Current update: Descriptions descriptions!

Hey guys!

Still working on the game of course. And now that I'm so close to putting it out, I feel like I should change things again :)

Right now, we've got the 3 designations right? Fighter, Thief, Mage.

Though this makes the game easy to understand, I kind of feel like it makes it too simple for it's own good.

A couple times when I played it in the past, you could tell at certain points it was turning into values vs values, like "pull your biggest guy out and put them against the other guys biggest guy".

The thing is, the game is completely based around characters, and these characters have actual personalities and backgrounds. If the characters are shallow, the game is shallow. I feel their descriptions should dig a little deeper than Fighter/Thief/Mage.

Right now, my favorite option is adding sub-descriptions. You have the 3 main branches: Fighter, Rogue, Mage. Then, you add individual jobs or traits to that. For example, Auron would be a Fighter: Samurai, or Zidane a Rogue:Thief.

That would also make the composite characters easy, like Rydia a Mage: Black Mage, Summoner.

Of course, if I decided to do this, it would be more difficult to use icons, and I may have to rely on text. I messed around with the idea of using the FFV sprites, since nearly every job is represented in V. (It was also cool, because I could use a female character for the females, and actually print the characters gender on the cards for abilities like Edgar's that only affect a specific gender. And there was the issue of when I get to characters like Setzer, where the heck I would find a generic gambler sprite (besides Setzer himself, but really, that's sort of reaching.)

Just some thoughts, I'll post an update later. In the meantime, here's an updated spell. I've been working on them a little.

Reference Card

Just a short update today.

I made a reference card for the demo so players dont have to keep glancing back at the rulebook to play the game, just figured I'd share it with you guys.

Moving everything from the old format to the new is turning out to be pretty easy, I've got to do the art for the white magics cards and the relics, and the demo will be ready.

Demo Deck: Part 2 - Theives

So here's the second page of the deck.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RRZ403K8

"Thieves" is kind of misleading... all of the characters aren't thieves. Their icon is a thief just to show that they're the middle ground of the army. They don't have the high attack and defense totals of fighters, or the spells of mages. Typically, they're ranged attackers, ninjas, or thieves, with a stat total right in the middle.

I don't really know what to call them that groups them all together...
"Support units" are a decent designation, but that could be taken as 'healers', and that's hardly what they are. I'll have to think on it...

Anyway, here are the characters I chose, and why I chose them.

Yuffie x3
Irvine x3
Edward x2
Locke x1

Yuffie: Yuffie is in a main slot for versatility purposes. Being a new player with something like a hand full of spells and no mages is discouraging, so Yuffie helps fill this gap. Also, there's one summon and one real summoner in the deck, so Yuffie can help with this also.

Irvine: Irvine is in a main slot because he is the poster boy of ranged attackers. No other reason really. Maybe to show people the drawback of fighter characters like Kain with 1400 Defense.

Edward: Edward is a trial. Being a control card I think it would be interesting to see how he plays out. His stats are pretty low, and his ability requires a bit of board setup, so I thought the 2x slot was good for him.

Locke: Locke always gets to use leader abilities regardless of the stage, so he will give the new players more chances to play around with the leader stuff.

If any of you are reading out there, let me know what you think, and if these files are coming out correctly.

Demo Deck: Part 1 - Fighters

Well, you guys have waited long enough. It's true, the demo isn't completely done, but I will release the deck one piece at a time as I finish up.

The demo itself is made up of card sheets, each file will have 9 cards and you cut them out to play with them. You can just use the cutouts themselves as cards, though I would recommend sticking them in a card sleeve with another card backing them for easy shuffling.

(If you don't have card game cards lying around your house, go to any hobby store, and ask if they have cards from a dead game you can have or buy cheaply. Card sleeves aren't too expensive either, the best card sleeves are Dragon Shields, which are 10 bucks for 100 sleeves (enough for 2 demo decks) any sleeves will work though, no matter how shitty.)

Well anyway, here's the file:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B873ONBJ

You'll notice it's huge, nearly 50 megabytes. This is the complete uncompressed card sheet of 9 fighters, so if you print it out as is, it will be photo quality. (Honestly, it may rape your printer though, so if you're worried about ink, temporarily set your printer to draft or quick print, or whatever the option for lower quality prints is.

As far as the contents of the sheet, I'll tell you who I chose, and why I chose them for the deck.

Fighter's page

Cloud x3
I chose Cloud as one of the backbone fighters because of his straightforward nature. There are 4 different sword cards in the deck also, the deck seems like it's almost made for him to stack up on swords.

Auron x3
Auron is the premier fighter. I chose Auron in a main slot to break new players in to the idea of characters with higher defense than 1600. Magic and team-up attacks will have to be used to bring him down. Though you can't carry him over to the next battle, which wont make him a constant irritation.

Kain x2
Kain is the newbie's get out of jail free card. But there are only 2 because he's not very threatening once he's out.

Cecil x1
Cecil will be good to have around for the ranged and mage characters. Though, I don't think there are enough tools in the deck to deal with Cecil x3, so x1 is fine.

Of course, after releasing the deck in it's entirety, I will upload a playset of every card for download, even one's already included in the demo deck. So if you want to run x3 Cecil... damn you... but it can be done.

Then, as I release new cards, I will release them in the playset format (which is a file with 3 copies of a single card, the max you can have in the deck)

Also, if you download the file, and the cards are PURPLE, let me know, I'm having some issues with the color calibration of my monitor, so it's possible they'll come out this way.

I'll release the "Thief" type characters next.

Oh GAWD! It's back!

Did you miss me?
Bet you thought the game was done for.

In a way it is, all of the old files are lost, but I'm just going to re-do them. I've got a new template now though, so all it is is a matter of plugging in the art, text, and values.

Dry your tears, the demo is ON! Expect it soon. I never did get the OK to do the last card, so I'll have to sub it out.

In the meantime, let me show you a new card (with the new template)



Yuffie at her best. I love how Xaphania's piece transfers perfectly to card form. Great colors, and dear god... Yuffie being Yuffie. If I hadn't played the game, judging by a lot of the art I see, Yuffie would be as emo as Squall.

Check out Xaphania's site at xXaphaniax.deviantart.com. Definitely worth the look, she has a very distinct style, and doesn't limit herself to one type of art. Lots of fan-art, original characters, chibi art, also lots of line-art, which I thought was pretty cool. It's nice to see the in-between phase of art, being an aspiring artist myself.

(Though you probably wont see my art in the game, I don't think the world is ready for that yet :P )
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Cardwise, I'd like to think Yuffie is interesting. Thanks to her near-infinite materia collection, at the cost of 1 card, Yuffie can temporarily fulfill any role you need: Black mage, white mage, counter attacks, even...summon. For her versatility alone, I think Yuffie will be seen in a lot of decks, especially as new traits come out for her to create combos off of. She is somewhat weak though, being in the lower tier of strength as far as ranged characters go. She can't take out the average ranged character without help from equipment. However, her ability helps protect her from spells, which may offset this penalty.

So what do you think of Yuffie? The template? Let me know, yo.

Yeeaaowch! Seafood Soup.

So, I know updates have been few and far between, life is good though, I actually got a new computer!

The sad part is, that I have a new computer because the old one melted and got the blue screen of death.

Yeah, so all of the FFTCG files are sitting patiently on my non-booting harddrive.

Unfortunately, this means the game is on hiatus, because until I restore them, I can't work on the game anymore.

I could always replicate it, but I'd much rather design then replicate, so I'm working on a new project in the meantime. For any who are curious, it is at boticcg.wordpress.com.

Thanks for the support everyone! The game isn't dead, but it might be a little while before you see more updates.

BACK UP YOUR DATA, KIDS!

Toolbox your deck with Tools!

I've got to make an extra note on this one. Even though the card only focuses on the chainsaw portion of Aribuwana's Edgar fanart, you've got to check out the whole piece on Aribuwana's site at aribuwana.deviantart.com it's epic. As much as I wanted to use this piece for Edgar, EVERY old-school Final Fantasy fan is going to know the chainsaw, and how badass it was tearing through behemoths with a Jason mask on. I felt the piece was better served as the chainsaw relic, since it IS a really cool rendition of the chainsaw.

Overall, this is the best Edgar fanart I've seen on the internet; It even has a full shot of Castle Figaro. With the quiver for the autocrossbow on his belt and the forlorn Sabin in the background, you can tell the work was done by a real fan of the game. It was the background of my computer for awhile, definitely worth checking out. Aribuwana has also done a really good Terra, and has more FFVI on the way. Considering FFVI is my favorite Final Fantasy, I've got his art page bookmarked, you should too.
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Chainsaw is a card you'll probably be seeing for some time. Throughout the life of this game, you'll not find a more efficient way to deal with attached equipement and relics.

The only requirement to discard the equipped item is to tap the chainsaw. The character doesn't need to participate, and you still get the +200 regardless of what you do.
The best part about it, is that it will discourage other players from playing their own relics, because if they let Chainsaw stick around, they'll lose their relic the very next turn without any real effort from you.

Not really much else I can write about it, it's a toolbox card. A well-rounded deck will have an answer for any other type of deck and chainsaw is a good choice for attachment removal, which is useful vs. decks that have a lot of equipment and relic synergy.

If any of you were curious on the status of the demo, all I need are the rest of the relics and one more character. That's 7 cards total, but the relics should go quickly. At the very least, I CAN use official stuff, but I'd like to try to find some artists first.

Thanks again for reading all! Hopefully we'll be able to start talking card balance and gameplay soon :)