Thank you for the honest feedback.
Unrelated to this, but not sure where else a feedback form is?
Yes, there isn't at the moment a proper feedback area, so I expect players to open a topic for something specific or comment maybe on the last release if they have played the previous versions.
What is probably the most frustrating game is the you can only move or attack. Maybe I'm spoiled by SRPGs like Fire Emblem and Menace and what not where you have to balance your action points. But basically you need to wait for the enemy to come since the moment you summon, they get in your face and you start trading blows.
I didn't think to give the game lots of different options for every cards to be played. I would compare it more to a TCG instead of an RPGs where each character can grow up during the game. Creatures have more options than the ones in many other card games. Yes, at the moment it might look like it's more convenient to wait and attack, but you can play already in different ways depending on the situations. For example, if you have very few cards and the enemies have a lot (you can get an hint reading the message in the map before the battle starts), then you can risk to move forward as soon as possible to kill the enemy's avatar rather than fight 10 or 20 enemies staying in the defensive with your 2 creatures.
At the moment there is also variety with ranged and melee attacks, but also the Retire option can save you a card from being lost, especially if you decide to escape. Finally, intercept, that is not only a skip your turn, will become more meaningful later on when enemies will be improved and give them more variables to calculate if they would risk more to move forward instead of fighting. The system is already there, but need to be improved.
I am also planning to add new cards that are not creatures, so I can consider new power up that gives special abilities that are active and the player can choose to use in addition to normal actions.
Also it would be nice if you could risk your avatar by moving him out of his tiny green box at the end and just attack too. Let players decide whether they want to risk or not.
I though to keep the avatar always out of combat as part of the main core mechanics, however if I see that that is something that most players want I can reconsider that. If I do so, the game would become probably harder since the enemy's avatar will attack as well. Perhaps it could be an option to have only when the avatar run out of cards.
The most confusing bit was though how in the first battle I had 3 monsters. my avatar +2 others. then I won (didn't lose any in combat) and in next battle suddenly I only had my newest card and my avatar? I went somehow from 3 monsters down to 2, but it looked like I had 5 in my deck?
Yes, definitely the game need more explicit information. Some are present here in the game page, a brief summary is withing the game and others are in the Supporters' Files.
Originally the game jam theme "though choice" affected a lot the game mechanics, where you get something, but loose something else. To be honest with the pass of time, the random loss instead of a meaningful choice leave a feeling of be very much a victim of the destiny. The only choice where the player has real control is when you have the cards in your hand and you decide which one keep and which one to leave. Similarly when you choose your avatar, you don't lose cards, but you "sacrifice" a card that could be used as fighter to be left in the back as avatar (that connects with the above discussion you mentioned before about using the avatar to fight).
I think that I should revise and remove all random choices, but before do that I will need to have created already a few more cards in order to have a higher variety of choices and combination. In addition, I would have to make it hard again to find new cards.
The lose 2 cards to get X cards according to how many cards were present in the enemy deck might be changed as mechanic. With the arrival of new consumable cards and the current "carry over injuries" mechanic, it probably wouldn't be necessary to lose cards when getting new ones after a battle. However, I would probably limit the number of cards that can be taken from the enemy, maybe only the ones that weren't destroyed. So if you kill every single creature of the enemy, avatar included, you wouldn't get any card. If you don't lose cards (aside for the discarded one from the hand), you will keep all your cards.
Finally, the fact that the enemy has more cards than you it's fine, battles will unlikely be balanced in terms of cards of players vs computer. Sometimes, you will have more, sometimes less.
I planned to have some power up and similar cards, where for example having a goblin or zombie would be more rewarding, because you can activate better combos. A special weapon for goblins only, can improve its skills, making it a card more interesting to keep compared to others when you have that weapon card. I didn't think about "pack" strategy, that is something to consider. Funny thing instead, yesterday I got the same suggestion about the bonus you can get if your creature goes behind the enemy lines. I was thinking to keep those mechanics simple, but I can see that there is interest in having something more complex, so adding those type of bonuses is something that I will definitely keep in mind.
Overall it's in a pretty decent state. I also would speed up the UI a bit more. The scroll opens and closes pretty slow for the combat log.
I totally agree on that. Having tested many times the game, I need as well an option to speed up all the game actions. Turning off the voices could match with an option to have a fast speed action, like 10x speed.Thank you for the feedback it was very useful, and thank you very much for have supported the game with donations too!