The Hand System

So this post is going to cover a bit of how the card system actually works in GutsyGrid and how you can launch your very own sweet attacks.

As soon as the player enters a battle he gets dealt a five card hand from his deck

Each card will be displayed via it's icon as seen above (again, this is filler art and even the UI is just really a placeholder for now). Each card is bound to a key (A S D F G by default).By pressing the keybinding of a card, the player will launch the attack the card actually contains. Upon using a card, it will be discarded from his hand and the player will have to wait a very small cooldown period until they can use their next card (based on the individual card).

Once a player has used three cards, the remaining two cards in the hand are discarded and the player is dealt a completely new hand. This was decided for a multitude of reasons. 

The first being that players must actively choose the best cards for the situation. Unlike Mega Man Battle Network players will NOT have pauses mid-battle to choose their cards. This means that the player will actively have to decide the best cards for the occasion, while dodging enemy attacks. There will be certain situations where a player has five cards that he or she wants to use, but they will be forced into choosing the best possible three. This is especially important because a key goal for the player in GutsyGrid is to finish battles as quickly as possible

The second is that some cards in GutsyGrid are fairly situational. Some cards will trade off versatility for pure power. A melee card that hits the tile in front of you will deal way more damage typically than a full row projectile. If the player had to use all the cards in their hand to get a new one, they'd find themselves in situations where using certain cards. Using a card for no reason other than to get a new hand feels shitty and doesn't provide much of a game play experience. By ensuring that the player can pass on using two cards in their hand, we minimize how much

The last reason for this is that it allows a player to likely see more cards in their deck in an average battle. Because a player will use three cards out of five and than cycle to the next hand there will be an increased probability of them seeing different cards in their deck.

These reasons and some play testing is what led to this design decision. This system was originally designed in the prototype for GutsyGrid (BATTLE ARENA!), a game I created for a class. The three card limit actually came from my good buddy Zach Fand and I actually shot it down. After much debate and a little testing I realized he was right and my arguments against it were weak and not especially relevant.

So yeah,

Paul

So what is GutsyGrid?

GutsyGrid is a game I started really developing about 6 months ago.  There's a lot of history on GutsyGrid, but I'll save that for another post farther down the road.

So what is GutsyGrid? It's an action/trading card game hybrid, highly inspired by the Mega Man Battle Network Series.

This is a current in game screen shot of GutsyGrid (Note that all pieces of art/UI are placeholders!)

The goal of the game is to eliminate all enemies. The battlefield is typically split in two halves, the player can move onto blue panels while enemies typically can move on red panels. Battles are entirely real time, the only pauses being for the actual pause button and rarely on attacks.

In order to defeat enemies the player must use cards! Before a battle the player sets a deck of thirty cards. These cards invoke wildly different attacks when used. For example one card might be a shot that paralyzes enemies, while another might warp enemies off the battle field for a set amount of time, while another might be a highly damaging melee attack.

As seen in the above screen shot, the player gets a "hand" of five cards at a time. Upon using a card, it is discarded from the hand and the player cannot use it again. Upon using three cards the entire hand is discarded, allowing the player to draw a new hand of five cards from his deck. Once the entire deck is drawn, the discards are shuffled and the player once again draws a new hand. I'll actually be writing more about the hand system tomorrow, and why these systems are set in place.

That's really the basics of GutsyGrid, but before I end this post I want to talk about the first playable demo.

The first real demo will be done April 19th, and I'm unsure if I'm willing to let it be freely downloadable.

Regardless the demo will include:
15 Cards
6 Enemies
1 Boss
The World Map Mode
Deck customization

So far I have
13 Cards
6 Enemies
And the world map partially done, so I'm right on track. I'm also hoping to get a lot more polish on the game (number balancing, better art).

So yeah, thats GutsyGrid.

Paul