Dream of Ar-card-ia ~ Dreaming of the Perfect Deck - A Game Jam submission

[buskerdog]

Hey all! If anyone here remembers the post I made some weeks back about an upcoming game jam, here's the result of that!

This game is a submission for Touhou Fan Game Jam 8. The jam duration was 72 hours, and the theme was dreams. 

Dream of Ar-card-ia ~ Dreaming of the Perfect Deck is a roguelike card game where Maribel must escape the dream world with Doremy's assistance! Throughout a run, you will also add more cards to your deck, including 11 possible dream versions of other Touhou characters! The game has 7 stages in total, many of which come with their own twist!

Of course, big thanks to my team: @Needlemouse for the art and Cassare for the music. (I am the programmer.) Without these guys, the game wouldn't be nearly as cool as it is.

You can find the jam submission page for our game here: https://itch.io/jam/touhou-jam-8/rate/1492068 (you'll be able to find links to try the other jam games, too!)

And the general page for the game here: https://buskerdog.itch.io/dreamofarcardia

Screenshots!:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Tenkko]

I'm not big into card games but that was pretty fun! Gets a bit intense in the later stages.

Feel like some cards are too good but hey that just makes it all the more fun. Or maybe I just got lucky lol.

[TheM3ds]

I had some fun playing-through it earlier, a couple of the cards can be OP(?) but I've made it as far as stage 3, needless to say I thought I was gonna steamroll through the whole game but I got unlucky, still it was fun, I'll have to try it again sometime later.

[Gou the frog]

I want to give it a try but I can't seem to go to your game page.

[buskerdog]

6 hours ago, Gou the frog said:

I want to give it a try but I can't seem to go to your game page.

That is... confusing. Can you at least get on to itch.io?

[Gou the frog]

Wait, I've got it now. Weird, I think something was wrong about my computer at the afternoon. 

[buskerdog]

If y'all liked my game, please leave a rating on the game jam page: https://itch.io/jam/touhou-jam-8/rate/1492068. I'd greatly appreciate it! Actually, that'd be pretty helpful even if you didn't like my game

[buskerdog]

IMPORTANT UPDATE - There is now a new version of the game up which fixes a game-crashing bug. If you already downloaded the game, please get the new version to avoid crashes.

[Gou the frog]

It's fun and I want to finish the whole game. So far, I'm getting my butt kicked in Stage 3. Oh well, I'll give it my best shot.

 

[Gou the frog]

On 4/22/2022 at 5:16 AM, buskerdog said:

IMPORTANT UPDATE - There is now a new version of the game up which fixes a game-crashing bug. If you already downloaded the game, please get the new version to avoid crashes.

Cool update. 

[Gou the frog]

I've finally made it to stage 6 but I don't think I can move to the final stage. Well, if I have the Best RNG and enemy placement I think I can. I've had a lot of fun playing this, sat on the menu for 10 minutes. Sucking on stage 1,2 for an hour. 3 for an 2 hours and a half. 4 & 5 for ten minutes. There was a lot of big brain decisions I've made with the move cards and Dream Youmou cards. Jo'on Card saved my skin in stage 5. I love the gimmicks after progressing each stage. Fast boys, All enemy at first, No starting cards and the one that ruined my career, rapid enemy spawn but I haven't seen the final gimmick; guess I need to gid gud and gid rid of that skill issue.

The music is pretty good, considering this in a game jam in a limited time. But after 4 hours of failures, I decided to boot up Japanese Goblin (Broken Moon), that's seems to give me strength in the 5th stage. The art is pretty cute, the opening is so also nice.

The game mechanics are cool albeit sometimes unfair for the player. I have some suggestions,

1. Adding a shop for Maribel to purchase Character Dream Cards in the Dream World. The Money would be earned by defeating monsters. By interacting with Doremy, the Player now have a chance to swap cards in Doremy's. (You can access it between stages)

2. Save option: To replay the stage you've already completed.

3. Art Galley? So, you can view the character sprites, backgrounds, drawings etc.

Final words: This game is a pretty cute game with some interesting mechanics and gameplay with cards. I very much enjoy it.

buskerdog, NeedleMouse, Cassare, Thank you guys for this little card game.

[buskerdog]

5 hours ago, Gou the frog said:

I haven't seen the final gimmick; guess I need to gid gud and gid rid of that skill issue.

The last level may be brutal and had very little testing time

[Gou the frog]

Just now, buskerdog said:

The last level may be brutal and had very little testing time

There're seven levels eh? I might try to reach the last one out. As long as all the gimmicks mention above are not coming towards me all at once at the same time.

[Gou the frog]

On 4/24/2022 at 9:51 PM, buskerdog said:

The last level may be brutal and had very little testing time

I'm here to tell you that I've beaten your game. (Level 7 down with all the gimmicks)

Actually, I lost it on the 7th stage the first time. (My mother called me for dinner and got distracted)

Spoiler

Moments before disaster of "Monstero: forgetting enemy moves twice." 

 

But needless to say, the last one is indeed brutal if you're deck starts out with moves cards. The one I've great difficulties are stage 5 and 3 or maybe also 6 (You need almighty luck, thankfully the ai is a bit kind on that one)

Spoiler

After 30 minutes of grinding, dying to turbo enemy and rapid spawns; I'm finally back to the last brutal stage. (Full hand 'cause Dream J'oon got me covered)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dream-er End Game: Pulling a Marisa Reverse Card!

 

 

~This is the end for now~

(Holy Lord Above, I beat it twice if you count the failed attempt full of op cards)

 

[buskerdog]

Dream of Arcardia now has a post-jam update, so please have a look! Several improvements have been made to the game, including a new mechanic designed to reduce the frustration of having no useful cards, as well as artwork for every card, a new music track, and animations and sounds! Also thank you to @Gou the frog for lending an extra hand in making this update possible!

You can get the update by redownloading from the itch.io page: https://buskerdog.itch.io/dreamofarcardia