Digital Bacon's Every 10 Seconds by digital bacon

[raw]
made by digital bacon for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

This was intended to be a full on deck building game, but I think I was a bit ambitious, and didn't get a chance to implement the deck building part (killed enemies would drop some kind of currency which the player could spend in a "store" between levels for new cards).

Gameplay is very simple. You're the blue wizard on the left side of the screen, trying to defeat the forces of evil. Each level has a purple crystal on the right side of the screen. Every 10 seconds, this crystal spawns a new enemy. When it's your turn, three cards (from a selection of bolt, lightning, and heal) appear at the bottom of the screen, providing you with offensive and defensive spells to cast at your enemies.

If you manage to destroy the crystal, you'll progress to the next screen. If you destroy the crystal on The Villain's Lair level, you win the game.

The game is essentially turn-based. The timeline (at the top of the screen, not fully implemented either) would show who was going to go next, while the clock at the left of the timeline shows what "time" (in seconds since level began) it currently is. Time skips ahead to whoever's turn it will be next. The crystal always gets to go every 10 seconds and spawn a new enemy.

Once again, time management and being unable to say "No" to people were my biggest hurdles.

The graphics are mostly programmer art, but to spare you a completely awful experience, I've used one of Vimlark's graphics packs for the characters in the game, so please don't rate the graphics based on those.

There's no sounds, so don't worry if you don't hear anything.

Ratings

Overall 1223th 2.375⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1219th 2.157⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1173th 2.392⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1188th 2.417⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1070th 2.544⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Humor 919th 2.132⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1178th 2.236⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 48🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 301905
06. Oct 2022 · 08:57 UTC
Kinda sad that the deckbuilding part bugged out, it seemed like there was a lot of content
Spam clicking seemed to be the best strategy by far
It could use more ui !
Reliodan
06. Oct 2022 · 09:04 UTC
I did not understood the gameplay or victory and defeat conditions, but the pixel art are quite cute
🎤 digital bacon
06. Oct 2022 · 11:02 UTC
Thanks for your comments.

@whumpuswu : yes, there are plans for a "store" of some kind that would appear between levels to allow you to purchase more cards/spells to add to your deck. I also need to add in animations so that there's a visible effect to when you select a spell (bolts fly across the screen, healing takes place) as well as health bars so you can see what's going on. At the moment, only text appears in the message box to tell you what's going on, but things happen so fast that the text keeps getting replace -- you only see the last message that was displayed.

@reliodan : I needed to add a description/instructions page to explain, plus some of the visual effects I mentioned above will help provide the player with more information about what is going on. The pixel art is cute, but I can't claim credit. As I mentioned in the game description above, all the characters are by Vimlark; everything else is placeholder/programmer art I knocked together just to have something to throw up on screen. You do *not* want to see what my goblin looks like... :laughing:
Attala
06. Oct 2022 · 11:54 UTC
I can see there is a structure here which could be a good game. Too bad you didn't have time to complete it. In my opinion you would only need to implement a minimum of visual feedback, and this would have been a game which could be enjoyed. Anyway, good job.
ChrisDeDev
06. Oct 2022 · 11:55 UTC
I liked it. But did kinda run into the typical issue with games like this. If no tutorial exists it is kinda hard to figure out how to get started.
🎤 digital bacon
07. Oct 2022 · 21:15 UTC
Thanks for your comments

@attala Time management's always an issue 🙄 Once the rating period is over, I want to go back and start implementing things like visual feedback.

@chrisdedev Yes, totally agree. I usually add in an instructions screen, but as previously noted, time got away from me. Haven't ever tried a proper tutorial mode before; might try with this.
jonmerrin
08. Oct 2022 · 05:21 UTC
Hey! Kudos! This is awesome. As a dev from another team that went the roguelike-deckbuilder route, I'm super impressed that you did all this solo. You really have the whole card system in there. It's easy to see where it was going and how much of it you managed to accomplish. This is amazing, and you should be really proud.

One thing I didn't understand was health... I didn't see where my health was being indicated, and at some point I realized I wasn't really afraid of dying. I brute forced my way through and won. It was fun, but I wish I understood what was going on a bit better. I did spam the health things for a while, did I maybe build up an excess?

Aside from that, I feel like this is a great foundation. As people have said: the store, some visual indicators, etc. would fill out the game really nicely, but you've got a strong start. Really great job and congratulations!
🎤 digital bacon
08. Oct 2022 · 10:14 UTC
Thanks for the comments, @jonmerrin!

Health bars were one of the features that didn't make it. Super annoying, because it was something I'd spent quite a bit of time on in LD50, but I never thought to just grab it from there!
candlesan
08. Oct 2022 · 23:58 UTC
I hope you get a chance to continue working on this. I really enjoy deckbuildings and I like the idea that I am presented with 3 cards and I need to choose which one to use against a variety of enemies. With more time I imagine you would love to put on health bars, spell visuals, and in game descriptions of the different cards when you click on them or on mouse hover. That said, for what you were able to accomplish, it's enough to communicate the idea of the game. All the best with it!
MrBamboo
09. Oct 2022 · 16:08 UTC
Great concept! Would be nice if some animations could be added to make it more alive :)
Chasen Nesbitt
09. Oct 2022 · 21:07 UTC
Cool concept, deck building games are great. These game jams are great for figuring out time management, take what you learned and grow from this experience. Best of luck in the future jams!
🎤 digital bacon
10. Oct 2022 · 11:40 UTC
Thanks for the comments!

@mrbamboo animations are definitely required, not just to bring the game to life, but to provide visual cues for the player on what just happened.

@chasen-nesbitt can't argue with you :grin: deckbuilders are great!
BayLock
10. Oct 2022 · 13:30 UTC
Nicely Done Bro. really nice concept and use of the 10 second theme. Would love to see this game developed further and released in a larger scale. Please do check out my submission as well.
asbjorn
11. Oct 2022 · 13:44 UTC
Difficult to understand; I had very little idea of what effects my attacks were having, and how much I was damaging my enemies.

Seems like there was some some solid ideas in this game though. With some more attention to communicative UI, and perhaps a smaller scope- this could become good.
LDJam user 298496
11. Oct 2022 · 16:21 UTC
The gameplay isn't super clear, I got pretty far just by spamming the left-most option - but the game looks great.
🎤 digital bacon
11. Oct 2022 · 18:00 UTC
Thanks for the comments!

@baylock That's the plan!

@asbjorn, @matt-ravenhall It's the thing I hate most, the lack of feedback to the player about what's happening and what the game expects the player to do next. First on my list of things to implement.
Drdunkel
12. Oct 2022 · 13:40 UTC
felt like it had potential - but was hard to figure out how to play and what the cards did. Would love to see an updated version. Keep at it!
CataclysmicKnight
12. Oct 2022 · 19:46 UTC
I really like the foundation of this game (and I love deckbuilding games!) but agree that it was difficult to follow and I just kinda clicked stuff and hoped I'd do well.

With that said, these are things you already know so I don't have anything new to add there lol, but I genuinely did like the concept and the art is cute and I would love to play more of this as it gets updated!
🎤 digital bacon
13. Oct 2022 · 11:41 UTC
Thanks for your comments, @drdunkel and @cataclysmicknight! Yes, I'm really disappointed in myself with how poorly (or failed completely) to communicate how the game is supposed to be played. Still, got a whole three months before *Ludum Dare* #52 :grimacing:

And yes, the art is cute. Pity it's not mine, but [Vimlark's](https://vimlark.itch.io/vimlark-asset-pack).
busisen
15. Oct 2022 · 20:25 UTC
I think you have a great base for a good game. It seems you know what can be improved so I don't have much to add other than that I really think that with polish it could be really fun :) Nice entry nonetheless!
🎤 digital bacon
16. Oct 2022 · 02:48 UTC
Thanks for playing and your feedback, @busisen!
F1Krazy
16. Oct 2022 · 14:17 UTC
It's a shame you never got round to finishing this, as it looks like it could have been really promising. Instead I'm just clicking cards randomly with no idea what effect they're actually having. I hope you'll consider revisiting this someday and upgrading it into the game it was supposed to have been.
🎤 digital bacon
17. Oct 2022 · 11:41 UTC
Thanks @f1krazy!
CodeRaurus
21. Oct 2022 · 19:21 UTC
Game base and the concept are good. Unfortunate you didn't get to implement more of the features you wanted but hopefully there will be more polished version in the future. Maybe showing card costs and damage would have been within the scope of the jam, considering you technically have the variables in. That would have made a significant difference in gameplay experience.

Good job, keep it up.
🎤 digital bacon
21. Oct 2022 · 20:50 UTC
Thanks for the comment, @coderaurus!