Cartomancy Anthology

I have yet to play all of the games, but every single game so far has been beautiful and fun. It's been such nice vibes and enjoyable. I can't wait to play more and see what the other games have in store.

I haven't played them all yet. Some of them stand out more than others for sure. My favorites from here are really cool and I've replayed them to show other people. There are a few in here that are not for me, but it works out fine because you can just play the best games, and overall it still stands up as a great collection. A tarot deck where you're stuck with whatever you draw isn't quite right as a comparison, because in this collection, you can totally choose which game to play or not play.

*Disclosure: I worked on one of the games in the anthology, but there are 20+ games so there was still so much new stuff for me to see!* There's so much variety in this anthology! Really a treasure trove of inspiration- I found games that weren't even in my typical genre play-styles pulling me in. Seeing so many fresh art styles and interpretations of the different cards and associated mechanics makes for some nice contemplative play sessions. There's something for everyone here, whether it be puzzle focused, humor-focused, narrative, and more.

Really cute, my favorite game so far is the High Priestess, and the Chariot 2nd after that. There's a lot of thoughtful art and storytelling in the games. The individual games are quite distinct as well, so you really do have a lot of different little experiences to try.

Wonderful variety of weird artsy experiences, all worth seeing for different reasons!

So I never leave reviews but this project really deserves some love! I don't remember how I found this game or why I bought it (I'm not even that into tarot!), but I have no regrets because it's probably the coolest thing I've ever purchased on Steam. If you're someone who appreciates game design as an artform and the experimentation that indie games allow for, then this shouldn't be overlooked. These games are meant to be experiential rather than gameplay-heavy. Every one of these bite-sized experiences won't be for everybody (there were certainly a few I put down early because I didn't enjoy their genre), but every one of them will make you think. I was also under the impression from some of the other reviews that this would be far buggier than it was; really, there was only one game in the whole bunch that was buggy to the point of being unplayable. Special shoutouts to my top five games, in no particular order: The Emperor, The Empress, The Hierophant, The Hanged Man, and The Magician.

A really interesting set of games. I love all the art and the way the creators interpreted the cards. Hard to leave a review that encapsulates every game but you should try it!!

I really like anthologies like this, you get a feel for a lot of different artists' styles and efforts. The games are varying degrees of completable for me (I'm terrible at puzzles), but they all have something nice to offer. Looking forward to trying them all.

After trying out all the cards, here's a list of some notable games without spoilers (treat it as some kind of personal ranking): [b] S tier: [/b] Empress - overall great puzzle game, level difficulty is just right, concise story and to my surprise there's also voiced lines Fortune - this fishing game is just adorable to its core, also it's made by only one person, it's really impressive, I just wish that my luck wasn't so bad that it took me so many tries just to get the correct weather I wanted High Priestess - cute art and story, the puzzles are quite challenging and I appreciate that there's an optional easy mode, do also note that you need a mouse to play the game Emperor - I'm probably biased because I love cooking games, but I still think it's great because even though the game is short, the story and message are still solid, and definitely need some thinking to interpret what the emperor desires Hanged Man - I just find the concept of this really interesting, you have to combine ingredients to make an item for each customer, which then you also have to interpret each customers' demands carefully as they are not the most direct orders, probably one of the games where I really cracked my brain juice hard thinking what the customers actually want, I don't know yet if there's any "true endings" to this game though, as the game just loops you back to Day 1 at the end [b] A tier: [/b] Judgement - one of the visual novel-ish games that took me the longest to clear since there's a lot of dialogue, the (main) characters writing are genuinely great, but there are some bugs in the game (not major, thankfully), and I felt that the ending was too abrupt Temperance - charming potion brewing game (also there's a capybara!!), although it took me a while to realize how the gameplay actually works Lovers - it's like a dancing dating simulator, you do get to dance with everyone and then make your final (and only) choice at the very end, so it honestly doesn't feel as if there's any consequences if you flopped, but I still enjoy it overall, the characters are charming [b] "Crying because it looks great, but unplayable" tier: [/b] Sun - this is a personal reason... I'm terrible with platforms, especially in 3D. I know it's not even a platform game, it's a fun and cute shooting game... but I barely got passed the beginning area just because I couldn't make certain jumps. The art looks super cute though. Maybe because I don't have the right setup, I'll try again when I have the time. World - genuinely, the concept of the game sounds so interesting, it's a visual novel game where you can change your character's personality based on different scenarios and see how it changes the stories. Problem is that the core mechanic (changing personas) just simply doesn't work. Overall great anthology that I would recommend experiencing, 7.5/10

You NEED to play all of these experiences <3