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A jam submission

MancaleroView game page

Where Mancala meets roguelikes and deck builders- every marble in your pouch matters.
Submitted by ArchiusDev — 1 day, 23 hours before the deadline
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Mancalero's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#23.5003.500
Polish#23.6673.667
Gameplay#33.3333.333
Originality#73.5003.500

Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How did you use generative AI?
This game was developed with significant assistance from AI tools. Claude (Anthropic) was used throughout the coding process — implementing features, fixing bugs, and translating design intent into working code. Sound effects were generated with AI audio tools. Some background music tracks were sourced as free assets. Icons were processed using a Python script (with AI assistance) to adapt them to the game's style and used to apply color and style adjustments to free icon assets used in the game's UI.

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Comments

Submitted

Great game! Always enjoyed Mancala! Never played it digital though!

Submitted(+1)


Overall:

Genuinely polished presentation with smart graphic design decisions throughout.

What Worked Well:

  • Visual Design: The title menu looks great in fullscreen. Color choices are tasteful, the floating square particles are a nice touch, and the use of negative space and layout is solid. The subtle waviness on "Created by ArchiusDev" and the gentle float on "START RUN" to signal it as the priority action are both smart. Using color exclusively on Start/Tutorial/Exit is good hierarchy thinking.
  • Music: Reminds me of Machinarium. Really nice.
  • Writing: "Meet The Chess Player. Brilliant at chess. Bewildered by mancala. They like predictable moves." That's tasteful copy. I like your writing style.
  • Tutorial Presentation: The way elements get highlighted during the guided tutorial is nice, and the subtle yellow glow around the tip modal is a good detail. The tonal pitch going down with sequential items works well too.
  • The Compendium: Cool section.

Areas for Improvement:

  • Tutorial Effectiveness: The tutorial looked pretty but didn't actually give me any understanding of the game. I just clicked through stuff in-game and got bored. The guided format needs to do more actual teaching.
  • Tutorial UX: A back button to review previous tips would help a lot. The tutorial modal is also quite small relative to the fullscreen game board and hard to read.
  • How to Play Modal: The height changes between section tabs, which feels jarring. A consistent size would be much cleaner.
  • Run Ended Screen: The design language doesn't match the polish of the rest of the game. Worth bringing it up to the same standard.
  • Menu Button Feedback: Hover and click states on the menu buttons could use simple sound effects.
Developer(+1)

This feedback is like gold- thank you for the detailed review and some aspects of polish were definitely missed entirely on my end (like the run failed / succeed scene ). The tutorial suggestions will be worked with as I usually get feedback related to how to play and visibility of text.

Much appreciated!

Submitted

I'd appreciate a rating of my game if you haven't already.

Submitted

I can't try the music though

Submitted(+1)

I would say the polish is pretty good, but I am still a bit confused about what's happening!

Developer

Thank you for the feedback- noted I will likely revamp and edit the tutorial.

Submitted(+1)

I’m not usually a big board game/chess-style strategy player, so it took me a little while to understand everything, but I really liked the music, animations, and overall presentation. The game feels very polished and there’s clearly a lot of depth in the systems. Great work, and thanks again for your feedback on my game!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! My worry is that as the game progresses the strategy might start to dwindle- fundamentally changing the game. But it's good to receive this feedback and I'm glad you loved the polish :)

Submitted(+1)

Very interesting game! I haven’t got enough time to fully manage the rules, but I will - I do like how simple it is with graphic, but in a good way, sounds, everything’s working smoothly - fantastic job!

Developer(+1)

Much appreciated!

Submitted(+1)

rated 😊. It is a boardgame that I use to play with my cousins.

Developer

Thank you! I hope it brought back some fond memories

Submitted(+1)

It didn't work and I didn't understand anything. You can also rate my game and give your opinion. Starbound Paradis

Developer(+1)

I'm so sorry it didn't work- was it that the game wouldn't load properly in browser or that something in game broke? Of course I'd love to rate your game once I continue playing them all :)

Submitted

I would appreciate it if you could rate my game; this is my first post here, I'm new here.

Submitted(+2)

yep, I'd say good polish but a game that is very hard to play.

(+1)

I didn't understand anything, but I played it for 30 minutes, hehe. I didn't understand because I don't speak English and couldn't understand the tutorial, but if I didn't understand anything and it hooked me for 30 minutes, it's because it's a really good game. Good Job!

Developer

Oh man thank you so much- that means a lot. I'm taking a mental note to have translations for the main game once it's completed haha!