Ok, since I do have something to announce this time, let me get it out the way first: You can now download a demo of the game on itch.io:
More on that below in the progress report, but first...
A look at different map systems for deckbuilders
Most deckbuilders handle progression from battle to battle via some kind of map. As one of the pioneers of the genre, the map of Slay the Spire seems to be the template most other games build on - and indeed so I have I in Life Altered:
(side note: looking at it side by side, I am annoyed at how much more visual clarity the StS map offers to my own design - I'll have to rework that)
You have your basic branching paths with map nodes that are filled with different type of rooms by a hidden algorithm (you have to make sure that certain room types do not cluster in some areas for example) and players can plan their way through it, giving some choices over the sequence of battles and other content they will encounter. One of the short-comings of this system that I have heard mentioned is that it often enough only seemingly gives players a choice. Yes, you can make some risk-reward type choices, but there a mechanisms in place that will balance out some paths (like a rising probability that question mark rooms will contain a battle, if you visit several of them in a row). Still, I have played StS for many hours and had many situations where I chose the wrong path and ended up losing my run, because I risked too much.
I think this map system works well for Slay the Spire, because it is perfectly tailored and balanced to battle length, gameplay variety and run length. It takes me around 10 minutes to get through one stage in Slay the Spire and less than a minute per battle. Now that I have a playable stage in my own game, I can compare. It takes me around 20 minutes to get through that first stage in Life Altered and more than a minute per battle - and that's with perfect knowledge of all the dice creatrues and enemies and what they do. I could draw the conclusion that I should work to shorten my battles somehow, but I do like the flow of them actually and it's nice that I didn't create a carbon copy of Slay the Spire accidentally.
So is the Slay the Spire template really the best map type for my game? Let's look at some examples of games that use different map systems - that will maybe give me some ideas about whether or not to change my own system (it also gives me an opportunity to write about two of my favourite games of all time: FTL and Into the Breach).
Into the Breach Map
Just like everything else in this game, the map system is beautifully simple. You have a number of map tiles and can choose to engage with any that are touching the tile you currently occupy. You can see the rewards for clearing a mission and a mouse over popup gives you mission details. This gives you the ability to choose the types of missions better suited to your play style as well as go for the resources you are most in need of. The kicker is: After you cleared a certain amount of missions (I think it's 5) all remaining map tiles get destroyed and you play the boss battle. This ensures a certain limit on play length and it's easier to balance while still giving players meaningful choices.
This probably won't work for Life Altered however. Into the Breach has only one type of 'room' - a battle. I suppose I could find a way to work event rooms and treasure rooms into that system, but I'd have to work around my story as well (which is 'try to work though that infected area to see what is at its center' and not 'go in any direction you please for x turns and then do a boss battle').
FTL Map
An earlier game from the same developer as Into the Breach (Subset Games). FTL kinda has two map systems - one for jumping from sector to sector and one for choosing planets in that sector. I'm mainly interested in the latter. Each round you can choose to go to any planet (or point of interest) within your ship's reach. They might contain a battle or an event or a shop (you often don't know). But each time you move, the enemy fleet hot on your tail get's closer and thus eliminates some planets from being reachable. From what I understand this has been a feature that many players claimed to dislike, but every playtest Subset Games did showed that the game became more boring without it. You simply needed something to keep players moving.
I really like that I can go anywhere and I also enjoyed calculating if I can make the three hops to reach planet x over on the other side of the map before the fleet gets to it. What I didn't like is often not knowing what the planets would have in store for me. It made many choices meaningless because one planet seemed to be as good as another (that's how I remember it anyway, it's been a while since I played FTL).
This system could work for Life Altered with some efforts, I think. I have toyed with the idea of letting players freely roam the map and clear every map node if they wish. I could balance it by making the final boss a tiny bit stronger with every map node a player visits, thus punishing players who take overly long to explore a map (which they would counter by getting more loot this way). But it does invite play session times that are really long and it introduces a 'fear of missing out' element: Some players will feel the need to clear all tiles even though it isn't fun to them, making the game feel grindy.
Monster Train Map
Another simple but effective one. In Monster Train, you get to choose between two paths after each battle. This only influences which type of rewards you get and not which battle will be next. One path might have money, a unit upgrade shop and a card removal service. And the other path could have an artifact, a random event and a spell upgrade shop. It's easier to balance and it gives players the opportunity to lean into their preferred playstyle (like relying more on spells than units for example). A possible downside is that you lose any long-term planning of paths you want to take like in FTL or Slay the Spire.
Interestingly, Monster Train has battle lengths that are more in the range of Life Altered than Slay the Spire. The battles in Monster Train feel heavier (for good and bad) than battles in Slay the Spire. I could definitely see this working for Life Altered as well. It would also be really easy to control run length in general (you can very easily add or remove a battle). However, I never quite liked that map system when playing Monster Train. Unfortunately, I can't put my finger on why...
Let's leave it at that for now. I'll play my game some more and think about ways to improve my map.
August 2025 Progress Report
August has been spent checking every enemy, every dice creature, every ability and every event for bugs, inconsistencies and balancing issues. It was a neat reminder of how much content I managed to put into the game in these last 20 months (if you take into account that I can devote on average 2 hours per day to work on the game). But man do the bugs accrue after a while. I must have fixed over a hundred bugs in that month. This was all in an effort to get to a point where I can put out a demo of the game with a ceratin level of quality. I still hesitate to put it on Steam however (even though that would be my best bet for visibility), because I think there are a bunch of things that players here would expect (settings customization, better animations and sound effects, ...) and I want my demo to receive favorable reviews on Steam when I do put it out. So I'll just see what the next couple of months bring and if I get any feedback on the itch demo.
Here's that link again:
https://pychogames.itch.io/life-altered
And if you prefer to play it in the browser, you can do that here:
https://gx.games/de/games/80txcq/life-altered/
(I'll try to make it browser playable on itch, too, but I think the game's assets are a bit too large. We'll see.)