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Core Contest's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #39 | 4.308 | 4.308 |
| Overall | #41 | 4.141 | 4.141 |
| Fun | #71 | 3.962 | 3.962 |
| Presentation | #116 | 4.154 | 4.154 |
Ranked from 26 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Preferred Name
Picarune
Newbie?
Nope - I've completed at least one game jam before.
How does your game fit the theme?
Player starts the game at a begining of a contest with almost nothing to their name. It is up to them to get started, using available solutions and making pernament and impactful decisions every step of the way.
Personally it is my attempt to seriously get started into utilizing various skills I have developed over the past couple years and actually trying to compete with a new game idea, now I actually did manage to create what I believe is fairly servicable small game that possibly can be expanded into something bigger.
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Comments
Didn't get further than year 6 (skill issue), but it is extremely clear this game is very well thought out and well made. I like the visuals and it definitely shows your tried to utilize the different skills you got over the years, very well done!
This is a hidden gem. I'm unfamiliar with these kinds of games, but your UI, the creativity, the art, it all comes together to really make a really, really solid game. It does have a bit of a learning curve out the get go, and like another comment mentioned it could be nice to perhaps have a tutorial level, but once you do get used to it, it comes together quite well. I really like what's here and will have to come back around to it once the Jam is over. I do hope you can continue to flesh this out and make a game out of it because this a truly impressive game you've made in 10 days, good stuff.
This is a management game where you have to really calculate what you should buy and where you should put it on the map. The gameplay is complex and fun to do . The art on the other hand is well made with the UI
Loved the game! The graphics really fit the whole vibe! Spent way to much time playing it, but couldn't really finish, so I cant really say anything about the end. I did have a hard time at the beggining, it was a bit overwhelming, but maybe its just skill issue of my part. After that rough start I did manage to play way better and understand the game. Nice job!
Very creative game, played for 10 minutes and was really fun
Its well designed , but the best things I liked about the game was - first the mechanics (I liked how the depth in this game) and second was the UI(very neat and clean)
Best of luck for your upcoming games, hope you succeed :D
Y'know I told myself I'd only spend like a few minutes and then I ended up doing like 7 more runs over the span of an hour. The game concept is super cool and I really like the amount of depth and strategy that is involved with a long run (I managed to get a PB of Year 8), and I love the diversity and different types of approaches to any one run. I think the difficulty rate definitely felt harsh and it's very luck dependent even with a mana focus build or a coin focus build. I also wouldn't mind an option to destroy certain units (like another option in the random set that you get per ponder) to add more possibilities of switching out weaker summons/traps for ones that serve more than one purpose (I'm mostly thinking of mushrooms surrounding things like chests, those could be exchanged for better things)
Overall, amazing game and one of the few from this jam I'm gonna be routinely playing, if it ever gets updated I'd love to know :D
Thanks for feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I'll happily keep you posted about any further developments!
This was super cool and I loved the amount of depth in it + that the entire game takes place in one screen, it sort of reminds me of old games like Solitaire that have a similar vibe (which I love). The aesthetics were super cool too, great job!
Wow, this is definitely the one I've spent the most time playing in the whole game jam! 4-5 hours and I could never beat year 7 so unfortunately I think it might be unwinnable. (Unless you get really really lucky?)
I love the idea here but the randomization makes it way too difficult. I'd recommend if this was made into a full game someday, maybe have multiple levels with preset blocks and a solution to find. (Also orthogonal and diagonal seem to be mixed up in the block descriptions)
It's really, really addictive though and I had an absolute blast even if I didn't win! - Bonnford
First of all, I am extremly humbled that you chose to spend that much time with Core Contest. Luck of the draw is an important factor in this game, especially since due to time constraint the rewards for different playstyles are not equal. Focusing more on puzzle element is an interesting idea that I will give more thought to.
The game is difficult in its current form, and the difficulty is also uninetionally amplified by the lack of proper tutorial, but it should be beatable*. If you have more thoughts about the game, balance, or whatever else I would love to hear them as you are probably the person with second most experience (I am on ShovelJam discord under the same nickname).
*There may be some extreme circumstances that I'm not aware of, but having completed couple of runs without random spawns to test this issue it can be beaten, but I am a dev so I'm basically cheating.
I couldn't manage to beat it at all no matter what strategies I used. By the end I just didn't have enough space left to put down the higher point value blocks in the arrangement they needed. I couldn't find any way to delete blocks I'd already placed. So I struggled to get to 500 and could never reach 700. I hope that feedback can help! - Bonnford
Great job! The aesthetic of the blocks and the fixed GUI reminds me of some of the old school web-based games I played back in the day. Like others have mentioned, there is a lot of info all at once, but once you get the hang of it the mechanics are pretty intuitive.
I think you have created a great foundation to really build up and scale into a full game! Adding new tile types / resources / unlockables can add a deeper sense of progression to it. KEEP IT UP DUDE!
Thanks for the words of encouragment! I'll try to keep you posted, a QoL improvement patch is already in the works ^^
I definitely can see that you could expand this game further into a full game!
The main mechanics of placing blocks is nice on its own, it's like a puzzle thing, and I don't know if that's what you are trying to go for but I feel it could get kinda dull if that's all their purpose. I'm sure you have something in mind but I can see they serve a purpose of like stopping the heroes from invading your realm or something like that.
Also like others have said, there's a lot of info dump for this type of grand strategy game so if you can make the onboarding process feel smoother, I think it could be more well-received.
But anyway, I do see the potential here and I wanna see where you take it in the future :)
I have a boardgame just like this where you build your own dungeon. Very cool concept. One thing though:
Good job (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ
Really cool game.. tbh I really didn't understand what we were supposed to do but there was such fun in just placing those blocks and seeing those resources piling up like I enjoyed it.
I am a noob though
Nice game! I'ts very fun and creative. I'm not quite sure how it fits to the theme tho... I noticed that the orthogonal and diagonal are mixed, so I got a little bit confused at the beggining. I also got a bit overwhelmed with so much information at the start. But I had a good time playing it. Didn't pass year 7 but I'll definetely play more later. (Very smart unit designs you made there, really makes you think on the future!)
Super cool game! The design of the units feels very thought out and balanced. I'm not the best at strategy games but at least I never had any turn when the choice of units was obvious, always had to think about what to buy and control the gambler urges to reroll the shop until I got exactly what I wanted (or more probably waste all my mana attempting to).
The graphics for the UI and the units/resources is also simple in a very clean way, they have the exact amount of detail to look good but not be too charged at the same time. I specially loved Coal Nugget, I find them extremely cute >_>
One strange issue I have is that the words "orthogonal" and "diagonal" in the descriptions are mixed up? Don't know if this is some kind of dialect thing or just some silly mistake that slipped by testing but to me orthogonal has always been what the game refers as diagonal and vice versa. I don't want to be pedantic about language but this makes the game a bit confusing, specially because you can't see the icons for the descriptions of the units after buying them.
I think it would be great to show somehow the units that are affecting other units, for example if I select a placed red chest, having the surrounding red summons highlighted would show me at a glance that everything is working as expected and it would make easier for me to evaluate my placements without being super familiar with the units.
Overall I think this is a great game and I kind of want to (and surely will) play it again, great job ^_^
Thanks for the insightful feedback,. You are correct on "orthagonal" and "diagonal" i may not be a native speaker, but it still is a extremly embarassing mistake. Updating the unit display on hover also makes it to the ToDo list. Once again thanks for help!
Thats a really clever game design you've got there.
Could see myself spent hours on it. Art and music suit perfectly and have a nice polish.
Having done two play-throughs it also feels quite balanced, not to easy or hard, great job.
Thanks for the submission!
The UI is very nicely done and the game looks beautiful, I like what you've done with everything visually it looks gritty and awesome.
Unfortunately, I don't normally play games like this so not too sure on the mechanics (although you did explain everything quite nicely which is good) so probably not the best to give too much intricate feedback but what I did play I thought was really cool. Good job.
Super cool. As a fan of roguelikes, the way this game gets you building combos and praying to the rng gods for good parts is very fun and addicting. There are a couple things I had trouble with though. For one, the tutorial is a lot of information at once, I was able to figure the game out after some trial and error but I think that could've been avoided if the tutorial was playable, rather than just text boxes. The second problem I had was a lack of feedback when hovering a part over a tile. I was expecting it to show me the result before placing, but the number was stuck at +0 until putting it down, and sometimes it wouldn't update above 0 even after placing. (Maybe I'm just not interpreting was "orthogonal" means right, but I thought it was just adjacent and not diagonal.)
Overall, based dungeon builder.
Based rouglike fan, your interpretation of orthagonal is correct, it is the X shape on a grid, do you remember which unit had you experience this issue? Overall, amazing feedback, I'll make sure to include it on my to do list.
It's elaborate and well-designed. Impressive effort. A bit overwhelming, and I agree with some suggesting an easier onboarding, if possible. Great work.
I am extremely impressed! The gameplay is complex but fun once you understand the mechanics. I would say the tutorial is a lot to take in, but otherwise outstanding game one of the tops for me!
That's a high praise, thanks a lot.
I concur with the tutorial needing improvement,
will be retrained once I am allowed to make adjustments to the game.
I love puzzle games