The game is a lot more juicy now in animations effects and sound. I also like that the skills are automatic makes it a bit easier to understand, though sometimes the cards were highlighted but it didn't mean anything in particular (they were off cd but the board didn't allow an activation).
The core of the game is solitaire which is easy to understand and play, but everything else feels a bit too complex. There are like 3 different resource bars to pay attention to and the skills have a lot of lines of text making them difficult to parse.
The merchant perk felt incredibly powerful after having a run where I didn't have it.
Not drawing the card you need and then watching the opponent randomly draw it feels very bad. Taking damage after the opponent manages to chain 3 cards in a turn feels even worse. I know the game is a solitaire battle, but there is so much rng involved here, I don't even know how to hedge my chances to avoid this happening.
I don't know what to think about the limit mechanic. Is its function to avoid one shotting the opponent? Big chains are exciting, why punish them?
sometimes the cards were highlighted but it didn't mean anything in particular
you're right, i should be more consistent with what i use "lighting up" the skills to indicate
I don't know what to think about the limit mechanic. Is its function to avoid one shotting the opponent? Big chains are exciting, why punish them?
yeah, and likewise with them chaining you. red skills are designed to lower limit and let you make big chains, the idea is that you'll add limit-lowering skills and synergies to your build to get around problems with Overlimit as the game goes on
It is understandable, specially if you plan to have multiplayer down the road (I don't know if you do). You might have done it already, but I think experimenting with changing the symmetry a bit could be nice for this mechanic in particular.
Solid roguelike, would mindlessly play until I got to triple digit hours on.
There needs to be something to differentiate stage numbers. I would shocked when I was suddenly at 2-1 and getting to the final "boss" felt anticlimatic. Possibly add different backgrounds & music to the worlds?
The font was hard to read in some places. D & O were very similar at a glance.
There is a bunch of terminology that isn't really explained on skills. Most roguelikes I've seen like Monster Train will have additional popups explaining keywords or mechanics. Even a glossary would've been nice to have.
It may have been due to my build, but there were moments in the final battle where there would be one or two cards left and both of us were just end turn-ing repeatedly because we couldn't get a suitable card. This would absolutely be a situation to "fake" the card chances, just to keep the battle moving.
something to differentiate stage numbers [...] Possibly add different backgrounds & music to the worlds?
for sure. i might even extend the zones somewhat
The font was hard to read in some places. D & O were very similar at a glance.
thanks for letting me know, i think you're right. i'll work on it
There is a bunch of terminology that isn't really explained on skills
yeah, i'm still figuring out by what means i want to show this to the player
there were moments in the final battle where there would be one or two cards left and both of us were just end turn-ing repeatedly because we couldn't get a suitable card
the intended design is that cyan and gray skills would benefit you in that situation - cyan by making it easier for you to draw/pick up cards and gray by giving you benefits when you end turn/take no action. optimally, i'd want players to have to consider that situation when making their build
Really fun, I could see myself playing this is 30-1 hours chunks until I've played 50 hours similar to Slay the Spire, which is the best thing I can say about a rogue like.
I did understand the concept of the game, and was feeling myself getting better at it after beating easy and losing in normal. However I did never figure out what the little blue/yellow symbols meant on the skills.
Anyways, not much else to as bad about it. The music was a little sleepy, could use a few more tracks, but other then that I would wish list this.
thanks for playing, and the kind words! (i thought i had already replied to this yesterday...)
I did never figure out what the little blue/yellow symbols meant on the skills.
each skill has (at least 2) class synergies and the colors represent the classes - i realize now that there being no text explaining anything about them is a little confusing
The music was a little sleepy, could use a few more tracks
for sure, actually this is just some royalty free music i'm using as a placeholder until i get around to making some
I played one run so far, but I am going to play more later. I am going to write my thoughts so far
It was kinda crazy getting $22 artifact so early in the game, but I ended up saving for it.
I found passive skills and saving gold to be a really good strategy.
First run took me about 45 minutes. I got the last two skills for the last two fights. Wild Cards are really good.
I was able to save enough gold to re-roll my shop a lot to get more upgrades and chests.
I only played one Easy run, but the stats on the tooltip display 2s
I think you did a good job with automating skills which use SP. I think the game flow is really good. I honestly wanted to just keep going with the build I had. It did not feel like 45 minutes.
I don't think there is any UI indicator telling players attacks take up 2 skill slots.
Some victories:
this one was on easyanother easy run
The Easy difficulty is as easy at it should be, but the Normal seems quite hard. Also the ogre boss really forces players to go into multiple attacks and stuns, preferable stuns.
Here are my win rates:
I lost way too many runs on Normal, so I played more Easy for testing.
nice, all of this was interesting. thanks for showing me! its cool to see how often you build into gold skills
I don't think there is any UI indicator telling players attacks take up 2 skill slots.
at the bottom of an attack's description, appears only in shop mode. i realize it's easy to miss when i'm changing the description subtly only in a certain game state, but i can't think of a better way to handle it
Normal seems quite hard
yeah, i haven't figured out if i want there to be a around 3 difficulty levels with obvious difficulty jumps between or more difficulty levels with a smoother increase in difficulties yet
I'm a bit slow so I needed to do the tutorial twice to get a decent understanding of the system, the overlimit is a bit confusing though, the characters seem to react positively so it seemed like a good thing but in reality you're earning less SP but some abilities activate when you're overlimit so I guess it has some advantages. Still had a lot of fun with it though, absolutely something I'd want to play on my phone so I'm hoping you have plans to port it to mobile. I also really liked the art style and effects, very cute and polished <3
i trimmed the tutorial down to avoid overloading the player, but you might be right that Overlimit is too important to leave the player to figure out on their own and could use some tutorialization
the characters seem to react positively so it seemed like a good thing
i didn't think about that, thanks for letting me know. they're actually speaking a line after picking up 5 cards which is basically when Overlimit would activate
I'm hoping you have plans to port it to mobile
no, sorry! i've thought about it, but it doesn't seem like its worth the effort for several reasons
Cool game, I had fun. But I suspect it’s because Solitaire is just kinda fun. How the rest of the game works, I did not fully understand. I have a vague idea that there are cooldowns on abilities (notably the one single ability that actually deals damage) and that there is "overlimit" when placing too many cards. This mostly makes me think that I sometimes should end my turn early - unfortunate, because it’s fun to keep placing cards.
So I am uncertain if I like the "combat" aspect of the game - I wish I could just run sick Solitaire combos. The Lich fight is cool because you always have that incentive to hunt for the specific phylactery card. The Wildcards also make for some sick lines. But apart from the mods they add to cards on the board, I feel there is really no interaction with the "enemy;" it’s just a clock ticking. When the enemy gets a good turn, it feels bad, but it’s not clear how to have prevented it. [On that note, I did not get why hand card sometimes stayed same between turns and sometimes changed.] I had a similar issue with "One Armed Bandit," but in Solitaire battle at least I did not get randomly uninteractively rekt (so far.)
I could see this game work better with a less symmetric player/enemy concept and more a concept of "stages" where the player is trying to do Solitaire and some "enemy" is meddling via crazy effects. Without the health bars on both sides, and without the enemy playing their own lines.
I will try the other characters, and try to understand the game better, but this was my impression so far.
i tried to design red skills to let the player pick up cards in long chains without having to worry about Overlimit effects. if you end up playing again try making a red build and see what you think
I did not get why hand card sometimes stayed same between turns and sometimes changed
it sounds like a bug, but i skipped through the VOD and couldn't find it. i'll watch out for the bug going forwards
But apart from the mods they add to cards on the board, I feel there is really no interaction with the "enemy;" it’s just a clock ticking. When the enemy gets a good turn, it feels bad, but it’s not clear how to have prevented it
in a way i feel this is true, but when i play i also think about the state i'm leaving the board in when i end my turn, and what the enemy wants to do on their turn (make long chains, draw cards, bide their time, pick up peak cards, etc.) to determine what actions i take. that might be an advanced technique or just me overthinking it, though
for the most part though the non-boss enemies are kind of filler,in a way. i plan to make the bosses the fights that have interesting gimmicks with more depth
Comments
Played a couple runs, had some fun. Video:
The game is a lot more juicy now in animations effects and sound. I also like that the skills are automatic makes it a bit easier to understand, though sometimes the cards were highlighted but it didn't mean anything in particular (they were off cd but the board didn't allow an activation).
The core of the game is solitaire which is easy to understand and play, but everything else feels a bit too complex. There are like 3 different resource bars to pay attention to and the skills have a lot of lines of text making them difficult to parse.
The merchant perk felt incredibly powerful after having a run where I didn't have it.
Not drawing the card you need and then watching the opponent randomly draw it feels very bad. Taking damage after the opponent manages to chain 3 cards in a turn feels even worse. I know the game is a solitaire battle, but there is so much rng involved here, I don't even know how to hedge my chances to avoid this happening.
I don't know what to think about the limit mechanic. Is its function to avoid one shotting the opponent? Big chains are exciting, why punish them?
thanks for playing and for the video!
you're right, i should be more consistent with what i use "lighting up" the skills to indicate
yeah, and likewise with them chaining you. red
skills are designed to lower limit and let you make big chains, the idea is that you'll add limit-lowering skills and synergies to your build to get around problems with Overlimit as the game goes on
It is understandable, specially if you plan to have multiplayer down the road (I don't know if you do). You might have done it already, but I think experimenting with changing the symmetry a bit could be nice for this mechanic in particular.
Keep up the good work!
Solid roguelike, would mindlessly play until I got to triple digit hours on.
thanks for playing and the kind words!
for sure. i might even extend the zones somewhat
thanks for letting me know, i think you're right. i'll work on it
yeah, i'm still figuring out by what means i want to show this to the player
the intended design is that cyan and gray
skills would benefit you in that situation - cyan by making it easier for you to draw/pick up cards and gray by giving you benefits when you end turn/take no action. optimally, i'd want players to have to consider that situation when making their build
Really fun, I could see myself playing this is 30-1 hours chunks until I've played 50 hours similar to Slay the Spire, which is the best thing I can say about a rogue like.
I did understand the concept of the game, and was feeling myself getting better at it after beating easy and losing in normal. However I did never figure out what the little blue/yellow symbols meant on the skills.
Anyways, not much else to as bad about it. The music was a little sleepy, could use a few more tracks, but other then that I would wish list this.
thanks for playing, and the kind words! (i thought i had already replied to this yesterday...)
each skill has (at least 2) class synergies and the colors represent the classes - i realize now that there being no text explaining anything about them is a little confusing
for sure, actually this is just some royalty free music i'm using as a placeholder until i get around to making some
I played one run so far, but I am going to play more later. I am going to write my thoughts so far
It was kinda crazy getting $22 artifact so early in the game, but I ended up saving for it.
I found passive skills and saving gold to be a really good strategy.
First run took me about 45 minutes. I got the last two skills for the last two fights. Wild Cards are really good.
I was able to save enough gold to re-roll my shop a lot to get more upgrades and chests.
I only played one Easy run, but the stats on the tooltip display 2s
I think you did a good job with automating skills which use SP. I think the game flow is really good. I honestly wanted to just keep going with the build I had. It did not feel like 45 minutes.
thanks for playing again! i'd appreciate any thoughts you'd want to share later, too
that's an informative walkthrough of your run, thank you. i'll look out for the bug that appeared to have doubled your wins and plays
i have plans to at some point add the option for the player to go endless with increasing difficulty after winning
I come back after more playtesting
One thing, which bothered me
I don't think there is any UI indicator telling players attacks take up 2 skill slots.
Some victories:
The Easy difficulty is as easy at it should be, but the Normal seems quite hard. Also the ogre boss really forces players to go into multiple attacks and stuns, preferable stuns.
Here are my win rates:
I lost way too many runs on Normal, so I played more Easy for testing.
nice, all of this was interesting. thanks for showing me! its cool to see how often you build into gold skills
at the bottom of an attack's description, appears only in shop mode. i realize it's easy to miss when i'm changing the description subtly only in a certain game state, but i can't think of a better way to handle it
yeah, i haven't figured out if i want there to be a around 3 difficulty levels with obvious difficulty jumps between or more difficulty levels with a smoother increase in difficulties yet
You could maybe have an icon for number of skill points/slots next to the $
I'm a bit slow so I needed to do the tutorial twice to get a decent understanding of the system, the overlimit is a bit confusing though, the characters seem to react positively so it seemed like a good thing but in reality you're earning less SP but some abilities activate when you're overlimit so I guess it has some advantages. Still had a lot of fun with it though, absolutely something I'd want to play on my phone so I'm hoping you have plans to port it to mobile. I also really liked the art style and effects, very cute and polished <3
thanks for playing!
i trimmed the tutorial down to avoid overloading the player, but you might be right that Overlimit is too important to leave the player to figure out on their own and could use some tutorialization
i didn't think about that, thanks for letting me know. they're actually speaking a line after picking up 5 cards which is basically when Overlimit would activate
no, sorry! i've thought about it, but it doesn't seem like its worth the effort for several reasons
Cool game, I had fun. But I suspect it’s because Solitaire is just kinda fun. How the rest of the game works, I did not fully understand. I have a vague idea that there are cooldowns on abilities (notably the one single ability that actually deals damage) and that there is "overlimit" when placing too many cards. This mostly makes me think that I sometimes should end my turn early - unfortunate, because it’s fun to keep placing cards.
So I am uncertain if I like the "combat" aspect of the game - I wish I could just run sick Solitaire combos. The Lich fight is cool because you always have that incentive to hunt for the specific phylactery card. The Wildcards also make for some sick lines. But apart from the mods they add to cards on the board, I feel there is really no interaction with the "enemy;" it’s just a clock ticking. When the enemy gets a good turn, it feels bad, but it’s not clear how to have prevented it. [On that note, I did not get why hand card sometimes stayed same between turns and sometimes changed.] I had a similar issue with "One Armed Bandit," but in Solitaire battle at least I did not get randomly uninteractively rekt (so far.)
I could see this game work better with a less symmetric player/enemy concept and more a concept of "stages" where the player is trying to do Solitaire and some "enemy" is meddling via crazy effects. Without the health bars on both sides, and without the enemy playing their own lines.
I will try the other characters, and try to understand the game better, but this was my impression so far.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2078089011?t=0h14m2s
thanks for playing and streaming!
i tried to design red
skills to let the player pick up cards in long chains without having to worry about Overlimit effects. if you end up playing again try making a red build and see what you think
it sounds like a bug, but i skipped through the VOD and couldn't find it. i'll watch out for the bug going forwards
in a way i feel this is true, but when i play i also think about the state i'm leaving the board in when i end my turn, and what the enemy wants to do on their turn (make long chains, draw cards, bide their time, pick up peak cards, etc.) to determine what actions i take. that might be an advanced technique or just me overthinking it, though
for the most part though the non-boss enemies are kind of filler,in a way. i plan to make the bosses the fights that have interesting gimmicks with more depth
hey, here are the changes for this version: