Another itch.io game this time. Dungeon Solitaire is a game made by Mush for the 2019 GMTK Jam and was released on August 4th, 2019. Being a game made for a game jam, the game is small and is more of a proof of concept, but what is here is worthy of a review.
Dungeon Solitaire has very little to do with actual solitaire. The game is more of a strategy game where you use cards to make a path to reach the goal. You start with drafting seven cards to add to your deck, and then you are placed into the game. Each card on the field is a path card, so you want to connect the cards with the cards in your deck. Some path cards are better than others. Two special perks can be on a path card. Hearts can be on the path cards, which will restore some of your health that is lost when you slay monsters. There can also be a treasure chest on a path card, which when walking on to it, you can add one new card out of three cards in the chest. Now let’s move on to the special cards. Special cards are not played on the field, but instead either effect the playfield, or affect the player character There are four special cards, Potions, Extra HP, the Map, and Renovation. Potions heal the player to maximum HP. Extra HP gives the player an extra hitpoint. The map flips over every card on the field, allowing you to tell where treasure chests, hearts, and monsters are. Finally, Renovation allows you to remove one card from the playing field, which can be useful if there's a card on the field that's in the way of a path. Figuring out how to use every kind of card is beneficial to beating the game.
While I was playing through Dungeon Solitaire, I noticed how replayable it was. It’s not a game where you play through once, and never have a reason to pick up again. What makes this game replayable is the element of randomness. Each face down, and goal card in each stage is randomly generated, so every stage feels different, even on repeat playthroughs. The cards you get in the initial draft of seven cards are also randomized. Now, this randomizer does contribute to a lot of the difficulty the game can present. You can have a great hand, and a great map layout to make it easy, or a bad hand and a bad map to make it hard. It’s a sense of randomized difficulty, but I’m fine with this because it never feels that the randomizer is so unfair that it makes the game impossible, because you had bad luck. Anything should be possible based on what I've played through.]
That’s most of the game right there, but I was thinking of what can be added into a bigger, more fuller game. One of the biggest things I can see being a problem is the very small maps. In a full version, I feel one of two things should happen. One is that maps get bigger through level progression, which would create an increase in difficulty throughout levels, without fully relying on the randomizer. It can also make the game more exciting later on. The other thing is to make the game more like a dungeon crawler. One big level to explore with monsters, and everything already in the game. Then keys could be added, and you would have to collect all the keys to complete a level. I also do think music should be added to the game, the game has no music in this version, and music would add even more to the experience.
I always do seem to enjoy anything made in the Pico-8 Engine. Last year I reviewed Pico Driller, and I enjoyed it. I’ve also been playing many other Pico-8 games that are great, and impressive. However, the reason I don’t review every single game I play because there is not a lot to talk about it in the majority of these game. This is why it’s taken me so long to cover another Pico-8 game. Dungeon Solitaire is a great game, and I would recommend it. However, keep in mind that the game is short, and even though it has replay value, it’s not a lot. Mush has also made other Pico-8 games that I might take a look at in the future. Now, I’m going to play some Solitaire.
LINK TO GAME
https://mush101.itch.io/dungeon-solitaire
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