GameDev Weekly: 7 September 2020
It's been a while.
Reducing Scope
The previous plan was to create a turn-based tactics card game. I've removed the "tactics" part so now it's going to just be a turn-based card game. The "tactics" can be a new game in the future.
Back to TypeScript
To keep it a short, I've stopped using Rust and went back to TypeScript. There are lots of reasons for this, but it comes down to using the tools I'm familiar with. I wasn't enjoying the long-term workflow with Rust. It felt slow and clunky. The ecosystem felt too young and still figuring things out making it difficult to know what was correct. These are of course growing pains but it was taking too long and I wasn't sure if it would pay off.
I know that tying my games to web browsers is a bad idea in the longer term. But it's a nice problem to have. Best thing to do right now is to work in the short term and get some progress.
Placeholder Art
I made the mistake of using proprietary art for placeholders which may make things problematic to share. So first thing I'm doing next is replacing all of the art with my own programmer art. It won't look pretty but that's reality and I hope to improve over time. Until I've done that, I can't really share images or videos.
Basic Flow
I've got the basic battle system for the player done. That is:
- Start
- Draw cards until hand is full.
- Wait for turn.
- Select cards from hand.
- Activate cards and discard.
- Shuffle discard pile back into draw pile.
- Back to 2
All cards have the same effect (10 damage) and there's no animation; things just teleport around. There is an animation system in place, but disabling animations saves a lot of time. Core mechanics are the focus right now.
Next Up
I'll be adding a dumb "AI" for the enemy next so the battle system actually resembles a battle.
Thanks for reading.