Checking it out now! Initially, I'd offer the advice that with jams it can be much easier to get traffic with games that run in browser. I did the 2020.2 Jam with only a windows download and it really limited the feedback I got compared to doing webGL this time around!
From playing it, I would say that instructions on how to change characters, and an indicator of which character is selected would be wonderful! Loved the puzzles and the music is soft and calming.
https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-8/rate/1679828
Tarot Torment is my first time developing a card game in Unity! There's a few areas where my lack of experience shows but I learned a bunch and had a blast creating it!
Really nice work! Movement was a little frustrating in areas, especially having both move back after one died meaning I had to replay both halves for a failure on either... All in all really enjoyed the concept!
Took me a moment to figure out the instruction to roll the dice wasn't a button. From there the dice rolls where frequently very often the same numbers so would have been nice to shake the dice more.
Thank you for the detailed feedback! Definitely agree about needing more animations to help pace the game! Feel like if I continue working on this I should add options to sort your hand to help deal with the large number of cards that can collect in them. And yeah, a few cards do things when you draw them as well as when you play them, some are from testing the draw and play events that never got redesigned.
As for hearts, they were intended to be a life indicator. They'll be removed if I continue working on the project.
This is a valid win, due to how the deck gets shuffled ghosts could be after the 3 exits required to win. I was hoping to have time to implement local multiplayer which would prevent this win by spreading the exits between multiple players. Other solutions to prevent it would have been adding more cards that cause you to discard cards on draw (with the lacking animations it didn't feel fair to the player to discard the cards highly often), or rigging the deck to ensure Ghosts enter the field before any exit is found.
Also, with how quickly ghosts can take their turn you may have not noticed they did...
Is there anything specific that you didn't understand? I've always struggled with writing directions and tutorials so if there's anything I can do to improve the directions in the description it would be a huge help!
I'll warn you, I don't have any new content released yet. Been focusing on refactoring the project and getting a collection of assets built before starting work on new levels and content!
The cubes all in all have a number of small issues that really added up here. I have loved the conversation and the part about the boxes looking heavy is excellent feedback and guidance! I was never super happy with the look of them but called it good enough for the jam. I now, thanks to your input, have an idea of how I want to redesign them to look more light and able to be grabbed! I still intend to get some control prompts as I was wrong to assume most people have played Portal, but I now also have a plan for the new visuals on my cubes! Thank you so much again for the feedback!
Most of the items on your list are also on my "If we finish the tower before 3 hours left" list. The menus, background music, better boundaries to the second area, All things I knew I should do but fell short on time. Control prompts are something I'm wanting to add as I update after the jam. I considered them and know where right now I would add them but that will have to wait for now...
Again, Thank you so much for taking the time to play!
I had my friend who was supplying the audio add a reverb to give the feel of it being played in the large open field(Then learned about unity reverb zones as I was working on the project), between that and having to record quietly at night due to limited availability with the jam lead to using what I had rather than getting new audio. There's some small story hints but nothing major for gameplay.
Controls and communicating them to the player is something I really have noticed I fell short on. I modeled the control layout after source games such as Half-Life2 and Portal and hoped that players would be previously familiar with such. This was a failure of judgment on my part and I'm going to have it corrected in future versions. Prompting the player is the plan right now, but I do want to avoid prompting for every cube and so I'm planning on doing more simple puzzles only really involving moving cubes. I hope prompting here will give players a chance to learn control with out having basic gameplay waved in their face the whole game.
The last area I start the player outside a door way that leads into the play area. Design-wise there wasn't any reasoning to it. Really it is just where I had started the player as I was testing the puzzles. I never moved the player when building the level and when having a friend test it I didn't have issues with players wondering off so I just hoped that most players would do the same and I could cut corners there for the jam.
Thank you for your feed back and sorry I left such a long reply, I get really into talking about the process that went into this. I enjoyed creating the whole project so much! I'm working on a patch for after the jam and thinking about doing a postmortem on the build submitted here.
Very nice visuals! Controls where a nice twist! I'd say a very mechanically sound idea here! Think it would be awesome to see as a part of a larger project!
I struggled to understand what was going on in the "RPG" stage of the game. After some wandering around I stumbled upon the tower defense area(? I think?) and I was more interested in checking that out but then I died there and was lost on how I had gotten there to begin with...
Use of audio was very well done, Made it clear when I was attacking, hitting, or being hit. That was very appreciated!
Walking through trees caught me off guard, Beyond that great work on the terrains, would be nice to see some more green as we place boxes to get a better idea of the recovery of the enviroment
I see you had some problems finding controls to pick up and grab, done here with E. I think you would find more interest in the puzzles with that to help you. I'm getting the controls in the description for now and will be getting them added in game for my post jam update!
The planks and walkways where all built in blender at the beginning of the jam. It also seams to me you missed most of the voice acting, I'm not sure if it was your recording software or just audio settings...
Beyond that, Thank you for the video play through! I love seeing how people come to solve the puzzles and hope you'll give it another try knowing how to pick up the cubes with the E key!
Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm over the moon to hear that you enjoyed the writing and puzzles! I'll be sure to check out your game as well! Remember to check back after judging for my "Post Jam Patch" with more puzzles!
I really enjoyed the concept! Personally I think I would like to be able to move around or through the clones but that's a design choice that's up to you! I think it could be a very interesting game if expanded into a longer side-scroller!
Honestly, I'm obsessed with the little animation for recording! the only thing I was wishing for was more indication of when I got hit. Wonderful game, hope to see more!
