Hey all, really excited to share that my new indie strategy solitaire card game is coming to iOS soon! Here are a few details. Missile Cards - In a nutshell is: "Missile Command meets Solitaire...but with more death, doomlasers, and explosions!" It's an intense turn-based strategy card game with a rocking chiptune soundtrack and retro pixel art. It looks like this: Arm your defenses and blast away flaming death orbs, nuclear warheads, and other hazards hurtling down from space before they annihilate your base. Loosely inspired by the Atari classic Missile Command, Missile Cards re-imagines the intense bombardment defense gameplay as a turn-based strategy card game. Unlock new bases, upgrade your arsenal, complete missions, and challenge your card skills against increasingly brutal decks in this highly replayable solo-card game. Here's a more in-depth trailer showing off the gameplay. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Features: Avoid annihilation through strategic card play and pressure cooker defense card deployment - every choice could be life or death! 5 challenging bases/decks full of unique hazards, defenses, special gameplay and challenging missions. Deploy missiles, lasers, cannons, shields, repair drones, orbital death rays, and much more! Unlock special cards to modify your deck and improve your chances of survival! Earn XP and upgrade your bases with special abilities and enhanced defenses! Fast to learn, highly replayable solo card game action! Solo card play: NO OTHER HUMAN BEINGS REQUIRED TO HAVE FUN! Delicious punishment: This game is hard. Yes, that's intentional. Missile Cards was developed with GameMaker: Studio. If you like games like Card crawl, Card Thief, and Solitairica (all excellent games, btw), you will definitely want to check out Missile Cards. The game is already out on Steam for PC and getting really positive reviews, but people keep asking for a mobile version, so I'm working hard to get all of that ready to go ASAP. It may be a month or so before things are ready, but I'll be sure to post an update when it's almost set. Stay tuned! Thanks! -Nathan Meunier Indie Dev / Freelance Writer / Author
Thanks a bunch PBSNellie! I loved Missile Command and the old-school Atari classics. Turning that intense vibe into a turn-based strategy game was...a super weird mash-up, but it turned out really neat! I'd love to find a way to make this a physical card-game too, (even weirder), but that's a bit complicated given the amount of info tracking that happens behind-the-scenes. Baby steps, I guess. Cheers!
Oh wow, thanks so much! I'm working on quite a few weird/unusual card game projects/prototypes, and I've been hopeful that folks will dig them on iOS. Other platforms seems less suited to these types of games(*cough* Steam *cough*), so it's encouraging to hear this stuff! If Missile Cards does well at launch, I've got plans to do many more different card game projects on mobile. Fingers crossed! The most common bit of feedback I've heard so far from folks is "when can I play this on mobile" So that's been a big motivator to bring MC to iOS. I'm a huge mobile gamer/iOS card game player, and I love all the quirky iOS card games out there and desperately want more, which has spurred me to make a few. Cheers and thanks for the enthusiasm!
Aside from my own project, I wanted to take a sec to share/plugs for a few other mobile card games I've really enjoyed or have influenced my work a bit! In no particular order, here are a few other card games I've played on iOS and really enjoyed the heck out of: Card Thief and Card Crawl - Seriously. Arnold is a good dude, and I've really enjoyed what he's been doing with Tinytouchtales. These are two of my current faves on mobile, but I'm also dying to play Miracle Merchant, which is another card-based mobile game he's working on. I'm sure if you're reading this and into card games on iOS, you've probably already played at least one of those. What else? [Note: I'm not affiliated with any of these other games, just sharing what I've enjoyed]. Solitairica - Is in a similar vein to Card Crawl. Well worth checking out. Lost Cities - Really unique. I've played a ton of that one and I dig how it's so different. Onirim- I've only recently tried this one, but it seems pretty interesting! Looking forward to playing more of it. Cat Stacks Fever - Short and sweet, but I love cats, and cards+cats is a great combo. Sort of a speed solitaire spin on things. Splendor - I enjoyed it last time I played (a while ago) though I saw it hasn't been getting as good reviews since the last update? I had fun playing solo vs computer, if that makes a diff. I've played as many of the cool/weird/neato iOs card games I could find, but if anyone has any good recommendations, I'd love to hear them in case there's anything I missed! Peace! -Nathan
The list above is excellent - solitairica and Card Crawl are the cream of the crop along with Games like Sage Solitaire and Pair Solitaire. By there is still so much potential for card game variants on iOS. I will play any card game you can think of creating # I also can't wait to play Miracle Merchant. There was a game called Super Drop Jam (you can still see it in its TA thread). Sadly it's gone and it didn't carry over to my new phone. If you're making card games.....# Anyway, Missile Cards looks very promising! Is there any chance you'd consider supporting a portrait option on iPhone? Just curious. I know the P vs L orientation debate is endless amongst gamers....
AaaaaAA Miracle Merchant - I NEED It. haha! There are a lot of other cool games I didn't list, but man, iOS really is great for card games. I'm also a fan of the more classic and weird variations of Solitaire. And strategy games in general, too. You know, RE: portrait mode, I ORIGINALLY started designing the prototype of MC with a more minimalistic portrait mode orientation, but in opting to test out a Steam launch first, ended up changing it to the 16:9 landscape (which unlocked a lot of cool ideas and ultimately made the game a lot better visually). I'd love to be able to do a portrait version for this, but all the systems are very heavily tied to the landscape orientation. so I'm pretty stuck with it. However! A few of the other card game prototypes I'm working on (which are WAY, way diff and range the full gamut from horror/rpg card games to more cutesier strategy fare) are in portrait mode, which I agree seems ideal when possible. I mostly play on my old clunky iPad 2 (I know, right?) so landscape works for me, but I see the value in one-handed play / portrait mode and hope to make more of my other upcoming games in that orientation. It's really sort of a case-by-case basis for the most part. I'm definitely excited to ramp up on other upcoming card projects, once Missile Cards is out on mobile. Again, if it does well enough, I have a lot of ideas I want to explore in that space. Cheers! -Nathan
Awesome, thanks so much! I knew MC would be a great fit for mobile, but I'm really heartened by the enthusiasm so far. Doubling down this month on getting it prepped!
Well, always been a fan of Missile Command, and the fact that these graphics and layout also give me a 'Calculords' vibe, I'm sure to check this one out - nicely done!
Oh man, Calculords is super neat! I haven't played it a ton, but I did give it a go and had a lot of fun with it.
Add lost portal to the great single player card game list right along with dream quest. Have you played any of those ?
Glad to hear it's coming to iOS, I'm much more likely to be able to play it here than on my PC... Reminds me of the old card game Nuclear War. And while people are talking about solitaire iOS card games, I've been on the beta test for Pharoah, which is a fun solitaire deckbuilder.
Nuclear War looks SIIIIICK! I don't typically play a lot of tabletop card games often (though I love them), but I definitely like to scope them out and get ideas. That one super matches the vibe of Missile Cards. I haven't heard or seen anything about Pharoah yet, but I imagine that sounds right up my alley, too! There's another one that comes to mind...hmmmm. I think it's Decronomicon? I couldn't quite get into it as much, but it does have some really neat ideas in there. Man, now I have to hurry up and finish the iOS version of Missile Cards, so I can carve out more free time for mobile card gaming!
"And while people are talking about solitaire iOS card games, I've been on the beta test for Pharoah, which is a fun solitaire deckbuilder." Me too. It's an awesome game! I can't wait to see the final product. Haven't been past a chamber though # Missle Cards is going to do well, I know it. I'm glad we could provide extra encouragement!
Assuming it still runs on modern machines, Solitaire Kingdom Supreme HD by funkitron, was always a favorite of mine. They take Klondike but go crazy with it via all sorts of clever helper power-ups and hinderances. https://appsto.re/us/VZxOB.i
Brief update: Managed to get all of the core iOs porting prepwork done and successfully export a test build to my Mac. I have a bit of tinkering to do, but I'm hoping that I should be ready for a bit of iOS version beta testing within the next couple weeks! I'll be looking for folks with a range of different devices to help kick the tires for both an iPad and iPhone build, so I'll update again when I'm ready for that. Stoked! Also, fingers crossed! This process is a bit harrowing on the tech-side. Heh. So far so good, though.
