So, instead of spamming more PAX preview threads, I'll post them all here as any more come up. I'll kick off with this nice video of the game (and Ben commenting): http://www.screwattack.com/shows/or...ness/pax-12-card-hunter-developer-walkthrough and here's a bunch of great previews: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/04/card-hunter-combines-tabletop-gaming-with-digital-magic/ http://www.examiner.com/article/pax-2012-card-hunter-hands-on-preview http://www.dorkadia.com/2012/09/04/dungeons-dioramas-card-hunter-at-pax-2012/
Julian was kind enough to talk about the game very nicely on the Gamers with Jobs podcast (and right at the start too!) http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/113068
That video was really helpful, it explained many of your key features and even answered a couple questions I'd had (Yay I now understand turns and passing). It also illustrates things you can't easily explain. The game play is really fast, for some reason I was imagining much longer turns, but I could easily see completing a module (or more) in one sitting now. The interface does a pretty nice job with the details a player needs (though I'm a little curious how it scales to smaller screens). You've included the log already, which is excellant, so you can easily view cards used against you. Great for learning the game. Multiplayer looks interesting, but for some reason single player seems like crack right now. I could see playing alot of it. Though I imagine when I've played enough, and modules are getting repetitive, than multiplayer will open up. Once I've played single player like crazy, I'd have a lot of items, what to do with them? Try multiplayer deckbuilding out. Your collection model means that a player will not only pick up experience and techniques from the single player campaign, but actually earn the items they need for it. That's damned clever.
The PAX demo was that easy fight shown in the video, and then a tougher boss fight against a dragon. I think it took me about ten or fifteen minutes all told to get through, so yeah, it's tactical AND nice and quick to play.
I can hear the barest slivers of music from 11:55 to 12:10 of that video! There are some very interesting and important concepts that I completely missed at first; passing first giving you first move, for instance. Even more hyped.
Was Gamespy posted yet? http://pc.gamespy.com/web-games/card-hunter/1225945p1.html Because this has, I think, an important quote: "That is a very, very clean table." Blue Manchu, have you been derelict in properly cluttering up the play table? Edited P.S.: I would be sorely tempted to double-post right now, because I just watched that initial video. And . . . Gary? GARY?!
Sir Knight, come on. It's gotta be Gary. Couldn't be anyone else. We should have seen this coming from the beginning. Gary was born for this spot. If it was anyone else I think the game would fall apart at it's very seams and the chaotic nature of the dice gods, which have been rumored to exist in these very forums, would cast their dice of fate, destiny, and chance. If Gary didn't have this place in the game the dice gods would appoint him to govern the later levels of the game, and absolutely ruin you with earth-shattering abilities such as the classic "Rocks Fall" skill employed by only the dungeon masters with the largest amount of audacity and guile. Gary belongs. Gary 2012.
I noticed in the Screw attack video that those who are attending PAX can already sign up for the beta. Any chance of knowing when those who couldn't attend sign up? I am really interested in playing.
I hadn't heard of the game at all until http://indiemegabooth.com was updated with the lineup of games that would be there. As soon as I looked at the description there, I knew the game would be a must play. Would the game be as good as the description? It was! I played through the single player demo on Friday, fighting through some easy enemies and a dragon that was balanced with my three character party. For vanquishing the dragon I got a physical D20. Later in the weekend, I was reading the blog entries on the site and read that there were other prizes. I'd already wanted to play the game again and the chance of other prizes made it the top priority on Sunday to get to the booth and try out the game again. A friend felt the same way and joined me. While waiting for some folks to finish up their gameplay, we got into a conversation with Farbs, who told us about some of the other features of the game that weren't in the demo. For example, in addition to the single player game that has at least 25-30 different levels to get through, there is also a multiplayer game that has (at least) two players going head to head. He said he had wished that since we were both already experienced single players that we could be set up to try out the multiplayer. As luck might have it, two players on computers right next to each other finished their games at the same time, and my friend and I got to play the multiplayer game head to head. In multiplayer, everything is balanced. Each person has the same three character party. Your pieces have a white bottom while your opponent's have a black bottom. The goal is to get to a set number of victory points before your opponent by either killing your opponent's characters or occupying squares in a four square space in the center of the board at the end of a round. There are a couple of other play mechanics in the multiplayer game that were not in the single player demo. One of them that was slightly frustrating was that there are trait cards that can either weaken or strengthen your character that you must play before you can continue. One of those cards as an example was a Trip card that has you trip and fall and you can't move that character's piece for the entire round. Another that I didn't see in the single player demo was the All-Out Attack card which made the game interesting in the final moments when I had two stackable All-Out Attack cards and a powerful axe blow that depending on the dice roll could have critically wounded two of my friend's characters at once. The gameplay experience in both the single player and multiplayer modes that was demonstrated was very clean and already polished and the game hasn't even reached beta state yet. I've always looked for games that bring the tabletop experience in a digital form and this is the first game that I can really say delivers that experience in an intelligent way but doesn't change it to the point where it doesn't feel like you are playing a digital version of a tabletop game. Card Hunter was the biggest surprise and highlight of PAX for me so I definitely look forward to the possibility of playing the game again in the future!
Eminus! You are quite the lucky man, not only for receiving one of the D20 prizes, but also for getting to try out the multiplayer. That seems like a pretty special thing. I'm admittedly quite jealous. You were talking about the cards that you must play before you can continue. What made you play them? I'm pretty sure there's a pass mechanic that makes it so something like you're describing wouldn't happen. Glad to hear that you enjoyed it, looking forward to playing the game myself sometime soon hopefully!
The trait cards had to be played. No pass or discard allowed. Made the multiplayer game a bit more interesting.
Hmmm. That's interesting news. Did any of the Blue Manchuians give you a reason for this? Or were you sort of off playing the game away from them? That information may have been in the Dev Diaries, but I can't recall anything at the moment. It seems odd that this card type must be played, unless there is a specific reason for it (aside from making multiplayer require a bit more thought). Edit: Ohh, trait cards are a lot like the empty hand cards, or cards that are attached to weapons that provide a negative effect, so as to balance the weapon. When you said trait cards I immediately thought racial traits or something along those lines. My bad. Yeah, I'm glad those cards are included. Sorry for my misinterpretation of your post.
From Penny Arcade today: "My favorite game of PAX 2012 was Card Hunter. There is no pause between the question and the answer. Card Hunter now, Card Hunter forever." Awesome!
As far as I can tell, the symmetrical party thing was just for the demo. Multiplayer in the "finished" game (and likely in beta) will almost certainly allow for deckbuilding and customization: that's kind of the point of the game! Yep! I can't remember what the official name of those "must play black cards" are, but we've been referring to those on the forums as "drawbacks". The really old dev diary that talks about those can be found here. I agree that it seemed like the single player demo didn't have any of those, but the multiplayer portion definitely did: my Wizard had to play a Trip at one point, and I think Farbs' Warrior got hit with a Dropped Guard. It was keen.
I can speak to "Trait" cards, those mysterious black-colored cards which had taunted us forum-goers for so long. Here: http://www.cardhunter.com/2012/03/mystery-cards-revealed/ Scroll to "Slippery," the first black card. And ABSORB.
So, yeah, we've been juggling exactly what traits are for a while now. I will try to write another diary explaining the revised system soon.
Whoever that was explaining things in the ScrewAttack video has a savory voice. I loved my first real look at the game in play, though I was frustrated at the order in which he played the cards. Noooo~! Don't play that, play fireball. Fireball! Don't move there! Augh!
Ah! Thank you Sir Knight, I appreciate you finding that for me. I didn't remember what they were called, it has been a good bit of time since I read that Dev Diary. Going through all of the pages of posts searching "trait" didn't yield anything. I have now ABSORBed the content in that post and look forward to seeing the revised system soon.
Another preview from Pax: http://kotaku.com/5941400/i-cant-wait-to-play-more-of-this-role+playing-deck+building-mashup
Finally some gameplay footage! I haven't really been a gamer for the past year, but this game is definitely making me want to come out of retirement.