Special thanks to rooksword for making the music!
DEBATE CLUB

You know what they say, there are always two sides to any argument. Now it's time to pick a side, and debate it!

In this deckbuilder, you'll gather your arguments, prepare your rebuttals, and take down your opponent by your wits and words alone.

Seven debates stand between you, and the National Champion Title.

Will you become, the Master Debater?


@naxospade
@bradleychick (Edoc'sil)
@TOWER211_Dev
Tower211

Draw cards and debate your opponent Gameplay

Between rounds, you'll hone your deck by adding and removing cards Deck building


CONTROLS

  • Left click to drag and play cards
  • Right click to return your held card to your hand


Tip: when a card requires a target, you need to move your mouse over the columns -- targeted cards draw red arrows. Cards that do not require a target can be played by dragging them into the middle of the screen.

ERRATA

The 'REVERSAL' card has a typo. It should read "Swap targeted argument OR buff with the one below it"

Cheat Code

if a level is proving too difficult, you can press the "0" (zero) key on the keyboard to instantly win that level.

Thank you for playing!
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  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Really cool game, even though like baku said the debates were too long for that kind of AI, I still did all debates.

    I think the biggest issue here is the AI. Mainly the fact that it has no idea what cards to target. Fells like it never went for buffed arguments when attacking, even if that's an obvious target. Not sure either how their turn worked, but on a few debates the AI kept playing buffs even though it had no arguments. Maybe here the AI should cheat to keep things interesting, for example playing at least a 1AP argument if it has none.

    I'm also kinda disappointed that the different kinds of arguments served no purpose. I know it's a jam and I'm guessing you didn't get to it, but I could easily see some kind of arguments getting a multiplier based on the number of argument of a specific type for example. It would give a incentive to think a little about the deckbuilding aspect too. Maybe one type of argument could work in combos like that, another be the one you can buff directly, and another with lower base value being able to "steal" AP from the opponent's arguments.

    The way arguments stacked was really interesting too, but I wish I could do more with that too. Combining and swapping was fun, but half of the time I got the card when it wasn't useful.

    Other than that I don't have much to say, it was really solid overall. A few sounds from the public / debatters would have been great, and sometimes when you had too many cards in hands it would hide the AP value of your opponent even though you tried targetting them.

    Alright, that's everything I could think of, I enjoyed this one a lot!

  • baku
    Patron

    This was so good. Much better card game than mine, that's for sure. Really good amount of depth with all the abilities etc. Nice job.

    I wish debates were a bit shorter, or the opponent was a bit smarter, cause there was never a point where I wasn't in the lead. So sometimes it felt like I was just kinda wasting my time pushing my own score up into the 40s or 50s, while the opponent was just durdling around not doing much

    My strategy was to largely ignore cards that interact with my opponent (except 1 or 2 cards to destroy their buffs), and mostly care about buffing my own. And if I've learnt anything from Magic the Gathering it's to take as much card draw and time (mana) increasers as possible, so I could do much more per turn (opponent seemed to largely ignore those kinds of cards lol). I wonder if it's possible to go infinite if you construct your deck perfectly 🤔

    Hybreeds
    Submitted

    Hybreeds

    • Naxos
      Lv. 7
      Naxos Developer of Debate Club

      3yrs ago

      Hey thank you for the feedback!

      The AI is dumber than a box of rocks, that's for sure, haha. It's actually just a set of pre-scripted turns for each debate. If we work on it some more, the AI will definitely get an overhaul.

      Does infinite mean a turn that never ends? If so, I'm thinking it's very probably possible. If I'm not mistaken, your deck isn't reset after beating the game (but it is if you close the game), so you could hypothetically craft a deck full of +2 Mana and card draw, with enough patience XD

      Thanks again!

      PS. Hybreeds is way cooler ;)

  • C0DERP1GLET
    Lv. 36

    Phenomenal game! I often try to play the underdog games, but I couldn't resist checking out this one. I have always thought about making a card game about debating, but you just made it for me! And it's much better than I imagined would be possible to make in 48 hours.

    I'm impressed that you managed to make a card game with this amount depth within the time limit. I have quite some history with card games, so I think it maybe was a little bit too easy. But I can see the reasoning behind making it accessible.

    The art and sound are unique to this jam (You usally see a lot of pixelart). It's not as impressive as the rest of the game, but it's clean and consistent.

    The AI seemed smart, with the exeption of one moment where I think it played two of those support cards (those who add to the AP of a argument) without having any arguments.

    If you will continue with this, I have some ideas I can't resist to share:

    • If you attack an argument beyond it's "health", maybe instead of destroying it, it's AP could turn negative. This has the real world equivalence of turning someones argument against them, or simply making someone look stupid by shattering their argument into pieces. In game, this might allow strategies where you take advantage of your opponents bonuses.
    • Maybe you could have arguments that rely on the argument below it, so that if the bottom one gets destroyed, the top one does too. These arguments could have strong bonuses, so that you either can play safely (reinforcing the bottom card) or risky (strengthening the top card to enhance it's bonus). If you would apply first idea as well, you could make it so that the top one also turns negative if the bottom one does.

    Phew, that got long. I don't expect you to continue working on this, but it was fun to write anyways :D Thanks for making an awesome game. I didn't find any issues at all.

    • Edocsil
      Lv. 12
      Edocsil Artist of Debate Club

      3yrs ago

      Such a great post for us to read! We are so glad you were happy with our game! You have some interesting ideas and we might have to implement and then playtest them. I have a feeling we may progress this further as the jam version is pretty satisfying but we will see. Thanks again!

  • AcHeHex
    Lv. 4

    Definitely a super fun take on debating. I like how the multipliers have a cost/reward vs additions being bigger but removeable. The atmosphere of the game is super chill and everything around compliment that aura, with clean clean graphics and elevator music :p Tho as I understood it, I could get 2 new cards into my deck and I didn't have to sacrifice anything? Either the post game is a bit unclear, or there's no reason to abandon cards which is kind of broken for a card game. Overall super fun entry!

    • Edocsil
      Lv. 12
      Edocsil Artist of Debate Club

      3yrs ago

      Hey, thanks for playing! Correct, you do not have to take any new cards nor give up any. This does kind of make the game a bit strange for a deckbuilder. In the end, we wanted to provide a way for the player to see and use cards that they wanted and so we just put that mechanic in as-is. In any future iterations, this would be addressed for sure (as would many other things haha).

      Thanks again!

  • Mimpy
    Lv. 26

    Certainly my favourite card type game for this jam, all around this is really solid.

    The mechanics of the game are well thought out and there's a good deal of interactivity between you and the opponent, and I like this format of cards a lot, with a fixed currency for each round and choosing to spend it on one expensive card or many inexpensive ones.

    All it really needs is a bit more flavor, maybe some dialogue banter between the two sides, or some characters to flesh out the environment and make it more immersive.

    • Naxos
      Lv. 7
      Naxos Developer of Debate Club

      3yrs ago

      Thank you for the feedback Mimpy!

      Yeah, I kind of wish we had added simple, silly text lines when you play or a turn starts... "I'm right, you're wrong!", "This is simply a fact!", etc... or a funny debate topic. Someone mentioned 'Hotdogs are sandwiches' which made me laugh.

      Thanks again :)

  • Zen00
    Lv. 15

    Some sort of "card on the field" effect would have been nice so you know when letting go of the card will play it vs just put it back in your hand.

    Slime Well
    Submitted

    Slime Well

  • Nahoo
    Lv. 17

    It took me a little while to figure out what I was doing, even after reading all the tutorial things, but dispite that, this was a really nice entry.

    Wahoogon
    Submitted

    Wahoogon

  • Bokonon
    Lv. 5

    I really liked this! I thought the cards were well themed and the gameplay loop was addicting. I love how you allow the players to discover some really great card synergies!

    As someone previously mentioned, some witty exchanges on screen could go a long way to juice it up a bit, but regardless, I really really like this game!

    Flotsam
    Submitted

    Flotsam

  • Happysquared
    Lv. 15

    Neat card game. Wish I got to see the sim mumble speak version! I like the art. I find the cards well themed and attractive. Main issue for was that here could be a little more strategy to it as the AI was a little easy.

    • Naxos
      Lv. 7
      Naxos Developer of Debate Club

      3yrs ago

      Hey Heather! Thank you for playing.

      I agree with your criticism. There were several planned features around the 'color' of your cards (Logical, Emotional, and Fallacy) that were planned, but we ran out of time (much to our disappointment!)

      I like to think those additions would have upped the strategy element a bit. Alas...

      Thank you for the feedback!

  • Chris
    Patron

    Great well rounded game. Lots of small details like the names of the cards. Very well done and fun to play card game.

  • Allison James
    Patron

    This is wonderful. Good theme use, presented with a ton of polish, a really unique idea that is implemented effectively, and practically had my head racing every minute of ways you could take it even further in the future - themed debates with special cards, CCG elements based on real life events... there's so much room here to take it even further.

    Fantastic work.

  • SpritePainter
    Lv. 21

    This is highly addictive.

  • PineTree
    Lv. 7

    This game is so addicting! It would be hilarious if played cards resulted in some witty on-screen dialogue between the debaters. I love this concept and I hope you continue its development- Probably my favorite game of this jam so far!

    • Naxos
      Lv. 7
      Naxos Developer of Debate Club

      3yrs ago

      Careful, we might steal that idea!

      We had initially tried to use Sim's-style mumble speak, but our initial attempts weren't working out.

      Thank you for playing and leaving feedback!