Dev Log #3: Card Genes, Trait Tokens, and a Stat System Rework!

12/24/25

"Yeah, the kitchen is on fire, but we're gonna have to tell him he's a hotdog now."

It has been a brutal few months. Without going into too much detail, I (Pajama Kid) have been going through graduate school this fall semester, so I had to really blaze through the updates I wanted to do during the semester. Tangelo Jack (T.J.) fell into a chasm and is (currently) navigating the trenches of unemployment. However, as soon as the semester ended, we got to work and started the groundwork for some brand new systems! Let's start with the reworked stat system.

The Trait Token System

A particular class I took this semester as part of my graduate degree opened my eyes to the wonders of numbers and the things they represent. And as I gazed upon those integers and their boundless meanings, I realized I really don't like looking at large, long lists of numbers

I mean, sometimes I do. Just not all the time. Plus, balancing the list of stats started to become tedious, especially when making items and other objects that interact with the player's stats. We thought about implementing a token system in the past, but couldn't really think of a good way to do this while also keeping the insect theme intact. Thankfully, the other class I was taking this semester provided me plenty of inspiration to draw from! So we abandoned the old stat system in favor of a new, token based system.

Here are the individual tokens and the stats they give:

Strength Tokens: +2 Strength and +0.15 Attack Speed

Swift Tokens: +0.25 Attack Speed, +1% Crit Chance, +5% Crit Damage

Tank Tokens: +25 Max HP,
+5 Armor

These tokens represent the main traits of different insects. Each one you get empowers the player by the amounts shown above, but there's much more to them.

The rate at which you gain these tokens scales with your level AND the amount of tokens you have. Higher levels means you gain tokens quicker, but if you stockpile tokens, you'll gain these tokens slower. This means that, the more tokens you spend, the more tokens you'll gain overall.

Also, enemies now scale with the player level. This is to make sure that the enemies currently in the game don't lose their danger. That being said, we're definitely making more enemies with different types and abilities later, this is just to gauge how well enemies scale with player token gain/loss.

So, with that out of the way... how exactly do you spend tokens???

The Card Gene System

At the end of each map (and after every minute in endless mode), you'll have the option to either go to the card shop, or the item shop. The card shop is where all the card interactions currently exist. Inside the card shop, you can buy new cards (only 3 at the moment), combine minor cards, and level up your major cards.

Major cards
These cards will eventually define your run. Every character is planned to have at least one major card in line with the theme of that character. However, there will also (eventually) be more major cards that you can add to your character as you please. They will end up costing quite a few tokens, but will have major impacts on your run. Right now, the only major card is "The Generalist."

Level 1: Does nothing.

Level 2: +2 for every token gain, +1 to every token loss

Level 3: ALL tokens give +50% their current stat bonus.

Minor Cards
These cards are less impactful, but they are the main way to spend tokens. They have three tiers: Bronze, Gold, and Diamond. All cards at a bronze level are exactly equal to their stat token bonus. Or at least, they will be. Gold cards will give just slightly more, and Diamond cards will provide minor buffs. Bronze cards can only be purchased from the store, but Gold and Diamond cards can be both bought and crafted. For most cards, simply combining duplicates of the bronze version will create gold cards. The same process is used to make diamond cards. In the future, we plan to have unique cards that can only be made via combinations.

Why did we choose this system?

There's a lot of reasons why. To start, I began viewing a lot of insect evolutions as tradeoffs. A majority of insects that I stared at this semester seemed to either specialize in certain ways, or traded generally "good" traits, in favor of other stuff that provided better survivorship. Now, insects don't do this on purpose. But... what if they did? What if they did accumulate their traits (tokens) and then traded them in for awesome adaptations (cards) that defined them? That's the... "scientific" reason at least. The actual reason is that, we originally intended to base these cards on the major and minor arcana (tarot cards). I just liked the idea of tarot themed insect cards, but we're not sure if that's still the direction we want to go, thematically. I still love the card idea though. It (I think) adds an intuitive and interactive way for the player to level up their character, while also being unique from the traditional stat system. Also, this system lets us create thematic packs of cards and items.

Themed Packs and Items

At the moment, we don't have much planned in this aspect. However, the released version of this game will have:

All planned and future characters will have 32-related items and 18-related cards. Of these, 16 items and 9 cards will be considered "core", while the remaining will be considered "additional." Why are we doing this? To mix and match item and card pools of course. Eventually, you'll get the ability to choose your main card pool + your additional card pool. You can also opt to just use your character's core + additional pools, but mixing these pools could lead to some fun interactions. Also, this system allows us to create themed items. Items will not just be generically tossed into an abyss of items that you may or may not use. I've played quite a few games with "an extensive item system." In these systems, I usually end up using maybe... 10, or 20 items out of a pool of over 200. I feel like my experience isn't unique. So instead of flooding your brain with 90% useless items, we're giving you the ability to choose the items that you think may accent your character well. This (hopefully) makes item and card choices more meaningful, while also allowing enough variety to make every run feel unique!

Man that was a lot... but there's so much more!... Soon.

With every new idea, I add one more stack to T.J's suffocating list of art assets. So, here are the current ideas we're planning to implement next:

Reworked Items: Items and Cards are currently treading common territory. We want items to strictly provide unique effects, such as chain lightning, increases projectiles, piercing projectiles, etc. This means that items will be primarily used as multiplicative stat bonuses, whereas cards will provide flat stat bonuses.
Reworked Enemies: The enemies in the game need a huge makeover. They're more-or-less placeholders for future enemies that we plan to include. These enemies will have abilities related to the invasive plant species infesting the insect and will be affected by mutations created by "critical points." We also have a looong list of enemies we want to implement.

Critical Points: Name is subject to change, but we felt like the theme of the game was starting to slip away. Cards, tokens, reworked items are all fun, but this is a game based on the theme of invasive species control. Specifically, biocontrol. To achieve that same theme again, we took another look at the way the game is currently played and felt that the current gameplay loop does not lend to this theme very well. To fix this, we're going to be generating maps that contain a set amount of "critical points." These critical points will eventually be the major source of currency for players and will be the only way of advancing through maps in non-endless mode. We'll have the invasives spawn from these points, but the points themselves will also mutate all enemies spawned within their range. These mutations will range from splitting into smaller enemies upon death, a new charge attack, support aura buffs for invasives and debuffs for the player, traps, the list goes on! I'm super excited for this feature specifically, since it is a huge core mechanic for the game (hopefully the last core mechanic). Look forward to this in the future!

Hubworld, map generation, arena-to-arena travel, meta progression, and so much more: There's a lot to unpack here. Without giving away too much we plan to have eco-corridors as hubworlds where you can upgrade and buy things. We also plan to have a map generation feature that lets you pick bounties at the beginning of each run which will reward you with unique boons as soon as they are fulfilled. The maps themselves will show the arenas within a region, and potential dangers in the next arena (think Slay the Spire style maps). We also plan to include cards you can add as starter cards, increased starting trait tokens, unique perks and so, so much more.

We have so much more planned and we're so excited to share this journey with everyone. Thanks to everyone who has been following along thus far: every shred of appreciation motivates use to keep going.

Here's to the holidays and the new year!

-Pajama Kid

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