Road to demo release

[jack1974]

I'll update this thread so the few super loyal fans who preordered the game knows how is going.

I've just assembled the VN+card part, and I'm starting to test the game playing as a "normal player". The first thing I'll do is add tutorials, since there are many things to learn. People who have played card games in the past will feel at home, but I must account also for newcomers to this genre

[jack1974]

Added a button on top-left "Goals" that once clicked will show a window with a summary of the current mission's goals. I'm unsure if "goals" is OK, since shows both victory/defeat conditions. But I hope it works since is a small word and can fit perfectly the small space on top-left near the portraits

Currently the main issue is implementing the default victory condition for both player/CPU, which is: there are no more enemies. Seems simple but is more complex than it seems, need to take into account for each player no cards in play, no cards in hand & deck.

[Troyen]

Do heroes have health points you attack in Hearthstone or are you actually burning through every card in both decks? The latter might be cool for a mission or two, but I'm concerned if you're playing every card the battles might get a bit long?

(Well, I know the victory conditions vary, but specifically the "destroy all enemies" one.)

[jack1974]

In almost all missions your hero has HP, for the enemies in some missions yes, in others not. But it's not like we have 30 cards in each mission (in particular for the enemies): so even if you have to defeat all enemies, the battle won't last one hour
I'm planning to make the game longer by adding side missions, since I prefer too variety. That said there will be one or two very big/long battles to simulate a siege or big fight

Also there are the difficulty levels. Since I assume Easy will be for casual players, those battles will (obviously) last less. And you probably won't need to upgrade your cards to win the main plot battles, so you can just go straight and play all the main scenes/romances. For those who like to "grind", I'll have that too.
I'm trying to find a way to make the game fun for every tastes, even if of course that won't be easy.

[Troyen]

Yeah, an occasional long siege fight is okay. I was wondering what the average fight length you're tuning towards for each of the difficulties. Are you expecting ~5 minute fights, ~10 minutes, 20, 30, etc? It depends a bit on the speed of the player too, but assuming it doesn't take them too long to pick their card.

[jack1974]

I think the average is 5 minutes, though I never measured myself playing. Of course, I go at maximum speed since I know everything (I even made the missions myself). I guess in the beginning will take more since you need to learn what each card does, the basic mechanics, etc.
Differently from other multiplayer CCG games, the computer moves instantly. So you never wait long, and that's something to consider (for example in Hearthstone there are some SLOOW players and out of a 10 minute match, you can easily spend half of it waiting for opponent's moves).

I honestly believe so far the length of matches is perfect, not too short, but not too long, so you can keep reading the story. Like Loren, a player more interested in the story can set difficulty to Easy and play the base 30 story missions very fast and read the dialogues, while those who like the gameplay part can set difficulty to Hard and they'll NEED to play many side missions to "grind" to continue the campaign

[jack1974]

Following this discussion: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3729
I am thinking to do this: finish the first 5 missions, and do the public demo to gather feedback. Change it from fixed decks, to deck builder. I might still offer the possibility to use predefined decks for casual players who don't want to build their own decks though.
The deck builder will still be limited with cards of the chosen hero + accompanying hero (in the first missions you don't decide who comes with you) and of course won't feature the rare cards, only the basic stuff. But still should let you have more freedom, and would help me see how the resource system works and gather some early feedback.
Since is better to know it early, rather than after coding 10 missions or more

[pahldus]

Considering this is a new combat format for you, Jack. I think that sounds like a very solid idea. Feedback at this point in the process should help avoid some of those post release issues that plague games nowadays.

[jack1974]

Yes and considering how advanced this game is, it's worth spending a bit of time on this. Once I get the base gameplay right, I can finish the game relatively quickly I think, since I have only some text left to script (but the person doing it is very quick), but everything else is ready
Today I was delayed a bit because found a new bug on Ren'Py layout, and tomorrow will be out almost all day, but by this weekend I think could have this new early demo out.

[jack1974]

I fixed a bit the deck builder, clearly not the final version but since I decided to release the demo earlier to get more feedback, I hadn't time to wait for artists' final GUI
Now I coded it so that before each battle you can play with the default deck, or start the deck builder, since will be useful to test different combinations.
Asked a few more things to Anima, and tomorrow will be away most of day, but I think Thursday or Friday I could release this early demo