DEVLOG 3 - MAKING THE GAME EASIER TO READ

This update is less glamorous than the last one. 

• No big new tarot set.
• No huge new mechanic.
• No dramatic feature reveal.

I have been working on the part of game development where you look at a screen and realize:

“The systems are working, but the player cannot read them well enough yet.”

That has been the current phase of Reverie.

The game has enough going on now that rough presentation is starting to get in the way. 

There are spells, delayed payoffs, relics, Omens, a Grimoire, a shop, a scoring reveal, multiple tarot sets, and a new testing spread.

All of those systems technically work.

But “technically works” is not the same thing as “feels good.”

So this update is mostly about polish. [Not final polish, obviously lol devlog3]

More like: the first serious pass at making the game easier to understand.

✦

THE ROUND SCREEN NEEDED HELP

The biggest visual problem was the Round screen.

For a while, I had placeholder sidebar art and table art in there. 

It was useful early on, but it started making the screen feel worse instead of better.

The game looked like it was wearing someone else’s clothes.

So I pulled some of that placeholder art out and started building a more basic visual foundation.

Right now the screen is being organized into clearer zones:

• left side for relics and backpack
• center for the table and scoring ceremony
• right side for score/status information
• bottom for the hand and immediate actions
• It is still not final.
• The table still needs real art.
• The buttons still need work.
• The right panel still needs hand-tuning.

But the screen is starting to have an actual structure instead of feeling like a pile of useful things floating around.

That is progress.

✦

THE SCORING REVEAL IS GETTING CLEARER

A lot of time also went into the scoring reveal.

This is one of the most important parts of Reverie, because the scoring is not just math. It is supposed to feel like the reading resolving.

1. Sigils gather.
2. Confluence multiplies them.
3. The result moves toward The Toll.

That sounds simple when written out, but it took a lot of small passes to make it readable.

Some of the things that changed:

• score bits now use different symbols depending on their source
• spell effects now come from the cards/table instead of feeling like they came from an info panel
• Confluence no longer sits on screen forever at ×1
• Confluence now appears when it matters
• the multiplier hits the current casting total
• the multiplied result briefly appears before flying into Round Total
• the final score handoff is cleaner and less boxy
• result screens now clean up leftover scoring UI
• None of that is flashy on its own.

But together, it makes the game feel much less like debug math and more like an actual scoring ceremony.

It is the supporting structure for when we REALLY add the fireworks.

That is the direction I want.

✦

THE LIVING HAND

I also added a new testing spread called THE LIVING HAND.

T

This is not the final deck customization system.

The real version will eventually involve progression, unlocks, player level, and more structure.

THE LIVING HAND is just a practical balance-testing spread.

It gives you a 5-card hand, but still keeps the 3-card casting rule.

That small change makes a big difference.

You see more options.

You see more possible spell phrases.

You get more interesting decisions without changing the whole game.

It has already been useful.

also immediately revealed a bug: the randomized deck was changing between rounds instead of staying fixed for the whole run.

That is exactly why I wanted this spread. It gives me a better way to see how the game actually behaves.

✦

THE GRIMOIRE IS LESS OF A WALL NOW

The Grimoire is another place where readability started to matter more.

At 39 spells, the book cannot just be a list anymore.

It needs to be usable.

Recent passes improved the font choices, cleaned up the spell rows, and made the spell details less bloated.

One example: spell phrases from the same set are now compressed.

Before, a phrase might repeat the full set name on every single card.

Now it can read more like:

THE DISCLOSED FORM:

High Priestess ✦ Magician ✦ Star

That is much easier to scan.

OOPS. A WILD CARD YOU DONT GET THAT NICE GRIMOIRE ENTRY.

There is still plenty to fix.

The glyph/reference area is currently messy, and I want it to eventually become more icon-based, with mouseover explanations instead of a big list of text.

But the Grimoire is moving in the right direction.

Less debug list.

More usable book.

✦

THE CROWS WERE TOO MUCH

Audio got a small but necessary pass too.

For a while, one sound was doing way too much work.

1. Cast start.
2. Spell trigger.
3. Payoff reveal.
4. Scoring beat - crow.wav

It started to feel like the game was cawing at me constantly...

I like crows.

A lot.

But even I have limits.

So I split the audio vocabulary up a bit.

• Cast start now has its own sound.
• Spell triggers have their own sound.
• Payoffs have their own sound.
• Final score hits have their own sound.

It is still placeholder audio, but it is already less exhausting.

Eventually I want better final sounds, and probably different sound families for different kinds of spells. But for now, the important thing was simple:

stop making everything sound the same.

✦

WHAT THIS UPDATE REALLY IS

Devlog3 is not the kind of update where I can say “look at this one giant new thing.”

• It is a lot of small corrections.
• A box was too big.
• A font was hard to read.
• A sound played too often.
• A number stayed on screen too long.
• A score effect looked like it came from the wrong place.
• A useful system was hidden behind bad presentation.
• That is most of what I worked on.

And honestly, this is probably the phase the project needed.

Reverie has enough systems now that adding more is not automatically the best move.

The better question is:

Can the player understand what is already here?

That is where the work is right now.

✦

CURRENT FOCUS

The current focus [Today] is:

1. making the Round screen readable
2. tightening the scoring ceremony
3. cleaning up the Grimoire
4. reducing audio fatigue
5. testing balance with THE LIVING HAND
6. keeping the four active sets polished instead of adding more too soon

There are still bigger systems planned.

• More relics.
• More set identity.
• More Grimoire language.
• More sound and visual effects.
• Eventually, more tarot sets.

But right now, the work is smaller and more practical.

• Make it readable.
• Make it feel better.
• Make it less annoying.

Then build on that.