Summoning Salesman Postmortem

Successes:
1. Card games are really fun and it seems like this one resonated with a lot of people despite the crappy card art and pseudo-random mechanics.

2. This game could be expanded into something further with the addition of a few more mechanics and a cleanup of the game loop.

3. Placed squarely above average in Ludum Dare.

Lessons Learned:
1. UI should be as clear and concise. Requiring an extra button to swap between summoning circle and order desk was neither of these. 

2. Playtest early, playtest often. There is always room for improvement. Its frustrating to see easily fixable issues after the game is released.

3. Let the player feel more in control by reducing entropy. If the player can have control without ruining the game loop, give them control. The creation and selling of creatures in this game would have been much more fun if the players felt more agency over it. Some ways to do it here would have been to include a book of discovered combos, show the result of a previously completed summon, show the adjective being searched for on an order previously completed. This would also add a better sense of progression and enhance the loop as a whole.

4. Card draw and money earned are tied to the same mechanic which just feels cheap. I'd have to think more on this to decide how to fix this problem, but it is a problem.