High Stakes

"There is always only one copy in each card on the board." - I don't understand what this means. someone help?

hm. first level was fun, but logical thinking does it. later levels its just luck? so not so fun

The arrow hint token is confusing me. I had a 3, > on the left and < on the right. The left card wound up being a 7, the right was a 5. If both numbers were higher, what are the orientation of the arrows representing?

Is there a way to play this with actual cards? 

do you have the p8 file? i want this on my emulator!

infuriatingly beautiful.

I've once again stumbled onto this game. Three years ago, I left a bitter, vaguely passive-aggressive comment, and I feel like this game deserves a slightly better review, one less clogged with salt.

Aesthetically, this game is stellar. Clearly, a lot of care and effort has been put into the way that its elements look and feel, from the butter-smooth tweens and slides in all its GUI to the smaller details, like the way that hint tiles are thrown into the air from the stake's impact. One touch I particularly appreciated was the grayscale, bit-crushed vampire portraits; they exude uncanny, inhuman menace in a way that works perfectly for the tone.

I deeply admire the visual style on display here, which makes the gameplay they serve so much more disappointing. The core issue, I think, is that the elements of risk create boredom, rather than excitement. The omnipresent threat of completely wiping your save file severely discourages risky play, especially in the last few levels. For all the prompting the game does to "double down," the temptation of taking a 50/50 on the stake after seven draws, or on a risky hint card, or on the direct verbal invitation of your undead dealer, my response was always some variation of the sentiment "no, that's a stupid and self-destructive idea, why would I risk all of my progress for a few extra millilitres?"

Without that high-roller's thrill, what risk is left only serves to create frustration. I find it especially aggrevating that rounds can be lost before even using a single hint card, especially against Orlok, who I swear ends more than half of all rounds like this before they've even begun.

So, those are my thoughts. Full disclosure, I have not finished this game: I very quickly grew bored of the cycle of "duel Zver 5 times for a blood safety buffer, duel Orlok to lose it all on three one-turn rounds, repeat." It's a game I really want to enjoy for its sheer visual style alone, but the gameplay just lets it down for me. I dunno, maybe I'm just too risk-averse to really enjoy gambling, whether the fake PICO-8 game kind or otherwise.

im still  confused, how do the hint tokens work?

When they offer you double or nothing... that's the devil talking. Never take up the offer hahaha

...

I have been drained of all my blood

This was a delight to play! I normally don't mesh with this sort of game, but the information was portrayed well enough that I was able to get into the groove of things very quickly.

Clever how you (I'm guessing) predicted that people would lean hard on the 2x2 token strategy, so you punished it hard. That said, figuring that out made the final opponent much more predictable, so I think it might've helped at the end.

It was interesting to see how some of the tradeoffs you had to make to boost the difficulty, like the vampire placement on the entire board, or how you place the 2x2 token over the most unrevealed cards, ended up making it easier in other ways.

I think that actually ended up making the game more compelling. I keep coming back to this; great job!

My inner gambling goblin can't stop playing this game with high stakes. Am addicted T=T

Definitely not playing while typing this. That would be crazy. There's no way I would be SUCH OF A--nevermind that anyway swell game fellas.

oof！ Finally beat the game after 4 games! Really nice work!, the mechanics the design the story the art the music... loved every bit :)