by M Charles

'Ello, M. Charles here!

Note: I'm keeping the same numbering and part schema just for the sake of clarity.

We're into early prototyping, now. I define this as a more concrete version of pre-dev. It involves early playtesting by the dev himself (I'll term this dev-testing). Every project is different, of course. But this is how I'm going through things. The singular goal is to actually make a functional game, and cement the core mechanics, etc. Here is a roadmap:

Pre-dev: Everything that is pre-prototyping and pre-dev testing [COMPLETE].

Early prototyping: Dev-testing + polishing the art direction, layout, and story/theme, and cementing the core mechanics [STARTED].

Late prototyping: Detailed playtesting by the dev(s) -- or select playtesters, and/or family. Not yet functional or polished enough for the public.

Alpha playtesting: Small- or large-scale playtesting by alpha playtesters (involves taking lots of feedback as the dev). The fundamentals, and more, ought to be locked in by the end of alpha playtesting.

Beta playtesting: Large-scale (ideally) playtesting by playtesters (in-person and/or via print & play and feedback systems, and/or digital mock-ups). The game is almost complete (North of the Snow will be freely published after beta playtesting).

PART 19: THE DECK CONSTRUCTOR IS BACK (AND SO IS DECKBUILDING)...

You can feel the game tightening beneath your fingertips. That's when you know it's time to prototype -- when you cannot tighten it anymore; when the core ideas are setting; when you need to actually playtest the core subsystems. In reality, I've already been prototyping in my head, and figuring out the rough maths/averages. But you never know how something will actually feel or work, or break, until you physically play it many times. Dev-testing requires hours at the table. That's when you find out what actually makes it to early playtesting/late prototyping. Alas, there are many examples of games that went through long-term early access, or a massive alpha playtesting campaign, or major post-launch revisions. You can never playtest enough. You can never perfect your game. You can never account for every playtest and combination, and player confusion; you can never assume to know every player insight and strategy and feeling.

See the table down below.



As you can see, I've made a few changes. I'll go through these, bullet-point style.

(1) 4 Character options, not to be confused with classes. As with my original idea (just in a different direction), every character is a wizard/mage class to varying degrees. The Characters bias you towards certain classes and playstyles -- more so, early on. They have unique abilities, and start the run with different parameters (e.g. different Spellbook/Main Deck sizes). Over the course of the game, every Character can be practically the same, so you're not actually locked out of anything, or forced to play each or any given Character.

The Characters are fairly vague and miniature-agnostic, but are directly compatible with 4 Chess pieces from the Labyrinth set (note that we have returned to the Labyrinth art and tonal style a little) or the Slay the Spire miniatures. Otherwise, you can simply use pawns/tokens, since the Characters are colour-coded, and the miniatures are strictly cosmetic. Each Character will come with a card, telling you what it is, and the unique ability.

(2) I came to the same conclusion Slay the Spire devs did, it seems -- Campfires automatically exist just before the Boss encounter, as to ensure you can always be prepared.

(3) The Night Market is also fixed in place, next to the Boss deck. This way, you can always interact with the Night Market before each Boss encounter (before, it was random and possible to not encounter it -- and it took up a slot for the other cards, too).

(4) Speaking of being efficient and space-saving: I nested various things. You can choose to climb down the Stairs in a Dungeon for an extra encounter (4 Monsters). This way, it's not only a choice, but you're also getting 2 Dungeons for the price of 1, at least sometimes.

(5) Likewise, I removed Mining and GP/Gold/currency, and Quests and Levels. I first nested this within Fishing, and did a few things with Quests and Levels, too, but realised I didn't need any of it. I abstracted it and nested it further. It's very simple: when you sell to Night Market, you gain a reward directly -- player choice, too.

You don't require as much table space, now. And if you use a small Catch/Fish Bag or mini cards (deck), you'll save even more space. Likewise, you could use tiles and/or mini cards for the Wilderness/Dungeon aspect. What you see, however, is under 2 ft and 3.5 ft.

(6) And I did the same thing with HP/Buttons/Energy. Now, the system allows for more player choice and options within a singular framework. Your Spellbook/Main Deck is also your Energy/HP source. When you run out of cards, you become Exhausted and lose (i.e. die). But you gain cards over time, and/or can choose to prioritise more Energy, or directly gain Upgrade cards instead of using as many Spellbook cards.

(7) Feeding into the aforementioned: the Spirit's Eve card is a special Campfire card, where you can choose to gain ALL Junkyard/Discard Pile cards back into your Spellbook, or 3 Upgrade cards. This way, you can play more for Upgrades or for Energy. Again -- player choice. Everything should be as player-centric as possible, as nested as possible, as simple as possible, as deep as possible, as streamlined/fast to resolve as possible, and as multi-functional as possible. In reality, no game is perfect, and you cannot equally hit all of those targets. But that's the goal.

(8) Weapons and Armour are back, but not in the old form of attaching to HP cards. You simply use them as normal cards. The other two types of cards are Familiars and Spellcasts. The former are like Monsters and Creatures from various trading card games, and the latter is like Spell and Trap cards from various trading card games.

(9) The idea at the moment is this: a combo of deck construction and deckbuilding, across a few phases, aspects, and card types. But I'll detail all of this out in the future!

(10) Fishing is much simpler, as well. 1 Fish = 1 card from Junkyard. The Festival of Ice is a special card, akin to Spirit's Eve. Here, you gain 3 cards instead of 1. Thus, on average, you may gain around 4 Fish/Junkyard cards per Wave.

(11) The game is split into 'Waves', across two Game Modes.

Dash Mode is a 1-Wave encounter, which means you play through the cards you see on the table (Wilderness section) -- which, in this case, would be 3 Dungeons, 4 Snow cards, 1 Campfire, and the Spirit's Eve and Festival of Ice cards. 10 cards in total, randomised each time. This is a 'run'. You choose how you want to progress: one of the cards in front or to the side; you can never move backwards, so you must be careful with your choices (though they're mostly very obvious choices as to ensure fast gameplay). This should take roughly 30 minutes. At the end, you encounter a random Final Boss (1/4) (no Mini-Bosses).

Waves Mode is an 8-Wave encounter, which is the same as Dash Mode, only 8 times in a row. This means, you build up your attack options and tactics over the course of the longer run, but it also means you're likely to struggle to keep your Spellbook intact. It's a balancing act. At the end of each Wave, you encounter a random Mini-Boss (1/7), followed by a random Final Boss (1/4) for the 8th and final Wave. If you become Exhausted, you must restart the entire run again from Wave 1. Your progression carries over between Waves, but not between runs. Every 8 Waves is a completely new, fresh run. This is a RogueLIKE, not a RogueLITE -- no metaprogression. Waves Mode should take roughly 3 hours.

And here is the latest cover, now that the Buttons/HP is no longer a concept, external to the Spellbook/Main Deck itself.

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Condition: New
Location: Germany

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Condition: New
Location: Germany

by Niitaka

€15.00 for RPG Item: HârnMaster
Condition: Like New
Location: Germany

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