Good one, I'll try it again later down the line to see how it progresses.
I really like the setup, the graphics, and the all around LBP/Unravel vibe. It's a cute aesthetic and the other elements that come down the line fit into the theme too - like the binding mechanics (and the other card morphs) are cool, both as gameplay but also the satisfying animation that creates the morph action. I like some of the fresh card types and their design, and some of the relics too. There's also a good bit of satisfying moments, visual plus sound - deck shuffles comes into mind - all these tiny details add up <3
You might want to test it on ultrawide; and don't worry, a lot of big title don't do this and it's an early build too. The end turn button action area being off by 60-70%, I have to click someone top right of the button or outside the button to get the hover click action. And on the very same topic, the map shows nice in the midle, I can see how much it was done for the FHD, but the edges of the screen are white. And there's some other overlays that don't cover the screen well on ultrawide. If you don't want to optimize for this, you can lock the title on full hd even on ultra wide, and have black left/right, rather than have the game be visually broken.
We really like Slay the Spire 1/2, I had a joke on your stream that we called Steamdeck "the Slay the Spire machine", bought the boardgame too. With this disclaimer out, I felt it was a bit 2 much like STS, from tooltips, to actions, to map and even the encounter/rest icons. Now this was a good thing for me to test the game, I felt at home, but as the game dev goes on maybe you could stray a lil bit more out of STS so I don't get this insta vibe that it's a 1-1 copy (I know it's not, it's just 2 familiar on some parts).
All in all, a well thought take on the genre that has it's own DNA, keep at it and good luck with development.
Cheers!
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Ah yes, the ultra wide issue is known, thank you for bearing with it! I definitely need to do as you suggested and lock the resolution to HD to avoid the myriad of issues you have described.
It has been a constant battle to move away from StS (which is clearly what everything was originally based on) but I have done my best to pull from different inspirations so that it doesn't feel SO much like StS. For example, the buttons were inspired by the purple seals from Balatro, the binding mechanic was inspired by the fusions from Yugioh, the more simplistic card effects were inspired by Dominion, the archetypes were inspired by Magic the Gathering, and the transform cards were sort of a combination of meld cards from MTG and concepts from hearthstone. But at the end of the day, the gameplay still feels like StS. So I would definitely be open to any ideas to help it feel a bit different, or alternatively if there are any gripes or things you don't like about StS maybe I can differentiate by addressing those issues ;)
Thank you so much for giving it a try, especially in suboptimal conditions. I definitely value the feedback from StS fans, as ultimately, I really do want to make a game that is interesting enough for StS fans to try.
Dominion <3 Didn't even knew there was a Steam game, we do have the old boardgame, 10/10.
Don't undersell your game (I would totally do the same haha), it's in a good shape and it has it's own DNA like I said. And bugs be bugs, always from 0.1 to 1.0 right? And it's normal to get inspired too.
It was mainly where all the tooltips, flow, intents, map design and icons. Hell, even Slay the Spire 2 (I know you're avoiding it for now, you said it on stream) looks way too much like Slay the Spire 1 for my taste. I wish they took a bit of a risk and innovated a tiny bit more.
On the other hand Monster Train took the recipe and added some of their things over STS1 (clear direct inspiration) to a point where it didn't feel like STS1. That's what I meant. Sadly if I had any good ideas on how to spin STS1, I would try it myself haha, but I don't.
But I'm sure you'll find it piece by piece, especially after you are done with the 'base' game and ask yourself - NOW WHAT?
Good luck my friend, fingercrossed!