Video Game / Card City Nights

aka: Card City Nights 2

Card City Nights is a single-player game published by Ludosity in 2014.

The protagonist is a youth introduced to a Collectible Card Game by a clever marketing ploy: A free starter set delivered to their house and a tournament with a huge prize.

It's now up to the player to defeat opponents for money and booster packs, trying to get one of each of the eight Legendary-type cards and win the tournament.

Oh, and the cards? All characters from Ludosity and Daniel Remar's past games, including:

• Ittle Dew (the second game brings in characters from Ittle Dew 2)
• Iji
• Hero Core
• Garden Gnome Carnage+Hyper Princess Pitch
• Muri
• Mama & Son: Clean House
• Healthy Weapon
• Buni Bon
• Magical Fisher Agnes
• and a bunch of smaller games from Daniel's scrap packs or game jams.

The game received a "Valentine" update in Feb 2016, adding cards from Princess Remedy In a World of Hurt as well as new difficulty modes.

A sequel Card City Nights 2 was released in September of 2017 for Steam and mobile devices, bringing both changes and new mechanics to the game and setting. For one, The City is now IN SPACE (because 'it's always night in space"), namely as the Starship Frivolity, everything has gained a bit of a sci-fi edge, the two game boards have been merged into a single board, meaning both you and your opponent can run interference on the fly. Oh, and now you can play against other folks online (which has precluded CCN2 from releasing on any other PC storefront, due to Steam's online framework being required for said multiplayer).

It sources its cards and characters from the same games as the first game, as well as the Ludosity games of Ittle Dew 2, PsyCard, Princess Remedy In A Heap Of Trouble, Quest Forge By Order Of Kings, Spacenoid and Slap City, and the Daniel Remar games of Gunnel Vision, and Strawberry Jam.

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Tropes:

General

• The Adjectival Man: This is how everyone is referred to in-and-out-of-universe, with a few exceptions:
  • First Game examples (non-exhaustive):
    • "Little Dude"
    • "Excitable Student"
    • "Magical Fox"
  • Second Game examples (non-exhaustive):
    • "Layabout"
    • "Lifeguard".
  • Exceptions:
    • First Game:
    • Rude Skater's friend, Lennart / Lenny.
    • Excitable Student's Fishbun, which is called "Fishbun" in his dialogue boxes, but she says is named George.
    • Second Game: Bunzone members, and presumably it's the lead singer that's speaking, so they're neither Danny nor Johnny:
      Bunzone: We work hard to keep our family friendly image. Danny got a haircut, but Johnny doesn't like it? Perfectly controversial headline right there.
• Alliterative Name: Multiple, at least once per game:
  • First game: Multifarious Mammal
  • Second game:
    • Psychic Phenom, after losing her question marks upon being defeated.
    • Potatoid Prisoner
• Blob Monster: Presumably, the green slimes depicted on the Slime cards.
• Cardboard Box Home: Used differently in each game.
  • First game: Apparently, Loafer has a cardboard fort in the Dark Alley, according to The Kid:
    Loafer comes here to sleep in a little cardboard fort she built. It's got a phone, and TV and everything.
  • Second game: Jenny Bun pictures her in a cardboard box with pizza around them, and a Flavor Text of:
    "Welcome to my house. Want some pizza?"
• Card Cycling:
  • In the first game, three cards, when activated, remove the player's current hand from the game and have it replaced with a set of 5 new cards drawn from somewhere in the "deck" depending on the card. In early versions of the game, this allowed "skipping" some of your "depleted deck" turns and if the AI survived those, it would softlock instead of losing; this has since been fixed.
    • Cards that draw the new set from the bottom:
    • Dan: Activates when combo-ed with another two defense icon cards.
    • Uppohoppa: Activates when combo-ed no matter the combo type, even though it's a defense card.
    • Tarrot is the only card that draws the new set from the top, and it happens when placed.
  • In the second game, playing "Casual Jenny Berry" means that her player must shuffle the rest of their hand back into the deck they came from, then on their next turn, they draw a new hand of 5 cards from their deck.
• Catching Some Z's: Multiple:
  • First game, mainly from Green Crystal doing some Talking in Your Sleep:
    • The Crystal card has 6 Zs floating around a Crystal that's got its eyes closed. Implying its asleep, especially since it looks like Green Crystal when she fakes, or is really, sleeping.
    • Used when Green Crystal is possibly pretending to sleep. She emits Zs from her mouth, and says:
    Zzz... pretending to sleep... overhearing more gossip... zzz...
    • Used when Green Crystal pretends to sleep. She emits Zs from her mouth, and says:
    Zzz... totally asleep... not eavesdropping on anyone in particular... zzz...
    • Used when Green Crystal actually sleeps. She emits Zs from her mouth, and says:
    Zzz... taking an actual nap... zzz...
    • Used when Green Crystal spouts a Non Sequitur lines like this Shout-Out to Ittle Dew when she's apparently sleeping:
    Zzz... puzzles... tutorial cave... get me off this island... zzz...
    • Used when Green Crystal spouts a Non Sequitur lines about fast food when she's apparently sleeping:
    Zzz... burgers... no, don't salt the fries... zzz...
    • Used when Green Crystal spouts a Non Sequitur lines about pudding when she's apparently sleeping:
    Zzz... pudding... chocolate filled... zzz...
    • Used when Green Crystal talks about Talking in Your Sleep apparently sleeping:
    Zzz... talking in my sleep... not faking it... zzznrk... honestly...
    • When Loafer is defeated, she says "Zzz..." while her eyes are closed, and her mouth is emitting Zs. The player remarks:
      (Wait, was she playing in her sleep? No wonder I won...)
  • Second game: In a possible panel of the Ittle Dew Comic Generator, Tippsie is lying on grass, with Zs coming from her mouth, while she's holding a Health Potion and the following panels are encased in a cloud-shaped Speech Bubble.
• Character Name Limits: On the protagonist's name, and the character limit is different for each game:
  • The first game has it at 15.
  • The second game has it at 14.
• Deliberately Different Description: For special cards:
  • The first game: The Tutorial cards just say what kind of card they are, unlike other cards with text, which is Flavor Text:
    "This is a [Type] Card"
  • The second game: Some irregular cards:
    • The Hacked card, "Jenny Bunny X" is Tenuously Connected Flavor Text that's so tenuous that it's not even about the card:
    ......... This card CRACKED by da OneManPsyEye ......... Greetz n xoxo to SERIOUS SCIENTIST ......... Freedom is gratis! .........
    • The Final Boss's deck has the A Lemon card, which names the player character's name outright in the Flavor Text:
    "You don't know me. But I know you. [Name]."
• Flavor Text: For most of the cards in the first game and all of the cards of the second. Such as:
  • First game:
    • Discussed by Green Crystal when she says:
      I like cards with flavor text better than those without.
    • Fish and Frog: Together they barely fight crime at all.
    • Mark: "YEEEAH!"
    • Old Man: Actually just strawmen with record players inside.
    • Bird (Beta) has ones that switch on each look. And the ones seen in the card selection menus at degraded quality also don't match the ones seen when looked at full size. The texts are:
      This card was rejected for faulty flavor.
      Dude check out that amazing bird!
      Everyone needs a bird.
      "Flip" this card? We can't write that!
      "See the world", they said. "Get a bird", they said.
      Demand for birds far exceeds the supply.
      "Hands off! I found it first!"
      Gotta have a bird.
      It's bird-picking season.
      They were jealous. They wanted one of their own.
    • Jenny Bird: She knows you are jealous of her bird.
    • Pancake: Eats anything. Kinda gross, really.
    • Plasma Hydra: Where one is cut off, two more emerge.
    • Princess Pitch DX: "Galactic! Princess! Buster!!!"
  • Second game:
    • Jelly:
      Decidedly deadly. Deceptively delicious.
• Hit Points: Multiple, with how they work differing by game:
  • First game: They're called Defense points and players start with 7 hit points and there's a cap of 10.
  • Second game:
    • In card battles, it's shown as a number in white, ontop of a blue or red shield, for the player or opponent respectively.
    • In the SPACE NEWS that Informant◊ is reading, its front page story is:
      Healthy sodas banned from Space after an out of control party animal has to be rescued from inside a vending machine, with hit points at least double her maximum. Scientists baffled. "1 more hit point and it would have rolled around to 0."
    • Discussed in Shellbun's Flavor Text:
      After decennia of living in environments populated by adventurers, natural selection began to favor Fishbuns with more than a single hit point.
• Invisible Parents: In both games, to different degrees.
  • First game: The only parents we see are The Kid's parents, Veteran Miner and Fiery Woman, and while we see other families, like Little Dude and his grandfather The Card King, or Small Boss and her big sister Tall Skater, we never see any other parents.
  • Second game: The only parents mentioned, are Serious Scientist's, who made her suit, and her parents and brother have similar suits, but she doesn't give any information on their location other than it being "complicated".
• Mass Card Removal:
  • In the first game, some cards will remove all placed down cards when part of an attack combo:
    • Princess Pitch DX, since the card is based off of an apocalyptic attack in her home game.
    • Mildagard DX
  • In the second game, when Alpha Strike resolves and therefore leaves the board, it takes out all other cards with it, except one randomly chosen survivor.
• Victory Quote: Healthy Weapon cards appear to all use them as the Flavor Text for the character they depict.

Card City Nights (First game)

• Artificial Stupidity:
  • Bumptious Miner will sometimes put down an Anna Ban, which disables an active card and use it on itself, making it easier for her to lose by not being able to play any cards, instead of targetting any of the player's cards. Usually seen when the player's board has a lot of Business Casual Men.
  • Business Casual Man playing a Golden Apathetic Frog. It does nothing but make it easier for the player to make him lose due to a full board, being unable to play any cards. Unless it's used to control which cards the player can target, but that's a risky strategy.
• British Stuffiness: Stoneface is an honorable gentleman, greatly contrasting the run-down bar he's found in.
• Card Sharp: The Delinquent admits to cheating after the player wins his Legendary card, and vows to go clean from then on.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Referenced by Rock Enthusiast when the relationship between her, Multifarious Mammal, and the player, come to a head after the player defeats Multifarious Mammal after Rock Enthusiast:
  We're childhood friends, which is way more romantic than dating someone who just washed up on a pier. So I got dibs here.
• Extreme Omnivore: As said in Pancake's Flavor Text: Eats anything. Kinda gross, really.
• Flipping the Bird: Referenced with one of the Bird (Beta) Flavor Texts:
  "Flip" this card? We can't write that!
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Health potions, especially the way Magical Fox downs them.
• Game-Breaking Bug: A bug, fixed in the Valentine update, caused the AI to lock up (leaving you with no choice but forfeiting the match) instead of losing if it ran out of cards completely yet survived the "incomplete hand" damage it caused (which was possible either with a very good defense, or a "Discard whole hand" effect like Dan, Tarrot or Uppohoppa^note Small Boss is the first player with such a card, and thus the cause of most reports of this bug, but there's another at the Card Battle Stadium) The bug didn't affect human players.
• Gender Flip: Little Dude is basically a male Ittle Dew.
• Gossipy Hens: Green Crystal spends all her time at the mall, often feigning naps in order to eavesdrop on passers-by and share gossip with the player.
• Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: The "Snäke" card (a big metal snake).
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep":
  • All characters encountered by the player have no other name in-game than their description (though they have names in the games they're pulled from).
  • Business Casual Man is just Business Casual Man, including when he shows up again in Slap City.
• Hydra Problem: Referenced with the Plasma Hydra in its Flavor Text: Where one is cut off, two more emerge.
• Item Crafting: The Lab allows players to combine some cards into one, losing the originals. Some combinations merely yield existing common cards in the same set (such as most combinations in the Healthy Weapon series, including some that give one of their ingredients) while others yield rare cards or cards that can't be obtained otherwise.
• Joke Item: Joke Card: Two, based on the Apathetic Frog:
  • Apathetic Frog, which has no effect on the battlefield. At all. The tutorial battle pits you against an opponent with nothing but this card.
  • The Golden version is even jokier, being both useless and immune to everything.
• Lampshade Wearing: Magical Fox.
• Nerf: Some cards, like Haja and Jenny Fox, started out unquestionably better than others (like Mildagrad and Drone), so in the first update, they were slapped with disadvantages to re-balance them. There are still some "unquestionably better" cards out there though, some balanced by rarity (like Esi), some not (like Commanderoo or 3D Buni (Beta)).
• The Napoleon: Small Boss brags to the player about being undefeated in her card club, until Hip Skater admits that they're the only members.
• Not As You Knew Them: Played for laughs. Some wind up in positions really different from their source game counterparts, such as Scientist and Salaryman, respectively based on Iosa and Flip Hero.
• Odd Couple: "Fish and Frog", whose are Paranoid Fish with a gun, and Apathetic Frog:
  Together they barely fight crime at all.
• Only One Save File: Has only one save file because the only Character Customization is in physical appearance, and Unintentionally Unwinnable is impossible.
• Plot Twist: After Business Casual Man is defeated the first time, he says "Incoming twist!" ... The twist being that Rude Skater is the adopted granddaughter of the head of Turnip Corp, and is also the artist of the cards.
• Power Equals Rarity: Better cards tend to be "rare" ones. It's also used to limit proliferation within the deck too, since each rare card is limited to one copy per deck (though you can have as many rare cards as you own different ones; only the legendary cards are limited to one legendary at all per deck).
• The Rival: Little Dude, the son of the Card King, who's hunting down the Legendary cards as well. The player battles him at least three times during the story.
• Romance Sidequest: The Valentine update added two characters that give out the new Princess Remedy booster packs: Multifarious Mammal, a fish that's supposedly a cursed prince, and Rock Enthusiast, a girl from the player's past that was completely unremarkable before collecting rocks. Dueling both have them admit affection for the player, who can then choose who to go on a brief date with.
• Say It with Hearts: After Excitable Student gives the Player Character a booster pack, their image has a red ♥ floating beside their head as they say:
  This is a booster pack. It'll help you build better decks!
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Talking to Small Boss at the school's card club has her repeatedly mention her big sis is Tall Skater.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Rude Skater according to Tall Skater, greatly overestimates her artistic talent with graffiti. It's an act, she's more skilled than she lets on, as Gang Leader in the Dark Alley says she's "actually a good artist".
• Speed Demon: The Fast One, a hologram of a whale on wheels, is obsessed with speeding, taking pride in being the fastest programmed, and is ironically focused on speed, as an immovable hologram.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Green Crystal mixes it with Catching Some Z's when she does it in lines like:

  Zzz... talking in my sleep... not faking it... zzznrk... honestly...

• Versus Character Splash: Before each battle.
• Victory Quote:
  • Naturally, various characters have some choice quotes if they beat you in the card game.
  • The Flavor Text for all Healthy Weapon cards appears to be the character's victory quote.

Card City Nights 2

• Added Alliterative Appeal: Multiple:
  • Jelly's Flavor Text:
    Decidedly deadly. Deceptively delicious.
  • The Strawberry Jam tagline on the ad on Vending Machine:
    Flavorful Fruit Friends!
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Multiple uses:
  • With Ship Computer, who wants to take over the ship, but was created in such a way that that wasn't possible.
  • Discussed by Holo-Doctor in the Medical Wing, about Artificial Intelligences that want to take over the world being cliche.
• Artificial Intelligence: Mentioned and used:
  • Holo-Doctor is a holographic doctor programmed by Polite Student.
  • The holograms programmed by Ship's Computer installed in the Captain's Room.
• Bee Afraid: In a possible panel of the Ittle Dew Comic Generator, Ittle is running away from an open chest that has bees floating above it. Implied that they came from the chest, and Ittle says "BEES!"
• Calling Your Attacks: Referenced in Goddess Buster's Flavor Text:
  Special attacks have no effect unless they are called while performed.
• Cardiovascular Love: Newsy Cat wears a shirt with what's probably the lead singer of Bunzone's face inside a Heart Symbol, making it really clear how much Layabout looks like him. It's at least appreciation of the band, and also a hint at a possibly mutual love between her and Layabout, because he has a crush on her, and she blushes when talking about him:
  Newsy Cat: Just between you and me, Layabout reminds me of the lead singer of Bunzone. He's so adorable, I can't help it!
• Cats Are Lazy: Jenny Cat Flavor Text: "Mrow. We're not slacking - we're just in character."
• Cool Sword: Jenny Slayer's sword, because it's magical, as her Flavor Text says.
• Cyberspace: Entered to fight Ship's Computer and is the dimension of Final Boss, New Dimension.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: The final boss, Ship's Computer is fought in Cyberspace, an area with not plot purpose beyond that.
• Flight: Discussed in a possible panel of the Ittle Dew Comic Generator:
  Tippsie (flying): At times like this I'm glad I can fly.
• Heart Symbol:
  • The "Cardiovascular" part of Newsy Cat's shirt of the lead singer of Bunzone's face inside a Heart Symbol.
  • In the Giga Mall, there's a sign with a Heart Symbol with a smile on a sign that says "Heart".
• Hologram: Multiple:
  • Holo-Doctor. A holographic doctor projected by a device at the top of the Medical Wing.
  • The holograms programmed by Ship's Computer installed in the Captain's Rooom.
• Homing Projectile: Mentioned in Bunboy's Flavor Text, with "homing exploding beach ball-sized bullets".
• Human Popsicle: Referenced in the cutscene that Cashier gives when the player exits the cold room, after being in there for a couple of months:
  We don't have any cryosleep pods, so I figured you tried using our cold room instead.
• I Never Told You My Name: Referenced when Informant talks to the player for the first time.
  Heh heh. You're wondering how I knew your name, huh?
  [...]
  What? Oh sure. I COULD have read your name tag. But let's say I didn't.
• Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Referenced with Key X's Flavor Text:
  Modern science has yet to invent a key that doesn't break in the lock.
• Life Meter: Referenced in the in-game help, as "health meter", but it's just the number of Hit Points in white,, ontop of a shield symbol, not a bar of any kind.
• Magic 8-Ball: One is in a jar in the cold room, saying "STOP SHAKING ME".
• My Name Is ???: Multiple:
  • When entering the wharf, a person whose name is only "???", asks the player to get into the storage room. They're known as Elite Hacker when their name is revealed.
  • The Card God in the cold room of the food court who arrives there after defeating the main game. When she's defeated, her name changes to Psychic Phenom.
• Nanomachines: One of the functions of Holo-Doctor's projector as said by Polite Student:
  nanomachine-assisted cellular manipulation
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Referenced in Bunboy's Flavor Text:
  Don't bring a sword to a gunfight. Bring a laser-sighted revolver with homing exploding beach ball-sized bullets.
• Online Alias: The Hacked card, "Jenny Bunny X" is Tenuously Connected Flavor Text that's so tenuous that it's not even about the card, reveals the Playful Hacker's:

  ......... This card CRACKED by da OneManPsyEye

• Red Herring: Referenced in the Freeze-Frame Bonus of the opening cutscene of the cold room's fridge door opening, showing a green box of "milk" beside a red milk box of Herring Milk.
• Single-Use Shield: The Shield effect on some cards. As the in-game help describes:
  Gives you a Shield around your health meter that blocks one attack or one Heal effect. Shield-piercing attacks will destroy the shield and deal damage anyway.
• Source Music: As Rascal says after he's defeated, the music for each battle comes from the cards:
  I like how the cards play various background music when a match begins depending on the location. Isn't that neat?
• Stamina Burn: Cards can only remain active for so long after being powered, and some cards can make them run out faster.
• Teeth Flying: A possible panel of the Ittle Dew Comic Generator has a beat-up Ittle spitting out a tooth.
• Virtual Sidekick: The Hologram Doctor, Holo-Doctor, an Artificial Intelligence made by Polite Student to look like her ex-girlfriend, and works with her in the Medical Bay.
• Wish Upon a Shooting Star: Referenced by The Biggest Fan's Flavor Text:
  Once saw a shooting star and wished that he could be a card, too.

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