Hadal Depth by RAC-Games

[raw]
made by RAC-Games for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

A turn based card game in which you embark on one of the deepest descents into the hadalpelagic trenches.

* Update: * We fixed some graphics & UI bugs in the current WebGL Version.

Hadal Depth Screenshot 2021.04.27 - 04.55.47.59.png

Gain more energy as you dive further into the depths. Beware of hostile creatures. Some of them might damage your ship. As soon as they cause a breach, try to repair it with a "Welding" Card. Look at the bottom left corner, to check for breaches.

Hadal Depth Screenshot 2021.04.27 - 04.54.40.03.png

After each turn, all cards in your hand will be discarded, so try to make the most of each round. At the beginning of each turn you will regain only 1 energy, so try to manage your energy between turns.

You can also regain energy by playing certain cards and selecting your ship.

Press the right mouse button to dismiss a selected card.

Hadal Depth Screenshot 2021.04.27 - 05.37.41.03.png

Important Note for the Jam Version:

You can actually deselect cards by right clicking

Ratings

Overall 417th 3.819⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 312th 3.792⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 838th 3.279⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Theme 535th 3.917⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 514th 4.014⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Audio 720th 3.431⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1032th 2.5⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Mood 731th 3.625⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 61🗳️ 45🗨️

Feedback

David U
27. Apr 2021 · 18:52 UTC
I really like this. The gameplay reminds me of Slay the Spire. The cards are all on-theme. It starts out easy but gradually gets super challenging. One criticism: the Reconstructor card cost 8 energy, but you can only have a maximum of 7 energy. Also, as I got deeper, it gets more and more possible to get stuck without energy, without drawing the right cards to replenish it. This makes the game a bit too luck-based. That said, I would like to see it developed into a full game.
DanielD
27. Apr 2021 · 20:46 UTC
It was pretty fun. I'm not a huge card game fan but I liked the art of the characters a lot. The music was OK but started to feel samey pretty quick.
Yamzho
27. Apr 2021 · 20:50 UTC
Excellent game ! Well done !
kev_The_GameDev
27. Apr 2021 · 20:51 UTC
Overall a nice game. I liked the artwork of the battles. Your systems seem to work nicely!
I never really felt challenged during the battles though, which was sad cause you can do some nice combos with your cards. Only the boss fight made me think more about what to do next. All in all a good entry!
RadzioGadzioPL
27. Apr 2021 · 20:57 UTC
Great game! I really enjoy this type of games and this is really awesome game. I don't know if you inspired by Pirates Outlaws, but I like it. I would only change sounds, but overall enjoyable to play :D
FcValise
27. Apr 2021 · 20:58 UTC
I was hapilly surprised to play a card game ! I took me busy for sometimes. Thanks you :)
BorderDestroyer
27. Apr 2021 · 20:59 UTC
This game is honestly super fun, the only real things I can think to say about are 1) the controls and GUI are a little bit confusing, but that may just be me being a dingle, and 2) there is no saving mechanic in it, but other than those two things I actually really enjoyed this game.
Lev
27. Apr 2021 · 21:02 UTC
I loved it!
It seriously has potential, nice gameplay, art is cool
It was kinda easy though - maybe make it a bit harder? Only died once, beat the boss first try
gagapete
27. Apr 2021 · 21:13 UTC
Great card game. The enemies, submarine and cards are well designed. The balancing seems to be a bit of as I won all levels in a few minutes except for the last one. That one was manageable only with a little bit of luck in the cards I got and a little bit more strategy.

Just one thing: For the first couple of rounds I thought that the volume slider was a (somewhat broken) healthbar. May something could be changed to clarify what is what.
Joel Davis
27. Apr 2021 · 21:23 UTC
Fan-tastic! I am a sucker for deckbuilders and this was perfect! I played it for an hour and beat the evil end boss Nautilus. Had some really tense moments where I avoided an attack and instead risked drawing to try and get a generator. This is already a well-balanced card game as is, but it would be even better with more combo possibilities and some kind of deckbuilding mechanic. Top notch sound and graphics too. I encourage you to keep working on this game after the contest, it's definitely something I would want to buy. My favorite of the compo so far.
mharring
27. Apr 2021 · 21:45 UTC
This game is great! I had a lot of fun playing it. The music and sound effects were spot on. The graphics were impressive for a game made in a weekend! Very polished. As David U mentioned, it felt bad having cards that you couldn't play because you were limited by your max energy. I also agree that it sometimes felt too luck based (obviously happens with random draws) so perhaps being able to discard one (or even two) cards to draw one would have mitigated that a little, or at least you would have another chance at luck. The ability to build your own deck would make an interesting mechanic if you wanted to pursue this further. Besides that though this game was really well done, great job!
filgru
27. Apr 2021 · 22:08 UTC
Very nice game, easy to understand how everything works. Cool spooky music:) You really need to think and plan a bit to pick the right cards in order to survive. Very well balanced until the very end... and this crazy eyes creature at the very end... I died few times before I've managed to kill it! hehe :) A little bit annoying thing was when you picked one of the cards, you couldn't change your choice. The only remaining button left to click in this situation was - End Turn. There is surprising feature there I like, when you grab and pull the volume knob you can move also the background with it :) Except those little things, great job!!!
Drew Abegg
27. Apr 2021 · 23:05 UTC
I'm not much of a card game guy but I enjoyed this! once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed the risk-and-reward systems like with the "draw x cards" cards. It felt really nice to get into a loop of regaining energy to draw more cards to gain more energy. The enemy and card variety was just right for me. Difficulty seemed to peak around the middle for me. Overall, I managed to beat most enemies in one attempt.
The art was pretty good. Enemies were properly creepy and the animations kept the game from being visually stale. The shading seemed a bit muddled, which is understandable given the setting, but the spotlights and such could have been a nice opportunity for harsh, sharp lighting.
The music was nice and atmospheric, if a tad grating. The rest of the sounds were a-ok.
Well done guys! Lets go!!!!!!!
Eugenik
28. Apr 2021 · 12:49 UTC
Wow So Good! 5/5.
KAPA6UH
28. Apr 2021 · 20:33 UTC
I am not a big fan of card games, but this one looks great.
Tyrannas
28. Apr 2021 · 20:46 UTC
Really nice game! Easy to play, and a lot of fun! Also great job on the graphics! As a graphist myself I can just imagine the work behind drawing all these assets and animating them! Congrats !
davision
28. Apr 2021 · 20:52 UTC
Interesting! The mechanic where you have to recharge your power yourself is kinda cool but there were just too much randomness and you can end up dried out drawing no cards that recharge. Would have loved some deck building
Lifeforce
28. Apr 2021 · 21:53 UTC
It was very fun, nice job!
Galina
28. Apr 2021 · 23:03 UTC
I really like card games. but i couldnt dismiss my choice. please fix it.
xpoho
29. Apr 2021 · 08:44 UTC
Я опускался на дно. А там темно-о-о... и холодно, и страшно. И разные монстры водятся. Например, аналоги Ктулху.
Я люблю карточные игры. Это хорошая игра, хочется посмотреть на ее развитие! Спасибо ^_^
Saltysa
29. Apr 2021 · 15:38 UTC
I had a nice time playing it! It really reminded me of Slay the spire, which I love.
I liked the "draw X cards" cards as it was a nice risk/reward feature. The only bad thing is that you couldn't dismiss a choice, forcing you to skip a turn. Thankfully it isnt too punishing!

i also really liked the design of the last monster with all his eyes
Jfroggg
29. Apr 2021 · 16:45 UTC
Really liked this one. I wish the ending was more showy though. Especially with how much work goes into getting to the end. Really liked the journey there though :)
Bastienre4
30. Apr 2021 · 17:18 UTC
Awesome game!
Reminded me Slay the Spire but the gameplay is quite different.
I like how you need to manage your own energy and not only focus on attack.
Good job!
bigbozo
06. May 2021 · 10:08 UTC
Very nice game. Deck building would be much appreciated. I don't understand the meaning of the shield on the crabs healthbar so far.
cheesepencil
07. May 2021 · 01:30 UTC
Make a web build so I can play your game!
Doot
09. May 2021 · 19:28 UTC
Nice game!

It has a lot of things that are better than other card games I tried in this LD. The simplicity of mechanics and possible interactions ensure there is no bugs or weird unexplained rules. The balance feels right even if the difficulty could increase faster. Visuals are clear and cards are easy to read.
Great job on making it work on android too!

A few notes if it can help you (windows build):
- The volume slider on the menu slides the map with it.
- The "mana / life" system could be explained in game, it is very intuitive for most players but maybe not for all.
- The targeting after selecting a card was not very clear for me at first.
- Is there a way to deselect a card? Sometimes I changed my mind and couldn't go back, and once I selected a 8 mana card and had to quit the game because I didn't know how to deselect it.
- Isn't it strange to get those 8 mana cards on those level where you have a max mana of 6 / 7?

Thanks for the game I had fun!
ChrisAP
13. May 2021 · 01:05 UTC
The combo system is very cool I really like the use of generators to make energy and they using the drawing of cards to combo out a big enemy on a single turn. Something I did not love was the crab, losing 50% of my damage didn't feel super fun, the 30% dmg reduction wasn't that bad, I could brush off the loss, however, losing half was just Sadge. Otherwise really cool game! Congrats! <3 I kinda wish there was a deck building mechanic, maybe as an update or for hadal depth 2?
Konrad
13. May 2021 · 20:05 UTC
@cheesepencil ok https://rac-games.itch.io/hadal-depth
saintchristopher777
13. May 2021 · 23:01 UTC
Awesome game! Definite slay the spire vibe. Not sure I care for the rng on attacks randomly missing, but it _is_ pretty balanced. The game was fun for sure! Great entry!
cheesepencil
14. May 2021 · 03:23 UTC
Thanks for the web build! What a cool game! Neat tunes, creepy enemies, great ambiance.
dans17
15. May 2021 · 22:17 UTC
Nice game! It was interesting to see how we made very similiar games for this jam despite approaching it from different angles. I really liked the enemy illustrations, and the UI was very nicely polished. The sound effects for the creatures were also nice, did you make them yourself? I'm not sure if I like how the game is level-based instead of roguelike like Slay the Spire (it made it much too easy because you don't have to worry about taking damage as long as you win the fight), but it is nice for a jam so that people can easily see all the content even if they die. I also wished there was deck building so that the gampeplay was less relient on RNG. Overall, it was a fun game and I played it until the end!
LDJam user 2331
16. May 2021 · 04:17 UTC
Really fun card game! I think in its current state, the progression was a little slow and had a big spike on the final level. The RNG misses kind of detracted from the game to me, mainly due to the lack of deck building- it's like I'm forced to play with this deck, forced to work with this randomly dealt hand from said deck, and then randomly burn energy to these misses. :( It may have been good to tone it down at least for the jam, but I can definitely see it having a place in a more fleshed out game (e.g., people can build their deck around it via cards that can't miss, have separate cards that increase accuracy, etc.)! Despite all this, there was still enough variety in the game to keep things interesting for me to finish it, and definitely enjoyed my time with it. :D I hope to see this polished further!
Hybitous
17. May 2021 · 18:18 UTC
@dans17 I'm glad you like it. I did indeed make the sound effects myself.
We're planning on make our game roguelike and adding deck building.
Thanks for play & your feedback!