{"id":2464,"edition":13,"categories":3,"features":0,"size":13181,"name":"Lucky Charm","authors":[{"name":"Stanisław Małolepszy","url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","login":"stasm","gh":265818}],"description":"

In Poland, we say that cats walk their own paths.

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Inspired by this, Lucky Charm is a high-energy, micro-roguelike auto-battler with no direct combat input. Your only task is to guide your fighter’s evolution by choosing powerful upgrades between battles.

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How to play

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Why 33 duels?

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If the entire world’s population competed in a one-on-one tournament, the winner would only have to win 33 times to be the last one standing. I can’t stop thinking about it.

\n","source":"piesku/blackcat","stars":0,"yt":"sanL94Xga8g","comments":[{"at":410417758,"author":"Almut Kieffer-Jones","login":"mxlle","gh":6170306,"text":"

Beautiful graphics!

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But there should have been a trigger warning about the poor dead cats 😿

\n","games":["Kittens United"]},{"typ":1,"at":412026201,"re":410417758,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thank you! I might have gone too far with the death animation…

\n"},{"at":410462869,"author":"Mohammad Jawad","login":"mhmdjawad","gh":22205462,"url":"https://pdemia.com/","text":"

awsome movement and graphics are fun to watch even that its not much of game to play other than need to click one of the options.

\n","games":["The Familiar"]},{"typ":1,"at":412026331,"re":410462869,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thanks for your comment! My goal was for the game to really be about strategically choosing the upgrades to create the best build. I didn’t manage to spend enough time on the balance, and I think it made it more about luck than strategy.

\n"},{"at":410579125,"author":"Anthony Cosgrave","login":"anthonycosgrave","gh":1410114,"url":"https://imtoospexy.com/","text":"

Really fantastic energetic graphical style and was fun to play. The trailer kind of made me think it also had audio which would definitely been a bonus.

\n","games":["Chickpocalypse Meow"]},{"typ":1,"at":412026523,"re":410579125,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thank you! I had fun coming up with the look and feel for this game. That said, I wish I had spent more effort on visual polish — this kind of game really needs even more particles, screen shakes, and explosions. With the trailer, I wanted to convey a bit of what I wanted the game to feel like. I too regret not being able to include the audio in the game!

\n"},{"at":410613244,"author":"Elias Ku","login":"eliasku","gh":3038174,"url":"https://eliasku.win","twitter":"eliaskuvoice","text":"

The trailer got me really excited, so I was a little let down when I realized it wasn’t an online game. Love the visuals and color scheme though! Wish there was some sound or music, and the goal wasn’t very clear — everything moves so fast it was hard to keep up. Still, thanks for the game!

\n","games":["Cat Survivors"]},{"typ":1,"at":412026706,"re":410613244,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thank you for your kind words, Elias! You’re right, PvP would have been quite awesome, although I’m sure it would come with its own host of balancing challenges.. I don’t think I managed to balance PvE well enough, either. A lesson learned for me this year: when making a game about synergies, plan much more time for balancing and playtesting.

\n"},{"at":410756565,"author":"xem","login":"xem","gh":1225909,"text":"

Very good graphics and camera movement! Only misses a bit of sound. Nice trivia about the number 33!

\n","games":["I got up on the wrong foot"]},{"typ":1,"at":412026754,"re":410756565,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thank you, Xem! I wanted the camera to feel energetic and dynamic, and I’m happy to hear that it worked well.

\n"},{"at":411032559,"author":"Tero Jäntti","login":"tkjantti","gh":1288746,"text":"

This is an interesting and original concept! I’m not sure yet how much this is skill vs. luck, but I have no doubt that with right choices the game goes much better. I have reached maybe battle 6 so far - nowhere near battle number 33 :D So I see this quite challenging, but nevertheless intriguing as the gameplay is so simple.

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The pathfinding could be improved - sometimes the characters go around blocks and sometimes through them. And music and sound effects would be nice - but I totally understand the size- and time constraints :) The graphics style of the menus looks great! Overall, very fun, easy to keep on clicking :)

\n","games":["Midnight Paws"]},{"typ":1,"at":412027124,"re":411032559,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thank you for your insightful comment! I didn’t spend enough time on the game’s balance and my original plan of making a game about strategic choices fall apart. You’re right to observe that the end result is more about luck. I don’t think I’ve ever made it to duel 10 or further…

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It was supposed to be an experiment in making a game without a traditional “inner” gameplay loop (as per the Easy-Hard-Easy article). Well, it didn’t turn out exactly how I planned, but it was a fun learning exercise for sure!

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Thanks for playing!

\n"},{"at":411263632,"author":"Jasper Renow-Clarke","login":"picosonic","gh":26137750,"twitter":"femtosonic","text":"

Love the look and feel of the game

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The graphics work well and are cute

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I found myself wanting to take part in the battle rather than leave it up to the little guys

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But the animations are good and it’s super easy to play, just picking cards

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The youtube video was pretty funky with the soundtrack, so it’s a shame the game doesn’t have sound

\n","games":["Mochi and the midnight escape"]},{"typ":1,"at":412027416,"re":411263632,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thanks for playing, Jasper! I wanted to see if I can come up with a spin on the autobattler genre, but I totally understand your wanting to jump in. The number of times I wanted to jump in and control my character and instead I helplessly watched it walk right under the other guy’s spikeballs…

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The video is what the game played like in my head… ;)

\n"},{"at":411276788,"author":"Magnus Lindh","login":"MagnusLindh","gh":26601704,"text":"

Impressive game but it’s not easy to rate and it’s hard to understand how to win. It looks amazing but there is no sound. The controls work perfectly but I cannot control the character directly. There are cats but only in supporting roles. Besides, I wonder how you managed to squeeze in 100 upgrades. Seems impossible, but I believe you.

\n","games":["Don't forget to feed the cat!"]},{"typ":1,"at":412027825,"re":411276788,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thanks for your comment Magnus. You’re right, it’s a bit of an experiment, and thus not easy to rate. It’s also exceptionally hard, and not in a good way I’m afraid — the game’s isn’t balanced well and ended up being an RNG fest.

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For the upgrades, I had to cut the scope a little bit, but there are still 78 upgrades to collect: 10 weapons, 8 companions, 3 specials and 19 enhancements, each of which has 3 tiers (=57).

\n"},{"at":411431506,"author":"Benjamin Boyd Austin","login":"bbaustin","gh":18755168,"text":"

This was fun! I played quite a few rounds of this. I could get to Level 6

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Pretty interesting concept and mix of abilities. Nice graphics, too!

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I’ll say that I couldn’t quite determine what would make a good “build” for my character. In a few runs, I would destroy my opponents until… I got destroyed, and I wasn’t sure why, haha.\nMaybe it’s a balancing issue, or maybe it would be helpful to show a list of your upgrades and the upgrades of your future opponent so you can strategize what to pick up next?

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In any case, nice entry!

\n","games":["VOID Cat"]},{"typ":1,"at":412028792,"re":411431506,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thanks for playing Benjamin! Great point about showing the loadout before each duel to make the game more strategic. I had that in an earlier prototype, but I couldn’t work out how to present in the mobile UI, so I ended up removing it. By the time I had the time to think about re-adding it, the deadline was close and I had no more bytes.

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You’re also right that the balancing is way off. I should have spent more time testing the synergies between upgrades. I designed this whole mana system with recharging and bonuses, but failed to provide efficient ways of generating mana for all those upgrades to benefit from. The end result is that when I play, my mana bar rarely even moves above 0—and then sometimes, due to some lucky combination of upgrades and circumstances, it fills the entire bar in an instant.

\n"},{"at":411618749,"author":"Jonathan Vallet","login":"jonathan-vallet","gh":5329099,"text":"

🎨 Really cool graphics! I didn’t survive long in each run, but it’s the kind of game that makes you want to try again and again. Beautiful visuals and animations — too bad there’s no sound to enhance the experience.

\n","games":["Witchcat"]},{"typ":1,"at":412028912,"re":411618749,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thank you for the kind review, Jonathan! I’m learning how to make my games replayable, and this one was yet another stepping stone :)

\n"},{"typ":2,"at":411804260,"author":"Jedidiah Weller","login":"jedihacks","gh":996175,"url":"www.openforge.io","twitter":"jedihacks","text":"

Hey Stanislaw,

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Great work on this submission! I absolutely loved the UI Battle Cards, the mechanics, and the transition from selection to the actual battle. Also the characters auto battling was a great touch.

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I found it to be not only intuitive, but also innovative - I love your 33 duels comment. That’s very cool.

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This is a 5/5 for me - fantastic submission and good work!

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I recorded a video review for all the games here so that you can see my initial reaction while playing, which is often quite helpful from a user experience perspective. https://www.youtube.com/live/jl6pC4OnVJA?si=hadQmN9JZB93hDUM

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Good luck in the competition and good job!

\n"},{"typ":1,"at":412033804,"re":411804260,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thank you for playing and for your kind comment, Jedidiah! Nice to see my game on your stream :) Seeing you play made me realize that due to the game’s random nature, it’s discouraging to lose the first duel multiple times in a row. Thanks for sticking a little longer and giving it a chance!

\n"},{"at":411856913,"author":"Mezriss","login":"Mezriss","gh":615453,"text":"

Neat idea and lovely presentation - this bold yellow works very well. Played a few games and got to fight 7 - winning all 33 will sure be a challenge. At times it’s a bit hard to understand what happened - characters just drop dead without getting into contact with anything visible.

\n","games":["Onamazu"]},{"typ":1,"at":412033945,"re":411856913,"author":"Stanisław Małolepszy","login":"stasm","gh":265818,"url":"https://piesku.com","twitter":"stas","text":"

Thanks for playing! It’s insanely hard to get even to duel 10 and above. It’s not what I intended, but that’s what a combination of not enough play-testing and a few bugs got me :) I agree it’s sometimes a little difficult to tell what’s happened—especially when a new duel starts and your little guy drops dead instantly. Next time.. ;)

\n"}],"results":{"theme":{"rank":158,"min":1,"score":2.09,"max":4.24},"innovation":{"rank":49,"min":1.2,"score":3.13,"max":4.03},"gameplay":{"rank":89,"min":1.18,"score":2.78,"max":4.37},"graphics":{"rank":39,"min":1.6,"score":3.74,"max":4.56},"controls":{"rank":32,"min":1.6,"score":3.59,"max":4.45},"primary":{"rank":113,"min":8.68,"score":15.33,"max":24.89},"label":"Overall"}}