itch.io

Sorry I don't think you can DM through itch.io. If you join the Discord server you can message me directly or request a key in the key-request channel. You can drop the server immediately after if you want, not trying to recruit for the server :)

https://discord.gg/BdT4DMPE

It is! The version uploaded here is the final itch.io demo, and I've moved the beta testing to Steam. If you're interested in helping beta test, just let me know and I can send you a key. Thanks!

Thanks for the "insta-win" combo! Definitely not intended, it should only make the first cast free, and once it's placed back in hand it should cost the standard amount, so I'll have to patch that up.

As for looping, the beta has been removed and replaced with an actual limited-content demo. Characters, cards, upgrades, levels, etc. are all limited in nature to give a hint of the product and not the whole thing.

That said, in the next few weeks I should have the current beta version available on Steam that people can request to be let into. If you're interested in finding out about that I'll be making an announcement in the Discord channel when it's available.

Thanks for the feedback and post!

Thanks for the feedback! I spend so much time looking at the game that it all kind of blends together after the first thousand hours, so it's nice to have someone else take a stab at it. 

The flashbang is odd but I can try to replicate it, or at least I'm aware of what to look for. Is it possible the Ninja and another character had the Linked buff, and it applied to both of them? Currently the only way to apply that is with the Engineer, so no enemy could have done it, it would have to be something you chose to do.

I thought I had removed the ability for player input during a card being discarded, but my guess is with the Hacked Pistol in particular it's allowing input during the turret activation. Thanks for the report! That type of issue is such an edge case that I doubt I'd have ever found it on my own. 

Thanks! I see a large number of crash reports recently that I'm assuming are from your sessions, and they are all patched in the current (soon-to-be-released) version! The Flashbang is working as intended, same with any grenades, that they affect any character, not just hostiles :) 

Do you mind if I ask what you don't find visually appealing about the game? Do you enjoy pixel art at all? Other than some minor changes like small animations to give combat environments more life, there won't be any major overhauls to the graphics. But I'm always happy to take criticism into account for future works!

Thanks! The looping is just in place right now to let you find more cards and synergies, and is absolutely not how the game will work. The complete game will have 3 full levels with a boss at the end of each.

Unfortunately I do not plan to release for mobile - initially it will be a PC-only release. If through some miracle it sells well enough I will consider console ports, but it wasn't designed with mobile in mind from the start, and there are so many pieces that would have to be completely redone to accommodate that. 

Thank you for the kind words, and I'm sorry that you're experiencing bugs that are making your experience worse! 

There are currently two known bugs that have been resolved in the next patch - infinite turrets being placed on a single cell, and a complete crash when the Timed Explosive detonates with no targets in range.

There are also other, harder to replicate bugs related to pathfinding and turn logic, which usually result in the game locking up. I am rewriting all combat logic from scratch to use a system that will not only help resolve most of these issues, but make it much, much easier to track down and locate similar problems in the future. This is the bulk of the work going into the patch for next month, and while it won't be noticeable to the player, it will be a huge benefit in the long run for the game itself.

If you're able to, press F8 and submit a bug report - it not only sends me what you type, but also object states and variable data that are helpful in tracking down what the game was doing when the crash happened to I can replicate and fix it.

Thanks again for your interest and for your post!

The full version will be for sale on Steam, and up until that version is released the demo will remain available on itch.io. I haven't yet decided if I will sell it on other storefronts or not, but it's definitely possible!

Hi, thanks a lot for all of your feedback! I'll address what I can in response :)

Clearly I need to make this more apparent, but Paladin and Mountain are just randomly-generated names - both of those characters are of the Soldier class and have the same deck and upgrades to choose from. Currently there are two classes in game, the Soldier and the Ninja, with at least one more (Engineer) planned. I recently added the ability to play as the same class just to give people another option since playing as just the Soldier and Ninja each time could get repetitive.

The looping is just a temporary solution to let the player see and experience more deck and upgrade synergies - the full game will have three environmental levels to complete, each with unique enemy encounters. A lot of the enemies in the first (and only) level are melee, pistol, and shotgun enemies, which forces them to get into close range to the player. While the option for a non-movement deck should be a possibility (with things like stacking Stealth for the Ninja or long-range sniper cards for the Soldier), movement cards are admittedly not as important for the Soldier as they are for the Ninja or Engineer.

Funny enough, your point about viruses is one I put a lot of thought into, as optimizing the fun out of something is always what good players will do, and what you described is exactly how I saw it playing out. In my current build, I've changed removing cards to be an option post-combat instead of adding a card. I feel that missing out on a card or money is (for now) a fair price to pay for removing a card, and viruses can also be removed this way. I like allowing the player to remove viruses during combat, too, though. By trashing the virus once it's recycled, it ensures that if you want to wait it out like you chose to, you have to suffer its effects each turn as you can't just recycle it and wait for it to be drawn again once combat is safe. Once the game is better-balanced, hopefully the penalty of not only losing a card slot to keep it in-hand, but the negative effects themselves each turn, will be a better risk/reward choice than the optimal choice to make every time.

The current Shielding mechanic is after numerous iterations, and apart from the Soldier having the option of playing a "tank" class, it's meant to prevent or reduce damage from a single attack. This is another important aspect of movement cards - since you can view the attack range of enemies, and always have their intended target and action, movement becomes a defensive option to prevent them from reaching you to attack. I'm not saying it's perfect, and I'm sure some more adjustments will occur, just giving you the reasoning behind it :)

For upgrades, each character class has around 15 unique upgrades, and there are 10 upgrades that are class-neutral. The class-specific ones are always chosen from for reaching level 3 (also I hate the term 'level' for that and need a better phrase/graphic), and the shop will contain 1-2 character-specific upgrades. Neutral upgrades are always at least one shop option, and are always chosen from upgrade machines. I think your frustration was coming from playing the same class for both characters and seeing ones you wanted to swap with. Since levelup upgrades are class-specific, and require the character to have three consecutive combats without dying to gain, there are no plans to allow them to be swapped between characters.

I went with the option to draw up to your hand size each turn for two reasons - one, initially it was a simple discard/redraw each turn. I like that style because it forces you to work with what you're given rather than what you want, but I also liked the option to 'set up' plays yourself. Since NOT recycling a card reduces your power gain each turn, I made the change to let the player choose to not recycle a card and hold on to it between turns. If the player can hold cards and then draw ADDITIONAL cards each turn, this would produce strategies to run and hide for as long as possible to build up a giant hand, and then unload everything at once. By capping the hand size each turn, it still retains that 'work with what you have' strategy, while providing the option to save up for a wombo-combo if you're willing to make some sacrifices to do so.

Finally, the theme is absolutely cyberpunk, and additional character, environment, and ability designs should reinforce this as more content is added :)

Thanks again for all of the feedback, you've given me a lot to think about and work with, and that's the best thing I can ask for!

I talked to you in Discord about this, but thanks for the suggestion, it'll be in the game next patch! 

Thanks a lot! Those two games are definitely influences, and I hope that my game is unique enough to build off of other games that I look to for inspiration :)

As for your question about aggro management, currently enemy target selection is 100% random. Way back in the day when it was a straight SRPG things like threat, distance-to-target, and target HP were all built-in to the AI. Since making the shift to cards, however, it became super not-fun to juggle aggro on top of random abilities each turn, so enemies choose their ability, and then have a 50/50 chance to target each player character if it's an offensive ability.

For now that's how it's likely to stay, but I understand the frustration of a streak of bad luck, so at some point down the line I may add some kind of 'bad luck protection' where it will weight the other character's chances of being selected higher after consecutively choosing the same character.

Thanks again for your interest, kind words, and feedback, and keep your eye out as a pretty large patch will be released in the next day or two!

Thanks for the additional kind words :)

When the character windows are opened I'm working on putting in tabs on the left-side to switch between characters, and tabs at the top to switch between Cards and Upgrades using the same card view. Hopefully that should help alleviate that issue!

I'll have to look into why the upgrades aren't looping properly, that one is definitely a bug. Each upgrade should never be offered twice, and since there aren't enough upgrades currently in-game to handle looping, it should just offer the +MaxHP upgrade when it runs out for now.

Currently the Engineer isn't in-game yet, so there's no progress to be lost :X The next patch is making the final changes to core systems (card removals and viruses are getting reworked) and filling out the remainder of the core cards for the Soldier and Ninja. The Engineer will likely be next, so she should be playable sometime in early October.

If you're interested in keeping up with things and providing more feedback Discord is a great place for it, and sometimes other people will chime in with their thoughts, too! If you want to join here's a link, and if not that's cool, too. Thanks again!

https://discord.gg/BdwueB6

Hi, thank you so much for the kind words, and especially for the feedback! 

Would you mind expanding on what you mean by a separate screen for the Upgrades? To view which upgrades you have installed? Currently you can view those when viewing your deck in the upper-left, but I know it's not ideal and it likely won't be the final way to view them.

I'll have to look into why existing upgrades are being offered up, that's definitely a bug! Right now it should just give you a generic +MaxHP mod if no other upgrades are available, but clearly that's not the case.

As for the game getting stuck after using an ability, that's an old bug that I hoped was finally resolved as of version 0.811, which was released Friday 8/11. Is that the version that you were playing? If so, it's back to the drawing board for that problem. Also if it gets stuck on you again, pressing F8 will allow you to submit a bug report which also grabs the state of all in-game objects and sends it to me, which is a huge help in tracking down bugs!

Thanks again for the interest and the feedback, it's much appreciated :)

Thanks, and me too! I hope I can keep new content interesting and exciting :)

Thank you so much! As the game has shifted into what it is today I definitely don't hide its influences. I just hope that it's unique enough to offer something different than the other games currently available :)

Thanks! I think the recycling adds a lot more options and choices than a simple mana/power bar that refills every turn, and I'm glad at least one other person agrees :)

Thanks! I'll keep the updates and write-ups coming regardless, but it's a lot easier knowing that someone out there is actually reading them :)

Hey, thanks a lot! I'd love to hear any feedback (especially negative) that you have. If you're interested in providing any I've got a Discord server with channels specifically for providing feedback - https://discord.gg/BdwueB6. If not, no big deal, and thanks again for playing!

I'm getting the same issue. Tested on multiple computers before and after the GMS2 update and all worked prior to the update and didn't after the update.