Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

Lunartics: Space Race DeckbuilderView game page

​A dice-rolling deckbuilder where you play as the heroes of the Space Race
Submitted by Zivan, discolexia, Larzie, Pablo V — 1 hour, 2 minutes before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Lunartics: Space Race Deckbuilder's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Accuracy & Authenticity#14.6384.889
Overall#23.9004.111
Visuals#34.2164.444
Audio#43.9004.111
Thematic Relevance#44.5334.778
Gameplay#53.4793.667

Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Historical Accuracy
The game uses primary sources for information as much as possible, such as original documents, newspapers, and images and video footage from that time.

Thematic Relevance
The game is structured as a progression tree through some of the significant missions from both the American and Soviet sides. Players play with cards that are people and objects from the time to beat missions. The narrative text on the side describes something related to each mission.

Disclaimers
Some cards contain public domain images

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted(+2)

Extremely well made! Love all of the cards, the art, the focus on dogs -- amazing job!

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

This has a really cool base, and the art and sound are great. The introduction with the history of aviation is really special! Activating card effects to disrupt the mission / improve my number feels really good, however I wanted more variation in the missions - something that forces me to think about my cards and choices differently.

I think losing a roll in a mission forcing you to restart felt too punishing. Losing money as the consequence could be enough since it whittles down as you progress until you have none left.

Overall, I really like what is here, and excited for the direction of it if you continue to update!

Submitted (1 edit) (+3)

So many good qualities in Lunartics!

  • Nice to have the ‘Mission 0’ thorough tutorial
  • Rewards were representative and interesting (‘flip a die’, Laika & Titov come to mind)
  • The animation of your special rewards cards was a treat
  • The sidebar expanded view of historic details and cards was earnest, helpful, perfect.
  • The editor was a nice touch, though we couldn’t quite get visuals to work.

From the stellar research to the spooky audio, and cute SFX, we loved the trim and trappings of this game. I wish we had a little more strategic pull over the dice (sometimes, we felt a bit like the whims of chance held the controller); and I’d separate the Astronauts from Cosmonauts. Still, these are small critiques of what is an incredibly well-thought-out card and dice game.

Hats off!

Submitted(+2)

Professional quality audio and visuals - really outstanding job.
I played it to the end - I think the gameplay needs some tweaking - maybe better pacing or give the player real choices to make - between the cards available. There wasn't much difference between the difficulty levels - and the same strategy of pick the obvious best cards worked for all stages.
I didn't really see any strategy other than pick the best cards until I ran out of money for the 2nd last stage.
Also, when I picked up a card, it didn't centre on the mouse so I frequently missed the target slots in the middle. 
A small tweak to grab it in the middle would fix that.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for playing, and all the way through at that! Great feedback, thank you :)

Submitted(+2)

Wow. Just wow. Very cool all around. Great scope. Great execution!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for playing and for the kind words.

Submitted(+1)

Good game, amazing vibes and nothing to complain about historical accuracy of thematic relevance.
However, I personally don't really want to play a full blown deckbuilding game in a game jam.
I think this is very ambitious but perhaps unneccesarily so for something that is supposed to have a tiny scope and be playable, enjoyable and rateable in the span of a few minutes. I would have maybe shortened it to a couple of levels (US and URSS), and showcased more of the mechanics within those, as opposed to creating a branching progression tree.

Developer(+1)

thanks for playing the game and give nice feedback! we might be a bit ambitious for a jam but it was a nice challenge to see what we can do on hard difficulty :)

Submitted(+3)

There are different people and their goals are different: some artists want to make a game where every single asset is their creation. Some technical guys want to make a sophisticated simulation. And there are many other!

"something that is supposed to" <== I don't agree with the assumption that a jam' scope needs to be tiny. Especially in this day and age of AI copycats it is not sustainable for you to do one gimmick games as those are the easiest to copy. Maybe some people want to make a meaningful game that would have a lasting impact and not just be 5 minutes of throwaway fun.

In general it is not helpful to tell someone to make a change which means basically redoing the thing they made into something very different. It is more helpful to understand what the person is trying to do and contribute to their trajectory.

Disclaimer: I worked with Lars who made the progression tree. But for a different game.

Developer(+3)

Thank you for playing it and leaving nice feedback! Yes, we were definitely shooting for the moon with this one, but I guess we’re just a bunch of Lunartics