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Joeri3 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks a lot for all your feedback! I’m glad you like it.

I’ll fix the typos. Quality of life improvements like the active statuses or keyword explanations are very high on my list. And you’re right, the onboarding could be much clearer. I’ll look into that.

As for more complexity, the card set is mostly final, although I will probably replace Blood Rites because it’s bugged and not that interesting as a card. I like the idea of upping the hit rate of cards, so perhaps that’s a good fit for a new card (or more). It’ll synergize nicely with shields, traps and spiked shields.

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muddysneakers3 years ago(+1)

This game is ridiculously fun.  I think there's a lot of potential here.  I echo pretty much everything that was said here especially point 5 and the other post about multiples of the same card effects not stacking.  Also one of the cards didn't seem to work like I expected, "something happens when the opponent gains AP".  I thought the effect would trigger at the start of my opponent's turn and any other time he gained AP but it didn't seem to work.

I think the randomness needs to be blunted a little.  Losing to the first opponent of a run due to a series of unlucky draws is a little annoying.  Likewise starting over after getting to the final boss because a freak lightning bolt destroyed four cards doesn't feel good.  Perhaps some kind of check point that you respawn at if you reach a certain point.

I also think the matches are typically over too quickly or maybe they're just really swingy.  It's like there's no volleying just a series of aces and it starts to feel like multiplayer solitaire (well single player multiplayer solitaire).  I think that's partially due to randomness and partially due to the low health totals.  There's no feeling of whittling down a tough opponent when a lot of single cards could win you the game on any given turn.  There's no feeling of building a cool card engine because the match is over long before that.

Lastly, I agree that there needs to be a mechanic to cull cards from your deck between matches.  Maybe the option to cull a card in lieu of gaining one or something similar.

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Joeri3 years ago

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

I also think the matches are typically over too quickly or maybe they’re just really swingy.

The lack of swing in this game has always been a design problem, and I think it has a lot to do with the core design factors:

  • Hand as health
  • Small integers for everything

Because I’m not changing those, the only way I can really impact this is adding new cards, changing existing ones, and perhaps (finally) dealing with effect stacking, which would allow you to build an engine in a more significant way. I’ve got some ideas. If you have any ideas for card mechanics that could help, feel free to let me know.

Though I’m currently not actively working on this game at the moment, there will be a bug fixing and quality of life patch sooner than later, so perhaps I can find some time to deal with effect stacking in that one.

Also one of the cards didn’t seem to work like I expected, “something happens when the opponent gains AP”. I thought the effect would trigger at the start of my opponent’s turn and any other time he gained AP but it didn’t seem to work.

Interesting, that might be a bug. Do you remember which card? And could it be that the opponent’s AP was full so they weren’t actually gaining AP?

Perhaps some kind of check point that you respawn at if you reach a certain point.

Good one. It’s probably doable to add a non-permadeath mode that respawns you at the start of the floor. I think that’d be a nice improvement.

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muddysneakers3 years ago(+1)

Yep I understand that the game will play a certain way with hand as health and that creates the tension in the game.

Some random thoughts I had about additional content:

Junk cards you can add to your opponents deck or they can add to yours.

I like the themes of the different opponents.  I think with the exception of shields there's not a lot of cards that get better if you have more of them (I'm thinking of Shield Bash and the spike shield card).  Perhaps these two things can be combined in some way.  For example if you drafted several rogue themed cards they got stronger.  Or just other cards that get better if you have more of them in your deck.

Leveling up cards was mentioned which I think is a good idea to explore.  I also like the idea of leveling up your hero with some passive abilities as you advance.  Similarly you could create a few different heroes that start with an ability of some kind that players could try to build a deck around.

After playing for a few hours it seemed like there were a handful of cards with interesting effects but due to the nature of the game (hand as health and small integers) the game was over too quickly for them to have a big impact.  It felt like advancing in the game was reduced to playing cards with immediate effects on the board and so those more interesting cards were almost locked away because you died the turn after you played them.

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