{"id":2409,"edition":13,"categories":1,"features":0,"size":12787,"name":"Blackhat's Black Cats","authors":[{"name":"LawftyGoals","login":"LawftyGoals","gh":42514030},{"name":"stian-framvik","login":"stian-framvik","gh":165836388}],"description":"
This is a management sim.
\nYou have recently come to acquire a little pet shop selling black cats to witches. Navigate your way through life by selling cats, expanding your list of witch customers and preventing your downfall at the hands of those dam bills. Make sure to match cat traits with witch traits and know that there are spells out there that you can acquire to make bigger plays.
\nIcons designed by Pauli Sokol.
\n","source":"LawftyGoals/black-cat-network","stars":0,"comments":[{"at":410408333,"author":"Mohammed Saud","login":"rottencandy","gh":20013884,"url":"saud.wtf","twitter":"rotttencandy","text":"The game looks very intriguing with deep mechanics. Unfortunately I’m unable to figure out how to sell cats to witches. I pick a cat for bonding but the offer keeps getting rejected, with no way to undo the picked cat. Also not sure if bonding and selling are the same thing. Would love to give this a try if the gameplay was explained a bit more.
\n","games":["Non-Mewtonian Cat"]},{"typ":1,"at":410471859,"re":410408333,"author":"LawftyGoals","login":"LawftyGoals","gh":42514030,"text":"Thanks for responding. A better description would have been very helpful here we admit that. You complete the bondings in the bonding screen. A bonding will immediately be rejected if the cat is not Black. If the witch already has a bonding initiated with you she will reject an offer.
\n"},{"at":410633768,"author":"xem","login":"xem","gh":1225909,"text":"Congrats for the release, though I have weird scrollbars everywhere on Windows + Chrome, at every zoom level.
\n","games":["I got up on the wrong foot"]},{"typ":1,"at":410662321,"re":410633768,"author":"LawftyGoals","login":"LawftyGoals","gh":42514030,"text":"Thanks for the reply! I am unfortunately not seeing the same here. I do get set scroll bars on the central field when launching the game here, but not everywhere. I’ll try check it out in different browsers.
\n"},{"at":410771951,"author":"Federico Tibaldo","login":"fedetibaldo","gh":21128334,"url":"https://fedetibaldo.com","text":"Good premise. It’s got depth, but it’s really rough around the edges. From the cryptic bonding mechanic (another reviewer already mentioned it), to the loss of progress when you close the frame, this game says “play me” but the experience reads “I’m not ready yet.”
\nIf it was a problem of budget, I wish it was reallocated from the static graphics (they are pretty but unfortunately add little to the gameplay) to maybe better info layouts (comma separated–and with inconsistent ordering–just ain’t it).
\nControls-wise, I noticed that modals can be dismissed using ESC (very good), but the cat name form can’t be submitted using the enter key (mildly annoying). And why are the sidebar buttons so small? All that space and the main click targets are 21px tall with a tiny 13.3px font size. Use that space, is my suggestion.
\nFinally, as a player, I wish achieving a specific trait was simpler. Be it via re-rolling, breeding… Or maybe just more bonding offers. What I know is that, to me, it’s more fun to make my own luck than to rely on it, and here I didn’t find many levers I could pull.
\nOverall, good work, but it could use more time in the oven
\n","games":["Kuro Neko Market"]},{"at":411268856,"author":"Elias Ku","login":"eliasku","gh":3038174,"url":"https://eliasku.win","twitter":"eliaskuvoice","text":"What a cool idea - you can really see how much effort was put into this game! 😊\nI love the concept of a zoo/pet shop simulator; I’ve always wanted to play something like this.
\nUnfortunately, I couldn’t quite figure out how to sell the cats, but I really enjoyed the game’s look and feel.
\nGreat job! 🐱🎮
\n","games":["Cat Survivors"]},{"typ":2,"at":411469891,"author":"Emanuele Feronato","login":"triqui","gh":389551,"text":"Nice idea, but the overall UI is a bit messy. Maybe you should work a bit on it.
\n"},{"typ":2,"at":411609849,"author":"Björn Ritzl","login":"britzl","gh":1300688,"url":"www.defold.com","twitter":"bjornritzl","text":"The idea is good, but the UI is a bit hard to navigate. I know there’s limited space with only 13k, but this type of game needs a bit of in-game tutorial / hand-holding. Perhaps the first cat and matching to a witch is pretty simple and straight forward and some UI elements are hidden from the start to better help the player learn the basics of the game.
\n"},{"at":411690016,"author":"Raptor Dev","login":"raptor0999","gh":74460924,"twitter":"Raptor_IndieDev","text":"This is a very cool idea for a game and I think that it is quite well laid out also!
\nThere could definitely be a few more instructions in the description or as an intro or help page, but I think it was pretty easy to look and see and gather what is going on and what to do.
\nI like the whole set up of keeping cats and finding out more about them and then matching them up with an appropriate witch lol The main issue that I had is that when I finally did bond a cat with a witch (I think… I sent it to her anyway) I never did end up getting the gold (gp) that was stated. Maybe it is a delayed effect?
\nAnyway, great job at the pretty intricate balance of things you have set up and the presentation as well. As usual, I wish there was at least a music track to make it feel not so lonely!
\n","games":["Boots and the Black Cauldron"]},{"at":411819890,"author":"Jasper Renow-Clarke","login":"picosonic","gh":26137750,"twitter":"femtosonic","text":"An interesting concept
\nLots going on, things to click and interact with
\nThe game had a level of complexity from the off, without being eased in gently with a tutorial
\nThe cat graphic was good
\n","games":["Mochi and the midnight escape"]},{"at":411976561,"author":"Attila Horváth","login":"attilahorvath","gh":4081005,"text":"This is a very cool idea but I have to agree with the others saying it’s kinda hard to play and rough around the edges a bit.
\nYou can definitely make a trading sim game like this without much graphics and just a textual UI (see Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator for a great example) but the interface needs to be streamlined for this to work.
\nIt wasn’t obvious why the witches were rejecting the bonding offers and I was confused about the different tabs (like why is there both a Bondings and a Witches tab that seem to be for the same thing really). The game description didn’t give much indication either.
\nI thought the cats with different personalities, colours and breeds, etc. were really cute though so I wish the game got a bit more polish to be more enjoyable.
\nGood job releasing this for the compo and I’ll be excited to see what other games you’ll make in the future!
\n","games":["A Voiding Your Problems"]}],"results":{"theme":{"rank":92,"min":1,"score":3.05,"max":4.24},"innovation":{"rank":134,"min":1.2,"score":2.32,"max":4.03},"gameplay":{"rank":165,"min":1.18,"score":1.79,"max":4.37},"graphics":{"rank":166,"min":1.6,"score":1.95,"max":4.56},"controls":{"rank":153,"min":1.6,"score":2.53,"max":4.45},"primary":{"rank":160,"min":8.68,"score":11.63,"max":24.89},"label":"Overall"}}