Viewing post in Feedback on chess variant, using cards

Hey! Just quickly because I have hopped into a queue and haven’t matched with anyone sadly. Here are my thoughts:

Regarding itch page

Take the web game version off your itch if it doesn’t work on itch yet - it’s confusing. I started looking at debugging to help figure out what was wrong to maybe help but then read the note about “doesn’t work on itch”. Some players (me…) just run for the Play button XD

Regarding design

The idea in itself is a simple twist with huge consequences and modifying the flow of the game! That’s pretty cool! By doing this you will have introduced an element of luck to a game purely around skill. That effect can make it lighten the blow when you lose.

I read that you’re planning to have the cards not be completely random but instead drawn from a set deck. I think this is a wicked directions as it allows people to guess the likelihood of a card coming up. ( For instance, the deck composes of 1x queen, 1x king, 2x bishop, 2x knight + a few jokers. If I drew the king, bishops and knights I would know the next card is either the king or the jokers ).

Something to consider: when you run out of cards in the deck, what happens? Reshuffle the cards? To go further on this maybe introduce additional jokers to each hand as the hands run out, because pawns will start disappearing.

Players may also need to burn cards they don’t have the piece of anymore (i.e. running out of pawns) - how will that be handed? Lose a turn? It would make eliminating pawns a v. strong strategy if so because players will have to mill their cards constantly!

The last thing is: some games like this can have moments where you “have great RNG” or “bad luck”… is there a way to emphasise these moments? Maybe looking at AutoChess games will provide some inspiration.

An idea if you want to speed up the games: maybe introduce a “Double Turn” card added to the deck when you lose a piece. This can give a losing player a way to catch up but also cause games to cascade a little faster, if you want.

In closing, wicked idea!! Get exploring!

And make vs computer because I’ve waited in the queue and it was not possible to enjoy this idea :(

Like Reply

Simulation Edge148 days ago(+1)

Thank you for the feedback SilverLock!

I will look into the itch.io page and see if I can make it work somehow.

As for the deck questions you have, it reshuffles when its empty, but I assume it is better to have a percentage change of drawing a certain card, rather than having a set deck. Will have to some more testing regarding that.

The player will be able in the future to pass a turn or use a turn to switch out any numbers of cards they want. There will be situations were the cards are not matching any of your pieces, so will make this a feature of the game.

The Double Turn card is quite interesting, for now there is only a joker card, but I will explore other types of special cards.

Thank you again for the great feedback and will let you know when a singleplayer mode has been made.

Like Reply

SilverLock Media147 days ago

Best of luck, Simulation Edge :D And please do!

Like Reply

Simulation Edge141 days ago (1 edit)

Hello!

I have now implemented the AI with random moves so it is possible to play singleplayer.

Hopefully you can check it out and let me know if there are anything that seems strange.

Still missing the timer, and will try to improve some UI elements when the basic functionality is done.

Thank you!

Edit: I also made it so the cards have a percentage of being drawn instead of a deck. Will make some UI changes so its easy to see what the new card is, sometimes you get the same card and it is difficult to see if it worked or not.

Like Reply