Endless Voyage, a Chinese strategic card game, will be released on Steam in January. Iyingdi has interviewed the product team of Endless Voyage, what has encouraged them to make such game? How do they outshine from Slay the Spire ? Would they share some experience to original card game developers?
Let’s get more about Endless Voyage with these questions.
1. Why do you make Endless Voyage? How about your development team?
Hello, friends in Iyingdi, I am a producer of Endless Voyage, I have been in the planners business for years. Our team is the Dalaran Studio. We are now making a Roguelike strategic card game- Endless Voyage.Let me brief you on this game.
There are three members in our team, the others are programmers, ex-staff in DJI. Previously, we didn’t have any designer in team since we didn’t even have a proper office, working at one programmer’s apartment. This November, we freeloaded others office and finally hired a designer. Before, we used to outsource the art work.
All of our members are hardcore players of card games, having profound experience in card games.
Like Slay the Spire, I got full achievement, spending 826.7 hours.
Actually, I have fulfilled some of the achievements for twice, as I figured out that the achievements in different computers are not shared.
Except for me, programmers are also great fans of Slay the Spire. One troke an infinite pattern.
Not to mention, full achievements in Night of Full Moon as it is simpler. The most challenging achievement is passing without any card, which requires players deep understanding on belssing, creatures’ power and card strategy.
Our programmers are hardcore players of Hearthstone.
We set up our minds to make card games out of interest, we all love card games and are earning to make our own card games. Besides, we learned that it was the best time to start our own business.
2. Why do you choose indie Roguelike strategic card games?
Personally, I want to carry out the strategic card and Roguelike elements, bringing it to players, providing immersive experience. The reasons we choose DBG:
Firstly, all of our teammates are hardcore players of DBG, we are passionate about it.
Second, we did not have any designer back then. DBG needs exigent demands on planner and programmers, instead of designers. We have confidence in our team.
Last but not least, there are predecessors and players in this field, we believe in our understanding in this genre. Making a difference and keep ourselves afloat.
So we decided to make DBG.
Adding some thoughts on Roguelike, Roguelike is a splendid mechanism.
Considering the probability according to hand cards. Measuring the probability is a terrific experience. Enjoying mastering strategy and taking chances.
A quick aside here, I assume that the most popular PVP-Roguelike game in China is Poker and Mahjong.
So, to sum up, We decided to combine card strategy and Roguelike in our game, enabling players to experience the gameplay of strategy and fortune.
We are deeply grateful for over one thousand first test players, they have given us much worthy advice and reviews on INDIENOVA. They spent an average of 9 hours and 52 minutes on our game. One player in our group said he had spent over 400 hours; With these encouragement, we saw the positive side of our game. We hope to see more Iyingdi players in our game and welcome your suggestions and advice.
3. There are over a dozen similar games on Steam this year, have you try them? How do you think of them in an innovative perspective? Which game do you think much of? How will games of this genre progress?
In my point of view, most DBG are seeking innovation, merging different kinds of games together.
a. creature Train: DBG + Auto Chess; deck building;
b. Ratropolis: DBG + SLG;
c. Giftlands: DBG + RPG;
Merging different genres is a great innovation, these games has done well. However, I found that these games focused less on the essence of DBG. Making a DBG is not an easy work, they fail to carry out the hardcore of DBG.
Some games are not particularly nice, like Shadowplay: Metropolis Foe, making it all about the picture. The art performance is not coordinated with DBG, not serving it well. It might confuse players.
What is the biggest difficulty in making such card game? Is it balance, value, art performance or else? ( May you explicit your idea? Did you redesign the character? What difficulties did you encounter?)
The biggest difficulty is the design of card pattern, it is related to value, balance, art performance and copywriting. Which is the most interesting part of DBG.
The essenc of card pattern is mathematical model, it is carried out by art performance. The value of DBG should be mentally calculable. There are limited models. Every card contains a symbolic evaluational number. The card pattern is made up of multiple card, like making a math solution. Combining cards sounds easy, but forming effective card patterns is hard. The intricate patterns interact in simple math equations.
We explore the deep potential in DBG, basing on the mathematical model. Meanwhile, we are building our own models.
Let me share with you an example: why does the attack card do 6 points harm instead of 7 or 5? If there any chances to make an attack +50% buff or attack ±30% buff? It is very likely to have those buff. And the value of 6 is calculation-friendly to players. We also set others value base on this principle.
We put most of our effort into the core design and basic gameplay, targeting for a PC strategic card game, which makes our game looks a bit like the Slay the Spire.
We took a page from Slay the Spire, like the UI, it is the optimal solution. We won’t sacrifice the essence of DBG in order to lower the similarity.
Well, we optimized some predecessors’ obvious and blunt double effects, which were too obvious that palyers miss the fun of exploring. We designed some double effects cards with subtle copywriting, players may found out the double effects by exploring. Like Rage Slash: Dealing 5 damage, 7 rampage each time. The original damage is just normal, but further damage is considerable. Played may explore series of patterns about this card!
In general, we carry out some essence of DBG, there is inevitable comparison between Slay the Spire, however, Endless Voyage is in shark contrast to its predecessors.
The deeper the DBG grow, the more difficulty art performance confront. Players’ range of mechanism understanding is limited, new attribute, creature race will complicate the game. Which will lead to a grind. We find it hard to make a pure DBG.
Another difficulty is about the art performance. Previously, we didn’t have any designer. We outsourced the art work:
Asking help from aquaintances: We thought our former colleagues may be inexpensive compared to the market price. Well, they were high up in the company, so they charged more.
Asking help from students: Ex-colleagues and friends recommended us to seek help from students. We at first found a senior schoolgirl, she is ingenious and the fees are very reasonable. We further found another designer on website for UI. When added together, we hired dozen people. Students charge reasonably, but they are faced with academic pressure like exam and paper, they procrastinate and hamper the progress. This caused an argument between me and programmers, they were worried about the development period, I cared for the quality of picture. I made concessions. We decided not to hire students anymore.
Asking help from outsourcing company: Finally, we outsourced the work to companies and our only demand was handing the draft on time. Our picture were a mix of ex-colleagues, students and outsourcing. Which is not the same style. Then we released the importance to have a main designer as we are not capable in judging the difference between each styles. Our ex-colleagues assisted us. The whole process is very twisted, and still there are some dissatisfaction in some details. But clearly there is a discrepancy, we can’t expect perfect art performance on such low cost.
5. What is the highlight of Endless Voyage? Which part are you most proud of?
We talked about some of our product idea in last question. I particularly hope that palyers may explore as much patterns as possible in limited cards, which is the charisma of DBG.
①We designedly up to 12 patterns with single HERO: ( These 12 patterns are the most playful part, and we take a lot pride in it.) Currently, we have 70+ cards through several updates. Those were extracted from over 1000 cards. We tested and then selected 70+ cards. We hope those cards may bring excellent experience to players.
Like: Burn: we choose this genre( 3 cards); its mathematical mechanism is very interesting;
If there is only one target, the dealing order would be: Ignite → Napalm → Spark; the default Burn is zero, then the equation = (7) + (11+15) + (16+17+18).
Burn is one of the genres, there are Spikes, Summon, Ricochet and other 8 genres. Players may explore and strike new unexpected patterns base on these genres.
②. Every creature is unique:
We hope this game is not only about the numerical value. Monotonous raise of harm is very boring. We designed different creatures with different characteristics rs so that palyers may defeat them using different patterns.
However, this brings up a problem: some particular characteristics have overwhelming superiority over some patterns; which is contradictory to our intention of making every pattern invincible. We made a thorough analyses on every creature in order to fix this. We stroke a balance by adjusting the sequence of creatures, moving creatures with overwhelming power forward, and others backward.
Like: Swordsman ignoring shielding summoners and doing direct harm to the opponent. The pattern of spike is futile to it.
③. We are dedicated to make sure palyers can experience the happiness of building patterns:
We help palyers to get the cards they need by our recommendation algorithm, we are proud of it. We infer from the status of players, recommending their optimal choice. Like, carry cards and dependent carry cards. Carry cards could strike harm independently, dependent cards could not. We recommend carry cards to players at the beginning of the game, and dependent cards later. Besides, cards are recommended according to palyers’ hand cards, helping the hand cards to play a better part. Resourceful players may recognize the charisma of luck and strategy in it, enjoying the battles. The ideal cards will always come up.
6. What is your update plan after the game release?
We plan to design a new hero( maybe it will included in the release, but we couldn’t assure that), we probably will update the new hero for free. We will update according to players’ suggestions after the second heroes.
The common update of DBG is new cards, treasures, creatures, which is the main content of DBG. We will enrich the game with new modes with many more plans.
In addition, in response to a inquiry from NG players, we prefer to polish up the PC version before launching others platforms.
May you share your experience with other card games developers?
Personal suggestions: Make clear your direction, seek its features, play full part of the features. Think twice before the execution in order to lower the cost;
Reserve a margin of schedule time for debugging; Makea budget; talk with your family for their understanding and support. These are the headwind of the project.
8. How will card games develope in your view of a practitioner?
We couldn’t tell how will card games develope as we are just a small team. However, we believe card games will gain more popularity.
Thank you so much. We wish Iyingdi friends may support Endless Voyage. Welcome to exchange your idea with us( QQ group: 874417263), we are deeply grateful if you may add it to the wish list.
