Yeah I do think there's way to much going on . I mean it looks, feels and sounds really great don't get me wrong but after 4 battles and the tutorial I still didn't get a full grasp of what was happening. What's the use of the timeline? I know we are taking turns but what's the use of knowing what happened in the previous turns? I mostly used Coda really liked the momentum mechanic but eventually I just gave up trying to unders which attack counter wich attack and just focused on attacking from a distance. Movement, dodging, stamina and momentum where the extend of what I could understand the rest was just ignored a hoped for the best. I would really dumb down the first cards and build complexity a gradually. But that's just my opinion, I can see a ton of work put into this game hope to see it fully realized! Keep it going cheers!
Viewing post in Stage Fighter Tactics (DEMO) jam comments
Thanks for the comment. Do you think it would help to just make the tutorial a bit longer? Right now half of the tutorial is more or less "self directed" as in it shows you a pop up about stuff as they happen (like parry and stun). I'm not sure if forcing the player through the process to learn about them is going to make things better or worse cause it already feels a bit long.
For now I can't think of any reason you need to know what happened in the past time frames. Personally I kinda needed that during development so I can inspect them to make sure there were no bugs lol. Honestly it's mostly left there for visual symmetry as the current time frame is in the middle. I just thought that makes sense cause your hand is centered as well. I think perhaps greying them out would better suggest that the past is not important?
Hmm the most complex card game I can think of is the magic the gathering mobile game. And not only the first game tutorial is quite extensive, but also very carefully paced. It doesn't jump to new concepts until you get some grasps of the previous mechanics. Of course the UI also need to be super clean since there's a ton of info you need to keep track of. And also you can access to each ability and card documentation at anytime during a game. Is quite a difficult balancing act, I would suggest finding a tutorial template that works really well in a similar game and try to adapt it, since I really wouldn't know where to beggin.