Oh wow, this one is really impressive. It has so much art made for it in one week and with a cute style. The audio goes perfect with the art, it creates a calming christmas atmosphere. The gameplay was also done very well and have good UX features. I ended up playing for a bit.
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Carol and the Bells: A Cozy Strategy Game's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals | #1 | 4.409 | 4.409 |
| Overall | #4 | 3.545 | 3.545 |
| Gameplay | #7 | 3.455 | 3.455 |
| Enjoyment | #7 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Audio | #10 | 3.545 | 3.545 |
| Christmas Feeling | #12 | 3.773 | 3.773 |
| Special Object Implementation | #22 | 3.182 | 3.182 |
| Theme Implementation | #32 | 2.955 | 2.955 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How did you implement the Theme?
the story happens in christmas, carol the heroess need to use light to avoid damage from enemy and find the bells back for the christmas!
How did you add the Special Object?
you need to find out the bell to finish a level
Comments
Okay, first of all: I loved the art. It's so cute, it looks like a children's storybook. Like, I saw that you were trying to make a card roguelike, the premise is interesting, I've never seen anything like it. But it got a little difficult in the nuns section. I didn't quite understand how the doors worked and stuff, maybe with some new information I could get past that part.
Otherwise, excellent work.
Thank you for the kind words!
A little trick to use when fighting the nun is to use the enemy clues to find where the door is! The nun will always be next to the door, so once you find one enemy (the nun) you have pretty much found the door!) We are planning on polishing the game even more so your suggestion is greatly appreciated!
As much as I loved the intro - great job on that artwork, *and* the artwork in the game in general, btw! - I felt like I must of missed something? Minesweeper, which it feels like this is a cousin to in some ways, gives you far more information on the surrounding cells, but there doesn't seem to be a mechanic like this for each cell here? Just the occasional clue, like "the enemies are not in this row", etc? That's a great idea, but it didn't give me enough clues, so I ended up just randomly clicking around and dying. Maybe some kind of Bomberman-esque light mechanic which reveals all unoccupied tiles in a row might of helped? The production values are great, though.
You don't need(and most of the time should not) to explore every tile, just find the bell and leave, and you can get light to dazzle enemy if you guess it's position, and you can get heal 1 HP everytime you get into the shop,
Those, combined with the hint and other upgrades and cards you bought from shop, should be enough to help you survive enough days 😜
This was so cute! Best intro of the jam for sure, and the gameplay itself was simple and easy to get into - the perfect idea/scope for a jam game. Great game overall, and probably my favourite of the jam so far <3
Absolutely amazing! The art is so good and the even the gameplay is addicting. I found myself wanting to take a gamble and keep going.
This game is amazing! I really had a fun time playing it and was fully invested in it until I completed it. The main mechanic and all rogue like elements along with the minesweeper styled game play make it such a fun and enjoyable experience. Great job!
Very cosy, lovely art. Music was a bit loud >.<
Obviously a lot of work went into this, the main mechanic is pretty fun!
Well done, happy holidays :)
Was not able to beat this one but it was very addicting. I really love the spin on the minesweeper gameplay, and the implementation was very novel. There was a bit of luck involved which I wasn't the biggest fan of (And was the main reason I couldn't get past Horrible Man), but the fact that you guys more or less added boss fights into minesweeper is so cool!
The artwork was really great for this game. Great concept, great story, really got me immersed.
The only thing I didn't fully enjoy was the reliance on trial and error versus more inductive reasoning of the game. A lot of it came down to lucky guessing, even when I started stacking hint, ice, and church cards. I found myself purposefully losing so I could restart the level for the sake of trying again at full health.
There were a few times where I had that lightbulb and figuring it out moment though, so getting past the Nuns/Snowman was fun!
The art and music are SO GOOD! Overall, this game is really cool, and I love the story! The only thing I have to criticize is the tooltips for each tile, which were really big, and could have used a slight delay before they showed up. This game was a lot of fun, and I will definitely be coming back later to complete the rest of it. Great Job, and Happy Holidays





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