B: Power & Toughness

Tuism

(Updated 2012/11/09)

My latest version of my prototype (damage now works, so does the reshuffle when your deck runs out (buggily) grab a friend and play in 2 player!)

Download Windows zip file (2mb) (sorry I haven't got the web player license yet!)

It's what I thought reductionist Magic The Gathering would be... I wanted to make it like a Tetris-paced game, like a puzzle, more drop-the-blocks game than a slow-and-deliberate turn based game.
The basic premise is that you have a deck, and play cards one at a time into one of 5 lanes. Win condition is taking out 3 of the 5 of the opponent's castles.

The controls are dead simple - arrow keys and WASD, that is all, for the two players. Your gold builds up over time, and you spend that gold to deploy your card. Gold caps at 10.



(Imagine my shock and horror when Daniel told me how Mojang's Scrolls worked. TOO similarly. I thought I'd ignore all info on that and just carry on with my prototype.)

Stuff I still want to do:
> Abilities like Flying, Explosive, Buildngs, Regenerate, faster income, Running, etc.
> Basic AI
> Progression through different mechanics, unlocking more abilities
> BALANCE

The idea is that the game can work - even multiplayer - on a tablet device. I love multiplayer face-to-face. Adds so much to the interaction. But also love a single-player experience that lets you explore and learn mechanics.

Questions:
1. What do you think of the mechanic, is it worth persuing...
2. ...especially considering it's very close to Mojang's game... (poo)
3. What would you like to see from a game like this?
4. Is it simple enough... Or too simple?
5. Any thoughts on the balancing?

Thanks for having a look! Promise I'll make it work better :)

Denzil

Cool. I'll give you feedback some time tomorrow :)

Denzil

So currently the units just move through each other, right? I see you said you must still make them damage each other and bounce off. Until then there isn't too much to play test.

I know about mojang's game, scrolls right? I don't know what it's like though, but assuming yours a simpler version, and this comp is about bringing out a certain mechanic in a game, I think this is fine and you are on the right track.

And I think those features you mentioned are what I'd look for in a game like this. For the comp, nothing more, nothing less. And if you plan on turning this into something bigger, well I don't know yet :P I'd have to give it more thought.

Keep it up and finish those features so I can play, damnit :P

Tuism

Thanks for the feedback Denzil :) yeah the game is pretty much not a game yet, I had set the deadline of last night for myself and do I put it out despite lack of those things :p will try and fix it tonight, trims/skill/luck permitting :)

Tuism

hi guys - I've managed to update with damage but a few things are still buggy... I'll work them out as I can (my ds_lists aren't picking up the simplest this list = that list assignments... wtf). Edited OP too, so do check out what's new there.

Please have a play (grab a friend for player 2 action), and let me know what you think!

Link to windows zip file

Questions:
1. What do you think of the mechanic, is it worth persuing...
2. ...especially considering it's very close to Mojang's game... (poo)
3. What would you like to see from a game like this?
4. Is it simple enough... Or too simple?
5. Any thoughts on the balancing?

Thanks for checking it out! :D

dislekcia

@Tuism: Wait, are you trying to copy a ds_list by using = on the list identifiers? Remember, those are actually just numbers that the list functions use to figure out which list in their own system they should be doing stuff to, so setting one listID to anotherListID just means that you have two identifiers that actually point to the same list. Use ds_list_copy() instead ;)

Tuism

OMG THANKS i think that's exactly what I'm doing wrong, thanks so effing much YAYYAYAYAY I'll do that tonight YAYAYAY

dislekcia

No worries, pointer logic can be tricky to get your head around the first time you run into it. Are you saying I explained that well enough? Sweet :D

Fengol

I love the mechanic and I think there's an opportunity to have cards that move faster or slower along the track. I'd also like to have cards that are spells like "freeze enemy progress in this track" or "deal direct damage to first enemy in track".

Something I'd really suggest is a reserve card feature. Sometimes I'd like not to play the current card and put it in reserve to rather play the next. You should have a button that swaps the current card with the card in reserve and if there's no card in reserve, puts the current card in reserve and plays the next card.

Can't wait to see cards with special abilities. Don't forget to have 0/X "wall" cards like the iOS game, Kard Combat

Tuism

@aodendaal yep that's exactly what I wanna start playing with, guys that move faster, that fly (go over others), buildings which are static, and then later the deal direct damage or other kinds of interesting effects like refunding cards, cards that generate tokens, affect money production, etc.

The reserve thing I really toyed with in my mind - I actually thought of exactly that, then thought I wanted to make each card you drew pretty important - you could at any time discard through your entire deck to search for a card, but you gotta be precise as well as quick... But the more I'm toying with it the more I do feel that showing a swappable 2nd card will make it easier to play...

Shall see!! Thanks :D

Nandrew

I'd go with some of @aodendaal 's suggestions, they're all great ways to expand the system (though I don't know what the O/X wall cards ref means) :)

(The game window is also a teensy bit tall to fit on my screen, are you running at doublesize?)

Oh, also, I'm wondering if there's a certain minimum draft time for milling through your deck in search of an appropriate card? That may disincentivise simply churning until you get the perfect one? :) (dunno if there's a penalty right now that I just don't seem to notice)

Tuism

I'm going to put out an update on this soon, adding some walls and faster cards and stuff, it's just kinda messy at the moment...

The game window is running at iPad resolution... Which is 1024 tall... Same problem as my previous prototype :P I think I'll just resize it down for now, so that it'll sit happily on most people's computers. Good point, that.

You may mill quickly through your deck at any time to find your fav card, but I think that's an interesting time tradeoff - time is a the basic unit of resource in this game - so if you take too long you'll lose out. If you go too fast you'll easily miss stuff you need. I think though I'll put in some delay for discarding for a new card so you can't run through 30 cards in 1 second.

Right now the max copy per card is 3, deck minimum is 30, not that counts much now without deckbuilding :P

The 0/X wall reference are cheaper cards that are purely defensive but don't kill things. They'll have to be way overpowered in toughness as the attacks are infinite... I've given some walls a 1 power too.

I'm trying to build the swap reserve thing though it's a bit of headachey :P

Tuism

Oh my goodness it got too complicated and I need to sleep @_@ Mayhaps I'll tidy this up another time, but for now... It's hammer time (I'm hammering my bed)