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Bound Together's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall Fun | #5 | 4.409 | 4.409 |
| Art / Graphics | #9 | 4.591 | 4.591 |
| Controls / UI | #23 | 3.864 | 3.864 |
| Sound/Music | #40 | 3.727 | 3.727 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Ai Usage
Human made
Genre
Strategy
Turn-based | Card Games | RTS | 4X
Rating
Family Friendly
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Comments
This is a fun game. I am playing the Linux download, v0.1.16.3. I liked being able to merge cards and even more so that the order affected the result. For example: Merging Desperation and Collect Thoughts I could discard my hand then draw 2 new cards and have an action to use said cards or I could draw 2 new cards then discard all cards. I have guesses on other good combos that I did not make in any runs.
I like the new collection tab though I started with all cards and treasures shown. It seems to apply all treasures for that combat though I am not sure. Also the cards at the right edge have the popups show offscreen.
I wish that you could save the thread for use at a later time.
The "You Lose" music is loud, and I do not like it.
I did not see the sewing cards animation. I just got a black screen until I clicked on it.
The difficulty was decent. I won on a little over half of my runs
Favorite cards were: Twin Block and Mirroring Rejuvenation Cut.
Favorite treasure: Splash Damage.
I like the crochet theme. I am a beginner crocheter, but I have nothing more to add to what A Wandering Songbird said.
Overall I like this game and would like to see more cards and story.
-T
Thank you for checking it out! I am glad you liked the binding mechanic and discovered the ability to reorder them :) I added the ability to swap because I knew it matters for a few combinations, but that is one I hadn't thought about!
Oh yes, the collection is indeed bugged, I have no idea why it gives the player the treasure effects. I simply removed that button from the current version until I can figure it out. It was mostly intended for my use, but once I get it fixed I will reinstate it. The cropped pop ups has been recorded, I will need to look into that.
Saving the thread is an interesting idea which I had not considered. I think I want to encourage the player to choose a path that is the most beneficial to them based on what they have picked up. If I allow them to just keep everything, then the route planning becomes much less important. To be fair, the route planning in my current version is quite limiting which probably did not help in your runs. In my upcoming release I have added a lot more connections between nodes to allow the player to choose a new path if it makes sense based on the cards they have picked up. Hopefully that will help prevent getting a "reward" which you just have to skip.
I will look into the death music, I adjusted the volume down significantly already. I can also just try to find something better. Since the idea is that players will die along the way, I really don't want that music to be super unpleasant.
It seems the blank animations are an issue with my Linux releases. I have noted it down and will look into it.
I'm glad the difficulty felt about right, that sounds like it is very close to where I want it.
Oh very cool that you were able to assemble a three card combination! That is fairly hard to do in the demo due to the length, and it sounds like a good one ^_^ And yeah splash damage is really nice for turning your single target damage into AoE.
Awesome, very glad you liked the theming and gameplay! I definitely plan to expand the card pool, story, and add a second act so keep an eye out for that ^_^I appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
I am playing on the Linux download. I started playing on v0.1.16.1, and later, after it had been released went to v0.1.16.3. I see that 1.16.4 has been released, but have not played it.
I like the animations on some of the cards, like Yarn Ball, and Pin Storm.
The second combat is a bit tough in my opinion, removing the 12 attack ability would help.
When I merged two cards together, I did not get any animation, all I got was a black screen that I needed to click through. I got the same thing on both versions.
I got the "make a deal" event, and I chose the trade numbers option, but I only had one card that fit the criteria (I went with the yellow one), I could not confirm, but I could go through the rest of the dialog. When I left the event the buttons for show and confirm were still there. The buffed card was the same as before the event. On the new version I did test on a card that I had multiple of (I went with red, +/-4) and it did work, I was able to buff my card and de-buff a different one.
When I had Entangled applied to me and two of my block cards were entangled, when I tried to use a non entangled block card, it applied to the back-most enemy.
After every other event, the info at the bottom right of the map would disappear.
I feel like after you beat the boss you should learn more about who you are and what happened that resulted in you being in the attic.
One of my favorite cards/card combinations was "Body Slam", and being merged with āBlockā, in a way so that block goes first, resulting in more damage from the attack. I also really liked combining "Yarn Ball", with the effect "Mirroring", resulting in giving an enemy two stacks of the yarn ball effect.
I really liked the artist random event, though it did not seem very common, so I did not get to use it much. With the new version I would almost certainly swap out my weak block for something else.
I like the concept of rejuvenation, although each of the times I have tried it, I have gotten a 20% rejuvenation, and only gain one, or less HP with my attack, and that did not feel very useful.
I am not sure if multiple stacks of the yarn ball effect is working properly, it seemed like on the next turn, the enemy's attack would be less than normal, but not reduced by half, closer to three-quarters. An example I have of this, is on one of the fight with the Natelie/Ant enemy, I gave them multiple stacks of this effect, and on the second turn of it, they were going to do 9 damage.
I feel like rest spots should heal a little more then 20 HP, maybe closer to 30.
I like your random events so far, although there are not a lot of places where you can get them.
I feel like the map should be a bit bigger.
I feel like the final boss is a bit weak, the two biggest things that make them annoying is stealing your gold, and having high health. Perhaps adding more to either the boss itself, or giving them allies who have their own special challenges about them could help. Possibly have the boss have an ability to spawn enemies when they are the last enemy on the battlefield.
It might be cool if after beating the game, you had a New Game + mode that allows you to go back through map, with all of your cards and upgrades, maybe starting at the third king event, and allows you to take a different path to the boss. Maybe also give the boss a boost to their attack and health if you continue after beating them, just to make them feel like a bit more of a challenge then they would if they stayed the same.
I like the theming around crochet. A Wandering Songbird already gave you some good advice on this topic, and I do not have anything to add to it.
If you click cancel on the card merging screen, you can re-choose your reward. The options are: Add a button, Skill Bind, and Attack Bind.
On the new version, when I get the game over screen, it does not take me back to the main menu, I needed to pull up the pause menu to go to the main menu.
I feel like, in general, the combat is a little too difficult, as, in almost every combat, I take some damage, because I did not get enough block cards, and since I found rejuvenation gives me 1 or less health, I almost never get the health back. Even when I go to a rest spot, I gain some, but then unless it is the final boss, almost immediately lose most of the gained health. This could be what you are going for, but, these are my opinions.
I like your game so far, and enjoyed playing it.
-R
Thank you for checking it out, and providing valuable insight on the Linux version! I am currently not setup to test on Linux so knowing what does and does not work there is very helpful! I'm glad you like the animations, more to come for sure!
The reason I want the ant Natalie to do 12 is to encourage the player to use the yarnball, though I can imagine if multiple use their 12 attack it could become difficult. I see what I can do to prevent/limit that.
Ah! The missing animations seems to be linux specific, that you for alerting me to it! Sorry it was bugged for you, noted down and I will need to look into that.
And another bug! Yes, I believe I know what happened. You can select a color which you do not have, and there is no way to go back or skip. I need to fix that event to address this.
Hmm, the way that debuff should work is that all skills are disabled. My guess is that one of the old bugs which I have fixed was still around (which causes the buff to go to enemy) and that also made the card not get disabled. If this happened in the 16.1 version I highly suspect this will have been fixed in the latest. The map disappearing definitely should be fixed in latest version!
I agree after the boss is a good place to get a tidbit more story. I have to keep it very light though, as people who play this sort of game are typically highly invested in the card game and mechanics/interactions, and much less interested in story. That is why the beginning just kinda thrusts you into combat without preamble. But I do want to sprinkle some details between each act.
I'm glad you found some powerful combinations, and fun events ! That is the bread and butter of this game, so I am glad it is resonating with you ^_^ Yeah healing in this style of game is extremely powerful, as the core idea is for you to conserve your health across the whole act. So I had to greatly limit the healing you could get, otherwise players could simply spam their healing cards to stay at full health. It created a very reliable (but boring) play pattern so I had to change how healing cards work. That is why the healing is tied to damage, and so low. I did fix the rounding in my local (so not the 16.4 but the upcoming release) so that at least 9 damage provides 2 healing instead of truncating down to 1.
Hmm, that would be a new bug, I will attempt to recreate. Natalie should only ever deal 6 or 12 base damage, so it sounds bugged to me. Noted down.
I can play with the healing a bit, I've seen other games heal a percentage instead of a flat amount which could be an option. Or I could make a path which allows the player to cross one additional rest site over the course of the map, especially if I make it larger (as you suggested and I agree with).
I think I will tweak the boss some more for sure. I might change how enraged work to ramp up, so that each turn that you start with no coins he becomes even more enraged and deals more damage. I like the idea of spawning more enemies, but I am going to save that for another boss. In fact, I plan to make it so the pig is just one possibility. The other act 1 boss will be a Rat which can summon mice, so I think it will be challenging in the way you are after ;)
The full game will have 3 acts, so after beating the act 1 boss you will progress to act 2, health fully recovered and continuing with your deck and treasures. I think I want that to be apparent in my demo, so I plan to include act 1 & 2 when I put the demo out on Steam. And act 2 will definitely ramp up the challenge, so be prepared!
Yeah the theming was a really intuitive fit for my card combining mechanic, and it has really expanded well. I am glad you like it!
Yep, these two bugs should be fixed in upcoming release.
Yeah honestly that is how the game is meant to feel. I tried to convey that by making you lose health from the very first fight. It is supposed to be a marathon struggle where you are hanging on by a thread ;) And the idea is that the game does not get any easier, but the player gets better. Between your knowledge from previous runs and some luck with better cards, you can get farther and farther into the game. In the final game it should be all but impossible to beat the three acts on your first run, you have to learn and improve in order to make it to the end.
I am glad you enjoyed it! It has honestly come together really well in the last few months, and the valuable feedback from you and everyone else on FBQ is shaping it even more. Thank you for taking the time to play and share your thoughts ^_^
Our team team has very much enjoyed your game, and will be following its progress. If you ever need something Linux specific tested, let us know. Feel free to leave a reply to one of the comments here or message on Discord.
Hey! With FQ9 ending soon, I wanted to let you know that I won't be able to cover your game until after the event. If you're okay with waiting, just keep the game on the event and I'll be getting around to it over the next couple of months or so. :)
No worries, that is what I surmised would happen once you switched from submission order to least rated, I was not high on either list. I will keep it on the event and look forward to your future feedback ^_^
Hey Shifty!
The first game I ran into on the Jam that has a Pig, so you win! lol! But seriously, I enjoyed this game, and the binding and the button mechanics add such a nice layer to the genre.
Overall, I had a great experience with this game, I may actually like this better than Slay the Spire! Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing how this evolves!
Regards,
- Glim
GlimMusic.com
Hey, glad you enjoyed the mechanics and the Piggy Bank boss! I would love to reconnect and work with you to improve the scores in my game. I know you said you had other work before you would be able to swing around to it, but how will I be able to check when that stream is upcoming?
Yes, I rewatched and noted down the bugs and rebalancing mentioned during the stream. I am definitely working on more cards, events, and enemies for act 2. I really like the idea of an injured idle for Stitch, especially now that I have threadbare cards! He could swap to the injured idle when less than 1/3 health to serve as a nice visual reminder. I might be able to add a mask to make holes in the enemy too, I will look into it and see how viable it is.
Yeah honestly I need to make a full (likely optional) tutorial by the time I release my demo, and the beads will definitely need to be highlighted in it. After a few turns even people unfamiliar with Slay the Spire were able to understand the resources and the intents, but I feel they need to be explained in the tutorial.
My plan along those lines are the different starting Treasures. In the demo there is the choice of 2, but I think I will change that first one to be just the button at first, and then the vambrace is an unlockable "class". And then some others to offer different starts to your run. Stitch does wear his treasures (not all are finished yet) so the starting class will have a unique look! I don't currently think I will have a different card pool per class, but it will depend how many cards I end up with.
Thank you for the kind words and feedback! I checked out your website and I really like your work. In particular the mysterious piece "Dark Wonders" seems like it fits the vibe I am going for quite well. Looking forward to seeing what you cook up on stream. And I am also open to do a follow up commission for my future trailer, since I think a score actually composed FOR the trailer would be infinitely better. I'll be in touch!
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Hi,
I'm LatinaStrike (a streamer)I do not have any type of experience in game development so my feedback mostly come from my personal play style or even user error. I want to start off by saying that I normally donāt play turn-based games, but the art style immediately caught my attention and made me want to give it a try. I actually think thatās a great thing about your game. The art style can draw in someone like me who normally wouldnāt play this type of games, and potentially turn them into someone who will enjoy it.
I really like the idea of stitching cards together. The map is also really cool because it gives you different ways to go, which keeps things fresh, especially for someone who might want to replay the game. You can have a different experience each time.
I did feel a little overwhelmed at first trying to learn everything, but I think thatās more of a āme problemā since Iām not used to playing turn-based games. At the same time, I think itās actually a good sign because there was enough information provided for someone like me, who isnāt familiar with the genre, to figure things out and play.
Overall, this feedback is coming from someone who normally wouldnāt play this type of game, so hopefully that perspective can be helpful as well! So far I think the game looks great and has a lot of potential.
Hey, thank you for branching out and trying my game, even though it was not your typical game. It is still really valuable to get feedback from people completely fresh to the genre. I am glad (and impressed) that you were able to figure everything out from tooltips without prior experience, as I do not have any sort of tutorial yet.
Is the recording available anywhere? It would really help me shape the future tutorial if I can see which parts were the most confusing.
Thank you again for giving it a shot and sharing your experience!
unfortunately no I did not stream my gameplay. Last Friday I was actually supposed to stream several games but I kept having issues with my audio and had to cancel. Which I hate because I know itās helpful for people to see live reactions. But for me when stitching stuff together TBH I was just randomly picking one lol and the button part had me confused. Again itās probably totally user error but it was a fun experience overall.
Ah no worries, I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss it somewhere! I have a few questions in a google form which I like to give people after they play. Sometimes it helps jog their memories or just get some more details which might have been forgotten. No obligation, but it is very short: https://forms.gle/qmtwr4KDvGz2qnJP9
Regardless, thank you so much for checking it out, and I am glad that others think Stitch is cute and the world is interesting ^_^
Overall:
I hope you donāt mind, but I ended up taking advantage of the FBQ event to have my VTuber ādebutā since my model was ready at pretty much the exact same time I was about to play your game! š
The game very much reminds me of Slay the Spire, which I havenāt actually played yet, so I canāt really comment on that comparison. I can, however, compare it to Wildfrost, which is another roguelike deckbuilder Iām more familiar with
-Art: Lovely visuals, and I really like the 2.5D aesthetic. The art style is also very consistent throughout, which I appreciate.
-Card progression: Being able to improve your cards as you progress feels very Wildfrost-esque. Definitely recommend checking it out if you havenāt already!
-Polish: The game already feels very much ready for a Steam demo. There are bugs but who's demo isn't riddled with em'?
Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation and art direction, and Iām curious to see how the game develops further! If you don't mind I would love to try it again after FBQ is over. Apologies for not being able to spend as much time as I wanted with your game and I would love to make it up to you another time!
Here's the link to my VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2880744500
That is absolutely fine, I really enjoyed the new model, it was very expressive!
Thank you for the kind words, I plan to make a final round of changes based on the remaining feedback from FBQ, and push towards a steam demo. Though I really would like the demo to be Act 1 and Act 2, so I may do just act 1 as part of a public playtest and release the longer demo once it is ready.
You are welcome to try it any time you wish, but if you want to wait for more new content that will be more exciting for you and more helpful for me ^_^ You should also convince Zaf to check it out while you are at it, I think he would enjoy it :) But your review has already been more than enough, you don't owe me anything extra. I plan to cover your game once FBQ is complete, I will reach out to you/Kesh to loop you in when that is happening. It would be great to have someone there, but I understand our time zones are not super conducive for that.
Thank you again for checking out my game and sharing your thoughts!
I'll try to play Slay the Spire before I try the demo again, hopefully it can help me understand the gameplay and genre more. I'm down to keep playtesting for you even before you add more content, especially since you're willing to help Kesh and I with our game ; w;
I'll try and poke Zaf about it hehe, I bet he would! He used to build my Pokemon TCG decks for me to battle with, fr the guy in the chair that has 101 spreadsheets but uninterested in the actual vs. of card games ahah
You will definitely see the Slay the Spire influence, huge inspiration for my game.
Ha ha, aren't you supposed to play games with a spreadsheet open? I know I do :P My game isn't to that point yet, but I really want to create that feeling where players speculate and think about the different combinations and possibilities. Really get them gears turning.
Sir... I am but a single celled, lizard blinking organism. If you ask me to do math, I WILL CRY.
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
doneee :3
This game is really fun. We don't usually go for turn-based card combat games but this one really sucked us in with the fun and cute designs and little bugs with funny names. The actual game system is interesting, too. Lot's to learn as you go and that keeps things interesting.
For feedback, we don't have too much to say but one of the things that really stood out was how fast the action notifications disappeared, so it was hard to see what happened. You can figure it out by looking at the status icons but it would be helpful if those things stayed on the screen long enough for them to be read.
The tool tips, once noticed, really did a good job of explaining things, but they were kind of hard to notice for some reason. They aren't small, and they aren't hidden, but somehow hide in plain sight and that might be something to do with the colors not contrasting enough with the background. Maybe a bold border or something could help there. Or shadows.
Other than that, the pacing is great, the art style is fun, the characters are few but interesting, and we really enjoyed it. This is going to be a really good game when you're finished. Can't wait to see how it turns out!
Hey, thank you so much for covering it and sharing your thoughts!
You are talking about like when the enemy applies a debuff to you, and the debuff name pops up? I can definitely see if I can have it linger longer.
And yeah I have not touched the tooltips in forever, they probably could use a make over anyway. But I agree, I think the muted colors were not popping well on the dark backgrounds, I will look at a board or color change to make them pop. I am really glad the tool tips were sufficient, because while I plan to ultimately have a tutorial for first timers, the fact that everyone has been able to figure it out without one is super encouraging ^_^
Thank you so much!
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Hi...I played your game on windows and it was really entertaining.
Awesome game and love the art style and aesthetics. And the music and sfx totally set the perfect vibe. I can see the Slay-the-spire inspirations here but it has its own unique style to stand out. The whole string-and-stitch theme fits amazingly with the gameplay. I especially loved merging cards, creating some awesome combos leading to dynamic playstyles. And traversing through the branching map also complimented the dynamic playstyles.
Now for some "tough love":
- I felt the pacing was a bit slow, and I don't think it's because of the animation speed. I can't quite put my finger on it but I just wished I could progress faster. However, that just might be a me thing!
- The tooltips were helpful, but sometimes since I was not aware of a feature/system I didn't understand the nuances of those cards/items. For example, after the first battle, I had to select a card as a reward and one option was an attack card (don't remember the name) that is Unblockable. But since, enemies didn't block yet, I didn't understand whether it is Unblockable for the player character or for the enemies. Only in the next battle I realized what its use was (but I already selected a different card). There were some more instances like that, however most were easy to understand.
- Getting some healing/recovery cards earlier would be helpful, but that's not issue I want to mention here. In my first run, I strayed away from the Rest stop path, so I didn't get a chance to heal mid-run. And I didn't get to choose any heal cards in the previous battles too. So when I died, I got the Game Over screen with no replay or quit to main menu option. The drawn cards appeared over the Game Over screen which seemed unnecessary. I had to press Esc and then go to main menu. Then when I continued, I started in the same battle without any health recovery so I lost again everytime I retried. So it'd be nice if instead of the same battle you could let the player start on the map from their previous position. And/or on Retry you can also give the player to recover 50% of their health in exchange for coins/cards or something that suits the gameplay. Maybe you can start the player with a revival item which they can also earn mid-run and players can revive every time they die if they have that item in stock. I can understand wanting the player to start a new run when they die but in scenarios like this players never had a chance to get to the good part of the run.
- Lastly, the UI wasn't giving me any feedback. A sprite highlight works sometimes but just didn't give the right FEEL here. And the End Turn button was so bright, it blended completely with its background and I couldn't even see it for a while making me think I got soft-locked. Also, the card ux was cool, but I noticed when I moved the pointer over the corner of a drawn card, it kept toggling endlessly between large and normal size. I worked on a card game a while back and how I handled a similar highlight ux issue was by keeping a threshold on the card and only after the pointer enters the threshold the card will highlight.
Overall, it's a fun game and I'm looking forward to check out what else you're cooking up for it. FYI, I'm on my 4th run now and going strong. Cheers! :)
I am getting, a "missing token" error on itch when I try to reply fully. Thank you very much for your review!
EDIT:
Thank you equally for the kind words AND the tough love. I came to feedback quest for the feedback, so I appreciate everything you've got for me!
Mmm not too sure what to do about pacing. I see you did additional runs so if you get any more of a feel for what feels too slow please let me know! The most awkward section I've noticed is the part where you get the first attack binding, then immediately talk to Gerald and receive a button. It just feel like you are getting rewards without a chance to try them out, so I think I will try to inject one more fight in between there. The drawback is more runway before you get to make any choices, but I feel like that will be just fine. I plan on that map only showing until you first beat the boss, then a full map with choices all the way will take its place.
Was it siphoning, per chance?
Yeah I can see how that is unclear. Honestly I kinda just lifted that term from magic the gathering but it doesn't really fit my game. I will change it to "All enemies lose 3 health, gain 1 health per enemy drained" if that sounds better? And I am sure that isn't the only place, so definitely let me know if you saw other examples.
Ah, apologies for the cards covering the buttons bug, I am working on fixing that as we speak! The intended behavior is indeed that the run should be over at the game over screen. I plan to update the map to have much better branching paths so that players can more easily opt into healing or into the fight they want. The current map is too linear and it's quite easy to get stuck in a hard spot.
Ah yes! I think I have a task somewhere which very vaguely says "add sfx to everything", I think targeting enemies 100% deserves a sound. Do you think a sound when hovering enemies and their intents would be good or too much? The end turn should look like this, did it look different?
Yeah the card hover is SO fiddly, every time I tweak it I manage to make it worse, but it is on my list to revisit.
I'm glad you are really enjoying it! If you want to keep tabs on future updates you can check my socials or my discord. I have big plans slowly rolling out ^_^ I've made notes of your feedback above, and please let me know anything else you come across. Thank you so much for the review!
Actually...this is how the gameplay environment looks on my system (ss below). Black and white style which I actually found cool.
But I see now from your screenshots that it has colors. I tried with High and Medium graphics and post processing on and off but it still looks black and white. I downloaded the windows pc version today.
About the card, I don't think it was Siphoning. In the tooltip, it said "Unblockable .... something something something" [sorry for my crappy memory]. I'll try some more runs and take a ss of any cards whose details I find confusing.
Just a suggestion, ofc text info is important but sometimes it also helps if you add the exact icons like for damage, heal, etc. that you also use in the gameplay along with the text. However, that totally depends on the visual design and whether it works well with the system or not.
Also, regarding the sfx and showing intents on the enemy hover, it sounds cool but I guess the intent is already seen (a bit hard to understand though, like what is the septagram star thingy??) and if there is no multiple hero characters the enemy can choose from and attack, showing it over them throughout is fine, instead of hiding them and only showing on hover. Sfx and highlight on hover would be nice but I'd suggest a subtle one.
Hope this helps. Thanks.
Oh no! that is most certainly not what it is supposed to look like! Ha ha it looks like luckily my outline post processing made it at least visible. Would you be willing to share your system specs with me? I suspect this is a graphics card issue, but I will need to declare a minimum spec on steam so I would like a reference point to know in case this is an issue for others.
Hmmm, then not sure. If you hit escape during the game you can click the collection button to see all the cards. Let me know if you find it in there. Yes, I definitely need to look into icons, I have heard using color only is bad practice due to accessibility. The only reason I haven't yet are technical knowledge. I need to look into how text boxes work and see what my options are for getting an icon symbol in there. I will add this to my list though, because I feel its helps legibility a ton.
Yeah I will try out a subtle sound and see how I like it. Sorry you got the whiteout version of my game XD
Here is my system specs :
This was a good time! Thanks for swinging by the stream and requesting a review! Glad we were able to find that animation bug for you to fix as well. Some general comments:
The VOD for the review is linked below, and will be available 60 days from the day of broadcast:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2870092300?t=0h7m12s
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2875399165?t=1h10m4s
Thank you for playing (and doubly so for revisiting after I fixed the game breaking bug) and for detailing all of these out! I have captured almost all of these as todo tasks, but I do have a question on #7:
It feels a little bad to get an add modifier event without having a modifier on hand. It's not necessarily bad, but does feel that way a little.
My hope/intent with this was to encourage people to plan their route on the node map based on the cards they receive, which is why the reward types show on the map. I know the reward legend was not yet implemented in the version you played, but did that come through at all? I think I need to revisit the node map overall and make more branching paths, because in its current state even if you know what you need/want, you can easily get stuck on a route which has nothing beneficial for you.
The enemies display their next move before the turn is fully resolved which feels somewhat odd / confusing
I revisited this section where you mentioned this and I definitely see the general issue. Absolutely everything happens at once, and its really hard to follow the action and to focus on what is actually important. Currently when you end your turn:
I'm trying to figure out a way to make things clearer. I want to try moving the next intent pop up to the very end, after ALL enemies have moved. That way the flow is easier to follow. I am also going to change how the mice work, which should ease how frequently their intent updates. I am open to suggestions if you had any other particular ideas, but hopefully this will be a step in the right direction.
Thank you again for the review and write up!
yup for #7, I think the reward legend would ease some of that friction. I recall we talked about it a little on stream, I just wanted to make sure it was noted here.
for #10 I can see how serializing the events would take a longer time, but I think the slightly longer wait would be worth the clarity of what goes on (the player gets an animation speed slider anyways). Resolve all the enemy events, then show new intents, then draw the hand. I don' t think the mouse updating it's intent immediately is so bad, I'm just really bad at reading an enemy's initial buffs.
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Gameplay starts at 15:00
This was a cute, clever game! I liked the branching options for the run, so you can have different ways to play. The string/ragdoll aesthetic is a cute choice. The game was fairly intuitive, but not knowing which beads on the "abacus" lead to minor confusion. If you could add some info when you hover over said bead (action bead/special bead/attack bead) that could help. The way you can get info just by hovering is great, and stitching together cards to make new amalgamations is enjoyable.
I died to the boss and was unable to click out/had to press ESC to open the menu. Still, a fun game and solid concept!
Thank you for checking it out!! I am glad you felt it was intuitive enough despite the lack of dedicated tutorial. I have added a task to make the different bead types hoverable, since you did exactly that but the information you needed was not given. I have also noted down the other small bugs which came up. I appreciate your insights ^_^
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
What a fun game! I really enjoyed this - Combining cards by stitching them together is such a fun idea and I appreciate how it ties the mechanics and aesthetics together so simply and cleverly.
I've never played slay the spire before, or any slay-the-spire-likes, so as someone with no prior knowledge of the genre, I think you did a really good job at explaining things intuitively. I was never confused at what was happening or why things were the way they were. I really can't think of any good criticisms or feedback to give... Maybe a lame answer but everything was rock solid!
I'm so excited to play more of this! Powering up cards was super fun, and I can imagine that there could be some very satisfying emergent moments where the player is able to create a real OP card and have a killer run. Just a lot of fun!
Also, as someone who loves a good unreal engine shader, the cross-hatching shadows look REALLY good. Nice stuff!
Played it here on stream around 4:30
Thank you so much for trying it out, it sounded like you streamed it, so sorry I wasn't there. I thought I was keeping tabs on all the streamers involved in the jam, but I must have missed you T_T Super appreciate the VOD, it was very useful. I was able to catch 3 bugs which need to be fixed from your playthrough, but happy there wasn't anything that impeded your enjoyment.
Yes, that is the hope with card crafting. As I add more and more I am excited to see what powerful things people come up with. And yeah the cross hatching took some work but really happy with where it finally landed, and I felt it fit super well thematically with everything being hand crafted.
P.S. Glad you escaped your Cujo situation
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
This is a really cool concept for a rougelike deck builder. The theme, art and music are all really well done and make the game feel really good. The concept of combining cards is also a interesting game mechanic. It adds a lot of replay ability and potential combinations to the game. I feel like more healing effects, cards to shuffle your some/all of your hand or more debuff cards would really help with strategy. Really enjoyed the game and look forward to what you do in updates, great job.
I am glad that you enjoyed the theme and how it tied in with the mechanic of combining cards. Combining cards was the core idea I started this project with, so I am glad it is compelling to others as well! I definitely have plans to expand on the cards and effects that are currently there. Was there any effect you were hoping/expecting to see but didn't?
Thank you for checking it out and sharing your thoughts!
Depending on what you are going for with this game it may not fit but I really like buffs and debuffs. Part of the fun of these turn based games for me is the choice to influence the numbers through decisions. Feel like with your combining mechanics it could also be really cool, a shield with a attack buff for example. May be overpowered but in a rougelike sometimes having options like that could be fun.
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Solid game! I put together a video review of the game and am going to send it to you once it's uploaded. Keep up the good work!
Oh awesome, can't wait to see it!! Thank you for doing a review :D
Reviewed the video, really appreciate your suggestions and bug finds! Thank you for the recording, it really helps a lot :D
A rare gem of this Jam, had a lot of Fun playing this.
Overall Fun: It suddenly is a game of the one of my favorite genres but covered with an unusual idea. "Hearthstone" but only Your Hero on a table? Why not? Or maybe You has an inspiration from "Slay the Spire"? I could say: it worked.
Graphics: Power of UNREAL ENGINE! The work with rendering, materials, animations, are Out of This World! I haven't succeeded to achieve this quality in my game. Visuals are absolutely Banger here!
Controls: Mouse Cursor only. It is such simple. Nothing more was needed.
Sound/Music: It exists. Human made, not AI. It worth.
===
The Big Point (Hello Fairy!)
After the second Encounter, when returned to the map, the description of icons was Hidden (not Visible), so for the next turn I had no idea what is on the next node (despite I remember Green Crown icon stands for a story quest). Maybe it's just a little mistake somewhere, because the description was Visible on every next return to the map.
A very low amount of Gold earned. When reached the Tailor Shop (Scizzors sign) at the end of the map (next node was a Camp, then Boss) I did not have enough money for some goods (I had 125/180).
I may be mistaken, but does the Bite card (Deal 4 damage, heal by 5 if this attack kills) heal when used against Boss? Or I just had a brain lag, lol?
By the way, yes, it's no sense to collect AOE cards (low damage to a group). In regular battles, there are many enemies with big amount of health and armor. Leaving a s scratch on each enemy is useless, you rather buff Your damage and use two strong cuts on a single target and defeat it. In boss battle, there is a one Boss, single target, AOE becomes "low damage to the one", of course You want to have "BIG damage to the one" instead.
Definitely gameplay based on Slay the Spire, but I have played so many card games over the years that all inspired some aspect of this. I would say the biggest influence from Hearthstone is that I loved the concepts from Hearthstone that are just impossible/awkward to replicate in paper games. As much as I love Magic the Gathering, there are some things that are just only possible in digital card games. I felt Hearthstone used that to its advantage and really celebrated the digital environment and I really wanted to do the same. Probably the biggest are transform cards (likely unseen in the demo) where actions throughout the run accumulate, ultimately causing your cards to change forms. I would love to hear if there are any cool things that Hearthstone does which I could incorporate in my game ^_^
Thank you, I really worked hard on the visuals recently, and got back to my roots. I studied 3D graphics in college, but hadn't touched it in a decade, so working on this game has been really great to return to it. :D
Ah yes, I think I have this legend bug recorded somewhere, but accidently mis-categorized it so I didn't resolve it in this build. I will pull it in and see if I can patch it out.
I will revisit the gold, it definitely feels bad if you don't skip any fights still being unable to purchase some cards at the shop. Should be an easy adjustment.
Nip very well could be bugged, healing cards were all recently adjusted so I might have missed something. Was it just the base Nip card, with no modifiers? And only happened during boss fight?
Yes, the plan is to get a broader variety of enemies which make having at least some AOE cards a good idea. Plus the strategy of adding status effects to AOE cards can be a powerful one. But I agree the current Act 1 setup does not showcase their value well. Noted.
Thank you for taking the time to try it out and leave your thoughts!
Answering the question above: Yes, Nip card was basic, not modified, as the card self has its own restriction to its max potential, therefore adding another conditions to it doesn't have much sense. I am not sure it is something wrong with Nip card in certain, but after playing many cards in my hand plus Nip on a boss, I thought "Wait, am I healed? What happened?". I am not sure, maybe it is just my brain lag, OR I really got a healing effect from something I just played fast without thinking much. Needs to be checked, I may be wrong, sorry.
First the good:
-The first nodes are very good at introducing the game's unique mecanics
-Binding animations are cool. It is a good thing that they can be skipped, as I don't see myself watching them more than once per run.
-The aestetic is quite unique
The big point:
The game balance seemed off to me. With the binding/upgrade mechanics, the idea is that you want to quickly combine your skills together, forge a few powerful attacks and use card removes to get rid of extra attacks so you have a thin deck full of crafted powerful cards. Why not, it gives the game quite a different gameplay feeling compare with let's say slay the spire. My problem is that the game keep proposing in its card rewards a lot of cards that doesn't seem to justify their inclusion in the deck by themselves (except may be reckless assault who is the only high damage card I remember). For example cards like "deals 1 vuln to all enemies", "deal 3 damages to all enemies" or "next turn get an extra bead". It feels very weird that the cards the player can get have a very difficult time comparing against the basic block or the opportunity cost of simply combining two blocks. Attack augment follow the same pattern, why pick one when you could combine two blocks and card remove an attack?
The rational move is to skip card rewards until you get something really interesting or until you have already combined everything (and added a knob to every cards, for good measure). At least with this demo, the game didn't give me a reason to act in any other way, hence how I finished my runs with so few cards. Once a strong deck is assembled, basically nothing can perce through my block-blocks, not even the boss. I just need some extra damage.
In short, I don't know where you are going with the balancing, and since I don't have the full picture and can't say how much of a problem it actually is. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the matter.
=== Some other minor things I noted ===
It is very counter-intuitive that a cantrip card combined with a non-cantrip card doesn't cost 0.
Reckless assault being a skill seems like a big flavour fail.
Me trying the number change node:
-Wait, I only gain 3 on one of the two numbers of my block-block card?
-Wait, why can't I go back to choose another card?
Seymour enemy: It is very hard to keep track of their damage, as you need to take into consideration the hand discard (and possible reshuffle). I would suggest to use the scrap size when "end of the turn" is pressed instead.
The anchor has the same "hand discard at the end of the turn" confusion. Also, I don't think it should trigger the reflect effect, as the player will likely not realise that the anchor will deal damage at the end of the turn.
I saw the scrap pile saying it is empty when it wasn't (I think it was when there was no card in it at the start of the turn, after I just played one card)
Be wary with healing even if it up to 20HP, some degenerate people may stall fights until they get every scrap of heal they might get.
Conclusive: The "deals 5 extra damage" is not reflected on the card damage value, which is very confusing
Stretch => attack point => you mean attack bead?
I'm glad you liked the intro and aesthetic ^_^
Yes, the trouble is that all cards need to be relatively simple so that they can be combined with others, but that can make them sound uninteresting when they are offered. I think my leading idea to address this is to simply disallow the player from combining a card with itself. By removing Block + Block, the player would be forced to take new cards if they want to take advantage of skill binding. Which should force the player into a more fun play pattern all around, and also make it a lot harder to turbo stack armor. Thank you for highlighting this issue!
Would you say the confusion is due to the fact that cantrip is a keyword? Or that it is unclear how the cost gets determined? The way it works is that the cost of cards is averaged together and rounded up. So a card costing 1 + a card costing 0 = 0.5 which rounds up to 1. Does that part make sense? Does it need to be explained in game? I was hoping being able to see the preview would be enough. I think it can be confusing because I have the cantrip keyword which just poofs. I just worry that it wont be very clear that a card is free without it.
What makes you say that Reckless Assault is a flavor fail? I don't think I want anything which deals damage to automatically be an attack, that is very limiting design-wise and makes skill centric decks not viable. What did you feel like makes a card an attack versus a skill?
Yes, I probably need some means of going back during the Magpie Event. Its a little clunky to implement so it was deprioritized. You can also choose a number that you cannot use, which is a higher priority. I'll try to address both issues when I revisit.
Agreed about Seymours, it's basically impossible to correctly predict. I think I will try your lock in EOT suggestion.
I have also noted down the other small items to look for: anchor interactions, scrap pile bug, conclusive values, stretch outdated wording.
Thank you for bringing up your concerns on the balancing/problematic play patterns which can emerge. I think they can be a little hidden in the playtests because people generally try out different things, but if I don't address it and leave a clear optimal way to min/max the early game, then the replayablity of my game suffers horribly. I really appreciate the insight on that front!!
-Banning Block-Block may be a good idea to solve the issue, yes. It would make the "plan" quite different.
-I was convinced a combined cantrip would be free because of the keyword and because the effect of the base cantrip card was so weak.
-I don't have any problem with the fact that reckless assault is a skill per say, but I feel it should be called something else. Reckless assault evoke an melee attack card, not a skill card. Maybe something like "Barrage" (I am not good at finding names)
Glad you found my feedback interesting. š§
About "banning a Block Block", basically yes, you shouldn't be allowed to combine any two same cards, not only Blocks. This feature meant to be used to merge two different actions into one card, not to double-strengthen the only one certain.
Yep, I'm working on a patch right now which disallows combining of the same card. I think this will encourage more fun experimental gameplay and removes the simple strategy of block + block = win :P
Good one, I'll try it again later down the line to see how it progresses.
I really like the setup, the graphics, and the all around LBP/Unravel vibe. It's a cute aesthetic and the other elements that come down the line fit into the theme too - like the binding mechanics (and the other card morphs) are cool, both as gameplay but also the satisfying animation that creates the morph action. I like some of the fresh card types and their design, and some of the relics too. There's also a good bit of satisfying moments, visual plus sound - deck shuffles comes into mind - all these tiny details add up <3
You might want to test it on ultrawide; and don't worry, a lot of big title don't do this and it's an early build too. The end turn button action area being off by 60-70%, I have to click someone top right of the button or outside the button to get the hover click action. And on the very same topic, the map shows nice in the midle, I can see how much it was done for the FHD, but the edges of the screen are white. And there's some other overlays that don't cover the screen well on ultrawide. If you don't want to optimize for this, you can lock the title on full hd even on ultra wide, and have black left/right, rather than have the game be visually broken.
We really like Slay the Spire 1/2, I had a joke on your stream that we called Steamdeck "the Slay the Spire machine", bought the boardgame too. With this disclaimer out, I felt it was a bit 2 much like STS, from tooltips, to actions, to map and even the encounter/rest icons. Now this was a good thing for me to test the game, I felt at home, but as the game dev goes on maybe you could stray a lil bit more out of STS so I don't get this insta vibe that it's a 1-1 copy (I know it's not, it's just 2 familiar on some parts).
All in all, a well thought take on the genre that has it's own DNA, keep at it and good luck with development.
Cheers!
Ah yes, the ultra wide issue is known, thank you for bearing with it! I definitely need to do as you suggested and lock the resolution to HD to avoid the myriad of issues you have described.
It has been a constant battle to move away from StS (which is clearly what everything was originally based on) but I have done my best to pull from different inspirations so that it doesn't feel SO much like StS. For example, the buttons were inspired by the purple seals from Balatro, the binding mechanic was inspired by the fusions from Yugioh, the more simplistic card effects were inspired by Dominion, the archetypes were inspired by Magic the Gathering, and the transform cards were sort of a combination of meld cards from MTG and concepts from hearthstone. But at the end of the day, the gameplay still feels like StS. So I would definitely be open to any ideas to help it feel a bit different, or alternatively if there are any gripes or things you don't like about StS maybe I can differentiate by addressing those issues ;)
Thank you so much for giving it a try, especially in suboptimal conditions. I definitely value the feedback from StS fans, as ultimately, I really do want to make a game that is interesting enough for StS fans to try.
Dominion <3 Didn't even knew there was a Steam game, we do have the old boardgame, 10/10.
Don't undersell your game (I would totally do the same haha), it's in a good shape and it has it's own DNA like I said. And bugs be bugs, always from 0.1 to 1.0 right? And it's normal to get inspired too.
It was mainly where all the tooltips, flow, intents, map design and icons. Hell, even Slay the Spire 2 (I know you're avoiding it for now, you said it on stream) looks way too much like Slay the Spire 1 for my taste. I wish they took a bit of a risk and innovated a tiny bit more.
On the other hand Monster Train took the recipe and added some of their things over STS1 (clear direct inspiration) to a point where it didn't feel like STS1. That's what I meant. Sadly if I had any good ideas on how to spin STS1, I would try it myself haha, but I don't.
But I'm sure you'll find it piece by piece, especially after you are done with the 'base' game and ask yourself - NOW WHAT?
Good luck my friend, fingercrossed!
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Longer written feedback coming later as I will be busy for the rest of the day.
I liked the art style, and the gameplay was fun overall. I'm looking forward to the full release to see what kind of endgame deck I can build.
The learning curve felt pretty smooth. The descriptions were clear enough, and the combat encounters introduced new things at a good pace. I could clearly see how different enemies pushed me toward different strategies.
The binding system feels quite strong. If the full release uses something similar to Slay the Spire's three-stage structure, I'm a little worried it might become too easy to bind most of the deck into very strong combinations. (Since card deletion feels frequent now) It may just be something to watch as the full progression gets longer.
For QoL, I'd also like to see some hotkeys. I'm used to playing this kind of game with a keyboard, so having shortcuts for common actions would make it more comfortable for me.
Thank you for the interest and kind words! ^_^
Yes, I am actively working on ideas to ensure the powerful rewards don't trivialize combat. Thinning your deck while powering up cards makes you quite powerful quite quickly. My first pass at nerfing this is in the works now, I may even have it in the patch later this morning! I am making it so that instead of getting to choose any of the three post-fight rewards, they are preselected and visible on the map. That way there is overall a little less card binding, taking a modifier is more of a decision, and you can plan your route based on what you get. I think it will be a big win, but I will keep an eye on this issue and see if more steps need to be taken.
Noted down hotkeys in my QOL section of my task list. I used to have a couple, but removed them due to bugs (you could end the turn in the middle of choosing which card to discard for example). Adding them and making them remappable will take a little bit of doing, so it's good to know that there is interest in that before taking it on.
I appreciate your taking the time to play and leave your feedback :D
That reward change sounds really promising. Making the rewards visible on the map should make route planning more interesting too, rather than feeling like a nerf to binding. Also, this might solve the other problem that I'm not sure when I'll get a card binding/button. I've seen Vault of the Void doing something like that—making it clear nearly every reward for the battles.
Looking forward to trying the next patch!
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Crocheting, particularly amigurumi, is one of my favorite hobbies. When Triston Griffiron recommended this to my partner, my partner passed it along to me knowing I would want to play if for no other reason than the crochet doll hero. Stitch is delightful, and I low key want to crochet my own.
The art is wonderful. I'm particularly fond of the sewing needle and thread and the pins to show who is going to be targeted by an ability. The animation when stitching two cards together and sewing a button on are quite fun, though I also appreciate that I can click to skip them if I wanted to. The sewing kit to end turn and the abacus to keep track of the number of abilities really helped add to the feel of the game. I really liked that when joining cards, the order you clicked on them changed the way the card look. It was cool to see the different ways I could combine two different cards. The enemies are pretty cute, and I like the way they are 'stuck' on the popsicle stick. I even like some of the playholder art, and felt it did a good job of conveying to the player what you have in mind for the finished project.
The volume wasn't well balanced. I turned my volume up because I could barely hear the music at the beginning. For much of the game the sound seemed fine, but every so often I would get a sound or a bit of music that was uncomfortably loud. It was most noticeable with the sound that played when sewing two cards together, in part because that particular sound was unpleasant for me. I played around with the volume settings on the main page, which did help a lot, but I still played the game with my volume set on the quieter side so the louder sounds wouldn't be too loud.
When I added a button to a Block Card, it would target the last enemy instead of myself if I actively used it. I noticed it with both a White Button and a Blue Button. I noticed it with the White Button on my first run, when I was still experimenting and figuring out how things worked, and with the Blue Button when I wasn't paying enough attention to the card to notice the button. I know the buttons add bonuses when you discard a card instead of using it, but it does seem odd that using it would benefit the enemy in this case instead of myself.
On one of my runs, I got the Poisonous Stuffing Treasure. Afterward, it seemed like I would sometimes take damage when I attacked. It wasn't clear whether that was do to the Treasure or something about the enemies I was facing, though I don't recall having taken damage when attack them before (the enemies were Ginni T. Poppins). Editing while doing another run: It was due to the enemies. I don't think I really acknowledged their Momentum ability before, in part because the other times I had faced them, they were with other enemies and focused on the other ones first. I was facing three of them, and one of my cards did damage to them all. I noticed that they all got poisoned, and then saw that my health was lower than I had thought it was, and connected it to the Poisonous Stuffing instead of the enemies ability. I don't think this is an issue on the game's end, as the ability is clearly visible and mousing over it explains things just fine. I was just paying more attention to the poison than anything else and that was on me.
I think the biggest thing I would have loved to have seen more of was crochet and yarn specific related items. Maybe something like a mini crochet hook as a healing type card or Treasure, or having the hammock look like a granny square at the rest sites. Throwing a yarn ball as an attack was fun (though I was also going "Nooo! Don't tangle the yarn!" each time I use it lol), and I loved the way you used needles, pins, and thread throughout. But I also wanted more yarn things. Also, as a small note, at one point the king referred to Stitch as a "knitted knight". I personally don't get annoyed when people use knit instead of crochet for my work and was amused by the alliteration, but I know there are several folks in the crochet community do find it frustrating when a crocheted item is called knit. I don't know if it's something that really needs to be changed, but I wanted to give the heads up because it was something I did acknowledge.
Overall, I thought the game was fairly easy, though for a jam game or demo, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I lost twice, once on my first playthrough and once on a playthrough where I was doing a bit more experimenting and testing certain things I came across in earlier plays, but most runs I won. There were a few card combinations that felt very powerful, such as combining a Block Card with Body Slam, but it also felt rewarding to figure out those sorts of combinations. Luck definitely played a factor, which is to be expected in this type of game, but it felt like it favored the player a fair bit. That said, I had fun with it, and I still needed to think about my card choices and combinations in order to win.
I really liked the core idea of the game, with the combination of deck builder and crafting imagery, and I think you put it together really well. I hope you continue this and make a full game, with more story and acts, because I had a lot of fun playing it.
I am glad you l enjoyed the setting and loved Stitch! He is a little rough around the edges, but that is part of his charm ^_^ If you DO happen to make a Stitch doll I would absolutely love to see it!
I will take another look at the sound balancing, I believe the animation sound is controlled by the SFX slider, but I can see if it starts out louder than the rest. If you can help me identify which sounds felt jarring I can lower them individually.
Oh no!!! I thought my emergency patch fixed the button bug. Just to 100% confirm, you were on version 0.1.16.1? Zflocco had that bug in version 16 but I thought I fixed it. I will step through and see if I can recreate it.
Did you only apply one button during each run? Or were the white and blue buttons from the same run?I was able to recreate! It's the button granted by King Gerald which is still bugged, the post fight reward is working. Thank you for bringing my attention to this, patches incoming!I would love to add in some more niche crochet terms. Unfortunately, I am merely borrowing the theming, I am not myself a crocheneer (I assume that is what you call yourselves? :P) But that said I am a huge logophile, so I would absolutely lean harder into the theming if you have suggestions. I think the treasures would be a great spot to get more in (I have plans for a thimble helmet for Stitch) but a crochet hook would be a great addition. And I will note down granny square for the hammock, I can pass that along to Froody when we go from my sketch to her art.
I will definitely keep expanding on it, I have acts 2 and 3 planned. I also have story elements planned, but they are mostly going to be told in the in between. I am trying to very subtly tell a story about the "character behind the camera" but in the demo it is basically nonexistent. Thank you so much for sharing all of your thoughts and kind words!
Sure, if I make a Stitch doll I can absolutely share.
There were two sounds in particular that stood out as being overly loud. The first was the sound that played during the animation of sewing two cards together. My first time playing, I set the master volume up because the music on the title screen was so quiet. The first interactions and combat sounded fine, but when did my first card combination, the sound during the animation was much louder than anything else. I turned my computer's volume down at that point, but that made the music and other sounds harder to hear in general. I lost during that first run, and the game over sound was also very loud. While that sound was louder than I found comfortable, it wasn't quite as bad as the card combination one was, though I think it was because it didn't happen as often. On following playthroughs, I adjusted the in game volume controls a few times, and found that having the music near full and the SFX at about 25% worked best. It did mean most of the SFXs were hard to hear and I had to actively listen for them, but I found that preferable.
The term I use, and see most often, to describe a person who crochets is crocheter. And I can absolutely give you some suggestions for crochet and yarn related things and terms. I'll include a bit of a description for what each thing is and used for, starting with the two I already mentioned. Buckle up!
Crochet hooks: This one is pretty obvious, but hey, nothing wrong with starting with the basics. They come in several different sizes and shapes, though the basics are similar throughout. Your most basic ones are a straight metal, plastic, or wood piece with a hook at the end. Ergonomic ones will have larger handles, sometimes made of wood or plastic, sometimes made of rubber or silicone, to make them easier to hold and work with. The different sizes impact the size of the finished project, and some sizes work better for some weights of yarn than others. I don't know how much of a rabbit hole you want to go down with different crochet hooks, but even just a simple Treasure called "Crochet Hook" would be really cool.
Granny Square: A granny square is a type of crochet stitch pattern. They are often recommended as beginner projects, because they can be easy to learn and make and you can do a lot of different things with them. While there are a lot of different styles and variations of them, the classic granny square is a great way to signal to people that something is crocheted, because of how distinctive it is.
Scissors: Not just a crochet thing, but definitely important for crocheting. If you want to include a cutting tool that is a little more niche, a yarn cutter could work. A yarn cutter is a circular tool that has small notches in it to expose the blade inside. You place the yarn in one of the notches and give a little pull to cut it. They are often fairly decorative and have a place you can add a chain or similar to wear it as a pendant.
Locking Stitch Markers: These are tools that are used to help mark crochet work. There are a lot of different ways they can be used, so here are some examples. They are used to mark the beginning or end of a round, they are used to help keep track of the number of stitches in a row, they can be used to help keep track of the number of rows, they can be used to mark what stitch you need to attach two pieces together. There are several different designs for locking stitch markers, but the core feature is they can open and close so they can be easily added or removed from the work. You can also just call them stitch markers, but since there are a couple of different styles of stitches markers and not all work with crochet, I wanted to be specific.
Tape Measure: Again, not just a crochet thing, but they can be quite useful for crochet. If you want something similar that's a little more crochet (and knit) specific, you could go with a swatch ruler. While there are a few different designs for them, the most common one I have seen is a square with a smaller square cut out of it and measurements on the sides. They are used to check gauge in a project, by placing it on the work and counting the number of stitches and rows within the square. Some will also include holes you can use to check the size of a crochet hook or knitting needle.
Gauge: Gauge is the number of stitches and rows in a certain area of crochet fabric, often a 4 inch by 4 inch or 10 cm by 10 cm square. Gauge is important for projects where the final size is matters, such as in sweaters or hats.
Safety Eyes: Not specifically crochet, but sometimes used for stuffed toys and amigurumi. These are a type of eyes you can add to toys.
Amigurumi: This is a Japanese word for a crocheted or knitted stuffed toy. It is widely used in the fiber arts community, particularly for crocheted stuffed toys. Stitch would qualify as an amigurumi, though I think continuing to call him a crocheted doll is good as it is descriptive and probably clearer for folks who aren't in the fiber arts community.
Okay, I hope I haven't overly inundated you here. There is more I can talk about if you are interested (I haven't even really mentioned different crochet stitches), but I don't want to give you too much if it would be overwhelming or more than you want to think about trying to include.
This is great stuff! I have already adjusted down the volume of the binding animation, it is about 1/3 of its original volume which means it was indeed far too loud relative to everything else. Thank you for alerting me to it! I made a note to double check the death sound as well.
I added yarn cutter, locking stitch markers, tape measure (cant believe I forgot this!), swatch ruler, safety eyes to my list from earlier. And added gauge to my terms list. One thing that has been a little difficult for me, is that I want to ensure my setting is believably in the the 1950s. So I have been looking up the various crochet objects/tools + vintage, but its sometimes difficult to tell if I am looking at something actually old or just fake old XD Like when I search vintage locking stitch markers the thing I see mostly look fake old to me. If you happen to have any older supplies that you don't mind sharing I would love to see a picture of what they look like.
As for types of stitches, I am not sure if anything that technical will come up, since the cards are generally where the fantasy takes over and leaves the real world details behind. But, just in case, are there any specific stitches/terms:
Thank you for your help in adding a bit more realism and depth to my game. At some level I will have to take some creative liberties (and offend crocheters by slipping in some knitting references) but I really do think details like this will help overall :D
Hmmm, I'm not as familiar with vintage crochet tools. I feel like going with bulb stitch markers in plain metal colors might be okay, but I'm not 100% sure on how old that style of stitch marker is. Bulb stitch markers are a type of locking stitch marker that looks a little bit like a light bulb in its shape. I know some people will use things like safety pins for stitch markers, so if locking stitch markers aren't quite giving the right look and feel. I'd also recommend going with straight metal or wood crochet hooks over ergonomic ones. I don't know how common ergonomic handles or plastic hooks were in the 50s, but straight metal or wood handles were absolutely a thing then.
I figured that you probably wouldn't be going too depth into different stitches, which is why I focused more on tools and such. To answer your specific questions:
I'm not thinking of a specific term for mending crochet work. I know darning is used for repairing knit and some fabrics, and it can be used for certain types of crochet repair. Darning would be done with a needle and is often used for fixing holes. For larger fixes, you could use a patch, which in this case would be crocheting a separate piece and attaching it to the spot that needs fixing, or undoing around the damaged section and crocheting it again.
Crab stitches, sometimes called reverse single crochets, can be used as the final row to help strengthen the edge of a material. They also adds a different texture to the edge.
Frogging is the term used for undoing/unraveling stitches. The term came about because you are 'ripping out' the stitches, which sounds close to 'ribbit', which is the sound a frog makes.
I'm not sure if it's really unique, ribbed stitches could be a fun addition. It creates a stretchy fabric that is often used for hat brims, sleeve cuffs, and other places you want to snug fit with some stretch.
And, yeah, taking some creative liberties are to be expected when making a game like this. There is a fair bit of overlap between the knitting and crocheting world, and it would honestly feel weirder if you didn't include any knitting references at all.
Excellent, thank you so much! I have updated my notes. I love the term frogging, I hope I find a way to get that in the game ^_^
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Hello! I completed your game and it was quite a lot of fun. It most definitely has potential for steam!
Things I liked.
Things that can be improved.
Mostly nitpicks that you can choose to ignore
I donāt really have a lot of nitpicks as this was quite a nice experience.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask. You have earned a follow and in the future, a steam wishlist!
Thank you so much for the playtest and kind words. This is the first time I have felt anywhere close to being Steam ready, so it is really enheartening to hear from others that it is getting closer ^_^ I have noted down your feedback on my task board.
I just have a few followup questions:
How would you rate the challenge level currently? Did you beat the boss? Was it on the first try?
Was there a card combo that you particularly enjoyed/felt powerful?
You mentioned the auto end turn for example, are there any other QOL features from similar games that you thought were missing?
How would you rate the challenge level currently? Did you beat the boss? Was it on the first try?
The game felt easy to me. I defeated the Boss first try and I went the difficult route with more battles. But then again I like these sort of games. This is the correct amount of difficulty for a demo in my opinion. My general opinions with demos is that they shouldnt be TOO difficult and atleast feel beatable by the players. I think this is right in the sweetspot. I wouldānt change the difficulty.
Was there a card combo that you particularly enjoyed/felt powerful?
My favorite combo was double damage next card + get six armor. This was my strongest set up card.
I my run I mostly prioritized armor for this run atleast. In fact I let damage cards go in favor of armor cards. Worked out ok. Wouldnāt say it was OP. I was 1 hp and a few armor when the boss died. It was close. There is a marked lack of healing in the game.
You mentioned the auto end turn for example, are there any other QOL features from similar games that you thought were missing?
In the battle screen Most of what you would expect was present. The cards were readable. stats were hoverable and so on. Could see what enemy wanted to do. If I think of anything else I will let you know.
Looking forward to the development of this game!
Now that the event is over, I realized that the ratings within the jam don't carry over to the main itch page. Since you have already checked it out, I would greatly appreciate a rating on itch itself if you are able!
Of course! Done.
Can you do the same for Anachronium?