Play card game
Prefrontal Vortex's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #40 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Fun | #47 | 3.292 | 3.292 |
| Controls | #64 | 3.083 | 3.083 |
| Audio | #71 | 3.042 | 3.042 |
| Overall | #82 | 2.952 | 2.952 |
| Graphics | #83 | 3.125 | 3.125 |
| Accessibility | #113 | 2.250 | 2.250 |
| Theme | #140 | 2.208 | 2.208 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.5
Wildcards Used
The second wildcard (description pending)
Game Description
A bacteria-themed roguelite deckbuilder where you fight white blood cells.
How does your game tie into the theme?
The game interprets the theme in a metaphorical way in the sense that you gain momentum throughout the run/battles as you craft your deck and set up the battlefield. It also relates to momentum in that story-wise you are traveling through the bloodstream in order to reach the brain.
Source(s)
https://github.com/giraffekey/prefrontal-vortex-demo
Discord Username(s)
masterofgiraffe, Ebrit
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
1
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Comments
I loved this! I often struggle to get into deck builders but this totally hit the sweet spot! My only issue is there’s some bug with directing cards, I made it through the first 10ish battle without ever attacking because when I first tried, it didn’t work, despite the arrow being the attack color. Same for movement, after playing for 20min, I thought “why can’t I move my cells?” and tried some more and then it actually worked. Once I knew that I had to just keep dragging for attack/move, it was fine (never had problems with attack cards).
A few other minor points, when ending a battle, it would often scroll a bunch to the bottom, making scroll-edge-detect a little tighter, as well as coloring the path taken so it’s easier to get back to where I was.
Design-wise, I loved how the enemies responded to each move. It was a little confusing at first, but once I understood it, it really opened up a lot of strategy anticipating enemy behavior. I do wish mouse-over had some extra detail, like attack values and abilities, so I didn’t have to memorize them but it certainly makes sense with jam time-frame.
Also, love the cells traveling the lines! Would love an update with more levels.
really interesting to see a game based off my wildcard suggestion, i think u made really good use of it all things considered! ^^ it did take me a whileee to figure out exactly how the game worked, i think the interface could've been a bit more clear (especially dragging onto other cells is weirdly unresponsive...), but when i finally did figure it out it became quite fun :D
i almost managed to get to the end, the strategy behind this game is very engaging and for me the game hits that perfect sweet spot of difficulty, but to be fair i am new to deckbuilders haha. nice job all around, i quite enjoyed this game :)
I didn't expect this game to be so many people's introduction to deckbuilders. I released an update that (might have) fixed the unresponsive dragging issue. The update also made the game a little harder to beat so hopefully it still hits the sweet spot. Glad you enjoyed!
Very impressive to create an entire card game roguelike under the time restraint of a game jam! I think you had a good mix of classic elements of the genre combined with some really novel mechanics and ideas.
As others have said, I'm not sure how on-theme it was for "Momentum" but it was a great use of the "Mitosis" wildcard theme.
Nice to see the middle wild card being used. Interesting mechanics and nice music good job
Loved this! Really cool to see a deck builder where you are fighting cells in a bloodstream. Nicely done and I had fun with this one!
Awesome idea! Not a big fan of deckbuilders myself but I can see this was an impressive amount of work especially given the time for a jam. Good job and congrats.
I enjoyed seeing your updates in the discord chat. I played 3 rounds before I died, which I think is fairly okay for my first time. I totally might come back to this later to see if I can do better. Nice job!
Really cool little deckbuilder, especially for a jam. The theme, art, and music have a lot of charm, and once the gameplay clicks it’s a fun loop. Overall great work! :D
as a avid card game player, this was really cool! good job mate!
This is impressive to make a roguelike deckbuilder in the span of a 9 day jam! I didn't really get the feeling of momentum here, but you knocked it out of the park on the mitosis wild card!
Yeah I'll have to admit... I liked mitosis as a theme more than momentum so I kind of ignored the main theme. I tried to make it work with the idea that you need to set up good plays early on in the battle or you'll be punished for your past mistakes, but that only makes sense abstractly. I think momentum can be interpreted as "once you make a move, you need to commit to it, because there's no going back."
Maybe something where you can only place cards on the back/leftmost column and they advance forward toward the enemy every turn? I'm sure that would take a lot of rebalancing and it's a bit late for the decision, but that's where my mind first went for how to more literally display momentum/inertia in this context.
Simple but cool take on the roguelite deckbuilder genre, could see this being really cool with some more balancing and content. Nice work!
i always love a good card game! the design was pretty clever and i had fun!
Interesting take on a deckbuilder-style of game !
Had a pretty annoying bug that sometimes cancelled my action mid-selection which forced me to actually drag the attack arrow multiple times towards ennemies to actually do the attack.
The deck info appearing but not closing when exiting their general area with my mouse was pretty annoying too, either made the opening a button too or close it when i put my mouse back in the game!!!
(understandable to keep it open for when you have to scroll but just make it into a button!!! Accidentally hovering above my deck info and having to close it is annoying !!!)
Aside from that, the artstyle and music are super charming, the theming is on point and i had a lot of fun playing it!
Awesome work ! (Flukes are my favorite card <3)
Were you on mobile? I've noticed the action-cancelling issue on touchscreens but not on the mouse.
I will probably change the draw/discard piles into clickable icons instead of hoverable numbers in a future update.
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for playing!
I think the action-canceling bug may have been the result of releasing the web build on Forward+ instead of Compatibility. I never experienced it on desktop but noticed it in the web build. I reuploaded the project on the Compatibility renderer so it might be fixed now.
It took me a while to figure out the gameplay loop, since im totally new to deckbuilder roguelikes (never played Slay the Spire or similar games).
But once i got the hang of it, i had a blast!
I'd only wished for 2 things: An actual tutorial (or tutorial levels) and an option to lower the music volume :D
Really cool to see a card game submitted, extra points for standing out.
I'm a sucker for deck builders so this I really enjoyed this, although it seemed a bit too easy.
I appreciate that there was a bunch of archtypes put into the deck builder although it feels like the game isn't long enough to have any real playstyle take hold, but time is limited in a game jam so you can expect that.
Great job.
Yeah I was originally planning 3 acts with 3 bosses but didn't have time for it, so I did one act with no boss. I think the lack of diversity in play styles and easy difficulty in the game stems from a lack of different cards (other than cells there's only Enzyme, Peptide, and Lifecycle). With more types of cards you'd be less likely to draw the ones you actually need; in the current game it's easy to draw 3-5 Enzyme or Peptide cards when you need extra attack or shield. I might release an update after the jam is over that adds about 15 new cards, could also buff some of the enemies.
In a way, we are all alien microorganisms taking over the brain of our host. If you think about it. I mean, really thing about it.
Okay yes but in this context it means life from outer space.
But are we not also floating through the cosmic void, our solar system swirling in our galaxy, our galaxy itself hurdling itself through the cosmos. I play my cards right and I can control our hosts brain while it eats a tasty snack. Yum
You may have a point.
Really cool! Had a lot of fun with this once I figured out that the cells need to be told to attack by me, I thought they might do it manually, so maybe could have done with a tutorial? Otherwise great job!
Thank you! I tried to make the game intuitive with the tooltips and whatnot, but after submitting the game I was worried people wouldn't realize they need to click and drag from the cells to attack. Might put that in a controls section.