pretty fun! I would add some more fun cards that make me feel strong like I am doing something great, like extra damage or other power moves (rather than having me just reducing stress or reclaiming hunger - things that are less fun to have happen).
also not obvious that I can hurt enemies by just clicking on them? but only sometimes?
the key and exit cards seem to be just taking up space unless you have plans for them to be a choice later or something.
Keep up the good work!
It definitely affects the gameplay: If the exits are always unlocked, then you can get sometimes lucky and have the option to leave from the very beginning. If you need *both* the exit *and* the key, then it's much less likely that you'll be able to bypass an area prematurely.
If that's desirable--to force the player to confront some of the dangers before they move on--then it could become an explicit requirement:
A strong way to do this would be to have the exit appear only after all of the monster cards have been defeated.
A weak way to do this could be: The door is always visible, but it remains magically sealed until a blood sacrifice has been paid. The blood sacrifice might equal 75% (or 50%?) of the total health points of all the monster cards. Once the requisite blood has been spilled, the magically-sealed door opens and the player is allowed to leave. If the player is *really* desperate to get out, perhaps they could spill their own blood instead--to add some strategy to the game? (Sometimes all of the monsters get activated at once, and then it might make sense for a player to sacrifice most of their own health to open the door, rather than be killed.)
But the keys work, too. The keys *do* make it unlikely that the player will be able to immediately bypass an area.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I've noticed that I generally want to clear the entire dungeon in hopes of finding food or weapons, but not always: sometimes I know there's only misery left, and then it can be really helpful to have an unlocked door to flee through. You can sometimes get that unlocked door with your key/door system, whereas a blood-quota system would *never* give you an escape route until you've fought the monsters. I think the keys are working as intended.