The card game is used in the game to interrogate witnesses, cards represent questions and the aim is to move your cards higher up on the grid to unlock get more information.
-It takes place on a 3x3 grid.
-Each turn the player can place either a new card, or move an already placed card one row higher.
-The arrows at the top of the cards represent their movement options, so if the left arrow is vertical, that card can move straight up when on the left column. If the center arrow is diagonal, the card can move diagonally upwards when in the center column.
-Each card has a unique combination of movement directions.
-Placing a card on top of an enemy's card removes it from play and vice versa.
Bringing a card to the top row can unlock new cards.
So hopefully that makes sense... As far as progression is concerned the player starts off with cards with a lot of movement options, as they're easier to use. While the enemies at the beginning of the game have cards that can only ever move in one direction per column. Later on enemies get stronger cards, with multiple movement directions per column, making them less predictable.
There are still some design issues however, the card game is both too easy, as well as too short! It takes a few turns to for the enemy to have placed enough cards to be a threat and by then the player has enough time to bring at least one card to the top row without any opposition. And while one could program smarter AI to combat this (currently the enemies move are completely random), it'd be difficult to find the correct difficulty with that approach.
So my plan is to have certain cards, that can only be placed after enough other cards have reached the top row. This would prolong the length of the card game by forcing the player to place cards they wouldn't otherwise place and gives the enemy a chance to place some cards of their own.
Okay, that's that! If anyone has any feedback regarding the card game, as far as graphics or design are concerned, I'd be very interested in hearing it. Thanks for reading!