you sat down to ask a question. you should have left the cards in their box.

THE READING is a short occult deckbuilder. you are mid-ritual, laying the Major Arcana one by one, and each card is both a weapon and a risk. the deeper you read, the more you attract. the thing across the circle isn't waiting for you. 

you are summoning it, card by card.

complete the reading intact, or become part of it.

HOW TO READ

• Play tarot cards using energy each turn. a bolt from The Magician, a ward from The Hermit, an execution from Death, ruin from The Tower.
• Drain yourself. Your HP is only half the danger. Every reckless card feeds the Madness meter and the more of yourself you pour into the ritual, the stronger the summoned becomes.
  • HP hits 0 → "Something reads you back."
  • Madness maxes out → "You become the divination." 
  • Three escalating waves, one unbroken reading. The last face you meet is the one you built.
• Tempt or restrain yourself. The Devil offers power for Madness. The Tower's backfire grows as your mind frays. The High Priestess pulls you back from the edge. Choose how far you go.

CONTROLS

• Mouse: click a card to play it, click END TURN to pass.
• Keyboard: 1–9 play the card in that slot · Space/Enter/E end turn · Esc menu/pause · R restart on game-over.
• Runs in your browser, no download needed. (best with sound on.)

NOTES

This version of THE READING was made for Themed Horror Game Jam #24, theme: Art of Divination, hitting the optional challenges: Divination Magic (the whole game is a tarot reading) and a nod to Change Their Fate.

This is a jam build / vertical slice, a single complete reading. i plan to expand this into a full game (see the roadmap). feedback welcome!

ZERO Generative AI Used: No AI-generated art, audio, code, music, or text assets are used in this game. All assets are the credited third-party packs above or original hand-made/rendered work.

DEMO

• 8 playable Major Arcana, each with distinct effects
• The Madness system + two diegetic endings
• Three summoned horrors, escalating into a finale shaped by your own recklessness
• an Arcana of every card, an occult atmosphere score, summoning stingers, and card-flip foley
• Mouse or keyboard play

ROADMAP

cut for the jam deadline; coming during the rating period and beyond:

Cards & depth - Minor Arcana items (equippables) Wands (Black Candle: burn), Cups (Grave Water: heal + calm), Swords (Athame: +damage, Madness drip), Pentacles (Ward Talisman: soak + Madness cap) - The Star (relief valve) and The World (conditional finisher) bonus Major Arcana - A reroll / "Change Their Fate" card to fully claim the bonus vibes

Feel & polish - Fully custom artwork - Balance tuning from player feedback - A real screen-distortion shader at high Madness (currently a palette wash) - UI skin pass — pixel button/panel frames, heart-based HP - UI/button sound effects - Audio mix pass + a lighter-weight menu track for faster loads

Systems - Persistent save/continue across sessions - More readings / enemy variety / light run-to-run progression - Touch controls for mobile - a downloadable version, possibly Steam.

CREDITS

• Tarot card art — Jose Angel Canabal (jcanabal): https://jcanabal.itch.io/major-arcana-pixel-art
• Enemy face tokens — vil (zordvil), Faces for a Dying Land: https://zordvil.itch.io/
• Background art — original (SVDE, Blender)
• Card-flip SFX — vrymaa (Freesound): https://freesound.org/s/734631/
• Summon SFX — Milky0519 (Freesound): https://freesound.org/people/Milky0519/sounds/522203/
• Damage Taken SFX — Debsound (Freesound): https://freesound.org/people/Debsound/sounds/136460/
• End Turn SFX — KevinDuffy1234 (Freesound): https://freesound.org/people/KevinDuffy1234/sounds/340289/
• Menu music — SPoTD & Matio888 (Freesound): https://freesound.org/people/SPoTD/sounds/836582/ https://freesound.org/people/Matio888/sounds/793490/
• Battle music — "Mind Games" by Jeremy Leaird-Koch is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. Source: https://jjbbllkk.itch.io/ Artist: https://rmr.media/
• Fonts — Kern Mansion (Ulrich Planer), Home Video (GGBotNet, CC0)
• Engine — Godot 4.7.1