I've been focusing on the wrong stuff today, not enough code and getting scenarios in but here's Fools Fortune so far, it's a decision making game where you have your life read to you in tarot. You make decisions that will affect your body and wealth as you go, paying for wealth with body parts and stats

I'm pretty happy with where I am now. I have a nearly complete code base (just need menus) and most of the art done (just need tarot card art). Tomorrow I'll implement a few more scenarios and the lose condition and I think it'll be as done as I can get it for this jam. It's been a fun jam since I was very unexcited about the theme, first one I've done in a while and first one I've done alone but I think its coming along really well!

I'm not going to be able to finish everything I wanted to get done for the jam, but I'm definitely going to continue this post jam. Things I still need to finish; - Card art - Implementing scenarios - Title screen - Audio - Options menu - Lose/win condition

All things considered I got a lot done but there's just not enough time left for me to get even a fraction of all that done but I'm going to keep trucking!

Even though I know exactly what I should be doing to make it more functional, I keep focusing on polish. Send help!

I've implemented a very rudimentary lighting system, really adds atmosphere to the whole thing. (sorry for the crushed quality had to resize for posting, a better quality version can be found over on my twitter here https://twitter.com/i/status/1122590234737176576)

Now I really need to finish getting scenarios and a lose/win condition in!

I've done as much as I can so I'm calling it done for this jam. I'll be continuing development after the jam though so here's my list of to do's; - Tarot card art - 78 scenarios (so 78 tarot cards) - Indicator to show which stat will be affected/checked etc - Audio, some sort of noise for when the text is read to the player, music and ambient noises - Options menu - General polish

You can play my entry here;

https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

I've already submitted Fools fortune so I won't be adding to the jam version but I've started reaching out to a few colleagues and doing some very minor work on my own already. I see some potential in this game so here's hoping you all do too and good luck to all you jammers still trucking through!

Submission page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io: https://gearsteak.itch.io/

Got a lot of plans post jam for my entry but to start I need to rewrite the back end code so that I don't need to manually input every card event into an array. So to start I made a tool for writing the scenarios so I can pull into the game

Now I just need to do the back end code in the game and the art for the cards...and add in all the other flare I want to add in :sweat_smile: If you'd like to follow the post jam progress you can find it at;

Itch.io: https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

I forgot that we aren't allowed to do any improvements post jam and update the build, I also forgot to version at the end of the jam and make an HTML 5 port whoops!

So here's some gifs with some of my improvements thus far, sorry you can't play it with them and sorry you can't play it in web!

Don't forget to play and rate Fools Fortune here; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

You can follow Fools Fortune's post jam development at:

Twitter;https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io;https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

I've been working just as hard all week as I did for the jam and I'd say that Fools Fortune is coming along swimmingly! As of right now I've finished;

• The initial 22 card tarot set, which allows for 44 scenarios to be implemented (22 cards + 22 flipped cards)
• Indicator showing the player which stat will be checked against or affected (got a lot of comments about this)
• Further explanation to the player that the stat draw will be a roll under situation
• Visuals that display after 10 seconds to show the player that they click, click and drag/swipe cards for interactions
• Event and Heirloom cards that will be usable between playthroughs. Further explanation being that an event card is one that you will be able to force into a run, you can select either an event or heirloom, events will replace one card somewhere in your run. Heirlooms are permanent stat boosts i.e. something that gives you plus 1 strength
• Item card given to players, heirlooms will randomly be given when a player is given one of these
• Text skip button (since a lot of people were talking about text being slow)
• A tool to easily add more scenarios (as well as more scenarios added to the game)

With that said there's still a lot left for me to finish;

• 4 more suits of art for the other suits of cards (14 per suit)
• A total of 156 scenarios
• Item card art
• Change the death/finished run visuals
• Options menu
• Android testing
• Unlocking suits through play
• Drawing a run before play begins, ensuring duplicates are not present (can't be done until 11 scenarios at a minimum are implemented)

(My three favourite cards thus far)

I'm also debating doing an "unhinged" suit, that doesn't exist in actual tarot that would be another 14 cards (28 scenarios) that are all joke scenarios.

Hopefully Fools Fortune will turn out as good as I'm hoping! Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated, if you have any questions as well feel free to throw them my way!

Don’t forget to play and rate Fools Fortune here; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

You can follow Fools Fortune’s post jam development at:

Twitter;https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io;https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

Fools Fortune's post jam development is going swimmingly, I have almost all major features implemented (code wise) and a decent chunk of the art finished but I could use some feedback on two ideas.

The first idea is an "unhinged" joke set of scenarios; As of right now there will be 154 scenarios that are more or less completely serious, I'm debating adding a 6th suit of cards that would consist of 5-7 cards (10-14 scenarios) that would all be humorous.

Now the concern with this is would this break the immersion and feel of the game? any feedback on that idea is greatly appreciated!

The second thing I need feedback on is the item cards; Since the jam item cards have been implemented, these cards are given to the player when they choose an option that boosts a stat with specific items being tied to specific stats. Now none of the art has been done for these cards, the thing is that there are essentially only 8 functions these cards will serve with 5 of them being the heirloom cards that will be hard to obtain.

If you were playing this and got the same item every time your strength stat was increased would you be annoyed? Would you want more than one item visual even if it did the exact same thing?

I look forward to hearing any and all feedback this community may have!

Don’t forget to play and rate Fools Fortune here; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

You can follow Fools Fortune’s post jam development at:

Twitter;https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io;https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

As of now the art for the base tarot set (22 cards) and the suit of swords (14 cards) has finished, this means I have the visuals done for 72 scenarios, halfway done!

Whats left for a final release; - 3 more suits of art for the other suits of cards (14 per suit) - A total of 156 scenarios (currently 8 implemented) - Item card art (partly through this) - Change the death/finished run visuals - Options menu - Android testing - Unlocking suits through play - Drawing a run before play begins, ensuring duplicates are not present (can’t be done until 11 scenarios at a minimum are implemented)

That seems like a lot but considering the time consuming parts are the art it's almost done!

I could still use the communities feedback on 2 things however;

The first thing is the potential for an “unhinged” joke set of scenarios; As of right now there will be 154 scenarios that are more or less completely serious, this would mean adding a 6th suit of cards that would consist of 5-7 cards (10-14 scenarios) that would all be humorous.

Now the concern with this is would this break the immersion and feel of the game? any feedback on that idea is greatly appreciated!

The second thing I need feedback on is the item cards; Since the jam item cards have been implemented, these cards are given to the player when they choose an option that boosts a stat, with specific items being tied to specific stats. Now the art for a base set has been done for these cards, the thing is that there are essentially only 8 functions these cards will serve with 5 of them being the heirloom cards that will be hard to obtain (2 heirlooms completed).

If you were playing this and got the same item every time your strength stat was increased would you be annoyed? Would you want more than one item visual even if it did the exact same thing?

As an added bonus visual for this post, I call this card (almost identical to the actual tarot visual) the "Why did I spend all my money on swords" card

Don’t forget to play and rate Fools Fortune here; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

You can follow Fools Fortune’s post jam development at:

Twitter;https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io;https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

It's with a heavy heart that I write this post; Unfortunately my desktop just couldn't handle the work load I was putting on it and this morning suffered from drive failure. I've been working on it for close to a decade so it's not too surprising but without it I'm confined to a laptop that struggles to load any engines or tools.

Normally I wouldn't post this here but I've made a patreon to try and get a new cheap rig that will work for my day to day work, any support or even just sharing the patreon helps a lot

it can be found here; https://www.patreon.com/GearSteak

I'm going to continue to work on Fools fortune but development will slow

Don’t forget to play and rate Fools Fortune here; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

You can follow Fools Fortune’s post jam development at:

Twitter;https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io;https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

Things are slow with the recent hard drive failure, thankfully nothing lost so I've salvaged an old laptop and managed to continue work.

At this point the final version is almost complete all I have left to do is implement audio (waiting on audio tech to get back from vacation), unlocking suits of cards through play, finishing the art, implementing an options menu and finishing the 100 odd scenarios that are left to write!

I expect to finish sometime in the next 2 weeks and then release on https://gearsteak.itch.io/ and android devices!

With all that said I am trying to implement some of the communities feedback, right now namely text readability. I've added the ability to skip text scroll through right clicking and will be adding the ability to turn off the candles lighting. I've altered the colour of the candles as well but am looking for feedback on if they still look good, or if the colour alteration has fixed any of the readability issues that a few people had mentioned;

Compared to

As you can tell the candles are a far more distinctive beeswax sort of colour.

I look forward to hearing the communities feedback!

Don’t forget to play and rate Fools Fortune here; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

You can follow Fools Fortune’s post jam development at:

Twitter;https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io;https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune

Despite the set backs with my recent drive failure, Fools Fortune is code complete today! Featuring a full options menu, credits sequence, progression through repeat runs seen in heirloom and event cards, an android version and hours of gameplay!

Now with that said Fools Fortune isn't finished and ready to be released, we're only at 35 scenarios (out of 166), 78 card arts (out of 166), and placeholder music. I have a writer working on the scenarios and waiting on an audio tech to get back from vacation

As soon as I have audio I'll be releasing a demo version featuring only 11 scenarios (a single run) over on itch.io and the google play store!

Don’t forget to play and rate Fools Fortune here; https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/fools-fortune

You can follow Fools Fortune’s post jam development and get the demo to be released over at:

Twitter;https://twitter.com/Gear_Steak

Itch.io;https://gearsteak.itch.io/fools-fortune