The Curse of Cattenburg (LD47)

The Curse of Cattenburg

How to Play

Roll the dice to traverse the board using the "Roll" button. Use the mouse to interact with the interface. The card game layout can be explained with the below images:

Your characters stats explained:

Back Story

In the kingdom of Cattenburg there were a group of adventurers who wanted nothing more than to go on adventure, but... ever since the curse was placed on Cattenburg, none of its inhabitants were able to leave. Whichever road they take, they wind up back in Cattenburg.

Rumour has it there are three parts of an ancient Relic which could, perhaps, be pivotal in breaking the curse.

Gameplay

There are two elements to the game: a board game and a card combat game.

The Looping Board Game

The game play loop is managed through a looping board game mechanic, that represents The Curse of Cattenburg that stops its adventurers from seeking adventure in other lands. Landing on the various tiles in the board game, you can:

- Visit Cattenburg... again and again... recruiting new adventurers to your party.
- Fight deadly rats, followers of the monstrous rat known as Mobius
- Meet inhabitants of the nearby area who will help train your party to be stronger
- Find parts of the ancient relic, in hope of uncovering the mystery of the curse.

The Card Combat Game

Combat will be resolved through an original card combat game that pits two parties against one another. Characters can only attack by utilising the cards laid out in the centre of the board, but those cards are face down. A party must spend Actions Points to reveal these cards, and also to place a party member on the card in order to use that card. The cards range from attacking cards, defensive cards and special cards. At the end of the turn, any revealed cards are flipped back over, and the board slides down. Memorising card placement will help you, though a fresh row of cards being added to the centre of the board each turn keeps your options open.

A brief overview of the game mechanics can be found in the clip from during development, though it doens't cover everything: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/761848121

 Development

There's some footage from mid development that may help give an idea of how the card game works. It's candid footage from my stream, but it should give you an idea of what it was like early on Monday:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/761804972

Meet the team

Art

The artist for the team was spacey3d, a friend of ours who is a talented 3D modeller. This project allowed her to focus solely on 2D assets, and we are blown away by the quality and personality instilled in her illustrations. The elegant card design, loveable characters and overall polish has added so much to our game. 

Audio
Our music was created during the jam by Barlas, a good friend of the main developer Brainoid. The mood it sets, along with its overall quality, add a lot to the game. Sound FX were recorded by resident Mouth-Magician Honest Dan, who enjoyed meowing and hissing into the microphone during stream.

Programming & Design
Brainoid and HonestDan have worked together on many gamejams over the past three years. Originally working in Unity, Honest Dan moved to Unreal in early 2019 as he got a job using the engine. Brainoid was kind enough to start learning Unreal Engine this year too so that they were able to continue working together in game jams. 

Appendix

Here is a listing of all the cards

Known bugs
- Try not to be too "mouse / click" heavy on the cards. Playing around with the "float on hover" effects too much can occasionally cause some animation bugs.
- The mages special ability stuns her and the enemies. The mage is placed back at her character slot, allowing another character to use the special ability card - this is a bug.
- Hovering over cards as your game ends / starts can cause some display issues, but these should resolve their selves as the game progresses. 

Patch List:

1_0_1 - Fixed traps, they now do damage instead of heal. Also fixed typo's in the text popups.