Playtest 3

Goal:

My goal for this playtest is to see how the player strategizes and utilizes the abilities of Major Arcana, and to see how they strategize and play around energy. I also would like to see if the changes I made to the UI and the new card details menu are utilized during gameplay. My brother is also a perfect example of my intended audience since he enjoys many similar games, so his general input will also be very valuable.

Instructions: 

Controls:

E: Toggle Examine Mode

ESC: Toggle Menu

Objective:
Defeat the boss before your deck health reaches zero. Deck health is lost when:

A card is killed (-1 deck health).

The boss damages an empty placement spot .

Card Stats:

Each card displays its health (left number) and attack (right number). Sometimes , certain abilities may affect a card's health or attack. Hovering over a card while in examine mode will display any applied effects.

Examine Mode:

Hovering over a card while in examine will display more detailed information about that card. Try it out!

Turn Phases:

1. Discard Phase

• Choose 1-3 cards from your hand to discard.

2. Draw Phase

• Pick up an active card from a placement spot or draw from your deck until you have 10 cards.

• You may need to press the draw button again to proceed.

• This is the only time you can return active cards to your hand and free placement slots, so plan carefully.

3. Placement Phase

• Place cards from your hand onto empty placement spots by selecting a card and clicking the desired spot.

• Continue placing cards until all spots are filled.

• Click the "End Turn" button when done.

4. Attack Phase

• Your active cards will act from left to right. Then the boss will attack.

5. Repeat

• After the boss attacks, the discard phase begins again.

Card Types & Energy:

Major Arcana:

• • Have unique abilities, hover over Major arcana in examine mode to read its' abilities description

  • Require energy to play, hover over a Major Arcana card to see its energy cost.

  • Do not generate energy

  • Are represented by the crown symbol, this symbol will be white when you lack the energy required to play the card and gold when you meet the energy requirements

Minor Arcana:

• Generate energy at the end of your turn based on their suit and pip value (e.g., Five of Wands = 5 Wand Energy, Ace of Cups = 1 Cup Energy).

Bug Reporting:

• Please feel free to comment on any bugs you come across.

• There is currently not any state implemented for losing the game. The game may either crash, become softlocked, or your health will just go into the negative. This is not really a bug, it just isn’t implemented yet. Please quit the game when this happens.

Playtest Report:

This playtest did not really go as smoothly as my previous two, but I would still say it was successful and gave me a lot of valuable insight. My tester also uncovered some bugs that I was able to fix before submitting my final build, so that of course was incredibly important. I was also able to answer all of my questions. A lot of my playtester's strategy revolved around the energy system, which was great to see since that is essentially the central mechanic. When choosing what cards to add to his deck, I also got to see my playtester analyze and come up with potential strategies for the cards' abilities. In particular, my playtester vocalized a potential strategy using The Empress card, where you could play low health cards to get them killed on purpose in order to proc The Empress's ability. This was great to see because that strategy is what I had in mind when implementing this ability, and it also showed that he was finding fun in thinking about potential strategies while building his deck. This kind of strategizing is exactly the fun factor that I am chasing, so it was great to see that someone who enjoys those types of games was enjoying the same aspect of mine.

The biggest surprise to me this playtest was of course the bugs that were present. I had not encountered these bugs before, which just goes to show how implementing/changing things can affect other processes in ways you don't anticipate, so you should alway re-test everything constantly. I also was surprised with how quickly my playtester understood the instructions just from reading them. I think my brother has a similar playstyle to me in the sense that we like to jump in and learn games as we go, so I was pleased that the instructions also worked for a person with this playstyle. The other thing that surprised me was that he didn't have too many critiques of the boss (besides the hail attack). A consistent critique I have gotten from other players is that there should be some indication for what the boss is going to do on its next turn, but he did not give this same feedback. This is still something that I plan on implementing, but it goes to show that different players focus on different aspects of a game.