Posted August 05, 2024 by Ted Bendixson
In my last blog post, I discussed a number of improvements to Rogue Deck Builder's core design.
To recap, I decided to make the game a little more like Minecraft/Factorio in the way resources are acquired. You chop things down and then gain resources from it. To get cards, you now expand your deck towards a neighboring house with a deck.
Earlier, the game was only about expanding the deck. Now it's more about tearing down the neighborhood to expand the deck, sort of like in Katamari Damacy.
Other changes discussed incldue:
- No more "malding" system. I ditched it in favor of a more standard health bar. Enemies attack you, and you get hit. You lose HP and then eventually die when overwheled. Simple enough.
- I overhauled almost all of the game's deckbuilding user interface in favor of something more direct. Now you hover over things you can build, a UI shows up, and it tells you the cost of building the thing.
I still haven't figured out a good solution for how the player can explore the entire neighborhood. I don't know what happens when the angry neighbors kick you off of your own deck.
Maybe you can build stairs to walk off the deck, but I don't know what this means for the gameplay, so that's the main problem I need to solve before I put out another playable build.
I suppose it's okay if the player becomes confined to the deck, but a number of people have said they don't want that constraint. They want to explore the neighborhood more freely.
I agree with this sentiment because it makes the game more like Vampire Survivors in some important ways.
So that's my main task for the next few weeks. If I can solve that game design problem, the game will be much better for it.