Very cool game
The atmosphere is really cool. Love how the dialogue hints on tidbits of the background story and the importance of the blizzard on the outside.
The main character does feel a tad bit hypocrytical for the short runtime of the game. Though other than that I really really like his vibe.
Graphically I am not too hooked on the blizzard but the dim atmosphere inside the building sets the mood perfectly for the game. And the style of the ending hits exactly my preferences.
The UI does feel like it has a good amount of polish, though I feel it needed some better indicators. For me it was kinda hard keeping in mind which options my opponent has and which got overridden by the slot machine. The game already shows what the last actions were. From that you can easily deduce what actions are available, it’s just not as readable as the icons from the slot machine.
I think there could’ve been some slight swaps to the UI system to ensure it is a little more readable. Like showing the slot machine over-writing the icons from the last used act. Or some more visual clarity on the timer… I did not figure out wether that timer tracks actual time or time in terms of acts.
I adore these animations. Especially the blocking animation is ridiculously cool. Though I wish that some of the animations were more readable. The drinking animations often feel very unintuitive as like half of them actually take away your gun, while the other half just drinks something, making you unable to shoot for some reason. Which in turn can even make it a bit confusing noticing which animation played.
I also think a bit of color-coding could help here to make each animation stand out as what type of action it is.
But those all are just polishing nitpics.
What I find really fascinating about this game is how, even though it is a very short ~1 hour game, it manages to play around tons with the game mechanic. Each of those mechanics feels like a really unique twist on the gameplay. And someone who is better at it than me could probably grind the arcade mode for quite a bit.
Something that does feel kind of missing is a 2 player mode. Feels like it could be really fun to play with another person. Only real hurdle would be keeping what the card is a secret from your opponent.
Finally I do feel the making the game free. The game does absolutely feel worth the price tag of 3 bucks. But knowing how much usually gets cut away from that payment means the dev bareley gets anything in the end. My main reason for not wanting to sell any of those 1-2 hourish long games. Looking at the steam page I gotta ask, have you even gotten past the 100 bucks boundary to get your money back, I think there was something like that.
Though what really interests me is: How did you have to help people pirate the game? How did that situation even appear? That sounds like a goldmine for some funny stories.