Well, I may have been hopelessly in debt, but my attack stat sure was enviable. It turned out great!

@lot9s, Glad you like it!

I like the pixel art. The debt part was hard to manage :) I like the concept of the game!

Interesting game. My strategy was keep buying stuff until I got bored of buying stuff and one shotting everything until they got too tough. Then going for the credit card to clear the penalties. Pretty funny. The idea worked well.

The gameplay was really repetitive, but the concept is so funny and the pixel art is really nice! The music really completed the mood too. I also tried the 'stack as much debt as possible' once, and I can confirm you can just keep going like that ad infinitum!

I like this idea of buying equipments without limit but will have hard times to pay for debt. The battle and the character's growth are easy to understand with nice pixel graphic and clear instructions. Interesting game! Though I'm not sure this idea is really suitable for this little boy saving town background.

Looks really good, and the comment seems really funny, but it won't load on itch

I really like it, love the concept and it was fun to play. I think you created the perfect tool to teach people about what happens when you don't use your credit card responsibly xD

@all, thanks for the comments! Glad you all had positive thoughts on the game.

@logicon211, @nardandas - Yep, the "stacking debt" strategy is killer. I'll go into the details on *why* that's true in a post-mortem, but let's just say it's an interesting collision of two features that do *not* work the way I expected together.

@justking144 - Sorry that it is causing you trouble! Which browser are you using? (I have tested it only in Chrome.) If all else fails, you can try one of the OS downloads (Windows, Mac, Linux) or Android.

Nice graphics and music. Felt pretty polished for a jam game. The combat was a little simplistic and kind of tedious but overall the different systems worked well togehter. I really liked the idea of having creditors and loansharks in a RPG setting, I think this was a great exploration of a feature that could work in a larger RPG.

Wow, it is very funny that the guy have to pay debt when he becomes more and more strong.I really enjoy the music especially when I considerate how to do next :) .Is there any restraint relationship between the attacking ways and enemies?

https://i.gyazo.com/82e815c84db17dbf1269885122771675.jpg
Am I doing it right?

The game was really fun! I love the cute idea of it, and it's really relaxing just racking up more and more money lol. It may have been harder if the interest rates affected the debt or something, but really, it was super enjoyable! If you couldn't tell by the level, I uh.... played this game way more than anyone else's game hahaha.

At first it felt like a losing battle, and I thought maybe that was the point, but eventually I figured out a strategy and accumulated a lot of money. Is there an end? Anyway, it's a great polished game with a really neat concept!

This game is so so good! It's very difficult, i love the audo, i feel challenged yet i feel like it's my fault when i lose. i love the design and everything it's overall just so great. thank you so mych for making i!

although...

I may have figured out the trick to the game
This hit did 1000 damage...

@gankei - Thanks! Music is from one of my favorite Open Game Art resource packs (see attribution.txt). Not sure what you mean by "restraint relationship" --- the Sword does more damage to "Fire Only" enemies, etc., but the hero has no "element".

@yuripiano, @britt-henderson - Amazing World Levels! I played it up to Level ~33, so it definitely unbalances after that. There's a bug in the debt calculation that I found right at the end of the Jam, which makes high-level runs like yours possible. I decided not to fix it, since that risked unbalancing the first few levels. So the game ramps from "hard" to either "impossible" or "medium", and then "very, very easy". Just don't try this with your real credit cards. :D

@adsilcott - There is no end. The goal was to make it become clear that debt is insurmountable, but due to a curious interaction between Debt, Fashion, and Penalties, it actually becomes quite easy to survive indefinitely with a specific strategy (see screenshots of @yuripiano, @britt-henderson).

World Names are randomly generated, which added a lot more variety than I thought it would.

Well, I should probably stop playing...


But I liked it a lot :)

Clever take on the theme! It's amazing that you managed to game-ify credit and debt in such a stark way. Good music choices too, especially the dojo fighting music. Nice work.

At first my wallet was going all well, then I quickly went into debt and got out of control! hahaha

The graphics are really gorgeous and the sounds are amazing! the laughter is hilarious hahahahaha

Good job! :)

@fasterthanlime - Holy cow, that's some amazing progress! I think it's fair to say that you saved the world. :D

@fluidvolt - Really glad you liked it! The theme was really tough for me this time, but I'm super happy with what I was able to get done.

@tiberiusuciu - And we all learned a valuable lesson.... (kind of). :D

Very neat concept that fits the theme well! The turn based combat with the timer reminded me of Final Fantasy VII. I giggled when I just started racking up the debt and my debt level was "Too big to fail" lol

Fun game man! I like your take on the debt theme (Similar in a way to mine but yours is more RPG and mine is more real-life). I had a blast playing it until i was "hopelessly in debt" and was making less than the cost of the interest. Haha.

Nice job!

Very interesting and funny approach on theme. Loved this game. Graphics, funny tune, credit card idea.
Got to 20+ world.
Of course, it is a bit broken in terms of balance, but for 72 hours it is amazing

I like the concept of a system of debts and the battle gameplay is simple but fun! I had a little confusing with local stats-system, but maybe its just my fault.

Really polished for the time frame! Wish there was a little more explanation - wasn't clear what the different attack types did until reading the comments after I'd given up. That explains why some guys exploded fast and others not so much! Also wish I knew what the stats did, but then again I'm a math geek.

There is a lot things I don't understand about this game, but it is really pretty and the music is good.

@gizmolo, @krassenstein - Glad you enjoyed it! There is one debt level higher than "Too Big to Fail", but it's an in-joke.

@kirun, @owc, @mcovert, @jk5000 - Thanks for the positive feedback! There's definitely balance issues (after level ~10 or so), and the elements+stats system is never explained in-game. Glad that you found it intuitive enough to get through a few levels!

great concept loved it

Nice concept! I can't stop spending though, I feel uncomplete!

This was great! The idea is really clever, although I found it pretty difficult. I think I got to like the 4th level before dying, as I couldn't figure out how to heal.

This is a well done game. The graphics, the music, and the combat system are all nicely designed. I couldn't figure out if there was a way to heal myself, so I kept dying and going into debt, which became a major hassle. I am intrigued by the debt mechanic, that's something I haven't seen used in any game I can think of. It would be fun to see this given a full story, with additional enemies.

@kerneltt, @jlreymendez - Thanks! Spend spend spend!

@ale, @csanyk - Yeah, I ran out of time to add healing, and the main character never gains Max HP. Although I'm happy with the balance of the game the way it is, if I developed it further, the first thing I'd add is a healing mechanic.

I may not have been able to figure out the winning strategy for this, but I think it turned out great! Excellent work!

Overall it's nice, interms of innovation, experience, art and music. However I didn't quite get how the battle rule is. I don't quite understand what fashion stands for adn what's the different of the 3 skills. Instructions about these may help.

Being this debt has never been this fun

Man this game really hits home...
Jk, love the innovation and the music. Having debts have never been so fun ;)

Great game, very addictive.

The debt system is a great idea regarding to the theme.

Good job :smile:

Pretty easy to review - EPIC. Solid take on an established model but with a cool twist. Nothing over done everything slick, great work.

Don't need to say much more than, it's just a really fun game. Absolutely love the music, the aesthetics are great too! The gameplay with the debt mechanic is just brilliant, it works perfectly with the theme, well done! :clap::relaxed:

cool game i like it don’t forget to check out my game too :)

Fun game, I should have bought more stuff.

I really like the concept! This could be a good game to sell ha ha! Well done :)

Neat game... I was very confused about which weapon to choose. What are the differences?

Had fun! Was in a lot of debt but then was able to pay it off. Cool idea, though I wished I could do something about hp other than paying to revive. Could see something more fleshed out from this starting point. Good job!

@thrillho, @soldierbear, @lazard, @boorik, @arron-fowler, @flubz, @jfraser314 - Thanks so much; glad you liked it!

@yishalee - Good point! The battle system is a little obscure, and I didn't have time for a tutorial. The post-mortem explains what Fashion does: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/a-boy-and-his-card/postmortem-a-boy-and-his-card

@lereveur - Yes, I should add a "micropayment" option to buy better credit cards. J/K, that would actually be evil. :)

@deathray - Thanks! The "sword" is strong against "fire", and "fire" is strong against "shadow", and "shadow" is strong against "sword". If a monster has 3 weapons of the same type, then it has an element. More is explained in the postmortem (see @yishalee's comment for link).

@zax - Thanks! I will check it out if I can get my desktop set up before judging ends (right now I only have a Mac available).

@aeveis - Thanks! This is one game that I think I could flesh out more, given more time.

@all - Just to re-iterate: my desktop is now back from the shop; as soon as I can hook it up I will have access to a Windows machine, so I can try your games (if I haven't already).

Seems got it. Not much difference in what you buy, it's more about penalties. Is there an end to the journey, or it's generated until you're tired? Anyway, really liked to buy things, especially spontaneously, when loosing. Don't do this in real life. Cute satire!