Hi all! I wanted to share some early details about a project I'm working on called Meteorfall. It's a roguelike deck builder. You start by choosing a character, each of which has a basic deck. As you battle monsters and visit various locales, you'll end up finding new cards to add to your deck. As with all deck builders, the key is to build an efficient deck - it's not about loading your deck with powerful cards, it's about picking cards that synergize with each other. My inspirations include games like Dream Quest (probably the biggest design influence on the game) as well as fun solitaire card games like Card Crawl / Card Thief. I don't have a specific release date (should be in Q4 2017 though). The game will be premium with no IAP. I have a developer blog where I posted some details about how the combat works: https://meteorfallblog.wordpress.com/ I also post updates on Twitter https://twitter.com/slothwerks Let me know if I can help answer any questions!
As much as I have loved Monster Slayers (also inspired by Dream Quest), which I now see you mentioned on Twitter a while ago, consider me excited. Like the "adventure time" styled art. I hope you can make it playable in landscape for tablets.
This looks right up my alley. I'm all in! Need beta tester? This is an insta buy for me. Love card games!
@Luci0 - Yep, I'll definitely need some testers, though not quite at that stage yet. Got a few months of development left to go. I'll contact you once I have a build ready!
Glad you like the art! I'm working with Evgeny Viitman (Behance Profile) and I found his work by accident while browsing Behance. His "Thieves Tower" portfolio was what really sold me on his work.
It is interesting art. Reminds me a little of Miracle Merchant, quirky but with great detail. Are there any videos showcasing gameplay?
@baconnow - Not yet, but soon I hope! Evgeny (the artist) is going over the current implementation and giving me some feedback on it. Once that's done, I'll clean it up and share some videos. @jackiemac - Definitely will need some testers when it's done, I'll be sure to post here!
I addd a new blog post about how spells work in Meteorfall, and the different design iterations I tried before finally settling on the current system. An interesting look at how hard it can be to 'get it right' for game systems on the first try, and why iterating on your design is important. https://meteorfallblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/magic-in-meteorfall/
I think an interesting potential side effect of the charge system you settled on is that burning the charges of a given card early and winding up with a card with no charges cluttering up your hand at a critical moment could be a big deal. Maybe a spell defaults to a basic attack in that instance? Either way, it's an interesting mechanic, and as you said, simple to understand.
Yep, that's the idea! It creates an interesting tension when using spells. I REALLY like the idea of spells that do something when used with 0 charges - will definitely keep that in mind. I wanted to create some 'battle mage' type cards that players could build their deck around, and having a spell that does something different when fully depleted could be a good fit for that kind of deck.
You could even have spells that are more powerful than one might expect, but have a negative affect if drawn without charge (like an exhaustion mechanic, or the like). A spell that summons demonic power (if such a thing exists) could leave you tainted by it, etc. you get the idea. If spells have different numbers of charges, that also could play into choosing what to add to your deck. Do I take this really powerful spell with the single charge or this more modest one with several. And THAT choice could depend on overall deck setup. You probably wouldn't want that powerful spell in a lean-running deck, but it might be useful in a bigger one. At any rate, in my limited experience with design, a good idea leads to other. From that standpoint, I'd say you've made a great choice. Looking forward to hearing more as things progress!
I'll definitely be going back through this thread and reaching out to people that expressed interest in helping to test. Shared this on Twitter yesterday, but one of the new designs for the 'Cultist' enemy - definitely one of my favorite so far!
