Progress Report

Greetings everyone!

This is a tricky time for me to give a detailed progress report considering that everything I do now depends on detailed knowledge of the card game. Despite all I could say about that game, it would have little value without screenshots. That's why I'm prioritizing getting the game screenshot ready ASAP, but I'm not quite there yet.

Before making screenshots that would do justice to the game, I need to ensure all the visible UI elements are ready. The biggest hurdle there used to be the cards, but they're more or less ready now (apart from their backs, but that's easily remedied). Now, the remaining challenge is to add buttons and counters where needed. Since I'm not a 2D artist, this is a little tricky. I've tried looking for existing 2D libraries that might work for this theme, but nothing fits that well. So, I'm once again turning to AI to see if it can lock down the theme better, and the early results are promising. They do require some work, though. 

Apart from that, I have played the game repeatedly, making big and small adjustments to the game balance. While my tests were fun (if buggy) from the first match, I found that many cards lacked punch and felt out of place in the matches, leading to them never being played the way they were intended. Additionally, the challenge cards that the AI plays against you felt so weak that I ignored their effects half the time. The answer was to tune up the strength of these cards, either by making numbers larger or adding additional effects. Some cards were redesigned entirely around their existing theme, simplifying them and making them more powerful, with more straightforward use cases.

The result is that matches are now nail-biting affairs that, despite still winning all the matches (the difficulty is a work in progress), I never feel confident until the last few seconds. Challenge cards feel downright scary, and the cards you play are powerful and unique. Everything is developing its own identity and place within the game design, and it's been really satisfying to experience it first-hand.

In fact, the balance is getting so good that I think I'm getting close to the point I need to be to release this thing. Well, at least as soon as I can get the UI and the other supporting game elements into place. But the balance and fun have always been the parts of this design that were the biggest unknowns, so seeing them come together like this takes a lot of stress off my shoulders. 

So, work continues on getting the prototype out the door. I really want to see what other players can do to this thing and how they can break it. I'm also curious to see what suggestions for new cards and concepts you might all come up with. 

But before that can happen, I need to wrap up a lot of small (and some big) things, so I'd better stop lollygagging.

Until next time!