Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

KershuffleView game page

Quick card game. Be a General, organize your units, maximize your points, minimize your losses, and win the war!
Submitted by Atemly Games (@atemly) — 12 hours, 7 minutes before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Kershuffle's itch.io page

Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VgcY6It-3tJuaYOGCZQADFlE1XVqjhIJ0Woau5VpC70/edit?usp=sharing

Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes

Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes

Summarise your game!
Kershuffle is a quick card game for 1-2 players where you take on the role of a General and are tasked with winning the war! You are provided units which have strengths and weaknesses but be careful - losing units will be destroyed. Organize your units, maximize your points, minimize your losses, and win the most battles to win the war!

Please explain how your game fits the theme:
Cards have suits which are based on weapons and certain weapons perform better or worse against others. As the player you must select and organize the weapons to be used during the round. Each match can be considered a “war” and each round can be considered a “battle” with each card being a single “unit”. The player acts as a General that must decide their battle strategy. As each battle is executed each unit has a chance to win or lose. Losing units are destroyed and removed from the war. Although the General may not be fighting themselves, they are the ones calling the shots and are just as much of a weapon as the units themselves.

Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
Gameplay

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Viewing comments 25 to 6 of 25 · Next page · Last page
Submitted

Look, feel, sound design and music, are extremely polished, really surprising at first glance looks like a finished game, gives a really strong first impression for a game jam game. Gameplay wise, i was a little confused at the start, but kind of got it after the first "PLAY".  I kind of felt like i was guessing while selecting the cards, as there was not enough information for me to plan. 
By itself is kind of hard to understand how the "structure" of the game works. After reading the explanation, it is more clear, and makes me even more curious in how a more complete/bigger version of this game would be. Its the kind of game i would love to make but i would not  even know where to start XD. 
Of course i didn't read anything before i play, because i 'am that kind of player. sorry
Nevertheless, i feel this game has lots of potential, it already feels extremely polished, if you ever decide to update it i will try it again. Easily one of the more promising entries i have played so far.

Submitted

A very well designed card game. The rules are simple but allow for a level of complexity that can make for some interesting decision making by the player. Figuring out your cards and trying to determine what your opponent will play leads to some moments where you're discarding and hoping to draw into that perfect card still in your deck. That does point to discarding being your main mechanic for control over the state of the game. I'd love to have a little bit more ability to either reorganize my cards or even alter the suits of my deck. It does occasionally lead to some frustrating moments where a card I'd want to be up first ends up being played last. Aesthetically the visuals and animations are solid and fun with good clarity on the cards, mechanics of the game, and the current round. Even without a tutorial it was fairly simple to determine what was happening and how to win. My only complaint there is that the font used for the '5' made it look a little smudgy and like a weird '2'. The sound design for the cards was good, and the music loop had me grooving a little bit. 
A simple game, with good mechanics, that was executed very well! Very impressive for 48 hours and I'd love to see this concept expanded upon. 

Submitted

A really fun game! The art, animations, music and sound effects were phenomenal! In terms of just looks and sounds, the game already seems complete. But a lack of a tutorial really hurts as it is quite confusing to play. A settings menu would also be great to turn down the music as it is a little loud. I liked how you mentioned your team had limited experience with Audio, but also how your team only has one person, which is Paige

Some of the numbers were a little hard to see initially, specifically the 2 and the 5.

While counters are nice, it feels like there is too many of them, a total of 7 different weapons that each have different strengths and weaknesses. With the lack of a tutorial, I had to look through the GDD to understand that direct counters (from the arrow to the weapon) were not the only things to look out for, and that the number of arrows in a clockwise direction also matter. This was very confusing initially, as I did not know why specific weapons, like Boxing Glove vs Spear resulted in the Boxing Glove winning, despite them not being next to each other.

The rank of the card seems to be a little irrelevant unless for counting points, as I expected a rank 5 card to destroy a rank 1 card, but they simply just draw, and in the Count Cards modifier, the rank doesn’t seem to matter at all.

I don’t really mind the RNG nature of the game, but involving some skill, or agency that the player has to win would be great. As currently, it’s more of if you can guess what the enemy might have.

Still a really great game for a 2 week game jam! I saw that you included a total dev time, which was a nice detail! Great work!

Submitted

This is a super cool game!

At first I didn't realize that my opponent had the same cards as me until I read the comments. After I realized that the game became much more interesting.

I think it'd be good if the modifier card was a toggle-able feature. Learning the basics can be a little difficult when the core rules are changing on you every round.

I love the art and animations. The game feels incredibly polished. I can tell you put a lot of work into this.

Awesome game, well done!

Submitted

Very nifty, sort of a "trick-taking" game with a more advanced version of a "trick". Had to read the GDD to work out all of the rules but after that there's a pretty interesting decision tree of "Do I think my first card will win?" -> "If so, what do I play next?" vs "If not, how do I counter what beat it?". I think there's a really unique card game mechanic here that I'd love to see explored further.

As others have stated, visually this game is top-notch. Some clear Balatro influences, but it maintains an identity of its own. Thanks for making it :)

Submitted

This plays really well and looks great! Well done! At first I wasn't sure what to do with the vulnerability system, but then I saw the sneek peek to the opponent's first card. Sure helped a lot!

Submitted (1 edit)

Hey this is a super cool game! Really liked the art and the animations looked great!

Loved how long the weapon loop was, that was pretty interesting. I think more ways to understand what the computer is playing like what happens in the second hand would be more interesting. Maybe through more modifiers or items the player can spend. Because the nice thing about games like Balatro is the player has a lot of agency over how/if they win. Here it's a bit up to chance. 

Again really nice art and polished animations and UI. Cool entry!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing & the idea!

I do have instructions on how to play and a notice about the lack of a tutorial in the description already - not sure how to improve that. The GDD also contains further instructions if you want to play this game with a real deck of cards. (Well, technically 2 decks, but yeah)

Submitted

I'm just blind. Carry on. Haha

Submitted

Hey! I love Balatro, so when I saw the screenshots for this game, I had to try it out!

I really love the art style, it's very polished! Also, the suits strenghts/weaknesses mechanic it's pretty cool! Great job.

Developer

Thanks for playing :)

Submitted

Nice polished game! 

Gameplay seems to be too random. The only win strategy I figured out is for "Lowest score wins" modified - just pick 5 same cards

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted

Hey!  Have given this a couple of plays and the game's presentation looks super clean.  Congrats on your submission.

Developer

Thanks for playing :)

Submitted

Really great work on the UI and polish of this game, I had to play it when I saw the balatro looking ui on the left. I'm not sure I understood the strategy of the game. Because I had no idea what the oponents cards were going to be I wasn't sure how I was supposed to strategize what a good hand would be to play. Was fun to play tho, great work!

Developer

Thanks for playing~!

Submitted

Really nice polish and sound design. I think the lack of a tutorial really hurts it and that's why people feel like its RNG. Though even then I felt like RNG really over-ruled the game here. Nevertheless great job!

Developer

Thanks for playing :)

Submitted

I like the balatro-inspired UI design! Feels like the game is a bit too RNG/luck based, unless I didn't understand the rules fully. It is still fun nonetheless. Good job!

Developer

Thanks for playing :)

Yes, I'm hearing there's a lot of RNG though I'm not too sure where that is coming from? Unfortunately reordering cards was cut from scope as outlined in the GDD so I can understand if that's the source of it...

If you don't mind: what did you think the rules of the game were? When you selected your cards what choices did you make? Did you think about the suit you first selected and build your hand from that? Or did you just select random cards? 

(+1)

Actually, yeah. I kind of did stuff randomly, but if I paid attention and played what would beat my first card then I think it'd be quite easy to guarantee a few cards win. 

Submitted

Very satisfying sounds, love it! The gameplay was interesting, a spin on rock paper scissors. If you continue it, adding more strategy to the game would be good, less rng.

Developer

Thanks for playing :)

I'm hearing about the RNG though I'm not too sure where that is coming from? Unfortunately reordering cards was cut from scope as outlined in the GDD so I can understand if that's the source of it...

If you don't mind: what did you think the rules of the game were? When you selected your cards what choices did you make? Did you think about the suit you first selected and build your hand from that? Or did you just select random cards? 

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

If I got the modifier that shows your opponent's first card then yes I would pick something to counter that. But other than that I didn't see much strategy to the game and just picked random cards. A more detailed strategy element is what would keep me coming back. Maybe add combo pairs. For example if you get two wand cards then that makes a fireball which takes out the first two cards of your opponent's hand. Or you could add a shield card, if you match two shield cards together you will block your opponents first two attacks. Then it becomes a gamble. Do I hold onto my shield card and hope that next turn I am able to get two? Maybe give the player a choice to stash one card to the side that will definitely end up in their next hand. Hope that helps :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for getting back to me! It's made the problem a little easier to understand. Some cool ideas too :)

Submitted

GREAT STYLE AND GOOD CARD FEEL. I FEEL I HAD TOO LITTLE AGENCY IN THE GAMES AND HAD THE MOST FUN WHEN I WAS PEAKING AT MY OPPONENT'S FIRST CARD. IF YOU ITERATED ON THIS I WOULD RECOMMENDED LOOKING FOR WAYS TO ADD MORE AGENCY IN THE SYSTEM RATHER THAN IT FEELING LIKE IM PICKING RANDOM HANDS. GREAT JOB ON THE JAM OVERALL!

Developer

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!

I AM HEARING ABOUT THE AGENCY THING AND UNFORTUNATELY REORDERING CARDS WAS CUT FROM THE SCOPE AS I MENTIONED IN THE GDD SO I CAN UNDERSTAND IF THAT'S THE SOURCE OF IT BUT...

IF YOU DON'T MIND: WHEN YOU WERE SELECTING THE CARDS WHAT CHOICES DID YOU MAKE? DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE SUIT YOU FIRST SELECTED AND BUILD YOUR HAND FROM THAT? OR DID YOU JUST SELECT RANDOM CARDS?

Submitted

I feel like this game could be VERY good.  With a nice tutorial (which I know is a nightmare to get done in a 2 week game jam), it would also be a bit easier to pick up quickly.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! 

And yes I wanted to add a tutorial but ran out of time :(

Submitted(+1)

Same, I just put together a terrible "how to play" page that I toss the player into on first start. Game jams are brutal. 

Submitted

Beautiful art style! Short game but I can see many replays.

Developer

Thanks for playing :)

Submitted

Short pretty game although a bit hard to understand without a tutorial.

Developer

Thanks for playing! Yes, I wanted to add a tutorial but ran out of time :(

I put the how to play instructs in the description though so I hope that helped?

Submitted

I feel like this game has a lot of potential. I was kind of lost at first since the gameplay is not that intuitive (thankfully I had the common sense of reading the instructions provided by the devs and was able to figure out how to actually play). I like the art style and I'm fond of rock-paper-sissors type gameplay since it forces you to be strategic, the only thing is that there is really no strategy in this game, but more luck and RnG based elements. I can't really plan out a move since I don't know if my card is going to be weak against my opponent's (even if I have the higher number card) and it was weird how I almost never got other types of cards other than the boxing glove, the knife and the cane. It was also too short, so I didn't really get to experience the other win conditions you guys implemented. Other than that, I like the sound design, the music is sweet and the visuals are nice. If I could give some feedback, try adding a tutorial to explain how your game works for those (like me) that didn't bother reading the instructions before playing. Still, I hope the development of this game continues and shows us what's what! 7/10. Good job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! Yes, I wanted to have a tutorial but didn't have enough time :(

As for why you were only getting those three suits - it's mentioned in the GDD - but at the beginning of each match a random number of suits are in play. I didn't have time to generate the strength/weakness chart based on what's in play so the global one is what was used. If you hit replay at the end for another match you should've (hopefully) gotten a different set of suits.

Submitted

I was lost at first, but I was able to win on my second try!  Very good card sounds

Developer

Thanks for playing :)

Viewing comments 25 to 6 of 25 · Next page · Last page