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The game is playable but hard, maybe even unfair. It took me several tries to beat and I think I only won thanks to one unbalanced stat and a possible bug exploit:

- At first I thought Health Regen and Heal for Word were the way to go, but they don't scale well.

- Words sometimes take too long to spawn (until you have 4-5 hits in, then they pick up the pace). And sometimes they don't at all (due to some bug and/or enemy skill).

- Then I got lucky and got some early Damage Resist. Raising it to ~100 (~200 by the end) made the rest trivially easy.

- Discarding the items anywhere made it easier. Just drag and drop near the character's feet. The shop trash area remains active despite visually disappearing, which might be a bug, albeit a good one.

Overall, I think the game has a good concept, style and the beginning of an interesting story. But it could use some polish (e.g., rebalancing, player stat/enemy skill tooltips, bug fixes).

At this point, it's fun to try and fool around with, but it might get frustrating if you truly want to play till the end.

Amazing works, thank you! I really like how each of them have quite a distinct feel and seem to have some story behind. 

Unrelatedly, your name reminded me of a musician I like.

I wasn't going to make a room but it's surprisingly fun to let loose and tell a little story. Instead of adding designing to a game about a story, you add storytelling to a game about design.

I'm happy to hear that!

It does have a bit of a story, actually (press ⇩ to skip). I first played it during elementary school. A classmate had it (I should ask him how next time I see him lol) and we played it on one of the school PCs. I didn't get a copy back then but it stuck in my mind. I think I found it again (somehow finding and) googling keywords several years ago.

Hot seat games were rare then, as they still are now, I guess. It was quite fun to fool around and accidentally stumble upon new units and effects. There's no handholding so everything has to be done through trial and error. That may be one of the aspects why your game reminded me of it.

Not sure if that's for everyone but I usually like it. As long as trying again is part of the fun and not too frustrating, I think it's ok. Those three lives probably helped.

I hope I didn't bore you too much, I must be getting old lol ^^;. I look forward to future updates/bugfixes, I'll probably be playing it again in the future. Thank you for crafting such a unique, nostalgic game.

I got the same bug, it happened to me twice in a row.

After setting HP and Speed, if you remove the HP, it also removes Speed, but without giving it back.

Other bugs I found:
- I had a +1 HP item, got Intimidation and I lost the former while not getting the latter.

Oh, you're right, I forgot to mention that ^^;

It took me some tries to figure out a viable strategy. At first I thought the knight's skill wasn't very good but it's actually pretty useful. Overall, a pretty solid and fun roguelike card game. Not too easy but not impossible either, once you figure out what everything does.

Here's what I found out about game mechanics (skip if you like figuring things out by trial and error):

- Ring of Balance increases max hunger and halves max health. I was wondering why it was doing nothing, it already had.
- Knight's skill is AoE, and halves your current armor. It hits before the enemy.
- Enchantment's 'subjugate' places the targeted enemy in your hand, with halved attack and health. You can use it to attack, but it doesn't attack first.
- The game always rounds up as far as I could tell (haven't checked Ring of Balance).

And tips about the strategy I followed (Knight):

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

Newbie tips:
- Kill 1 HP enemies without a weapon. Maybe 2 HP as well.
- You don't need to kill enemies if all that remains is the door. It's also ok to skip if you see the exit + key + all enemies.
- Grab as many weapons as you can.

Build tips:
- No hunger when opening monsters and +1 when killing help.
- Only one stress reducer or none if you got enough +food.
- +Armor relics are good, but keep in mind armor ingots become half as effective.
- Biggest threat are the traps that wake all enemies. Make sure you always have at least 5 mana + armor (item). Or Vanish, which is one of the best items before the boss.

Boss tip:
- Buy weapons before the last stage, have at least 8x 10 attacks and a few more. I beat it without opening any cards. It counts number of attacks (including spells like Berserk), and I don't believe it counts cards opened or it'd be quite impossible to beat and all cards are items. I haven't tried Whip, but another commenter recommended against it, not sure if it's been rebalanced since then.

Update:

Vampire

- Shields get replaced, they don't stack.
- Does increasing damage and restores hunger (living only) with normal attacks.
- Killing enemies increases skill damage. Using it decreases it by 10.
(I got a no-numbers-on-cards penalty. I ended up using Berserk twice against the boss)

Reading other comments, I realized the other characters aren't unlockable, they're for the full version.

Pretty fun game! It took me a little bit to get used to the interface but it truly has the look and feel of a retro console game. Here's a few bugs I found:

- I won at the end since there were no enemies but it got stuck afterwards. The battle before the last was against the 4 archangels. I'd previously won a game against Lucifer. (image below)
- I also had a NAN combination after doing 6* + 5* neutral.
- The 6* neutral skill Prayer didn't trigger w/adjacent units.

And a few things I think may be nice additions:

- Maybe a gallery, I keep forgetting the names.
- And perhaps a hot seat multiplayer. For some reason it reminded me of a very old doujin Evangelion strategy game called angels.

I'm happy it helped, thank you for making this game! ^^

As a workaround, you may open the game frame in another tab and press F11.

Thanks for the reply and for the bugfixes, that was fast! Glad it helped ^^

So that rewards are predetermined for each level?

Oh, I re-read and I didn't phrase it too well. I meant that, while still having both options available, achieving both perhaps shouldn't reward you twice. But, then again, maybe rewarding a fast+perfect playstyle is preferable, and synergies might just address this issue. Besides, I never thought I'd get (somewhat) fast at minesweep, so that's a plus ^^

I'm looking forward to the updates and the new class!

PS: I could nitpick a little more, but I'm not sure how useful it'd be.

I liked the game, its graphics are pretty and consistent, and the basic mechanics feel balanced and solid. The little bugs crawling around the table make it seem more real and alive. Some things I noticed:

Bugs:
- Blight doesn't seem to be working. It heals the enemy by one each turn.
- Reflection attack <-> health switch seems bugged for Shark. Does it take max health?

Balance issues:
- Health or armor at the start of battle seem worse than an extra card each turn.
- Several single enemy battles made Crazy Dart useless during the early game (or maybe it was the meadow deck).
- Batch unlocks give the game some replayability, although some initial cards felt a little useless without proper synergy.
- The hammer (1 weakening + 1 armor per enemy) feels a little on the weak side for a rare/yellow. At least if I didn't misunderstand its description. (I don't recall and can't check its name.)

Neutral:
- The battles are short enough, which makes the game more dynamic. On the other hand, the synergies didn't feel OP and broken. It gives the game a more down-to-earth feel but it may be a little less satisfying. It also makes Time Rush not very appealing as the debuffs never stack very high.

Positive:
- Artist's Clay copies modified stats, which is nice.

Potential features:
- Maybe a skip card 'rewards' option, although I suppose forcing a choice might be intended. The chances for discarding useless cards happened often enough so it wasn't that bad. I went for a small (weakening, ~8 cards) and a bigger build (ranged + summons) and both worked well.
- A successful runs record to view past decks might be nice.
- It'd seem the cards get added to the collection on use rather than on obtaining/unlocking, but I could be wrong.

The game's really fun, I finished it with all classes. I found a few bugs, though:

- Golden Heart - gives 5 gold instead of 10
- Guiding Flame - only lets you choose up to the amount of options you have (relevant when rerolling). May not be a bug.
- Mana Band - "start of the Stage" but recharges at the end
- Rare Candies - Getting too many glitches the reward selection; shows extra items, plus a 2nd skip
- Safe Start - Only works for 4 clicks
- Soul Cluster - Costs 0
- Temporal Hourglass - Increases timer speed

Some balance issues, misc. (subjective):

- The Tracker's skill is not that useful if you're used to not using flags as it mostly puts them in already obvious places
- Defender's Oath (uncommon) is much better than Shield (epic)
- Maybe an item that actually rewards patience/slow playstyle could be nice if there's supposed to be no rush (e.g. additional gold at full health)
    - Or perhaps making the level reward be either Fast sweep or Perfect game/Efficiency but not both
- Golden Hope - requires 10 empty hearts to equal Gold Pouch (same rarity)
- Maybe an item for decreasing reroll cost? Although that might make Gambler less unique.

For a moment, I thought prices would go negative. I guess not :P

Nice! That'll definitely help. I'd seen turn 50 once before but I wasn't too sure it wasn't coincidence until I noticed it again :P

Ctrl + - actually worked to zoom out (not perfect but at least it's playable).

- The freezing happened at round 50 (I had several turns of being unable to attack :P). Happened again during the ice stage:The opponent's chosen card just stays there. Reloading actually sends me to the previous level as if I'd lost the round (which is why I found it strange that returning to menu didn't do the same).

- Nice, I found the boss stage's variations the most fun, I had to try them all.

- It might be difficult to strike a good balance. I like no hand-holding in games but I also enjoy planning ahead. I played one two more runs for good measure. Having gotten a grasp on card effects, I didn't mind the lack of descriptions that much (but please take this with a grain of salt). Maybe stage effects are a little bit easy to miss (wind, flood).

I'm glad it helped, thank you!

I finished the game, it was pretty fun. I was hoping it'd last a little longer to better customize the deck.

I think getting the same items (equipment) should make them stack, otherwise it's probably always best to remove/duplicate cards. I liked that particular mechanic, by the way.

The double attack enemy x2 was the hardest battle for me. It was insta-defeat twice. The only times I lost party members were those two times, losing the leaders.

Sometimes the game freezes on the enemy's turn (mostly desert stage). Returning to menu resets the run.

Vision only works once, then it becomes useless. The enemy probably doesn't need it but I can't be sure.

In my experience, Dentro and Hydro were very easy, Cryo and Psammo were easy, Erebo was fair and Pyro was hard as 4/5 cards are rendered useless most of the time.

Overall, it's a solid game with good potential. It boasts traditional mechanics and decent replayability. A bug or two and some slightly ambiguous descriptions detract a little bit from the fun but it's still quite enjoyable. I look forward to future updates.

Tips:

- Hover over HP to view its max value.

- Tide's +Same HP means gain HP equal to damage dealt.

- Nothing stacks but +/- Atk and +/- Shield.

- HP swap swaps current HP, not max.

- Desert stage "miss" turns are random, each players' turns are independent from each other.

In sector 3, after the 3rd node (regular battle), when trying to move to the next one the implant-in-inventory confirmation box just stays there and can't be closed.

I can't replace the implant because the implant-replacement confirmation box buttons also don't register the choice.

I tried both nodes after reloading and continuing but the problem remains.

The buttons are gray, instead of green and red in those screens.

Otherwise great game! I quite enjoyed it. Nice graphics, the music can get slightly repetitive after some time but it sets the right urban atmosphere. The battle mechanics have some nuances that allow for some deeper strategic gameplay, they seem well thought.

Edit: I tried starting a new game but pressing continue loads the old save (I'd just finished the first boss and entered the second stage when I reloaded). When does the game save?

Challenging and fun, a little frustrating to lose some valuable items due to wrong interactions and decay but overall enjoyable.

A few bugs I found:

- Disappearing items when dragging and dropping sometimes, which reappear after returning to menu.

- Not being able to zoom out to 100% when zooming in (it works at first).

A few details:

- The map is untranslated.

- The font is not legible when zoomed out (another font might solve it).

- I liked how the game didn't explain every little detail but maybe a succinct in-game help for keyboard controls could be useful. I found some in a few items.

The only game-breaking bug I found is that actions start taking progressively more time after a while. Twice or more at some point, which makes the game unplayable. It's temporarily solved by going back to menu but it returns shortly after.

I agree with Ben, the game is very fun and feels overall polished (graphics, sounds, animations, etc.).

I think a few stages were challenging and that I could've lost if the skills offered had been different, though.

I'm happy to hear there's going to be updates in the future ^^

Is there a way to switch resolution? I tried exiting full screen but it doesn't help.

Great, I'm happy to hear that! I ended up beating the game with the other two in my first run, I think their basic cards are more forgiving, or maybe I just got lucky with the draws. The Tephragion, I got a quick win thanks to a specific 2 card combo, which I got in the very last encounter draft.

A few more things I've found out:
- Quake gives 1 AP (I feel Aftershock is underpowered, though).
- Def down reduces enemy armor gain.
- Cosmo Brain consumes X AP for X draws.
- Regarding burning without cards and no turn skip, I guess it was a design choice (I edited my previous message).

A couple other bugs:
- I sometimes got an additional AP, not sure why (maybe at the end of a turn after burning?).
- When burning, sometimes the card behind the one clicked gets discarded (not removed) together with the burnt one.

The game turned out very enjoyable, good thing I didn't give up midway. I recommend everyone to try the other two kaijus if the first one isn't their style.

This game is hard, I can't figure out a viable playstyle for the first kaiju (I'm trying 4 cost cards for burning, and defense). 

A few bugs I found:
- Mouse targeting is a little off for enemies in the corner (which led me to accidentally close the game)
- Renew is fast (it's lacking the icon).
- I sometimes get an extra AP, not sure if it's an added hidden effect of some card or action.

Some suggestions for potential improvements:
- save, skip a turn, skip a choice, enemy health without selecting a card, armor up number, (de)buff tooltip or action log, highlight for keyboard selection, turn off tutorial question at the beginning (first playthrough + config option is enough).

A few things I found out:
- Burning = removal. It skips the turn when your hand is empty. Edit: Although it reduces HP by 50, I guess no turn skip was a design choice.
- Map healing item heals for 50% max HP.
- Enemies on the left are weaker than those on the right regardless of chaos.
- Mass Decay may duplicate existing debuff (I haven't confirmed it yet).

Anyway, pretty good as-is, although it can get slightly frustrating at times. Nice graphics and fun gameplay. Thank you for sharing it.

That's understandable. Thanks for the quick reply, I'll try again.

Is the "big dummy" (didn't check its name, the 2nd one that "does nothing special") the last enemy? After beating it, it just shows the stats of the first one (20 HP) and freezes (no pun intended).

Quite a challenging game, you need a few lucky draws to reach the end. Is there more than one viable strategy to win the game?

I get the same message as DrManatee. It says, "To run this application, you must install .NET Core."

Very nice game. I liked the art style and gameplay, and the song has a pretty catchy rhythm, in tune with the game.

The knockback makes enemies more difficult to hit but it makes sense; they can't hurt you but they will push you away. And the somewhat random paths the enemies take make them less predictable and more realistic. I guess it could get frustrating if there was some perfect achievement or something (not good for the OCD :P).

The only minor detail that bugged me a bit is the few dialogues when accessing the contribution/fusion screens. Although the interaction made the characters feel more alive overall, and it could be just me wanting to check how the earnings compared separated vs fused.

The customizable key bindings and goal are a really nice touch too.

I really enjoyed this game, from its concept and mechanics to its beautiful retro graphics. Only very few games leave me wanting to do a 2nd or 3rd playthrough, even less without some added bonus like a New game+.

1st time I always went for +2 HP as I didn't know scrapped cards gave you one of its pip at random. I struggled a bit when enemies started having 30 HP but it was still manageable. 2nd time was easier and still lots of fun, getting the hang of it feels rewarding. I have yet to try some strategies.

I found some concepts of the tutorial slightly confusing at first, but the game is intuitive enough to let you figure things out eventually.

Looking forward to a full release!

Pretty fun, I wish there were more stages. An auto-action option would be nice, for a more relaxed gameplay.

I think the game could use a more detailed description, although I was pleasantly surprised with its premise, so maybe the surprise element was a good thing. I also thought the player character would be a venus flytrap running around ^^;

Plus points are:

- A simple but pleasant aesthetic and atmospheric ambient music

- Original ability unlocking mechanics

- Chill, peaceful gameplay

- Funny at some points

A few bugs:

- If you shoot the web at a Bunby and capture it before releasing the string, you can't relaunch the web as it stays connected, and pressing right mouse button just places it where the player is standing. Disconnecting the web once the critter is captured might solve the issue. Maybe also make RMB a "set false" instead of a toggle.

- When you uproot the Beanzo right of the house, the spot at where it was still allows pressing "E". Then the player's basket acts as if full without having anything. Pressing "Q", or "E" at the work table doesn't do anything.

- The Bunby that runs away to the left of the house can't be captured. Beanzos inside the house can be captured and taken out.

- Restarting with "R" resets the abilities but not the unlocked entries.

- Not a bug, but I missed the pop up message that showed the way to use the unlocked abilities the first few times.

Overall, quite a fun short game. May lack a bit of polish (especially the bugs which forced me to restart a few times) but it's pretty much enjoyable as it is. Maybe a little ending screen once you capture all? Thanks for making the game and sharing it.

The apples don't seem to stack. Cursed Shield + Ring of Courage doesn't work, even with 0 shield (seems to trigger on HP loss).  These Rings do stack, though. The Dragon Wings seem to check for lack of armor before the battle, not after (may be intended).

The lizardman could use a couple of Rings of Protection instead of just armor, but I guess it's hard difficulty and still winnable.

I knew the name ringed a bell. I loved the Deep Sleep series. This is yet another great game from a great developer. Engaging gameplay with an interesting historic and technical background.

Just a few minor visual bugs/typos:

• The text in the Archives - Construction complete box isn't wrapping.
• Water-work says "Buckets wheel" and the card's name says "Bucket-wheel".
• In the Water-work - construction complete box, "lift it to an sufficient height".
• The Water tower and Improved Pumps descriptive and lore text overlap with each other because the text is too long.

A touching story about parental love and self-sacrifice.

Seeing the comments I guess this must be just me, but the camera is too close to the ship where I can only see the nearest surroundings. At first I thought it was intended, as the ship damage might affect the navigation, but after repairing the ship it remained the same. *

An unlockable zoom might even be a nice touch to add to the immersion, similar to Upgrade Complete where everything is upgradable.

Anyway, the game looks very promising, I found it fun even with (or due to?) the added handicap. I didn't get beyond the repairs because I couldn't find the Repair button and I was already at 20 HP.

* Edit: It turned out to be that you cannot zoom in or out without a mouse. I gave it another try and it is pretty fun even incomplete and with a few bugs (which is understandable in this early stage).

Pretty nice short game, atmospheric and slow paced. A little interpretation is required as the story isn't thrown at the player; a well made narration, minimalistic in style.

I restarted the game right after finishing it and thought there'd be an alternate ending since most flags seemed to not have been reset, and some characters were missing while others were there but invisible. The lines of text weren't visible either, though I had to click through in order to advance. Edit: closing and opening it again fixed the issue.

One dialogue in particular also made me think of that possibility. Just to make sure, there is only one ending, right?

I'm looking forward to this feature, I need a mouse for the skill tree and for rotating structures. I hope the update is still coming, the game has a lot of potential.

Not sure if it's zoomable, you can drag it around by holding the middle mouse button (I had to connect a mouse).