itch.io

Oh, I really thought the Ace was one of the bases.  Okay.

∞♠

It just occurred to me that the 8♠ is an impossible base to defeat, since the player can never have exactly 8 empowered champions.   That 8♠ will appear in 62.5% of games using the random base variant, making those games somewhat harder as the player will have one less base to target.  Neat!

I wonder if the last sentence in the section on Moving A Champion should be adjusted for increased clarity?   It is a pleasantly brief "If the deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile and remove the top card before drawing." 

I understand "shuffle the discard pile" is short for "shuffle the discard pile to create a newly-randomized face-down movement deck".   I understand "remove the top card" is short for "remove the top card from the game, face down, without looking at it".

Thank you for reading my comment.  I'm surprised, and impressed, to see you adjust the rules to address something I said.

I like that the updated rule makes it clear how you've envisioned the player setting up the base.

However, being specific about that part of setup lends more weight to the misinterpretation that gave me pause as I was learning the game: the thought that the pyramid structure of the base has some mechanical relevance.

For example, with this thinking, I might be expecting to see a rule saying I need to destroy a bottom-row base before destroying a middle-row base before finally having cleared a path to the ace himself in the top row.

The narrative introduction to the game and the gameplay goal are two sections of the rulebook that contribute to my misinterpretation as they set up the Ace of Spades as a specific character and the target of the player's efforts.   I notice that, with the variant in which some bases can be randomized, the Ace of Spades is again treated specially, not included in the randomization and so always in play.

My understanding of the game is that the A♠ is mechanically no different from any other base and so the player merely needs to attack and destroy any three bases, and do so in any order, to win the game.  I could win by defeating just the 7♠, the 6♠, and the 4♠.  

That said, this thinking could lead to some interesting, but probably very difficult, variations.  It would be much harder to clear three bases in time if needing to clear a bottom-row base first, a middle-row base second, and the Ace third.  Harder, still, if doing a further variation following paths between bases such that clearing the left-most bottom-row base only clears a path to the left-most middle-row base. Arranging the bases into different shapes beyond the pyramid shape while playing with some kind of pathing rules and the objective of defeating the Ace could open up other variations that could have all nine spades in play at once.

Nice game!  Rules were easy to understand after figuring out that the ordering of spade cards within the opposing base was mechanically irrelevant (the pyramid shape with the ace on top is just for looks and has no impact on the game compared to, say, laying the selected spades out in a randomized row).  I appreciate how theming contributes to understanding the rules (rallied and empowered) and I like how clearing opposing bases improves movement cards to compensate for losing out on movement options as the player cycles through the movement deck.  I found it quick to set up a custom table for the game on playingcards.io and appreciated having the movement deck on your baseofspades.com website.   I managed to win my first time playing, having gotten down to a three-card movement deck and having needed just the first card from that deck.  

Would you mind elaborating on the Dice Squared rule for doubles?
"Doubles are wild: you may merge them into any one action above."

The rules for Elementalist give more information:
"You must perform 2 actions every round — if you merge doubles, you must perform the action shown on the third action die."

If Dice Squared follows Elementalist in this case, I suppose a roll of:
⚁⚁⚃ (2,2,4) would allow me to choose
⚁⚁ (2,2) [short diagonal] then [short diagonal], or
⚁⚃ (2,4) [short diagonal] then [short straight], or
⚃⚁ (4,2) [short straight] then [short diagonal], or
[⚁⚁]⚃ (wild,4) [any of the six actions] then [short straight], or
⚃[⚁⚁] (4, wild) [short straight] then [any of the six actions].

Congratulations!

Played on Chrome.  It took me longer than it should have to realize that I can click and drag on the stars; my first interactions were just clicking and noticing the sounds being made.  I soon discovered that the itch.io page overlay (with links to view the creator's other works, follow the creator, etc.) interfered with my ability to move stars in the upper-right corner, but I was able to get around that by scrolling the page a bit.

I don't know how many levels there are or how many I cleared but I got stuck and gave up.  The level I quit on featured three lenses that all overlap to make seven partitions and the level has seven stars: four rotate clockwise, three counter-clockwise; there are five colors amongst the seven stars, split as two pairs and three singles; there are similarly five shapes, split as two pairs and three singles.

Neat little puzzle game!  I enjoyed the process of figuring out the game's mechanics and goals, taking notes as I experimented.  Very pleasant aesthetics.

Fun game with fantastic artwork and music!  To any new fans of the game: I highly recommend full completion of the game for the completion bonuses, then also check out the song remixes on Mittsies pages (YouTube or Bandcamp) and the four-panel webcomics on Łukasz' twitter (@vanripperart).