Dramatically changing the shape of the game

I had an idea during a trip to Las Vegas last month: what if I made a deckbuilder where you had to gamble your hand to get the outcome you want? 

This idea sounded pretty cool, so I went ahead and made a prototype! You would select four cards from your deck and spin a wheel to see what card you would be able to use. There was an energy mechanic to force you to choose between a bunch of mediocre cards or one great one and a few bad ones.

Well, the outcome was mixed. Most players responded that the idea was cool, but the actual gameplay was frustrating. You had a 25% chance of getting what you wanted, so most turns were just wasted. It resulted in poor pacing and novelty that wore off quickly.

I redesigned the prototype into something a little different. I moved closer to the standard deckbuilder system, but I didn't want to do a 1v1 battle. My solution was pretty radically different from where I started.

In the new version, you control a small party who use cards on your behalf. I added a bunch of features that were not present in the original version, like stats and names to individualize your units, and targeting mechanics based on your unit's position on the field. I was able to reuse most of the card functionality, though, so I got the new version ready in about two weeks.

This version is purely a test of the combat prototype, so it will loop infinitely until the player loses. Give it a try and let me know what you think! I have a feedback form linked on the game's page and within the game itself, if you feel inclined to help improve the game further.

Otherwise, I will continue working, and share future plans in a future devlog. Thanks for reading!