Pharaoh - Solitaire Deckbuilder (Need Beta Testers)

Just an update!

Over the holidays, our artist delivered a new batch of artwork. Here's a sample!

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On the left is the incredibly useful Embalmer card. This card is a double-edged sword - it makes powerful cards that you can use in the Afterlife, but at the cost of removing your capability in the living world! Sometimes, it can be a tough decision whether to use the Embalmer or not! On the right is an example card that the Embalmer makes - a Guard Mummy, which helps fight off the nightmarish creatures that would feed on your soul in the Afterlife.

We're getting pretty close to having artwork for all the cards done. Once we have that, we should be able to do another round of testing while we work on finishing up the UI graphics (mainly things like the game over screens, the victory screens, submenus, etc.).

Thanks for your patience as we build this game. We're not full-time developers - we're parents with day jobs over in here - so it's taking a while for us to get this thing done. But we're really happy with how it's turning out, we're slowly but surely working through all the art assets, and we hope to deliver sometime this year, hopefully sometime in the Spring!

 

Here's an update on development.

My wife recently got an iPhone X, and so I've been able to do some testing on it. Since the screen layout code was written back in 2016 (good gravy, have I been working on this game that long?!?), it predated the "safe area" structure that Apple introduced in order to help developers avoid the "notch" at the top of the screen and the space reserved for the home functionality at the bottom of the screen.

Needless to say, this meant that there was some re-engineering of the display code to be done. Buttons and other important elements were showing up in less-than-ideal places, and we had a few visual glitches that needed to be addressed. But as of tonight, I think I have the iPhone X layout code working well now. Still have some testing to do, of course, but results are promising.

Our fantastic artist has delivered some more art samples. While I haven't had a chance to get them into the game yet, they're looking good. We've got a majority of the cards done now, and more are on their way! As I mentioned earlier, once we get the art in, we're planning on doing another testing pass. Those of you waiting for slots, keep watching this thread!

 

Another progress report.

I've been hitting it hard the last couple of days, and I have a lot of new art in the game now. I have about 85% of the main deck cards in the game, and the game screens are now working on the iPhone X as mentioned above. I have some of the little touches in place now, like the pyramid building up in the background as you advance through your construction industry in the game.

Here are some screenshots of what the game looks like in action with the near-final artwork. First, here's a screenshot of the main gameplay. Here, the player has drawn a Coin card, two Reign cards, and the Quarry card. The player will be able to collect the Coin and spend it to earn one of the two Reign on offer. She could then tap the Quarry card and buy a new card to add to her deck by spending the Reign she bought.

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The background you see in that image is actually animated. The papyrus and palm trees sway in the breeze, and as you go through your deck, the sky animates from a bright morning, to a ruddy sunset, to a deep nighttime sky. The gods of the sun and the moon soar across the sky. This helps you track how far through your deck you are - if night is falling and you haven't made your Reign quota for the year, you'd better get cracking!

Below is an example of buying a new card to go into your deck. This is the primary way in which you advance and improve your deck throughout the game. Here, the Farmer card is being used to buy a new card - the player can choose between a Coin card, a Reign card, or another Farmer card. Sometimes, this can be a tough choice, because some cards only appear once in your deck, meaning you can only buy one of the three cards per pass through your deck!

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Once we finish up with the main deck cards, there's the Afterlife cards to make, and the art / animation for the different game end states. Once that's all in, the game will be feature complete, and if the beta tests go well, it will be time to release!

 

Thanks for your kind words about the game. Glad those of you who have enjoyed the beta testing are still sticking with us! We appreciate your patience as we work on finishing the game.

A new beta testing round will occur once we get all the new art into the game. We will announce it here in this thread, so if you're interested, subscribe for updates.

 

Progress report time!

We have reached a huge milestone in the art production for this game. I have received the base art for all the main cards from the artist! There are still a few things we need to do to get them into the game, but the design work on the main deck is now complete.

I'm really happy with how it's all turning out. Here are some more sample cards:



So what now? Well, work is now progressing on the Afterlife card deck, which is also looking awesome thanks to our amazing artist:



There are FAR fewer cards in this deck than in the main deck, and I expect it to go very quickly. Once that's done, there's just a few endgame / UI things to get finished up, and then all the new art will be complete, which will put us on the path to completion. Once we get a full art pass in the game, we'll do another round of beta testing in preparation for final release.

We've also been doing some extensive local testing, and from our anecdotal evidence, people are really digging this game. The tight gameplay loop combined with the long-form decision-making and goal-setting seems to really resonate with people, giving the game some real sticking power with several of our testers. Very heartening results.

Thanks again for everyone's patience as we work our way through this game. I hope you all find it worth the wait.