[Prototype] Fateful Dealings - A systems driven card RPG made for LD44

vfqd

Hey friends,

Fateful Dealings is is the game I made for the Ludum Dare 44 compo. I'd love some feedback. What do you like? What do you not like? What do you find interesting?

I'm aware there there's probably not enough content, but such are the problems of a game jam.

https://vfqd.itch.io/fateful-dealings
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fateful-dealings



About:

A systems driven card RPG where you play as one of the recently deceased. You look back on your life and the choices you have made to determine where you'll end up at the time of the final reckoning. It's inspired by the likes of Cultist Simulator.

Controls:

Requires a mouse: click, hover, drag n drop. Drag and drop resources into the middle to use them.

Tools Used:

Unity, PyxelEdit, Audacity, Bfxr, NoiseMachine, WolframTones

EvanGreenwood

Played this. I found it a little tricky to determine the lose state. I like the premise and the mood (for a game like Cultist Simulator) but I didn't feel like it delivered the kinds of emergent stories that make Cultist Simulator great. It felt a lot like shuffling around some resources.

Though I think with the right content maybe it'd be possible to feel like it is the narrative of a life. I'd be keen to try it again if you do get the chance to work more on the content (I'm very curious about this design space).

vfqd

@EvanGreenwood - firstly, thanks for the feedback, I think you're spot on.

In retrospect, I think I spent far too long on the systems design, the mechanics, and the atmosphere/art of the game. The system is fine, and the atmosphere is good, but the mechanics are weak without a strong narrative to back them.

And I think that's the biggest issue with the game. The weakest part of the game are the encounters, when really, those should have been the focus. It turns out that you can't just throw some standalone scenes together with a generic medieval setting and get something compelling. The original plan was to have significant moral choices and narratives that spanned many cards, in strange interconnected ways, but I guess that got lost along the way.

I think with stronger theming and more time, I could have something interesting here. But by the same token, I'm not unhappy with this prototype for my first foray into this design space, I've learned a lot in the process.

EvanGreenwood

Yeah, I've run into similar problems when trying to make this sort of game. Compelling narratives don't just happen, and crafting narratives out of such minimal elements is a real trick... but it feels like it's a trick worth learning!