Hi there! I've played a bit of While True: Learn() and found it cute and enjoyable. I appreciate getting to see your other work here.
I really like the premise behind this and I do think it can work. I believe Signs of the Sojourner (I haven't played) also ran with a similar idea. This game also has cute art, a sense of humor, and charm.
In it's current state, however, this game is failing to hook me. The mechanics appear to be simultaneously mysterious (what are my enemies doing?) and too simple. The cards appear to have little personality beyond the thematic title and accompanying dialogue. All the cards I've seen modify the same 4 variables. Unless there is more to it, I could write a script to make my gameplay decisions for me.
The lack of polish on the UI also creates for some annoying issues. Ex. clicking the # to spend a card, only to have it pop up and "Whoops!" I flipped the card instead. That's happened 4 times with my first 2 enemies.... I did it on accident again while writing this and updated the previous line from "3 times".
Overall, I felt a lot of friction trying to get into this game, and maybe the rough edges are just too rough for me right now. I do believe that the mechanics need a revisit, as well. I'm still happy to have a found this and I will be following it's development. I hope you get more feedback and good luck!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts anyway! In any case, your feedback correlates with what we wanted to change about this prototype, so it makes us think we're heading in the right direction
The new card icons were the first thing that stood out to me in the battle scene. I felt like I was making more deliberate choices between cards and sides. In the previous version, I had completely avoided using the red side of cards, whereas that was not an option here. However, with the cards forgoing combined effects, the mechanics feel simpler than before.
I liked the change to enemies telegraphing their moves. I found this also helped in understanding the aggression mechanic. There's still a lot of mystery and figuring out what-to-do on the side of the player, though.
Overall, I think this was a step in the right direction. This update encouraged me to flip my cards more often than I was in the last.
Good luck with the next update! I have a release planned for later this week and would love your feedback when you get a chance.
Thanks for the new portion of the feedback. The new version is under development at the moment. Can't wait to check your release out. Would you mind to send me a link?
Thank you folks. Players like you @Maack and @tgreatblueberry are a true source of motivation for us. We've experienced it a number of times (with Learning Factory and while True: learn() as well) when the only north star is players like you. If we read this kind of feedback we understand that finally found something interesting to work on, something that matters.
You are always welcome to join our adventure with making this game a really useful and fun tool for learning effective communications :)
Hey! I love card-based combat games in general, so I was super excited to try this one! I love that you fight with words not with swords. It is really funny seeing what things your character says! I'd love to see even more quotes by my little character as he gains more cards and levels up! I'd also have a lot of fun seeing the enemies say stuff too at the player to make things feel more fun and different with each enemy you fight! It'd provide a reason to keep moving to the next level, and I'm sure some of the player quotes and enemy quotes could make funny shareable screenshots for players, which is always fun and a good way to improve sharing this across a larger spectrum of people. I really love the artwork and the transitions/gameplay is snappy and quick! Very cool concept and I really like where you're going with this!
I'm going to share a few suggestions you might find helpful for the next update and/or project. Did you playtest this with many people? I find that this game lacks a lot of good balance, especially with how the monsters' damage becomes so high that your "shield" cards don't work and you don't have enough HP to continue. I could only progress to the snake level, where he has 5 HP, in about 5 times playing the game. It was especially frustrating that you can't replay a level, and you have to start over again. The second frustration was that you have no good means of gaining back HP, or even getting more HP as you defeat enemies. This might help balance out the large damage of the snake.
What I find most curious is why you chose this as a card-based system? Card based provides a player with control to choose, but with a little bit of randomization to keep the game fun and different every time. Because you lose your entire hand each turn (and you can't choose to keep anything for later), this game takes too much control from the player. It becomes too random. Another factor that increases this randomization is that you gain more cards to add to your deck, so the random factor grows over time. If it's too random, it doesn't feel fun anymore. I think a game that handles this deck system better is this one. Maybe it will help you gain more inspiration. https://armorgames.com/play/18921/deck-adventurers-chapter-1
Finally, I also find the aggravation you can give enemies a curious idea that doesn't affect my gameplay at all because I can't see the numbers behind it. Why can't I see how aggravation increases on my cards? Why can't I see the enemy's cards when they play them, so I can start to recognize how hard they can hit and how much bonus to damage the aggravation does to it? Maybe 2 aggravation just adds 2 extra damage, I don't know, and I shouldn't have to do math as a player to get something basic like that right away. I really love this game and I need to see more of what happens behind the scenes to really enjoy the awesome combat you've put together!
I look forward to seeing your work in the future. Thank you so much for making such a fun game! I hope you continue to rock the socks off everyone in the future!
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Hi there! I've played a bit of While True: Learn() and found it cute and enjoyable. I appreciate getting to see your other work here.
I really like the premise behind this and I do think it can work. I believe Signs of the Sojourner (I haven't played) also ran with a similar idea. This game also has cute art, a sense of humor, and charm.
In it's current state, however, this game is failing to hook me. The mechanics appear to be simultaneously mysterious (what are my enemies doing?) and too simple. The cards appear to have little personality beyond the thematic title and accompanying dialogue. All the cards I've seen modify the same 4 variables. Unless there is more to it, I could write a script to make my gameplay decisions for me.
The lack of polish on the UI also creates for some annoying issues. Ex. clicking the # to spend a card, only to have it pop up and "Whoops!" I flipped the card instead. That's happened 4 times with my first 2 enemies.... I did it on accident again while writing this and updated the previous line from "3 times".
Overall, I felt a lot of friction trying to get into this game, and maybe the rough edges are just too rough for me right now. I do believe that the mechanics need a revisit, as well. I'm still happy to have a found this and I will be following it's development. I hope you get more feedback and good luck!
Guess I should have just waited 3 hours...
Thanks for sharing your thoughts anyway! In any case, your feedback correlates with what we wanted to change about this prototype, so it makes us think we're heading in the right direction
What do you think of this next version though?
The new card icons were the first thing that stood out to me in the battle scene. I felt like I was making more deliberate choices between cards and sides. In the previous version, I had completely avoided using the red side of cards, whereas that was not an option here. However, with the cards forgoing combined effects, the mechanics feel simpler than before.
I liked the change to enemies telegraphing their moves. I found this also helped in understanding the aggression mechanic. There's still a lot of mystery and figuring out what-to-do on the side of the player, though.
Overall, I think this was a step in the right direction. This update encouraged me to flip my cards more often than I was in the last.
Good luck with the next update! I have a release planned for later this week and would love your feedback when you get a chance.
Thanks for the new portion of the feedback. The new version is under development at the moment. Can't wait to check your release out. Would you mind to send me a link?
I published it today! Here's the link: https://maaack.itch.io/battle-deck-energy-premature-release
Thank you folks. Players like you @Maack and @tgreatblueberry are a true source of motivation for us. We've experienced it a number of times (with Learning Factory and while True: learn() as well) when the only north star is players like you. If we read this kind of feedback we understand that finally found something interesting to work on, something that matters.
You are always welcome to join our adventure with making this game a really useful and fun tool for learning effective communications :)
https://discord.gg/W8KhjSf @gamescodedogs#2228
Hey! I love card-based combat games in general, so I was super excited to try this one! I love that you fight with words not with swords. It is really funny seeing what things your character says! I'd love to see even more quotes by my little character as he gains more cards and levels up! I'd also have a lot of fun seeing the enemies say stuff too at the player to make things feel more fun and different with each enemy you fight! It'd provide a reason to keep moving to the next level, and I'm sure some of the player quotes and enemy quotes could make funny shareable screenshots for players, which is always fun and a good way to improve sharing this across a larger spectrum of people. I really love the artwork and the transitions/gameplay is snappy and quick! Very cool concept and I really like where you're going with this!
I'm going to share a few suggestions you might find helpful for the next update and/or project. Did you playtest this with many people? I find that this game lacks a lot of good balance, especially with how the monsters' damage becomes so high that your "shield" cards don't work and you don't have enough HP to continue. I could only progress to the snake level, where he has 5 HP, in about 5 times playing the game. It was especially frustrating that you can't replay a level, and you have to start over again. The second frustration was that you have no good means of gaining back HP, or even getting more HP as you defeat enemies. This might help balance out the large damage of the snake.
What I find most curious is why you chose this as a card-based system? Card based provides a player with control to choose, but with a little bit of randomization to keep the game fun and different every time. Because you lose your entire hand each turn (and you can't choose to keep anything for later), this game takes too much control from the player. It becomes too random. Another factor that increases this randomization is that you gain more cards to add to your deck, so the random factor grows over time. If it's too random, it doesn't feel fun anymore. I think a game that handles this deck system better is this one. Maybe it will help you gain more inspiration. https://armorgames.com/play/18921/deck-adventurers-chapter-1
Finally, I also find the aggravation you can give enemies a curious idea that doesn't affect my gameplay at all because I can't see the numbers behind it. Why can't I see how aggravation increases on my cards? Why can't I see the enemy's cards when they play them, so I can start to recognize how hard they can hit and how much bonus to damage the aggravation does to it? Maybe 2 aggravation just adds 2 extra damage, I don't know, and I shouldn't have to do math as a player to get something basic like that right away. I really love this game and I need to see more of what happens behind the scenes to really enjoy the awesome combat you've put together!
I look forward to seeing your work in the future. Thank you so much for making such a fun game! I hope you continue to rock the socks off everyone in the future!
I love how constructive your feedback is, thank you very much. Can't wait to share the updated version with you :)