PSCD Progress Report

[Miakoda]

This is just a general progress report of where things are.

1. Card engine is done, and the cards are finished. Of course, things will need to be tweaked/tested.
2. I'm working on the base game epilogues now. I should be able to finish it and the Codex before the end of the month (or close to it).
3. As announced, all the NPCs in the romance DLC can be romanced by Alex and Diana.
4. A collaborator is doing some scripting.
5. Approval given on 5 of the 8 romance outlines for the romance DLC.
6. Artist has started planning romance CGs as well.
7. Except for the theme song, it looks like the music is done.

Not that this is a promise but we may be looking at a Dec 2015 testing, or early 2016 (this comes from the blog post).

All in all, I think things are looking pretty good

[jack1974]

Ah lol one small thing I forgot when you emailed me about this list
The card engine is not 100% done, indeed the computer AI is a bit dumb right now, so Anima will code some better AI in the next months. Also we need to finish some GUI targeting stuff. But it shouldn't be much work

[Miakoda]

Ah lol one small thing I forgot when you emailed me about this list
The card engine is not 100% done, indeed the computer AI is a bit dumb right now, so Anima will code some better AI in the next months. Also we need to finish some GUI targeting stuff. But it shouldn't be much work

That's okay I figured there might be a thing or two I was missing, but for those who were interested in the game, we really are on the last parts :D

[jack1974]

So I've coded the first two missions! Haha even with "dumb AI", they're already VERY fun. Well at least to me, as veteran Hearthstone player
There are just a few things to fix, like adding a limit to the CPU otherwise they could summon powerful enemies as soon as they are drawn (there's no resource limit for the CPU) and so on. But for the tutorial missions (the first 10 of the game) they could be done even without any AI

[Troyen]

Are you sure it's a good idea to have the computer violate all the rules? Not having a consistent rule structure makes the game harder to understand and was one of the most annoying things about playing SotW.

[jack1974]

Well the only rule it really violates is that it doesn't have "resources" like the player. But I still will do some sort of limitation.
Then of course if I want to simulate a horde of aliens, it can't be possible that the human empire has same strength. Otherwise there would be zero sense of danger
In some stages the draw order is fixed, so players will also be able to think about a strategy, while in others will be randomized more.
I knew before starting that this kind of game would be hard, since if I make a traditional game there's the risk that if the player draws a lucky hand, could win easily/quickly. There's nothing worse than the player having a lucky streak and finish 10 missions in a hour, then complain that the game is too short
It's a completely different world vs RPGs, and so I'm learning myself as I design it how to make it fun/challenging but at same time last enough time. I am thinking to add also some extra smaller mission to "level up" somehow.
Hopefully I'll be able to make something fun out of this even if many of my fans will probably be satisfied by the crazy amount of romances alone, I want to try making it fun also for the players who like card games.

[OhHaiMe]

..even if many of my fans will probably be satisfied by the crazy amount of romances alone..

Speaking of all those romances,I've been wondering if this game will have a VN mode were you can just read through the story without any battles.

[jack1974]

Well yes in this case would be very simple to do it, since differently from SOTW the battles can be skipped completely without changes on the "gameflow" so I can definitely add a "VN mode" for those who only want to read the story.

[Ryocchi]

I think it would be best to add the novel mode after you beat the game once, or add a code to make this game mode visible, I don't know.

[OhHaiMe]

I think it would be best to add the novel mode after you beat the game once...

That idea went through my mind as well. While the gamer in me says it should be locked, I think it would serve the game far better by being open from the start so it could draw in more people who prefer a more pure VN experience.