Ready, Deck, Go! by Cheesey Bob
Summary
Ready, Deck, Go! is a racing game / trading card game mashup. Go down to the pub and play the hot new card game where you also race starships. Just try not to spend too much money on card packs (after all, the only thing stopping you is your own self-restraint).
Tools Used
Programmed in Java using Eclipse. The engine is a very basic homebrew affair (included in source files). Graphics were created in GIMP. Sound effects were created in BFXR and Audacity. Music would've been made in Bosca Ceoil Online.
Setup
Extract everything from the zip folder to the same location, then run the executable jar file.
Playing the game:
When you start a race you will need to make a deck from the cards you own. Click on a card to move it in/out of your deck. A deck consists of 1 ship card and 6 standard cards.
During the race, use the movement controls (A/D or arrow keys) to avoid incoming asteroids (hitting them will give you a time penalty).
At certain intervals, the race will pause and an "event" will occur - this is where you play your cards. You need to match the difficulty level of the event card with your ship's relevant stat, or you take a time penalty. Choose a card to play - this card will add to your ship's stats for this event.
At the end of the race, your time is compared to your opponent's - the lowest time wins.
Updates:
2018-04-23: Reuploaded to itch.io. Removed placeholder music loop.
2018-04-24: Fixed a graphical error happening on higher difficulty event cards.
| Windows | https://cheesey-bob.itch.io/ready-deck-go |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/ready-deck-go |
Ratings
| Overall | 545th | 3.053⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 556th | 2.868⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 349th | 3.368⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 278th | 3.737⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 580th | 2.632⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 445th | 2.5⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 460th | 2.806⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 20🗳️ | 15🗨️ |
Funny idea to include the card shop in the game !
I think your game is quite complete and complexe (not as a bad thing) for a Compo game. Nice job !
It's good to have a large choice of decks, I only played 5 games, but I appreciated to differ in my choices on every of them. It could be nice to see the enemy's ship, but an IA is hard to implement I guess :)
Maybe having the possibility to play against a friend cool be a great feature?
I'm also not entirely sure that visibility is working correctly -- my first game did not have too many asteroids, but by the fifth game there were a lot -- and about the same amount between the 1 visibility ship and the 3 visibility ship.
I think it would be neat if the cards you played actually increased your stats by that amount, or something to that effect -- sometimes I would not have any need to play a card, because I already had enough stats, which felt like a waste. (Although incrementing your stats could make the game a little too easy...)
The main thing I feel is missing is some kind of progression. You basically get all the best cards as soon as you want them, because there is no apparent limit on money, and neither is there any kind of limit on how good of stats you can get on the beginning. Some sort of ultimate goal would, I think, add a lot to the game.
I really enjoyed the sound effects, especially the card ones. They were really neat. However, I might just have strange taste. :slight_smile:
Thanks for the detailed feedback guys, I really appreciate it!
Balancing and progression were definitely areas I completely neglected, so I agree with your points. I was torn on how to do the difficulty, and ended up going for the easy-to-implement option of an arcadey, everything-gets-harder style difficulty curve. But this doesn't gel well with how the card system works. In hindsight, I think the better option would've been a small selection of hand-crafted levels and limited availability of cards.
Strangely, it never crossed my mind to have the AI actually race alongside you. This would be a really cool thing to add!