Have you shifted gears in any other card game? Probably not. Just like many of our players during the Closed Beta testing. We collected your feedback and decided to make some changes; thanks to you! We hope they will help introduce new players to the basic assumptions of the game and, at the same time, serve as a quick intro to the world of Death Roads.
Not a boring tutorial. It's an active prologue!
In addition to a few mechanics known from the roguelike genre, the game introduces some unique systems we haven’t met so far in other deck-builders. The most important are Gear shifts, the associated Skid, and the Bash. These mechanics will be the “main target” of our new tutorial on which we are working.
It will act as a prologue and take us to the times of tutorial Grandma’s youth - the final of the first edition of Death Roads: Tournament! Her older self, Margaret “Teacher” Murdock, will tell you about crazy adventures in this historic fight, sharing some tricks and commenting on the player's actions in dialogue bubbles.
Run the prologue once and get tired no more!
The prologue will guide the player through fundamental concepts such as using attack, move, Bash, Gear cards, allowing opponents to Skid etc. All within one turn, after which you can either finish the fight how you want or skip the rest of the prologue - it’s your choice. This is a separate game mode, available in the main menu, so you won't need to repeat it with each normal run! Or maybe you should? Who knows!
Several less essential mechanics, such as status effects or surface changes, will be contextually explained during the game when they occur for the first time. This will avoid a situation where we shower the player with too much information. The player will also have access to help screens, allowing him to recall the basic rules at any time during the game. We won’t leave you alone, no worries!
Little sneak peek
Finally, we wanted to present some text suggestions for the intro we plan to put at the beginning of the prologue. Please let us know what you associate it with and if it's not too cheesy :P. We'd love to hear from you!
“Road… Road never changes… I mean, there are new potholes, new assholes, and the way may differ… but the Road… never changes. Each year, when the Hurricanes converge, it always leads to the same place. The finals at the gates of the great ECCT. Although not many are still alive to reach it in the end ...
Have I told you about the time when I was in my prime, battling the final stage of the first Death Roads Tournament?"
Stay tuned and keep your engines hot!