Hello there, fellow Downcula folks! This was a fun game to play through. Good choice of music too. I don’t see any VFX assets credited, so assuming you made them yourselves, well done! I have a soft spot for turn-based combat, but I’ve also had some pain points here. I think it’s generally a bad idea to start a new player out with 17 abilities. I suppose your “countdown” interpretation sort of requires this and it’s a bit of a cursed problem. I also noticed that I never had to use different approaches to defeat different enemies, and I didn’t have much reason to care about their attacks. I was very much making meaningful decisions throughout on which ability to use next though (and which ones to give up each turn) thanks to the cooldown and shield/armor/health system. Overall, a worthy contender and a cool double-interpretation of the jam’s theme!
Viewing post in The Curse of Ct. Downcula jam comments
You are spot on! The game end up indeed overwhelming at the very start. We tried adding some feedback on to the user by highlighting the ones that can be used on that turn and showing their effects on the enemy health bar, but it was far from being enough. This is something that definitely needs some improvement. About the different approaches, this is a side effect of tuning the damage and the health of the enemies. Our idea was that different combinations of hp/armor, hp/shield or all three would favor one skill group over another, but the gameplay was too slow and quite boring. We end up sacrificing that strategic side for better combat pacing, however that is definitely something we would like to bring back with more time to tune the numbers.
Thanks for the feedback and for giving our game a try! :)