Incredible concept, really addicting and really polished for a jam

cool twist on blackjack. I think this is more lucky than unlucky though for me! I managed to get a complete run where I never went bust and filled the whole screen with cards! I think the number was adding weirdly at some points, so you might have a bug in there somewhere, but overall a novel experience. nice work!

A very clever spin on blackjack. It keeps the basic concept of knowing when to stop, and the excitement of pushing your luck for more cards, which helps it keep the spirit of blackjack while expanding it in an interesting way. The one thing it's arguably missing from blackjack is that every single hit is exciting and ultimately matters a lot, whereas naturally if you expand the card count by a lot, you do lose a little bit of that excitement for each card. Though I don't think that's inherently a problem, it might be worth considering how you can play up those moments that you have to draw a dangerous card, or potentially using those dangerous moments to tempt the player with an especially dangerous choice. I think there's an opportunity to do something cool on the "exciting draw" front.

I felt Aces were a little bit of a weak spot in this, for a few reasons. One, it was difficult to really know where I stood on my number, as it's difficult to keep track of which of your Aces are 11s and which ones are 1s. Might be useful to highlight them or something while they're 11 to dictate when that safety net exists. Though it's worth noting if you have enough 11-point aces, it does make your hand much more flexible and removes a lot of the risk.

I did feel that my final build made the game extremely easy. Specifically, I had half cost positive, half cost negative, no face cards, 25 value max, and 25% bonus; with that I was able to draw to my limit 90% of the time without ever risking a bust (with an average of about 2000 points per hand). Nerfing the aces a bit might help, maybe limiting upgrades too so that they only work on either positive or negative cards/not being able to get the upgrade for both sides. Raising the value from 21 to 25 also felt very powerful, since it raises the ceiling it gives you an average of +4 per card and greatly increases your safety threshold (though it's possible those benefits were exaggerated due to my half point upgrades).

I was a little disappointed that cashing in on blackjack didn't give a bonus. It's an extra-risky value to go for, and it could be fun to have to decide whether to cash in for the perfect number bonus, vs trying to go for more cards.

But to reiterate, I think this is an excellent and very well designed game. I had a lot of fun with it.

Solid foundation for a fun game. Some items are a bit too strong and late game sort of gets mashy and stale with the right items. I did have some slight control issues a bit and keeping track of the aces is a bit hard. Definitely a neat game though with more potential.

So far the best card game for me in this jam. Awesome!!!

went to 25k after learning the ropes, it is safe to say that I am a gambling man. I enjoy this spin on blackjack, I cannot say the original game is particularly fun, but deckbuilder + game of pushing your luck is quite addicting

With the first few playthoughs, I had a difficult time as I was trying to figure out how the negative cards offset the positives. Once I understood that and later revisited the game just focused on the positive or negative final number, it became very fun. An interesting take on BlackJack, Glad there is no real money involved.

This is awesome!! The tutorial was super clear at explaining the concept, too, so thanks for that. You really hit the Gameboy vibe while still adding some flair and polish. Great soundtrack, nice art, fun powerups, nice pace of play. Fun and zen! Great work <3

Wow! That was really fun! The jazzy tune fits the mood quite well, and the cards are smooth and readable. A perfect mix of strategy and blind luck, especially with the more powerful abilities.

The swinging aces rule is really cool, and makes for some powerful plays! Unfortunately, after I had removed the face cards and halved all values, I started getting hands with so many aces in them that I could not tell what my "play score" was in relation to my "true minimum and maximum." I was essentially playing blind. And then, while I was playing blind, I started to wonder if the combination of face removal and all-halving might be too powerful. And then I started playing full hands, over and over again.

I unfortunately didn't record my high score, because I absent-mindedly pressed out, but I had gotten somewhere in the 3000s and had only busted five times, mostly towards the end in a string of bad luck. I urge you to try it; it's a surreal experience

The sound that plays while tallying the score is quite loud; it regularly peaks the audio above -0 dB.

Exploits aside, this was fantastic! Great work!

awesome!!

Overall a nice game :D

I like the idea of the negative cards cancelling out the positive ones, it makes the line of cards very long. It’s satisfying seeing numbers go up with an even bigger multiplier the longer the line of cards is

Honestly, this was more fun than I expected and a fairly polished experience. I loved the graphics and the music was good too. Great work!

Fun game, nice job!

Cool idea with the negative cards. It would be nice to have maybe in the bottom right a reminder of the current modifier you have on, nice game though!

This game was pretty addictive love all the perks you can get and I love just seeing how high I can get my score. Fun twist on the game of black jack.

I loved the game's concept, and it's so well implemented! I'll definitely be playing it again even after the jam period is over.