Runewards - Strategy Card Game Online
Runewards is a online strategy card game that allows players to battle each other on unique board, with three lanes (that we called Territories) that you can place cards in it based on Attributes called Strength, Agility and Intelligence.
Many of Runewards cards has unique mechanics, abilities and twists that allow you to flip the table on your opponent at any given time.
Lets start with the board itself:
Here you can see a board compose of three lanes (shown as brick-mortar composition). On the right you have Hero Frames which will have unique abilities that can be triggered once in the game. There are several static objects that eventually be visualized with special effects such as the Brazier bursting into flame when its your turn or turning into a different color when someone Passed. (The game has 3 Rounds and work as Best-of-three matches).
The card frame:
The card frame is compose of several elements.
1. The Power located on the upper left corner - We disliked the whole attack/defense mechanics we saw in other card games so we adopted a single number focus, allowing us to give stage to the abilities as key decider in the game.
2. The Attribute is based on Strength, Agility and Intelligence with each located differently on the gameboard (what we call a battlefield)
3. The icon of the eye in the bottom-center of the card is the rarity of the card. This one isn't new and familiar to many card-game players. The rarity structure is currently based on: Basic, Rare, Unique, Mythical.
Now for the Deck Builder:
The Deck Builder allows you to pick and choose cards base on Army you choose to play. Currently there are 3 Armies in the game - Monsters, Humans, Nature which has their own unique spells and units. Mercenaries are cards every player can pick and play in their deck.
We plan to allow players to craft and combine different cards to allow players to use existing cards they earn during the game and duplicates more efficiently. We haven't finish the Crafting mechanics/window yet.
Multiplayer window:
The Multiplayer window allow the player to pick which deck you want to play and what mode you choose (Ranked/Unranked). It also show you how many cards you have in deck - base on existing Units/Spells and the total rough Power estimation from it.
Main Menu:
For the Main Menu we went for Inn setting. We like the idea of a game being played in the Inn with friends and family. Runewards is at its core a card game so ...lets play it where you play card games! We want each button to be animated (Option, Shop, Deck Builder, Multiplayer, Single Player, etc...etc..) once you hover and click with mouse and zoom in into the appropriate window once you do.
This part is still in early development in Unity but the drawing is nearly complete and we are very happy with the result.
That's it for now. I'll continue to write more updates in here and hopefully get feedback from other developers and people as this progress along.
Finally, this is my favorite part. Unit artwork!
Galrin Ironfist - Mythical Mercenary Dwarf.
Rhinomer - The Rhino Warlord.
Archmage Leshar - Hero Frame Artwork.
Kraken - Unique Nature Unit.
When we first started developing assets for the game, we made 2D artwork of the gameboard, the deck builder and the cards themselves. We quickly realize it was not enough. We wanted to convey the feeling of an actual TCG as much as possible and we made the decision to go fully 3D soon after. While it certainly make our lives a bit harder, after we got the first 3D models in the game it was worth the wait and work for it.
Some more artwork with card frame this time.
When we thought about how to represent the rarity of a card, we wanted it to be in phases, as the icon slowly "evolve". This is the end result.
From top to bottom:
Basic
Rare
Unique
Mythical
The Power icon was also in debate for awhile. We wanted an icon we could also animated later to really let it stick out. Eventually we will apply FX to the colors.
Left to Right: Nature, Monsters, Humans and Mercenaries.
Audio and Music - Hey, everyone love some good sounds, right? We decided from the very beginning our game going to be fully voiced, with every card being placed on board saying a quote or two (Actually we've came up to 5 quotes per a card, but who counts). It's been a very interesting experience working with Voice Actors/Actress and even pleasantly surprising to see how easily they share jobs between each other if you need different voices for different types of characters.
That allowed us to reach many VO's very quickly and even have multiple versions for each character if we want to be extra-picky.
We are making sure to Master each and every sound during the process, adding special sounds if needed. I'm still waiting to see how the Goblinosaurus would sound like but I suspect it going to be GLORIOUS.
This voice is one of the cards above, Azure Enchanter.
The game is in a phase where its already playable and most of the cards are already coded and working. The most heavy-work right now in developing Runewards is the network code and protocols. Creating the matchmaking system, integrating leaderboards, using Google Protocol Buffer, building a login and player profile and so on.
While most of the scripts are done, there a lot more to test/refine and double/triple check. I'm hoping to release some alpha versions than to family and friends to try out and share experiences with.
Disclaimer: I've copy/pasted most of the work so far i've done in TIGSOURCE Forums. I'd like to reach more people if possible to hear feedback and ideas, if possible, during the game development.
Thank you,
-Talos
