The Four Towers - Playable Version
Playable Version is available here: http://www.nitrogenlab.com/files/fourtowers/fourtowers.zip (12mb)
It's my first attempt at Java distribution, it's got a windows exe which works okay, the rest of you will have to run java -jar "fourtowers.jar" from the command line and *hopefully* all the libraries are in the right place.
Feedback Required!
So I've been working on this card game off and on since last year. I've called it The Four Towers and it's a shameless rip off of a *very* obscure card game called Output Alpha found on the ship's computer in the Return To Ringworld point and click adventure game from the 90's.
Your goal is to build your tower before your opponents do. You need to place one of each of the 8 different buildings in order to complete your tower. However, your opponents can throw delay cards at you (causes you to skip a turn) and stop cards (construction is halted until you find the cure card). There are 8 different delays and each building you have built will make you immune to one of the delay cards. The original game also had Theives and Disasters which I've yet to add to mine.
Here's what it looks like at the moment:
I built it in Java using the Slick2D engine as I hadn't learnt Unity when I started it. I'm proud to say all the graphics are my own *except* for the buildings which I ripped from Anno 1404 (will be replaced in due course). I dont have a downloadable version up yet because I still need to add tooltips to tell you what each card is - will be a bit difficult to play without them.
I know the original game had some merit and was quite fun to play, but I'm looking to you guys to see if it is actually fun, and how we can improve on the mechanics to make it more fun!
It's my first attempt at Java distribution, it's got a windows exe which works okay, the rest of you will have to run java -jar "fourtowers.jar" from the command line and *hopefully* all the libraries are in the right place.
Feedback Required!
So I've been working on this card game off and on since last year. I've called it The Four Towers and it's a shameless rip off of a *very* obscure card game called Output Alpha found on the ship's computer in the Return To Ringworld point and click adventure game from the 90's.
Your goal is to build your tower before your opponents do. You need to place one of each of the 8 different buildings in order to complete your tower. However, your opponents can throw delay cards at you (causes you to skip a turn) and stop cards (construction is halted until you find the cure card). There are 8 different delays and each building you have built will make you immune to one of the delay cards. The original game also had Theives and Disasters which I've yet to add to mine.
Here's what it looks like at the moment:
I built it in Java using the Slick2D engine as I hadn't learnt Unity when I started it. I'm proud to say all the graphics are my own *except* for the buildings which I ripped from Anno 1404 (will be replaced in due course). I dont have a downloadable version up yet because I still need to add tooltips to tell you what each card is - will be a bit difficult to play without them.
I know the original game had some merit and was quite fun to play, but I'm looking to you guys to see if it is actually fun, and how we can improve on the mechanics to make it more fun!
screenshot1.jpg
1920 x 1038 - 1M
screenshot2.jpg
980 x 757 - 322K
Comments
I'll bring it to the show-and-tell section of the meetup tomorrow.
http://www.nitrogenlab.com/files/fourtowers/fourtowers.zip (12mb)
It's my first attempt at Java distribution, it's got a windows exe which works okay, the rest of you will have to run java -jar "fourtowers.jar" from the command line and *hopefully* all the libraries are in the right place.
Read the instructions menu item to get started, but you can also hover your mouse over most of the cards on the board and they will tell you what they are.
Right now, it's you (bottom) vs 3 AI players (left, right, top).
Known Issues
- The game is primarily based on luck of the draw. I'm looking for ways to introduce a bit more strategy to it.
- The balance of platforms, buildings, cures, delays and stops probably needs to be adjusted. Are the players getting too many of a certain type of card? Not enough of another? At the moment, it feels like there are too many platform cards, and maybe not enough cures.
Heres what I thought:
- Stop cards are super broken I think, you can be shut down for SO long by just 1 stop card simply because you dont get the right cure.
- As you say, it'd be nice to add some element of strategy to the game so that it isnt entirely random. I feel like the player should be able to have some way of "purchasing" foundations because they're so important, all this randomness also makes the game really slow.
- Tied in with wanting to be able to purchase foundations (and I suppose as a result there'd be some kind of resource) I think it'd be cool if there were some kind of reason to play one specific building over another (for instance if you think they have a specific delay or it makes a combo with another building or something).
- I feel like it would improve the experience if the players had slightly larger hands (maybe 6 cards instead of 4?) which would probably help with the issue of not being able to have the right cure cards etc
Regarding the interface, it took me a while to figure out what was what, so maybe it'd be helpful if you were to add tooltips to the different slots to tell the player what they are? I only realised that the thing in the middle is the draw/discard pile like halfway through the game (and it took me a couple turns to figure out that the delay slots are delay slots).
It also plays out really fast so if you dont know exactly whats happening it looks really confusing (the first time I played a delay on the guy on the left I was fairly confused when it immediately got discarded).
The only real issues I had with the interface (such pretty art/transitions) was that:
- You dont get tooltips when its not your turn
- You can't see your cards when its not your turn
- You can't drag cards, you have to click on them and click where you want them (which is only an issue because I'm used to dragging in hearthstone...so not really a problem)
So are the stop cards really broken or do we just need to increase the ratio of stop to cure cards? So you're almost guaranteed to run into a cure at some stage.
An economy... I think I like that idea. How would it work? You earn money by delaying or stopping the other players? Obviously then you should be able to purchase cures as well, but then it seems the game may be over too quickly.
I agree - I'd really like to do something with the buildings - such as each one having a different bonus that it gives your tower (the market gives you income for instance, and the barracks allows you to attack another player, the apothecary generates a cure for the plague and blight stop cards etc.)
The hand size was kept small because I felt you can stockpile things a bit too effectively - with 6 cards for example you can have all 4 cure cards stockpiled in your hand AND also continue building your tower. With a limited hand you are forced to either build your tower with platforms and buildings OR stockpile cures for potential stops.
I agree the interface is very unfriendly at the moment, and the turns are designed to end as quickly as possible!
The not seeing your cards when it's not your turn was intentional for when there is more than 1 human player but can be adjusted for singleplayer.
- The card at the top of the discard pile only seems to update when you play a cure (not even when you discard one), I would have thought that in order to have any kind of strategy, its largely essential to see all the cards that get discarded/used. Edit: ok wait nevermind it just did some updating...but it spent a long time not...
- I also think it'd be nice to always be able to see who played all of the delay/stop cards...so you can exact vengeance upon them! >:)
- Maybe it might alleviate the absurdity of stop cards a bit if you allowed for each cure to have a secondary stop which it can cure but at some cost (e.g you lose your next turn because you automatically get a "Overexertion" delay played against you)
- I lost a game and when I clicked "Start new game" it just went back to the "Player X has won" screen. Edit: Also happened when I won
- I was thinking more of a kind of card-economy, so if a card gets used a lot then its less likely to appear or something. I was also thinking you could make the cards form an actual deck (and then discard pile becomes draw pile when it runs out or something) then you could have cards that modify where cards are/how many of each type there are. Although I guess you'd then run into problems with players that need 1 last building and that building is very scarce.
- I'm also not sure about the use of delays because obviously if you have an option on your turn of either building or playing a delay, playing the delay is pointless, its only worthwhile if you have nothing else to do. Surely it would be better if there were actually a significant amount of thought that needed to go into that
- Another issue with delays is that they become very hard to actually play, very quickly as people start building/playing stops
- Maybe you gain some kind of currency (gold/whatever) when you discard things instead of playing?
- The vaccine tooltip says "Cures Vaccine"
- Do you think it would help if all players were guaranteed to start with at least 1 foundation?
- I think regardless of what you do about card-economy, I think I set number of each stop card might be a good idea? 2 each or something? Because then if you're attentive you know what cures you do/dont need (strategy!)
By the way, have you played a board game by the name of "World Without End" (its apparently based off of a book by the same name)...seems to have a somewhat similar feel to this
To avoid clogging this thread, here's the complete error message on pastebin.
And in case it's important, my java version is
If you need help with testing and tracking down the issue, just let me know.
I've compiled it on 1.6.0 so your Java version is perfect, and it seems to be using the native libraries (insofar that it actually started initialising)
Only thing I can think of is to update my Slick & lwjgl versions...
@D3zmodos Thanks for your latest list, I'm still busy assimilating, reply forthcoming.
Initial observations (besides some points made above and haven't really been thunk through):
- How about a delay in the immunity of a building, perhaps a turn or 2; after it is placed. That way the delay cards don't become obsolete as quickly.
-Tying in with the economy or bonus attribute of a building, the delay could still be used and prevent the income/bonus effect.
- Could/Would it be possible to pick a discarded card, instead of being handed a new one?
-Options for bonusses(essess..?) could be increased chances of picking up other cards or a tech tree sort of thing, where one building can lead to another. (I lost because I was waiting for an apothecary for about 15 turns; and the player who was the furthest behind ended up getting all the right cards and winning)... actually dont know if it will help, but rather make it more complicated.