Hello everyone! As promised last week, this week's Devblog is all about how cards are incorporated into Spellslinger Towns. Cards are a great way to spice thing up, and if used correctly in strong combo's, will really turn the game into your sandbox. Play things right and see how far you can take things!
Starter deck
Before you start, you'll have to create a starter deck. A start deck consists of exactly 6 cards and can contain as many duplicates as you want. You can freely configure any combination of cards, as long as they are starter cards, marked by a "play" icon on the bottom of the card.
Mana and rounds
Once the game starts, your deck is shuffled. Every round, you pick 3 (or more) cards from your draw stack. You are allowed to play all cards in your hand as long as you have enough mana. Since you start with 1 mana and 3 cards, you'll have to choose which one you're going with. Once the round is over, all cards you drew are put into the discard stack, regardless of whether you played them that turn. Once your draw stack is empty, the discard stack is shuffled and moved to the draw stack.
Deckbuilding
Every few turns, you are presented with the option to upgrade your deck. You'll be presented with 8 card options, from which you can pick 3 to add to your deck. Once your deck has been expanded, a new round starts and you can start playing with your new cards!
Card Types
As you'd expect, there are a few different types of cards. Let's go over them!
- Spell cards are exactly what you think they are: spells to cast on your enemies, buffs for yourself, things that may drastically alter environments or spells that affect your deck such as duplicating and deleting cards. Spell cards have a purple border.
- Building cards allow you to place special buildings that can not be built in any other way, or perhaps build existing buildings without any cost. They are often used to improve your production lines, accelerate your early game, or provide a quick defense boost when you need it. Building cards have a brown border.
- Quest cards activate a quest for you and all other players in the game. The first player to reach the goal described in the quest will gain a bonus that is also shown on the card. Be careful, if other players get it done before you, you'll miss out on the reward! Quest cards have a golden border.
- Unit cards allow you to spawn one-off special units that will fight on your side or provide some other special benefit. Unlike your normal army units, these units cannot be produced any other way (unless you manage to steal one from your enemies with a spell!). Unit cards have a red border for fighting units, and a green border for the other units.
A few examples
The best way to make things clear is by showing some early examples!
- Healing Fire is an early-game card that provides healing to nearby units. Very useful for when it starts snowing and your units are freezing to death, or you are being attacked by a small group of bandits and need to recover.
- Lumberjack is an early-game quest card that provides permanent woodcutting bonuses to the first player that gathers 100 wood. If you're planning to go all-in on Wood (and get your other resources by trading, for example), this is the way to go!
- Firestorm has a name that says it all. Spawn fire near your enemies and watch it spread. Better hope they have no way to extinguish it! Firestorm also costs Mana Crystals, a resource often used for spells. It can be mined in some biomes, but not all.
- No good way of getting Mana Crystals? The Spellforge can help you out! It automatically produces the valuable crystals over time. It also has a special modifier that makes it run 20% more efficiently when in a magical environment. What that means is for another Devblog!
- The Mercenary comes with a hefty price tag, but is an excellent soldier. Need that extra oomph and have a few coins to spare? He's your guy.
- Mimic is a great combo spell. It casts your next spell twice. What's better than one firestorm? That's right. Two firestorms.
Also, if you're interested in following the development of Spellslinger Towns, or want to become part of our community, be sure to visit our Discord Server! Additionally, wishlisting the game would really help us out.
Over and out!