I came in with little to no expectations aside an impression from the colorful visuals you've got going. I didn't expect the depth there would be to the game. I was very surprised in a good way. I played on 0.4.0 Windows. At first, gameplay felt straightforward and simple. I can attack, however I can't defend on the enemy's turn if I do. That makes sense. Turns out Warrior always starts out with a card that has Relentless. I think that is a really good feature for new players since learning when to not attack and when to defend is a tricky thing in the first few runs. Especially since that card also has other abilities such as gaining 1 life and has 4 Resistance power. It's a card I almost always played when I drew it. That's without including all the other card synergies I discovered after playing the Warrior deck.
I did try out the other decks a few times. Mainly, I tried out Adventurer to try and get a grasp on the stats system. Luck and fortune are still foggy to me. Their influence seems to pale in comparison to whether or not I make keen decisions over the entire run since even without pumping luck, there's still a lot of chance involved with the cards and equipment I got. I never used intelligence since my strategy was to hit up merchants when I could if I had a handy sum of gold. For example, when I did my first few runs I skipped merchants and tried to aim for treasure and luck events. The rewards weren't enough to keep me winning though and I could even lose for messing with treasure and luck events. Merchants on the other hand were at least more consistent in that at worst, I could get something on the side like a card pack or scroll of experience. At best, really good cards since the shop rolls 8 cards for me of varying quality. On that point, the only part I understand from the merchant is that the cards seem to scale with either the amount of events I passed through, my level or perhaps something like the average strength of current cards I have. The one consistent aspect I noticed in each run is that the cards get better the further in I am and are almost never that good on a first merchant. Back to stats, I hard focused strength and dexterity. Strength is awesome for more than one reason. As a beginning player, health is at all times great to have more of. At a more advanced level of play, health points are key to stalling for growing the mana pool or getting the cards that I need to make a comeback. Dexterity is similar. The ability to go first or second isn't vital to me since it's dependent on the cards and equipment I have that run. However, the more cards I have at the beginning of the round is crucial. I would say it's even crucial for the enemy. One run, I got an equipment called the "Weakness Warhorn." I don't know if equipment names are unique since card names aren't. Anyways, the equipment's effect is "Champions draw 2 fewer cards at the start of every battle." It's a unique equipment, so I know that's a good tier, although I'm not sure if that's higher or lower than legendary. The gist is that this equipment didn't seem that impressive at first sight until I entered combat. There's a certain kind of comedy in watching the enemy not play anything for multiple turns. Especially when the early turns may be where huge plays happen and dominate the rest of the battle. One of my favorite equipment even if I only got it once. For the most part, I picked up the equipment to see what it meant in action and it concluded in something a lot better.
To a large extent, the Warrior deck hits home for me. I got very familiar with every card in the deck. For a moment in the first twenty runs or so, I had a misconception that I might have to stick with the deck because changing out the core cards can be expensive. The truth is more in tune with the idea that every card in the deck acts as a jumping off point. That one minion-beast that is able to Reinforce I on summon and on death is a quick 2 Attack power hitter for only 1 mana or to buff up another card since Reinforce I is not restricted to the end of turn. That is unless there's also the minion-celestial that's able to draw 1 card on summon and give +1/+0 to all Beast minions then it's a quick 3 Attack power for 1 mana cost. Play two or three of the minion-beast with Reinforce I and I can practically one-shot the early game. Sometimes it's even beneficial to buff the minion-celestial with draw 1 card on summon effect considering that minion has 2 Resistance power and anything with Resistance power is more likely to stay on my field. The minion-beast only has a Resistance power of 1 or 2 with Reinforce I and don't have a field buff effect like the minion-celestial for Beast minions. In that sense, the minion-beasts are more like throwaway blocks since even the strongest attack can be blocked if there's no special effects. That plus the persistence of Reinforce I means I can continually buff the minion-celestial to even become an offensive unit or stay as a defensive unit with 3+ Resistance power. All of that for a 1 mana-cost minion-celestial and 1 mana-cost minion-beast.
The 2 mana-cost minion-celestial with Relentless and life gain has 4 Resistance power is great later on in a battle when my mana pool is bigger because the minion isn't highly viable on its own. In the first few turns, gaining life can sometimes turn around a victory. That's not usually the case though. The 2 mana-cost minion-celestial pairs super well with the 3 mana-cost minion-beast with piercing and +2/+2 when it procs continually. This is a mana-cost of 5 for 2 minions whereas the mana-cost of 2 for 2 minions as seen previously works better as a shield to hold off attacks until I can build an offense. All those 0-cost and 1-cost spell-celestials that give life gain in addition to the 1-cost +3/+3 spell-beasts can carry me quite far in runs. Usually this strategy is enough to carry me up to the last champion of the first floor(?). The last card which is the 1 mana-cost no-effect minion-beast with 3 Resistance power is like a low budget Relentless minion-celestial is the best way I can put it. 3 Resistance power is quite strong for early turns since I rarely see anything that can hit that hard until mid-game.
All in all, the early runs were simple and fun. A sense of naivety. I would say everything completely shifts once you begin to understand what effects exist and how the battlefield is dominated after the first floor. A surprise on every corner is the way the real game feels. A whole lot of "Wait, that's a 0 mana-cost card?", "10 Resistance power at 1 mana-cost? I can't break that with attacks on the first turn or even the third turn.", and "Hold up, you can exhaust on main-2 and during an attack?" The enjoyment of the game goes up a multitude here along with the usual roguelike frustration of chance. It's a really good learning experience. Especially with crafting, I wasn't sure what was going to last over time rather than a battle or two then get replaced by card packs or the merchant. By simply being observant of how the enemy plays, I was able to copy and hone their tactics and become one with the card. Perhaps even what you call, a card artisan.
I'm probably not going to be able to recall all the exciting moments I saw. It is a "short" game in terms of being about a half-hour to an hour in length for me on runs. Of course, it's actually a long game because I'll replay it more times after that. I definitely think there's at least a few hundred more hours to go before I full internalize everything and what the most optimal strategies are. I think I've only scratched the surface and other players are bound to find more creative ways of playing. All the variables from stat choices, event choices, merchant purchase choices, crafting choices (itself which contains many factors like active and passive effects with effects and timing), minion type choices and variant choices. From my point of view, the game has got a nice sense of complexity to it and maybe the game is a lot simpler than I think it is as I have yet to discover it all and see it as a whole.
A rough rundown of the interesting builds I saw with enemies or did myself would be:
- Milling me to zero either through spell effects or simply holding such a strong defense that I'm stalled until I draw all my cards
- Getting me stuck in an Exhaust-Repeal loop where I summon a minion, I block from the minion with that Exhaust-Repeal, my minion gets slapped back onto the top of my deck and I can't draw a single other card because I need the minion to defend my health
- Stacking Life like it's boxes in a warehouse against me and I realize that my damage isn't going to outpace how fast I'm drawing cards every turn
- Being one-shot by +1/+1 for cards in graveyard minions
- Thinking everything is going on my field until the enemy starts blasting me with cost of discarded card direct damage that makes me realize the purpose of those 6+ mana-cost cards
- The chaos that is random effects and understanding to never play such a build ever again and to ensure a quick victory against an enemy that does it too. The Dice of Doom is one thing. Equipment, minion, and more was mind-boggling.
- The mind game that is stalling for mana pool growth and to not attack, just hold a defensive line
- The annoyance that is Bounce I
- How useful direct damage to any target cards are. These cards seemed at first to be a waste to pick up, until I get kept getting destroyed by them. Turns out one of the best ways to deal with an annoying minion on the field that I can never block is to carry a ton of direct damage to any target cards that can deal with those pests and hit the enemy's health too.
- The worry that is seeing an Exhume effect and realizing defeating a minion once isn't enough
- Casual wipe of my field with Deal 1 damage to any target 6 times
- Destroy up to x target minions that are the perfect counter spells in a pinch
- x then, x cards where I get a 2-for-1 deal that feels completely ridiculous and too good to be true like Repeal 1, then Repeal 1
- The counter play that is gaining control of target minion
- Underestimating the power of piercing and the enemy's willingness to block, full stack Attack power and I get a home run
- The mistake that is playing an effect that has to target a minion and I inevitably have to target my own field
Some rare things I did see that makes me want to play again were: card packs with 4 cards with a blue outline, Doll of a Dog, Rabbit Rear, the mystery of what Renewed Rucksack is, trying to get 5 Suspicious Scales, the mystery of what the Chromatic Cuirass really does, the difference between average, strong and very strong cards, the secret requirement for the heavy gate, the locked metal door, the dojo, the throne, the disappearing floor, and the abandoned forge (I presume it has to do with equipment), whether the enemy AI is always playing optimally or if it can play dumb at lower levels, and what difference Artificer's Artifact really makes. Also a little curious if minion-types actually have some impact on cards. I can't confirm they do, however the starter decks seem to indicate minion-types have some aspects tied to them. I have plans to make more X-tier cards too. That was unexpected after seeing UR and thinking that was the end tier.
A minor bug I did see or I misunderstood is "When this minion blocks, give target minion -3/-3 until the end of the turn." This card didn't block. I blocked against the card with this effect and it weakened my minion. The other stuff is simple things that you probably have on your todo list like the "all all" in text and the blinking cursor behind the "Character Name" text. There might have been another where if I have the exact amount of experience, I don't level. I can't confirm that one as I only saw it once. It's probably a simple < and <= mix up. Another small issue is that music will stop playing in main phase which might be the result of spending a few minutes in that phase.
Overall, Card Artisan was a really fun experience to the point of mild addiction. I only managed to win the dungeon/castle raid once, so I haven't experienced all there is to in the game. I've barely reached level ten on the meta-progression stuff (I do wonder if I have to do meta-progression or if I can do a zero run all the time too, it's hard for me to know with enemy growth). There might be a bunch of information that flew over my head and I didn't realize it here. It was a bit sad to part ways with my deck after the first win. I wanted to see how well it could last against more threats. I did have a slight expectation that the dungeon would go endlessly or at least ten floors. I understand that scaling is difficult though (as it does scale tremendously when you get to the second floor), so for what the experience was, the execution was done well. The visuals are nice and clean. The particles look a little weird sometimes like when battle ends and it fades or on health damage. Navigating a large hand of cards (10+) is a slight pain and likely not a common occurrence anyways. I don't know if you have plans for the top UI to be unfolded indefinitely. A couple times, I did want have the timer visible to see what my average time was and I wouldn't mind having it open at all moments for that. On my part, I forgot to look and so there is no record that I have on my times which is fine. I should remind myself more often. Similarly, I know there isn't saves yet, however have you thought about keeping a history of decks from run to run? I'm often curious what I played in different runs. Maybe other players don't care for that kind of thing though. I know it's a minor thing. I enjoyed the bits of writing that you did have with events and choices. They paired well with the art and it did feel immersive like a real dungeon crawl except you're a looter who fights with the power of cards made in a magic forge (or is it really all just an abstraction for bringing in a party?). Whatever it is, I look forward to what's next in terms of development, whether it be new card effects, that adventure mode or something else altogether.