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A jam submission

card hellView game page

This is what happens if you let someone who likes card games make a bullet hell. (In not enough time)
Submitted by lenscas β€” 22 hours, 22 minutes before the deadline
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card hell's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
CREATIVE#284.1794.179
THEME#1293.1073.107
OVERALL#2112.6792.679
FUN#2142.6072.607
EASY TO GET INTO#2592.3932.393
VISUALS#2692.1432.143
AUDIO#3001.3931.393

Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Do you have any bullet or projectile in your game?

Yes

You added some projectile or bullet in your game

How does your game implement the theme? (If your game doesn't use the theme ignore this field)
you have 10 seconds to decide which card to cast and discard. Time doesn't refresh automatically

What was the size of your team?
1

Credit all team-members that worked on this project (you can link itch.io/twitter/youtube/twitch)
me, myself and I

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

I like the concept of the game and that you chose to not do a generic bullet hell game :) 

I think the 10 seconds are way too short. I almost always died before I got even close to a battery. (Sometimes no batteries spawn for several rounds or they spawn too far away or you donΒ΄t have the right movement cards) 

That said, I like the core mechanic of the game and you should definitely keep working on it :D

Developer

the timer/battery problem is already addressed in several ways. But I'm waiting to release the new build until I at least have a tutorial made and the rating period is over.

Battery spawns have increased, they also spawn guaranteed if there are less than 3
the timer is A LOT more visible
running out of time doesn't end the game, instead it puts a "death" card into your deck, similar to bullets.
There are 2 other game modes now. One where the timer automatically resets but becomes smaller every turn, unless you collect batteries and a game mode where the timer is replaced by a turn count, with batteries increasing said count.

Submitted(+1)

I like the concept !

It seems original to mix turn based cards with bullet hell, but my biggest issue is that the game seems a bit confusing. The direction cards and the pick one discard one are strong elements easy to understand, but i had no idea what the other card with what looked to be like an enemy does, maybe labeling the cards would help a bit, and it's also a bit hard to have to rely on rng to hope and get an attack card i delt several hands with just movement cards and couldn't do much as a result.

Now that said i can understand these issues due to the jam's time as you state on the game's page, that doesn't take away from the core idea that is good, a bit more "time in the oven" and you can improve on it for sure.

Good job regardless, more so since this is a solo effort :)

Developer

I'm planning to add more cards, some of which doing multiple things (like moving and shooting) which should make it easier to find cards that do what you need. Right now the deck is also rather unbalanced, having 2 left and 2 right cards, while every card only has 1 copy. I didn't really have time to properly tweak it.

My first priority is a proper tutorial and balancing the timer though, as most feedback was about it being confusing and the timer being brutal :)

Submitted(+1)

No problem, deadline was tight afterall so i can totally understand ^^

Submitted(+1)

I have to admit, was pretty confused :D

Concept seems promising, would be interested to see this after some polish.

Submitted(+1)

Wanted to comment but a lot of people said everything. Just gona encourage you to spend a day or 2 after the jam to post a little more polished version, nice work for submitting.

Developer(+1)

plan is to update it at least a little bit.

Already have made it so batteries spawn every turn if there are less than 3, made it so it spawns more often AND made running out of time less punishing (now it adds a "death" card, rather than ending the game. Similarly to getting hit by a bullet)

Fun fact: In the currently uploaded build the turn of your enemies is bugged, causing it to spawn a bullet every frame if it casted the shoot card (oops:( )

Submitted

Also, maybe choose the second card random if the player didnt click any

Submitted(+1)

The concept is neat! sadly it's really based on luck, depending on where the batterie spawn and what cards you have in your hand it can be quite frustrating. But I would LOVE to see it improved, because it has a lot of potential!

Submitted(+1)

Really cool idea but it is kinda difficult to try and get to the batteries especially if they spawn on the other side of the screen but still really cool idea good job.

Submitted(+1)

I'm excited to see this later on because the idea is amazing, but sadly the current execution is a little lacking and the timer makes it very stressful and difficult especially because I can't see how much time is left.

Developer

there is a timer in the lower left corner. (Don't blame you for not seeing it)

It also was meant to be at least somewhat stressful :) For me, bullet hells are stressfull and so I wanted my game to be the same despite it being turn based.

Submitted

It’s a bit hard, but with more time you can make this even better :) -kale

Submitted(+1)

Really unique idea! Tutorial would be helpful, but I got it after a few tries. I run out of the time a lot before getting first battery, but I really enjoyed the game. Some audio would be great addition to the game, but even without it I had fun playing the game. Great job and I'm really looking forward to see how you expand on this idea after the game jam!

Submitted(+1)

Quiet a steep learning curve and the graphic is kinda rushed but the idea is really good. You should totally make this into a proper mobile phone game if you have time. This is the first game in the jam that I can play with one hand, super unique!

Submitted(+1)

I like the card-based mechanic, but it’s a bit hard to get into the first time

Submitted(+1)

You successfuly made a card-based bullet hell game??? Very impressive.

Developer

thank you :)

Though, I wish I worked a bit more on it. There is plenty of stuff that could've improved it.

Submitted(+1)

This is a cool, unique idea!!  Took me a few tries to understand it and kept running out of time but was fun!  Great work! :D

Submitted(+1)

Interesting idea but hard to understand, a bigger timer would've be nice.

Developer(+1)

Sadly, the 10 seconds come from the theme. I originally wanted a smaller but automatically resetting timer but decided to against it as it would make it harder to implement the theme.

If I'm going to work on it after the jam (Which I'm not sure about because the program I use to autocomplete my code eats all my ram :( ) then I will change it so battery spawning is a bit more balanced, the timer being more visible and it giving you a "death" card instead of ending the game, similar to how getting hit with a bullet works.

I think those 3 changes will help improve the timer situation while still keeping the "10 seconds" theme alive :)

(Also, I think batteries can technically give you 0 extra seconds now, which I should really prevent from happening)

Submitted(+1)

Very unique idea but its quite hard to understand without a tutorial

Developer

I fully agree with that :)

Submitted(+1)

Definitely a unique concept.

It does show that the game is unfinished, since it isn't really balanced, however I do wish the remaining time was indicated :P

I'm curious how a full game like this would work out! :)

Developer(+1)

it is, there is a small timer in the lower left corner :)


(I'm not blaming you for not seeing it. It is so hard to spot that even I only look at while the turn is being played)

Submitted(+1)

concept is really creative - with a bit of a tutorial and a slightly longer initial timer (hot damn this thing was tough) it could be a really unique, fun little thing! I appreciate that the theme was 10 seconds so the initial timer is 10 seconds, but getting to a battery in time is impossible in most cases πŸ˜…

Submitted(+1)

I actually love the concept of this game, shame that so much stuff was breaking for you, I really would like to see this game fleshed out :)

Developer

more like 1 thing, constantly breaking unless I add more RAM to my laptop :(

It actually is a MUCH bigger problem as it also affects development of my main game :(