Deadlinez
How To Play
- Draw up cards into your workspace by clicking on the deck (right click to draw a single card).
- End the work day to collect symbols on the cards in your workspace.
- If you flip all
your to 
you will bust, and none of your symbols will be collected for that work day. - Drag an enhancement onto one of your cards in the workspace between each work day. Card rows cannot be replaced. See below for an explanation of each symbol.
- You have 16 cards in your deck. When your deck runs out of cards, it will automatically be refilled from your invisible discard pile.
- Keep hitting your deadlines or the run will end.
- Try getting through all the deadlines on each difficulty level, then if you want more challenge you can go for high scores. If you are so inclined, these are my high scores:
- Intern - 183 points
- Employee - 364 points
- Executive - 537 points
Symbols
<- busts. don't draw more than 3 of these or you'll lose any potential gains for the work day.
<- gold star. collect these to meet your deadline. each star you collect above your deadline will give 1 point.
<- arrows. counts as 2 of whatever symbol it points at (doesn't work on other arrows).
<- coins. increases the quality of next set of enhancements on the turn that these are drawn. there are 5 levels of quality, above 5 the enhancements don't get any better.
etc. <- points. the number will be added directly to your score when collected.
Starting cards
You start with 16 cards
- 9 with
- 3 with
- and 4 empty cards
About
- Originally created for the Ludum Dare Compo 54 by mickey
- Updated to the current version on 12/16/2023
- Heavily inspired by Mystic Vale and Luck Be A Landlord : )
Development log
- Daily Mode Update - December 16, 2023Dec 16, 2023
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Streaming on PIGSquad right now and got 180 points on Intern! Scrolling down to the comments live and not seeing any scores so this means I am the very best (or unobservant) :)
Love, The PIGSquad Stream
Hehe well done. My posted score for intern is 183. Thanks for streaming it!
🤟 Get to work!
There's an unfortunate bug that's still in the new update; previously the revealing would stop as soon as you hit three
. Now, if you already hit three and there is a 0% chance to lose on drawing the game will auto draw until it shuffles.
This actively reduces strategic opportunities. Before I could leave one or two cards in the deck so that all the safe cards in my hand would get reshuffled; but, in the new update they all go to the discard meaning I have to get through the new deck before I get those cards back. Which really reduces scoring.
That said, this game is still very fun! In the previous update I made it up to 898 on Executive, best score on this one is 755
Though this game could really use an 'abandon run' or 'restart run' button.
Hi! Thanks for taking the time to write a comment 💗
The new drawing behavior was actually deliberate based on watching some in-person playtests. I think it's the least confusing for new players.
But I think you're totally right about having flexibility there, and it's really cool to hear your strategies : )
I think the best solution would be to leave the current thing as the default drawing behavior, but then have another hotkey that draws up to 3 busts for advanced players like you. And then also leave the draw 1 button as right click, or another hotkey.
I'll get these in on the next update. Thanks for playing! Those are some mega scores 👁️
That makes a lot of sense with the playtesters.
I just wanted to say thank you for creating such a fun game, and in the current version I have managed to beat the three digit barrier with a score of 1014
oooooo shit! that's tremendous - what difficulty?
and I'm very happy you enjoy it : )
Executive, I'm not sure there's enough rounds in the lower difficulties to build up the score
Bad bug in the new update.
Keep clicking "End Day" at the end of a day to count what you get from that round multiple times.
Thanks for the heads up! I just pushed a fix.
Also, I tested it and got a high score for today, so I thought I'd share : )
Ahh only 106 points here.
And just to be really annoying I found an edge case bug.
I started the game before midnight on the 17th, and I finished on the 18th.
The high score says 12/18/2023 but came from playing on the 12/17/23 seed.
Annoying right?
Haha dang, that is a super edge case! Thanks for letting me know, and I'll look into that, but probably in a bit : )
This is a fantastic, simple yet clever puzzle game that seems to keep me coming back.
Feels like you have the balance of easy to pickup and rewarding, but with enough tactic around coins and enhancement choice to make something really fun (as someone said below, something like a video poker machine)
But I LOVE the aesthetic. The sort of low-res vaporwave visuals just _work_. Also the music. I need a copy of the backing track!❤️
Much like with First Contact Department, you seem to have a knack for making conceptually simple, yet engaging games. That's a great thing!
Practical Feedback (if you intend on further polishing):
1. Dragging the enhancement cards from the selection window to the workspace, it's sometimes easy to add to the wrong card by accident. Maybe _your_ card could be highlighted somehow when it's the one with the enhancement hovering over it?
2. Could scoring animation speed be increased proportional to the number of stars (or just say when >15). Stylistic decision. Maybe you shouldn't do this.
Thanks for this awesome game!
The length of a game makes it great to pickup in short breaks.
Can you package it with Ads for iOS/Android?
Or sell extra "New Enhancements" rolls as IAP?
Thank you so much for playing and for leaving such a thoughtful comment - i really appreciate it 💗
I agree with both your feedbacks! I might prototype the scoring animation increase. Something about the current one feels old fashioned/analogue in an interesting way - just like a poker machine hehe.
here's a copy of the backing track: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmkNELAUwBXWInQhiZ5RZIXgm4tkwjji/view?usp=shari...
I'd like to redo it as the same song, but a slightly better recording.
I'm definitely considering releasing it for mobile. I like mobile games a lot and I usually design things to fit on a lot of form factors. I can actually play this one on my phone already in a browser, with a bit of jankiness - I'll probably fix that sizing stuff soon. My current plans are to maybe add a "Daily" challenge mode, and another mode I have in mind where you start with less cards but can grow your deck.
Again, thanks so much for the taking the time : )
Thanks man. You have a great game here!
New update is feeling great too. The little polishes makes a big difference!
And on reflection, I think it's good you left the stars to keep going and going like a poker machine!
💗
I enjoyed this greatly, and it was also a fun reminder that I should never take up gambling, because I would simultaneously get addicted and also be very very bad at it.
Hehe thanks for playing and leaving a comment 🥰
It feels like the odds of busting are actually much higher than what's displayed.
Thanks for letting me know. As far as I know there isn't a bug there. It's possible to calculate for yourself using the starting cards (you start with 9 busts in your deck) and the number underneath the deck (which tells you how many cards remain in your draw pile).
Maybe it was just really bad luck on my part.
I like this game! And also some of your others. They are really diverse, clever and interesting to play! And you are so productive! Are these mainly solo projects of yours?
Thank you! I (mickey) really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment like this 💗
New Beings is currently myself and Brendan, but I've done a lot of solo dev this year, which I always try to note in the comments. This game, First Contact Department, and Possibility Space, are all solo jams I did this year. I am also mostly solo on Order Automatica.
Yea, it's been a productive year for me! Just feeling inspired I guess : ) I've got my workflow down quite solidly too, which has been helpful.
The stuff on your page looks very nice - I will check it out!
ooo yea, i already played Kingscraft! loved that : )
Yeah, this one turned out pretty nicely. oHoody is still working on it , though his time is limited. Maybe end of november the war machines will be ready&rolling, together with a big wild "Borsti" hog update, riders and many more.
Please , add a draw all card button and a skip all animation button/option .
It become time consuming when you have to wait for the animation of 5000 stars.
I think that's a great idea : ) I have a few additions I'd like to make when the game jam judging is over.
I've added this! (well, drawing up is the default draw now), and now there's an actual finish-able set of deadlines : )
Very entertaining and easy to follow. Could be a big hit. I immediately understood the beauty of the game after I played the first 50 tries.
Very polished, engaging gameplay.
If you use headphones, the soundtrack is a bit irritating
But I snicker at how it says "get to work", yet plays like a slot machine with level-ups! And those faces!
Thanks for playing! Yea I was surprised by the headphone mix too : ( It's definitely mixed for laptop speakers at the moment lol.