please fill this feedback form? I am taking notes on what you said here. We are trying to get more data to weigh in on what we need to prioritize: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvvJgsOXxi2XKAvV0os9mAo2sF0CcPwq_vXyVR...
P.S. Get Yoked was shared during our marketing research. It's fun to see devs being creative in many ways!