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Monchums: Exact Zero's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artwork | #251 | 4.473 | 4.473 |
| Enjoyment | #1327 | 3.676 | 3.676 |
| Creativity | #1928 | 3.811 | 3.811 |
| Narrative | #2530 | 2.905 | 2.905 |
| Audio | #6792 | 2.284 | 2.284 |
Ranked from 74 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Exact Zero is entirely about counting down to zero — literally. Every enemy's HP is a countdown you control with math: your monchums' attack counts grow by their function each turn (add, subtract, multiply, divide), and the goal is to land the killing hit at EXACTLY 0. Count down past zero and the overkill damage recoils into your own attacker — so the whole game is steering a countdown to hit its mark perfectly, not just fast.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See description for full credits :)
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Jared Von Nickerl
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Comments
AMAZING ART! Reminds me of a mix of slay the spire and super auto pets :)
Yeah! Someone else brought up super auto pets, which I hadn’t heard of – I’m definitely gonna check it out. Thanks for the kind commend :)
I must say, the art on this project is really top notch! I really like the cardboard collage feeling the characters all have, its quite unique in that way. And the gameplay twist on this type of deckbuilder really intrigued me. I found that it reinforced the puzzle-y nature of deciding what to use on each round in a way that actually made me want to try and figure out lethal, when on other games of the type I would probably just throw cards out just because.
I did feel that introducing a second chum to the party felt like a slight difficulty spike, because suddenly I needed to remember to also use the new one's attack value. That might be just because I'm tired , and I'll give it another go some time later. Also felt that lacking music took away from the experience but within the time frame it's completely understandable given the complexity of the game and all the assets themselves! Good entry, would love to see developed further!
Had a lot of fun playing it! The monster designs are amazing! I really loved the art style and how you mixed the Pokemon/Slay the Spire formula with the math mechanics. The only small thing I would've preferred is a UI that feels a bit less inspired by Slay the Spire. Other than that, you've got a really solid foundation for a full game. Congrats! 👏
Thank you! Really glad the monsters landed – they were some of the most fun parts to make.
And I hear you on the UI – it’s the part I’m least happy with right at the moment in terms of hitting the unique flavor we want, and giving it its own identity is high on my priority list. I have a few ideas lined up that I’m excited to try there.
Anyways, thanks so much for your playtest and your kind comment.
When slay the spire meet pekemon on a game jam :
Very good game, I quite enjoyed playing it, its mechanics do differentiate it quite a bit from slay the spire (i'm assuming it's the inspo), and fit very well with the theme! So cool :D
Thanks so much! Really appreciate it! Yeah, StS definitely was a huge inspiration – plus other deckbuilders like Monster Train and hearthstone for the juice/effects and UX emulation. Thanks so much for the nice comment, means a lot that you enjoyed it.
This is Slay The Spire X Pokemon. Incredible execution. I think you have some finetuning to do regarding the fonts and text/presentation, but yes this is a VERY fun game to play.
Thanks so much! Really happy you liked it – honestly, it’s comments like yours about how much fun it is that makes me want to continue its development especially because it was one of the most fun game projects I’ve worked on as an artist.
Also – noted about the fonts and text presentation. Lots of bugs in that department we need to comb through! Thanks for your feedback!
Aside from the lack of music. What youve made here is quite impressive for four days! Congradulations! I am a big fan of the character designs you've made, esspecially given they each have distinct shilouettes making them pretty visually varied.
Thank you! Amber and I really appreciate your comment about the character design silhouettes – she and I went to school for character design, so it’s good to know that paid off. Thanks for playing!
Also, strong agree about the lack of music. That will be among the first things we add into the project should we continue its development.
Our team was composed of a designer (myself) and an artschool dropout (my friend aspen). Im not great at character design as whilst I've studied quite a bit of theory I dont have the things that click yet. So Im quite happy whenever I see a banger design and go "there we go!"
So funny that you say that after playing your game I feel like I should be saying the same back to you haha you guys’ submission was top tier :)
very cool! i liked the math card mechanics, and having the health be exactly 0! it introduced a lot of new stuff and strategies as opposed to the regular just drain their health. great stuff!
Thanks! Yeah, that was the first thought I had when I thought of the idea was how the heck am I gonna make this work when in almost every other game you just want your damage to go up, up, up… Felt like we were entering into bizarre territory that you might want to intentionally nerf your damage.
Honestly I had no idea if it would work so I’m glad it at least ended up partly enjoyable. Thanks for your comment!
I played until I beat the boss. Well done! Art style hangs together well. Only confusing part was it took me a while to realize my hand was emptied at the end of a round. I thought my hand persisted, but I'm not sure why I thought that. I've played a lot of Pokemon and Slay the Spire, so this was a very good time.
Really cool you it to the end! I was pretty nervous when we were playtesting it – I was worried all our time designing the boss and elite fights wouldn’t even matter if people couldn’t get past the first few stages – we made some last minute bold balance changes in an attempt to fix it and I’m glad it paid off.
Regarding the “hand emptying” problem – I definitely want that to feel more clear and obvious, so thanks for bringing it up. I’ll come up with something
Anyways, thanks for playing!
Loved it, just missing music for that good game feel/vibes. Great art design! :-)
Please check out my Jam entry too, I just added a trailer. :-)
Interesting game, pokemon and math and slay the spire all put together!
Great game, here's a playtest - almost made it to the boss @01:03:23
Thanks for the playtest and video. Insanely helpful and we appreciate it big time. :)
it is a really fun game love it a lot, great job. you could add a second level, i don't know if its just me but the boss's reset ability is abusive
Haha yes, that reset ability may have been my doing – sorry about that :D. We definitely plan to add more chapters – the jam’s short timeframe unfortunately limited us to one, but we’re definitely gonna add more asap.
Thanks for playing and for your comment!
Great use of the theme and making math fun. Amazing art. Mechanically engaging
Desperately needs music and more sfx though
Yeahh that was honestly something I was pretty worried about – making math fun – early it was pretty damn math equation-y and doing lots of mental arithmetic and it was really boring so I’m glad it sounds like we fixed that up.
And agreed with you on the music and sfx, we crammed the few sound effects that we had in the last 2 hours and it definitely shows.
Thanks for playing!
The art was amazing, and I loved the multiplicative scaling. The overkill mechanic was creative too!
Thanks! Really glad you liked it!
Fun and interesting game. I love when designers rework existing concepts to do something new. And when that is fun it's just extra good! The beautiful artwork is a cherry on top!
Yeah! Thanks so much. Really appreciate your comment.
A really nice game, with a good concept and art, if u have some bgm that would be better!
Yes 100% agreed, sound is seriously needed... Thanks so much for playing -- appreciate the compliments :)
Such a nice style with a clever concept - really great! One of my favourites that I've played so far
Thanks so much, that means a lot!
Lol bears
Fun game. I hope the 9999 healing bear strategy doesn't get nerfed.
Now I'm curious as I did not realize such a strategy existed xD