Development update #5: Second Wind

I'm sure this sounds familiar by now, but - More delays!

Internal testing of the recent version has revealed new flaws - what I tried to fix with Progression 2.0 were merely symptoms of even greater problems.

Unlike what I did with Progression 2.0, I am taking a different approach now.

Instead of trying to fix things with "bandaid" changes, I'm effectively remaking the game from scratch - the only difference is that I have a lot of assets and mechanics to work with.

The changes so far:

• 20 cards reworked, creating more synergy between cards. - 20 battles added with adjusted AI, design, and stats. - Reworked area 1. - The areas are now semi-linear instead of fully open. - Changed card locations. More interesting cards in the early game. - Moved Queen battle event close to starting of the game. - Enemy AI is now simpler and less random. - Attack ritual now deals less damage to wraiths. - Attack ritual now requires no summons on the avatar side to deal 3 damage. - Hand size increased from 6 to 8. - Crafting costs rebalanced. - Player started health reduced from 10 to 5. - Cards now deal at least 1 damage or have an equivalent effect. - Removed card effects that completely negate damage. - Removed card effects that continuously generate health and strength. - Wraiths now deal less damage and have more health.

More about these changes:

Synergy

I am now designing cards in bulk for purpose of creating certain decks.

For example, Ancient Wall, Drought Hive, and Cursed Land are a part of the "Porcupine" deck - which forces enemy wraiths to unfavorably attack Drought Hive, which now deals substantial retaliation damage.

Ancient Wall reduces enemy attack damage allowing Hive to survive longer and Cursed Land forces enemies to attack twice a turn.

The goal is not to force players into creating the "Porcupine" deck (and others) - but rather to be a sort of design "scaffolding" which helps me think about how cards interact with each other.

This so far has been rather successful according to the testers - there is more synergy between cards now.

Pressure

One problem that I was trying to solve is what I call a lack of "pressure". In previous versions, there were many cards or situations where the battles would halt. I have come up with new design guidelines to solve this.

For example, an old version of Ancient Wall would reduce the enemy wraith strength to a 0, and the enemy - unless it had damage wishes - would become unable to deal damage and threaten the player.

A new version of Ancient Wall sets the attack damage of the enemy wraiths to 1. So while it is more defensively powerful, it does not prevent the damage entirely, meaning the player always feels pressure to continue destroying the enemy's cards.

1 damage is sacred: It's a guideline I follow now. It means every card should deal at least 1 damage or have an equivalent effect.

This is why Determination - the community's favorite dandelion card - no longer gives 1 health to itself every turn.

This effect had the ability to negate 1 damage, so it had to go.

But I also trimmed the game from another direction as well. While everything deals 1 damage now, it does not go much further than that.

Right now I consider "3 damage" as a lot of damage, that's another guideline. In old versions, I was throwing huge attack numbers around, 5-6 damage effects were not uncommon.

I believe this led to a lot of one-hit-kills which made the game feel unfair and hectic.

I've also reduced the player's started health to 5 instead of 10.

Because of the Deconjure ritual - despite being weakened to be less oppressive - the player always has an aggressive advantage against the enemy.

With the player having 10 health, enemies needed about 20 health to match the player's aggression. And high enemy health was a common complaint throughout the entire history of Magic of Spring - and even Magic of Autumn.

Now enemies can survive with just 10 health, and the player has to always guard the very limited health pool.

No more open world?

Magic of Autumn, a prequel, a prototype to Magic of Spring was not as open.

I did experiment with alternative routes in Magic of Autumn, so going open world seemed like a natural evolution.

With how difficult it is to balance the battles, perhaps this type of game is simply incompatible with the open-world design.

So I am changing the design of the levels to a more linear type.

The areas now will be a linear chain of connected "rooms" - there is freedom within these "rooms" and even a choice of how to progress further into the chain from room to room, but yeah, it's a lot more linear.

I am already enjoying being able to say "Hmm, well the player would not have access to this card here, so it's safe to " - I hope this will reflect in a more confident battle design and a better experience overall.

The future

All of the above are the changes implemented and quite thoroughly playtested. But the work is not over.

Crafting via rune forges, introduced with Progression 2.0 still needs work. I'm thinking about creating a number of Talisman cards craftable via rune forges.

For example:

Life Amulet Once per turn, if you have played more than 2 cards: - Gives 1 health to your avatar

Obsidian Tiara Once per turn: - Reduces the cost of the next sigil played by 1

Necromancy Manuscript While your avatar has 3 or less health: - Increases the damage of the Deconjure ritual by 1

Or perhaps a card upgrade system?

Determination 1 health 1 strength

V

Unwavering Determination 2 health 2 strength

Both options seem pretty difficult to implement, so I'm hesitant to choose for now.

I also want to take another look at the rituals to increase the pace of the game and allow playing more cards per turn.

I am thinking about the possibility of drawing 1 card and generating one 1 warmth for the player for free, automatically, at the start of every turn.

There are also plans for new assets and new cards, including a selection of rune-only cards that would help me build more interesting battles.

Second wind?

The demo of this new direction that I am calling "Second Wind" - due to its significance - will become available publicly within the next two months.

The new goal would be to finish the game within 5 months from now. Would love to do it faster - might reduce the amount of content to achieve this.

That's all the news for now, sorry for the long wait, and...

Until next time! ^_^