We Need To Talk by Doot

I need to tell you something important...🔥
Try to avoid the conversation!
Use every move you got and every answer you can find to delay these - you assume - terrible news!
Controls ⌨️
Play with your keyboard!
- Arrow keys to play cards
- Spacebar to trigger ultimate
Credits 👩🏽❤️👨🏼
Doriane Randria (@blibloop)
Dorian Signargout (@doot)
Audio
Sounds from FreeSounds.org:
erickjohanzm - dbz saiyan aura kamehameha / owlstorm - retro video game sfx bonus / moogy73 - woosh high 02 / justinvoke - freeze impact / damnsatinist - intense punch / magnuswaker - flame burst out
FruityAudio - Just Rock!
Fonts
Script Soft by Anibal Ramirez
Single Fighter by Subectype
| Link | https://dodoot.itch.io/we-need-to-talk |
| Link | https://dodoot.itch.io/we-need-to-talk |
| Steam Deck / Linux | https://dodoot.itch.io/we-need-to-talk |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/we-need-to-talk |
Ratings
| Overall | 25th | 4.306⭐ | 185🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 39th | 4.183⭐ | 185🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 61th | 4.077⭐ | 185🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 19th | 4.451⭐ | 185🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 87th | 4.484⭐ | 185🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 41th | 4.324⭐ | 184🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 106th | 4.183⭐ | 180🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 92🗳️ | 140🗨️ |
I didn't really care to choose between ice and wind cards, as they end up doing pretty much the same thing (buying time). They could have been a bit more different, but they still adds variety so that's the most important.
Clean and super fun game !
Very polished game!
Definitely my favourite entry so far!
Very intuitive game play, runs very smoothly. Neat graphics, awesome work!
You got the bops, you got the intense play, you have a killer ending.
I was engaged, I was into it, I played again!
Thank you so much. =)
I loved the overall aesthetic and art in this game. You did an amazing job with the special effects and feel over the gameplay. The concept of a fighting type card game was very unique as well. The theme implementation was also very well done and I have not really seen anything like it.
Something I would have liked is to get more involved with the story/what the actual cards were saying. I didn't really have time to read the card because I was focusing on the combos.
Yall did a fantastic job thank you for participating in the jam :D I look forward to seeing more games of yours in the future!
Lovely art and smooth execution, very nice.
**PROS:**
- Sort of a typing game.
- Great visuals.
- Very responsive controls with amazing user feedback.
- I felt the intensity grow as the speech balloon got bigger.
- I loved the "dialogue".
I'd usually add a cons list too but I honestly can't think of anything that's different than "Would've loved more content!" which is obviously not the most fair con to add as a gamesjam review :hearts:

I'm not too good at it yet. My score was a 63
Gameplay is simple and well made which is a go to in a jam. Visuals are appealing and cute, reminded of Lee O'Malley comics <3. Thank you for making this!
Congratulations~
A very interesting use of the theme, and original gameplay too.
As they commented, I found the art style very similar to scott pilgrim, I loved it!
One thing that I think would be interesting would be the sentences changing as you send the answers.
Something like "But...","Listen to me!", "Let me talk" and something like that.
Congratulations!
If this feedback has helped you positively, please leave a "<3"
The keytyping felt flowy, and the single key cards are a trap ;) - nice little tutorial.
Only thing I would add is perhaps adding some more card types to spice things up.
I don't wanna talk about this "Scott Pilgrim"-style-vibes, wich I ABSOLUTELY ADORE :blue_heart: 5 stars for that anyway, so what about gameplay? Color code for each ability (wind, ice, fire) is great decision for UI, very intuitive. Typing combos on arrow keys is challenging and hard for me 'cause I get used to WASD :sweat_smile:
And some critic's stuff: good ending is very good, BUT! We also wanted to make positive and good ending in game, but one thought came in our gamedevelopers minds: what if player would lose from the first attempt very fast? And what would player see? Nothing bad happens! And so player could loose his motivtion to endure longer, because it's not worth to fight :thinking:
Btw, game is amazing, thanks for participating this LDjam, very cool entry and very polished! Good luck! :kissing_cat:
I really love your game! art. sound and vfx are gorgeous! Great job, congratulations!
You are all amazing, I hope I'll find the time to try all your games!
@cope @vorpalsnark @j-cob @arscene @fruit-du-dragbane @vera-babchenko @joscco @arhair @zettelkasten @otterfaelure @dan-livings @gabriel-dias-oliveira-de-almeida @glayson @lukein @zolar @kurlby @heloise @juulh @jeanne-rossat @polymathld @jean-francois @cheezegami @ebrietas @crygos
Thank you so much ❤️🔥
@yorsh Thank you for the detailed comment! It was quite hard to add variety to such a straightforward concept, I'm glad you appreciated it!
@katasunder @wlqwos @fear-games @nyanpierre @evilsock Thank you so much! Happy you noticed the Scott Pilgrim reference / inspiration ✨
@tygrak @heremeus @edwigelel @karbirus @joror Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked the ending, it was quite important to us to turn the theme into something wholesome / positive 💖
@krammetje Thank you for the feedback! I am glad that you understood the value of fire. Next step: burn patriarchy 🔥 [hope your pc feels better now]
@gabriel-dias-oliveira-de-almeida Thank you so much for playing it on stream! It was so nice to see you play, and we were so happy you had a good time 💕
@syafire Thank you so much for playing it on stream! We loved seeing you play! Trying to find the right balance between action and letting people read was quite hard, so your feedback is very appreciated and useful 💕
@caym Thanks a lot! I am happy you found the tutorial helpful, it's always hard to make it clear and simple!
@dannyk1994 Thanks a lot for playing it on stream, it was so cool to see you play ✨
@russ-moonbase Thank you so much! Any score is good, great job ✨
@jonah-srg Thank you so much for the detailed comment, fellow QTE lover! I'm so glad you liked the ending, it was quite important to us to turn the theme into something wholesome / positive 💖
@alan-t Thanks a lot for the feedback! Trying to find the right balance between action and letting people read was quite hard, so your feedback is very appreciated and useful 💕
@cassowary Thanks a lot! I'm glad you felt the fighting game mood we tried to put in different aspects of the game 🔥
@niklas-zhaga Thanks a lot for the detailed comment! I understand what you mean about the ending, definitely something to keep in mind if you want players to keep playing the game! Thanks!

Would be cool to have different messages depending on how big of a score you get, but I guess the love is rather unconditional, right?

Oh my, you two!! I loved welcome Googoo, and now, this!! What a wonderful game *again*!! This is guaranteed to be a smash hit, look at these glowing reviews. And you deserve all of them!
The idea is rather simple, but executed so well, so effectively! It's beautifully polished and juicy. And the graphics are very pretty, there's sort of a Scott Pilgrim vibe, it's adorable.
It's all *so* smart, *so* well done. It's about tiny details: the clever, coloured words to signal the element of the attack? Great piece of UI. But now, you draw hands of 3 cards and you have to choose which attack to use, based on the length of the combination? But *now*, the elements have specific effects, and they're contextual. Wind is useless if the bubble is super far or too big, fire is useless when it's small, frost is the best but only if your situation is already good.
I like to think that one of the ways to gauge the quality of a decision space is to look at how much of the context it takes into account. And this system is so contextual, so simple yet brilliant in its elegance. For its minimalism, the actual depth it has surprised me, when everything clicked together in my mind after a few games. You want to chain-freeze the bubble, but what do you do when there's no frost attack? And it only works when the bubble is not too big, so you have to get it back to the right size with fire and keep it at bay if you can. But every decision has to be split second. It's great.
And I haven't even mentioned that the elements have a unique feel because of the recurring arrow combinations in their moves! And the various combos recreate in a lovely way some of the feel of the fighting games, with the quarter circles and all of that... And I love the way the keys light up on fire when you start inputing a combination! And the risk/reward of losing your concentration if you miss just one move, but of delaying the use of it so you can get the best value from it!
Beautiful work. What a gem. And it just takes 10 minutes to enjoy properly. Thank you very much. I hope you get the rankings you deserve, and I can't wait to see what you make next!
-Tim
The ending is -redacted- and I -redacted- and I also really liked how the attacks had a coloured word to show what type of attack it is. I really love when games have that type of immersive design (:
Overall really well done, and I'd love to see more levels/attacks/fighters etc in this game style. Ive always wanted to make a game where you battle with words/conversation type things, and this is one of the few games ive seen that implements it really well!
Love the twist-ending!
Great work, will save for later!

Strengths:
- Outstanding visual style
- Very fun gameplay, greatly communicated through the UI
- The twist is the most precious thing ever :)
Possible improvements:
- Sound is hard to make during jams, but all the other aspects of the game were so great, I wish there was some.
Awesome job!
I must admit, I didn't pick up on the strategy and elemental effectiveness until I read it in a comment. Personally, I didn't really have any trouble just punching in the moves super quickly. Because of that I didn't look for opportunities to optimize. But now that I'm aware of the underlying strategy it does make me appreciate it more.
I wouldn't mind a hard-mode with some finger twisting action :)
I like the combination of "fighting" moves and "dialogue" response :smile_cat:
The graphics are also really awesome and the music really fits the game

I'm taking some time each day to try some of your games, I really hope I have time to try them all!
@dean-isseyegh @nethead @gord10ahmet @studiocherno @andreia @waffleworksgames @cube-logic @iguanana @cary-stanley @smash-city @seng @matt1will @blooobird Thank you so much 💖
@effe @agrimes @okamit @anaxie-studio Thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked the ending, it was quite important to us to turn the theme into something wholesome / positive 💖
@vitor-milioni @daniel-klautsch Thank you so much! Really happy you liked our idea of motion inputs 🔥
@firellon @macabreartgames Thanks for the feedback! Your idea of different ending is great, maybe in a post jam version!
@blinry Thanks for the kind comment and good job on this incredible score!
@jlv Thanks a lot for this detailed comment! Not sure I understand what you mean about sound, the game has music and SFX! If you mean that it would have been great to have some made by us instead of free sound found on the internet, I agree, it would be even better to work with a sound designer on a future jam!
@peachtreeoath Thank you so much for the nice comment! You are right, we wanted to make it so that most choices were fine but some were better, but this can lead to make it hard to understand the value of choice at first sight. If you want a really hardcore challenge, try to beat this insane score a friend made after several hours of try harding:

@shigor Thank you ! I hope you will be able to reuse some dialogue lines if it happens irl ❤️🔥
Art is great, music and sound effects are spot on and the ending is simple and adorable. Loved it!
Good job!
Very cute and very original!
Simple, well done and totally coherent.
I liked very much!
just lacked a ranking to stir up the competitors...
Congratulations.
I like how the ultimate is implemented. It mixes things up and prevents the gameplay from getting stale.
I’m taking some time each day to try some of your games, I really hope I have time to try them all (around 100 now wow)!
@korfi @ginxel @realkonstantin @vhalenn @lazy-fox @jul-li @alks @xwilarg @gandelianna @borabee @arzi @shrillwhip @ossi @euler-moises @voxar @mrpouletbzh @phoenix-fireflower Thank you so much 💖
@euler-moises Thanks for the nice comment! A leaderboard could indeed be a great idea 👑

I wanted to thank everyone of you for taking the time to play our game, to rate it and to give meaningful feedback ❤️🔥
Dodidouda and I are really proud of those rankings, it's incredible! I am so happy you liked our game. It's the first time I get above 4 on each category, this will keep me happy several days or weeks for sure ✨ And thanks to all your feedback, maybe we'll do even better next time!
If you want to see more of what we do in the future, you can follow us on social media!
**Doot** - Game Dev: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/dk_doot) 🐦 - [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/doot_dodo/) 📸 - [Itch](https://dodoot.itch.io/) 🎮
**Blibloop** - Artist: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/blibloop) 🐦 - [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/blibloop/) 📸 - [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@itsblibloop) 🎶