The Pythia Game Jam release is out, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out! The response has been great, and I’ve gathered a lot of valuable feedback across itch.io, Blue Sky, and Reddit. With that in mind, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and where Pythia is headed next.

Pythia on Itch: Fixing Bugs & Refining the Experience

While the core gameplay is in a solid place, there are a few key issues that need fixing. Before moving on to bigger updates, I want to patch up the game jam release to ensure a smoother experience.

Balance Adjustments & Fixes that will occur

• Fractured Mirror to xMult: Currently too similar to The Beacon, this wildcard will be reworked into xMult and upgraded to Uncommon rarity to make it more distinct.
• Twin Flames Typo: “x2 Mult if your hand contains both and Ace and a King.” → “x2 Mult if your hand contains both an Ace and a King.” (Whoops.)
• The Puppeteer Bug: This wildcard is incorrectly changing both the rank and suit of cards when it should only modify rank.
• The Star Softlock: If The Star targets Jacks or Queens, the game locks up, forcing a hard reset. This is a priority fix.
• The Pendulum Bug: It currently triggers for every card in the hand instead of once at the end of calculations, causing massive unintended point boosts.

Graphical & UI Issues I’ll be fixing

• Card Hover Bug: If you hover over the corner edge of a card, it can start spinning wildly out of control.
• Tarot Rotation Issues: Over time, tarot cards stop rotating properly in the hand. Not sure if they’re misaligned or if the game is just making them perpetually tilted at existence.
• Pop-up Bubble Glitch: Sometimes, the pop-up bubble doesn’t appear when hovering over cards, or it refuses to fully fade away.

Changes I’ll be making

Beyond bug fixes, I want to expand Pythia with a few quality-of-life improvements and new features:

• Controller Support: The game currently only supports mouse input, but I want to add full controller functionality.
• In-Game Combo Tracker: Right now, it can be hard to keep track of what combos are forming as you play. I want to add an on-screen tracker that shows you a list of the combo’s you’ve accomplished. I also want to add a button that lets you see what combos are available in-game.
• Wildcard Selection After Each Round: Instead of getting a random wildcard, players will be able to pick 1 out of 3 options after every round, adding an extra layer of strategy.

Closing Thoughts

Pythia has been an amazing project, and I’m excited to keep improving it. The next step is addressing critical bugs and quality-of-life improvements, then moving on to bigger updates. I’ll discuss where I want to take Pythia in the future once these changes are made.

If you’ve played the game, I’d love to hear your feedback! Let me know what you’d like to see in future updates.