Yesterday i finally did a blind test. it was pretty solid.
Players had only some small issues. The game is really easy to play, the problem being that you have to know the cards to play. you have to pick 15 from 30, both players just said 'let's do it' and randomly picked 15 cards. Problem? lack of combo and one of the players even got no way of using his skills as he didn't pick any basic one to start a combo. But once i entered the 'blind test' just so i would show some of the cards, they felt a little more interested.
I admit that the art is a heavy part of the game play, as it'll pull u into the fantasy. But apart from that, they felt that it was good. The feeling that we got is that as soon as players understood the character it got easier to play, faster and more importantly more Challenging, because as you understood why you are playing this cards, you stop playing them without thinking on your opponent, and you start to realize your opponent is plotting something as well, so those predictions and planning started there.
The points i found that i have to change is the following:
-Tweak some problems we found with some weird interactions
-Clear the terminology
-Make a clear use for the Momentum, As momentum wasn't really good just giving +1 power.
-Clear the power of some cards. Manly the reusable basic cards that were too strong.
-Making a more tangible Bonus for combo, as well as a Real penalty for those who combo got broken.
For the momentum thing, what happened is that players were not really caring if they would lose or not the momentum as it was not really important, that +x dmg was most of the times irrelevant. Of was just not as good to some characters. So i choose the following: Every character will have a different use for momentum. as in:
Striker: every momentum raises his power by 1
Knight: if you would take dmg, you can spend 1 momentum to block 2 dmg.
Things like that. I actually created the momentum as form of strengthening stat so you could deal more dmg, but i realized there are some that just don't get that many benefits from that, and may not even use it. The knight as a example is a low momentum, low dmg tank. So for him to have advantage i though this interaction would be better.
Hope to post a PNP next week :)
Players had only some small issues. The game is really easy to play, the problem being that you have to know the cards to play. you have to pick 15 from 30, both players just said 'let's do it' and randomly picked 15 cards. Problem? lack of combo and one of the players even got no way of using his skills as he didn't pick any basic one to start a combo. But once i entered the 'blind test' just so i would show some of the cards, they felt a little more interested.
I admit that the art is a heavy part of the game play, as it'll pull u into the fantasy. But apart from that, they felt that it was good. The feeling that we got is that as soon as players understood the character it got easier to play, faster and more importantly more Challenging, because as you understood why you are playing this cards, you stop playing them without thinking on your opponent, and you start to realize your opponent is plotting something as well, so those predictions and planning started there.
The points i found that i have to change is the following:
-Tweak some problems we found with some weird interactions
-Clear the terminology
-Make a clear use for the Momentum, As momentum wasn't really good just giving +1 power.
-Clear the power of some cards. Manly the reusable basic cards that were too strong.
-Making a more tangible Bonus for combo, as well as a Real penalty for those who combo got broken.
For the momentum thing, what happened is that players were not really caring if they would lose or not the momentum as it was not really important, that +x dmg was most of the times irrelevant. Of was just not as good to some characters. So i choose the following: Every character will have a different use for momentum. as in:
Striker: every momentum raises his power by 1
Knight: if you would take dmg, you can spend 1 momentum to block 2 dmg.
Things like that. I actually created the momentum as form of strengthening stat so you could deal more dmg, but i realized there are some that just don't get that many benefits from that, and may not even use it. The knight as a example is a low momentum, low dmg tank. So for him to have advantage i though this interaction would be better.
Hope to post a PNP next week :)