Sure I'll provide just a bit more. When you are explaining your game, separate the story explanation from the gameplay mechanic explanation. The average person will simply scan the text for the controls, so you need to make that as easy as possible.
In general, showing always trumps telling, but sometimes you have to say how a thing works or what it does. It's best to only explain this right before you're about to use that feature, so you can make a mental connection immediately.
Instead of writing "confidence boost or blow of 3" seperate your effect from title of the card. So for that one I think it would be "+3☕ or -3☕"
Limiting the number of cards the player can use might improve the game, as it typically feels like the dominant strat is to use all the cards that you can (at least i think?)
Another trick you could do, is when you have a card selected with your mouse button, use visual indicators to let the user know what of the 3 options the player can place their card into.
"- Energy cost is the card card number." - don't know what that means and im still not sure what the point of energy is.
my advice is to get someone who has absolutely no idea how slay the spire works and watch them play it, literally, behind their back. don't say anything or answer any of their questions. When the playtest is over, ask THEM some pointed questions to see what they are thinking, and as you go, make notes on all the lessons you learn.
Cheers!
Thank you for the suggestions! Some I haven't considered, others I wanted to do but had no time left :)
Having no limit on the cards played was on purpose, as a way to distance this experience form the likes of Slay the Spire and company, but I'll reevaluate if it is doing the game more harm than good.
Thank you for the taking the time to write this down!
