The Cult of the Morning Star

co-authored: @awerar
Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.19
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.97
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.77
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.91
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.03
Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.36
You find an old book in your attic. You decide to read it. Big mistake, you are now a devout worshipper of Az'gath the Slain. You must do everything in your power to summon him from the depths of hell. Even sacrificing yourself and the lives of fellow cultists to achieve your goal.

Clarification of the rules

NOTE: If you want to discover the mechanics of the game yourself, don't read this.

The end goal of the game is to summon Az'gath the slain. To summon him you play the card "Ultimate Summoning".
For you to be able to play the card you need to awaken the Triad of Destruction. The according crystal in the summoning circle will light up when a member of the triad of destruction has been summoned. After three days you will get the first card to start this quest.

Clarifications of the mechanics

You have two types of cards: Sacrifice Cards & Event Cards. Sacrifice Cards reside to the left and Event Cards to the right. You can play a maximum of three cards per turn but only one sacrifice card per turn. The gems in the top right corner light up to indicate the cards played this turn. If you press the Favor meter in the bottom center you can draw a second card at the cost of 10 favor

In the top left corner there is a suspicion meter. The gem will change color from green to red as you gain more suspicion. When the gem turns completely red (when suspicion reaches 20+) there's a chance to trigger a raid event. If the raid event is triggered you lose your suspicion, cultists and favor.


Changelog:
+ Fixed a bug where failing to summon a demon would sometimes give you two summon cards back
+ Fixed various graphical issues pertaining to cards and the card overlays
+ Fixed some mismatches between what cards say they do and what they actually do

screenshot

Comments23

dodormeur
dodormeur30 Apr 2019, 07:19
Nice game !
I really liked the take on solo-playing card game, and having to juggle between two currencies (favor and worshiper) is a cool idea !
The game needs a bit more of fine-tuning (at the end I had like 5 mass-mind bending card), and there is still a few bugs (the card for distributing meat actually reduce by 15 the suspicion, not by 5 like the card says, I got twice a card to summon a demon once I failed to summon him, and maybe a small tutorial or explanation would be nice), but it was really cool and nice to play; the atmosphere is also really well done, with the sounds of cultist and creepy music :)
beanslasher30 Apr 2019, 08:19
I am not a huge fan of card games, but this made me change my mind a bit. I had a great time playing this, it was designed well and there is much to think about in game. Keeps the mind thinking and keeps you on your toes.
ZAX
ZAX30 Apr 2019, 08:40
I like the UI and the cards desgin !
great work 5 stars for mood , check out my game too :)
Drauthius
Drauthius30 Apr 2019, 08:55
I quite enjoyed this entry! Was fun to play. A hand limit or something might have made it a bit more strategical.
Khamekaze
Khamekaze30 Apr 2019, 08:56
A bit hard to get into but once I got a grip on what to look out for it became really enjoyable. A nice take on both the theme and card games.
Alexus30 Apr 2019, 10:01
Core gameplay is solid, got me very addicted. The artwork is just right, sets the mood quite nicely. Would like to see it as a full game
Serious07
Serious0730 Apr 2019, 10:37
Great atmosphere, and graphics! Well done!
Zlabya30 Apr 2019, 10:37
I really like the artwork, good job
MarcosShiuuri
MarcosShiuuri30 Apr 2019, 10:44
I like card games and this on is really good..
The suspense music playing is cool and I think the game fits well the theme..

I just find a little difficult read the description of the cards, but not a big problem..

Congratulations on your entry for this Ludum Dare o/
Taddl30 Apr 2019, 16:34
I really like the game. Well thought out, makes you think about what to play next. I also like the theme.

Just two things:
1. The font looks nice, but is really hard for me to read. I would have maybe gone with a more readable font for the card descriptions.
2. I would have really liked some sort of explanation of the suspicion and crystal mechanics. Maybe write a little explanation in the description here?

Overall I really like it.
Kpedatte
Kpedatte30 Apr 2019, 21:41
Nice game and nice sound design
svdvorak
svdvorak1 May 2019, 08:38
This was such a nice game, I really think you got the mood down and the balance seemed pretty good. And I summoned Az’gath the slain! Good art, fitting sounds and I like the fact that you always have the ultimate summoning card in your possession, just tempting you until it's actually time.
von_Himik1 May 2019, 10:22
Although I don’t like such subjects (cults, sacrifices), but I want to notice that the idea fits perfectly with the theme of the competition and is not banal. And in my opinion quite an interesting and fresh idea - to make a card game ... umm ... quest, I guess. Great job with the atmosphere. The soundtrack emphasizes it well. :)

Of the minuses: because of the darkness and the font tired eyes.
Finn Truman1 May 2019, 10:30
I certainly enjoyed this! Card games are hard to make, so you've pulled this off quite well! The choice of font is a bit questionable, there are some spelling mistakes, and it's not very clear what suspicion does, but I liked it enough to complete it and I had fun!
adrupen1 May 2019, 10:49
Az’gath really wants me to sacrifice my cult leader :smile: interesting game game and some really nice visuals! Nothing much to complain about here.
Enigma1 May 2019, 10:54
Amazing!Just the font is too hard to read(
TheSunshineRaven1 May 2019, 10:56
Really felt like Cultist Simulator. It felt too hard to gain back lost favor but I guess that was intentional – still, sometimes frustrating as I ended up having four or five mass mind bending cards on my hand that I couldn't use or get rid of. Sounds and music were cool! As a few other people said, it was harder to read the font. I also didn't quite get the suspicion as it was easy for me to lower it and I din't know where the top cap was and when it would harm me. Overall, an interesting concept and nice balancing. Could use some more balancing but it's a solid entry!
michal1 May 2019, 11:02
AWESOME. I feel this game like 60 seconds and thats a reason i like this game
Hugimugi7
Hugimugi71 May 2019, 13:21
Really engaging game with a well-made atmosphere! Would've been nice to have images in the cards tho. :smile_cat:
dexfrost89
dexfrost891 May 2019, 23:42
This game took my attention right in the moment i started reading the description. It is awesome it feels awesome it plays awesome it sounds awesome it looks awesome. I was a little upset as i didn't read the description at the beginning and was thinking, that there are hidden mechanics, that change the chance of some cards depending on your actions(eg you make a lot of sacrifices->less people want to join your cult->you get less cards to increase the number of cultists). But the game still was awesome. I like it. The best game for me so far.
Mironx
Mironx1 May 2019, 23:44
I love your game. It seems better for previous LD-theme. But it seems well designed game.

It works perfect for the idea of all of your mechanics, but there is one thing that storms me out:
Your random is too random. I had about 7 "mass mind bending" on my 23rd day. And only on my 26th day I found out the mechanic of praying for second card.

And your game seems Lovecraftian for me. To be honest I love this setting.
IanLux2 May 2019, 16:59
Loooved this one! I really like card games, so I really liked you guys's take on the theme and all the strategic gameplay you had to do to summon each demon!
Very good, looking forward to seeing a bigger game (or heck, even a expansion of this one) from you guys!
Great job!
PixelSplash
PixelSplash2 May 2019, 18:24
Wooow a card game!!! And with such a cool vibe, I loved the storytelling inside the game, so creative and unique I think.

Some art in the cards would be cool but I understand that it could be a matter of time.
Keep creating games please!!!

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