Yes probably you're right, forgot how people think. I mean in the end, there are 72 battles + 3 final ones (depending how you unlock the ending) so 75 to do the full game completion.

Even assuming each fight lasts 4 minutes (which is impossible even at maximum speed and playing super quickly except maybe some first tutorial fights) it would be already 75 x 4 = 300min = about 5h of play. And that's just the gameplay, not considering the story.

Also not considering the amount of time spent in the deck builder, reading cards descriptions etc. I think already as it is should guarantee at least 10-12h of playtime even just playing it once.

(though I'm sure some people will play for 50h lol)

So yeah already as it is should be a good length already: not too short, but not too long either.

Yesterday tried to do a run of all level 5 battles in Normal, and lost 1 out of 6, but today tried again with a different strategy and I couldn't win a single fight (but because was a wrong strategy!)

I think I've found a good balance for Normal difficulty, Hard will be really hard I think but that's normal.

Meanwhile added some more info/help stuff directly in the battle:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJxbeYDWUAImX6E?format=jpg&name=large" style="max-width:100%">

Alright lol, yesterday I made a fix to the enemy AI, and today I started testing to make sure it was working. It seems to work.

In practice, in PSCD the AI didn't have to deal with many spells (called Actions in that game). Also there weren't spells like "kill random uncommon enemy" or "kill injured enemy rare or less" etc etc. Or simply, spells that create a zombie with target values, so the AI should keep it and use only when a big enemy (high strength/hitpoints) shows up. Many complex conditions like this.



When I first added those cards in this game I didn't think about the possible issues with AI: in practice it could sometimes "waste" a card. Try to play, targeting conditions not met, result? mana consumed, card consumed, no effect. As you can imagine this was making battles easier to win.

Now instead, AI won't waste cards like that anymore and the battles (especially in Hard) are rather though, just lost 3 times in a row lol

Of course the AI will still play dumb from time to time, that happens in games like Hearthstone with a budget/team size of x10000 the one I have. But I'm happy I fixed this bug at last!

I remember bringing this up in PSCD, where the queen would waste her overpowered "spells" on nothing.

Haha, the AI will still be pretty dumb when comes to spell, with some occasional "good" moves. That's why I kept few spells even in this game in the end. Main issue is that in theory the AI could get stuck like the player.

Example happened today: AI had 4 heal spells in hand. They heal 4hp, so it uses them only if a creature is injured. If I wasn't attacking CPU creatures they couldn't do anything But that's not an AI bug, it's just bad luck. However the players might wonder why the AI does nothing if has 4 cards in hand? etc.

Anyway, it can't be perfect of course, worse case I'll just reduce the number of spells present in the AI decks.

Today worked 3h straight and I am burned out again lol, but an alpha version of the demo at end of month will almost surely happen

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJ7z5dAXwAUsGuF?format=jpg&name=large" style="max-width:100%">

the thing I'm finding most difficult is balancing the spells not this one, but for example I have riot who destroys all creatures except one picked randomly. A good strategy is to wait the CPU to fill their row with creatures and then bam, kill all except one with just 1 card. On the other hand I just raised its cost from 5 to 7, so even if you do it, you only have 3 mana left (assuming you do that at max level of mana, ten).

In general since spell cards are so few I want to make them more powerful, because when you play a creature something remains on the battlefield, but with a spell the card is instantly consumed

I'm preparing the demo for Steam Fest now, it's a bit of a mess to be honest, because obviously after the demo I'll keep working on the game (the Steam fest happens towards the end of February). And I cannot keep updated two different builds because for the demo I had to cut a lot of content that is already present in the current build.

So I put a big warning in the main menu saying that's an outdated alpha demo. I even thought to not participate in the Steam fest. When I did with Summer In Trigue was a walk in the park since obviously for a VN is enough to pick a point where to end, you don't have to take into account 3678321 variables like in this game (I already spend 2h this morning to fix demo-only bugs!).

I'm still thinking about it, I might not even participate since I'm not sure it can be a good thing in the end lol!



I'd rather start with the beta version towards middle of month directly :D

I made my mind. I can have a beta in two weeks max. No point in doing a demo, having to mantain two separate builds (with the associated chaos). I forgot how quickly I could get things done if I can work in peace So expect a beta with the full game content coming soon!

I thought I hated card games until I played Thronebreaker from CD Projekt. Maybe I'll check this out as well.

This one is more similar to Hearthstone if you know it.

I'm doing the artbook/guide right now, writing until I have my mind fresh after all the testing

This will probably take me a few more days, but this weeked I could start with the beta!

Hoping it's up Sunday - I'm not at home Saturday, but I'm looking forward to breaking it.

There'll be plenty of break, I encountered some rare bugs that I couldn't always reproduce but that's why I'm doing a beta. Sunday for sure, maybe even Friday!

Today finished the PDF artbook/guide, which I'll also update (the guide part) based on tweaks/nerfs or new tips/strategies discovered during beta. Lol it turned out to be 225mb!! it has all the old artwork+new romance CG+several cards to illustrate strategies. The biggest PDF thing I've ever made.



Anyways, at this point tomorrow the beta should definitely start

There's a lot of reading at the start, so I didn't get to test that much.



Saying yes to deck construction tutorial, however, I get an error:


[code]
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While processing the pos property of anonymous style:
File "renpy/common/000statements.rpy", line 569, in execute_call_screen
store._return = renpy.call_screen(name, *args, **kwargs)
TypeError: 'float' object has no attribute '__getitem__'

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "game/plot/gameflow.rpyc", line 154, in script call
p�$A:y�o?��
File "game/script.rpyc", line 295, in script call
File "game/script.rpyc", line 343, in script
File "renpy/ast.py", line 2015, in execute
self.call("execute")
File "renpy/ast.py", line 2003, in call
return renpy.statements.call(method, parsed, *args, **kwargs)
File "renpy/statements.py", line 278, in call
return method(parsed, *args, **kwargs)
File "renpy/common/000statements.rpy", line 569, in execute_call_screen
store._return = renpy.call_screen(name, *args, **kwargs)
File "renpy/exports.py", line 3136, in call_screen
rv = renpy.ui.interact(mouse="screen", type="screen", roll_forward=roll_forward)
File "renpy/ui.py", line 298, in interact
rv = renpy.game.interface.interact(roll_forward=roll_forward, **kwargs)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 3325, in interact
repeat, rv = self.interact_core(preloads=preloads, trans_pause=trans_pause, pause=pause, pause_start=pause_start, **kwargs)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 3737, in interact_core
root_widget.visit_all(lambda i : i.per_interact())
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 568, in visit_all
d.visit_all(callback, seen)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 568, in visit_all
d.visit_all(callback, seen)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 568, in visit_all
d.visit_all(callback, seen)
File "renpy/display/screen.py", line 441, in visit_all
self.child.visit_all(callback, seen=None)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 568, in visit_all
d.visit_all(callback, seen)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 558, in visit_all
for d in self.visit():
File "renpy/display/layout.py", line 1181, in visit
self.style._visit_window(rv.append)
File "style.pyx", line 541, in renpy.style.StyleCore._visit_window
File "style.pyx", line 528, in renpy.style.StyleCore._get_unoffset
File "style.pyx", line 493, in renpy.style.StyleCore._get
File "style.pyx", line 709, in renpy.style.build_style
File "style.pyx", line 706, in renpy.style.build_style
File "gen-static/style_functions.pyx", line 1367, in style_functions.pos_property
File "include/style_common.pxi", line 30, in style_functions.index_0
TypeError: 'float' object has no attribute '__getitem__'

Windows-10-10.0.19041
Ren'Py 7.4.11.2266
The Curse Of Mantras 0.7
Thu Feb 10 23:59:57 2022
[/code]

Whoops lol. Thanks will check it!

Getting rather pissed by the latest Steam reviews. This will likely be not only my last "big game" btu also my last card game. Or if I make another, the gameplay will be UNSKIPPABLE. So people can't just play it in VN mode, fast-skip everything and then whine that there's no romance



Luckily all my upcoming projects except the RPG are smaller titles and all simple yuri VNs (what seems to sell well on Steam).



This is an example how you are forced to adapt to the market and you can't really do what you want...

I always buy my games directly from you, instead of steam, can I still give good reviews or offset some of the negativity on there if I didn’t buy through steam?

You can write reviews if you redeem the Steam key, it won't count towards the overall score though. I can't blame them since when they initially allowed that, of course people were cheating and giving away tons of free key to write review-scams