Espionausage: Wiener Takes All by IonBingo

"When the chips are down, choose sausage."
In this blackjack-stealth game, you are face to face with vampiric criminal Jimmy Fangs and the mysterious Woman with a Pistol. Unlucky for them, you have an ace up your sleeve, and it comes in sausage form. You can still play by the rules if you're a pencil-pushing geek, but your tiny sausage friend is always ready to try and help you out.
Sausage-Mode (press space) - Pick one of your cards and then swap it with a rival's - Click on the hidden dealer card to view it - Manage your suspicion bar by acting fast and cheating in moderation - Don't lose
Our Team
Programmed by Parker and Ziyad
Music and SFX by Gavin
Art by Ian
| Itch.io Page | https://pimpliesq.itch.io/espionausage |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/espionausage-wiener-takes-all |
Ratings
| Overall | 826th | 3.25⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 729th | 3.188⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 180th | 3.771⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 855th | 3.208⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 375th | 3.917⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 262th | 3.667⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 169th | 3.729⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 347th | 3.75⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 18🗳️ | 25🗨️ |
When I press hit or stay someone caughs and then the game stops :(
I love the art though!
I think an easy improvements would be to add some guide UI, to help give the player direction in game. Also the eyeball design of the suspicion meter made me think it was tied to being seen and not time taken.
I love casino style stuff in general, so this is a big hit for me. I couldn't figure out how to adjust the bet if it was possible, I could only go all in every time. This became an issue in one instance where I had 20, it would be a very poor choice for me to hit on that, but no way to manage the risk of dealer getting a 21. Maybe I just didn't understand the game though.
I must say I'm a fan of the sausage mechanic, I love how it changes perspective! Very cute and silly, a much appreciated shift in tone (Even if the table has Dracula playing too).
I liked the choices of VSTs, it has a retroish midi style which is pretty nostalgic.
I think a tutorial might be in order, but I liked this game a lot :)
The title, Espionausage, is also firmly in the category of "so bad it's good" 🌭
I love the perspective change and the extra twist it adds into an otherwise simple game! The art and audio are great, and it feels really fun to play!
My one note is that it might be nice to have some additional UI to help explain to the player what's happening, and a quicker way to restart if you lose.
But all in all great job!!
I was very confused at first. And it was unclear when the dealer won or what happened at the end of each hand. Some UI feedback would help there I think.
If you just wait too long, the game crashes too.
I had to try again after reading the directions... but I still was a bit confused on how to cheat etc.
I loved this concept though!!
However, the art is really nice, and the concept very interesting ! Well done !
The game is pretty and it's a really cute idea, good job!
Sometimes I'd lose when seemingly nothing was happening and my meter was only halfway. One time I lost immediately upon launching the game, just after my second card had been dealt, with zero user input. The UI overlay also doesn't seem to appear until I hit spacebar for the first time.
And when in sausage mode, the meter fills extremely fast, I barely have time to even roll over to another player's hand before it fills and I lose. Exiting sausage mode doesn't seem to cause the meter to stop rising, and if I panic and click hit or stay to try and abate the meter, I usually lose instantly anyways.
The game seems to just totally softlock when I lose. Characters are still animated, but my only option is to alt+f4 and restart the game.
Overall I think this game could really benefit from much more clear feedback on exactly what's happening. Why is my meter going up? Why did I just lose? How many chips am I betting?
(Apologies if this seems a bit harsh, I'll say that the actual card mechanics were implemented nicely, and again the music and artwork were very nice.)