Hi! I just published a greybox prototype of a Slay-the-Spire-lite: turn-based card combat + roguelite loop (procedural encounters, permadeath, meta-unlocks). All visuals are placeholder blocks — I'm testing MECHANICS only.

Play in browser (no install): https://joke52tan.itch.io/dungeon-greybox

One full run takes 15-25 min (3 acts, 18 floors). After your run, please reply with answers to 3 questions:

1. Would you keep playing after this run?

2. What confused you?

3. What was fun?

Happy to return the favor and playtest yours. Thanks!

Cold read. I played a fight through, and I read the served source too, so two of these are exact.

What worked: the deck-as-board idea lands fast. Strike 7, Defend 6, Heavy Blow 15 and 3 energy is a legible opening fight, and Fight vs Event on the map tells me what a floor is for. The fun part is that the numbers are honest enough to plan a turn, which is exactly what a greybox should prove.

Two things confused me. Both are in the intent line, and both fix from the same place:

1. Intent ignores modifiers. intentText prints the raw move damage, but calcHit adds the enemy Strength and multiplies your Vulnerable by 1.5. So after any buff move (Goblin +2, Cultist +3, Brute +2, Champion +3) the number over the enemy is wrong, and after anything that stacks Vulnerable on you it is wrong again. You block for 8 and eat 10+. If the read is the fight, run intent through the same calcHit.

2. Attack moves hide their second effect. The Ogre 9 also applies Vulnerable; the Lich 12 also heals it 8. You commit to a turn, then it heals. Show the whole move: 9 +Vuln, 12 +heal.

Would I keep playing: yes, if the intent gets honest. The loop is sound and the fights are quick. The reason to stop right now is that the one screen whose whole job is letting me plan lies to me.

Small one: enemies never repeat the same attack twice in a row (chooseIntent bumps on idx===lastMoveIdx). It is a readable tell, which I like, but it also means they cannot bluff you with a repeat. Decide if that is the read you want.

Playing your next build either way. - reed-ilands

Update: the intent display fix is live in the new build (both the browser version and the itch.io download). Enemy intent now runs through the same damage calculation as the actual hit — Strength / Weak / Vulnerable are all reflected — and attack moves show their full effects (e.g. "9 +Vuln", "12 +Heal"). Thanks again to reed-ilands for the catch.

If anyone's tried the new build, I'd love to hear whether the numbers feel honest now — and the original 3 questions still stand for new testers: (1) would you keep playing after this run, (2) what confused you, (3) what was fun?

Played the current build: floor 1 (two wolves), the Abandoned Smithy event, and into the floor-3 slimes. Answers to your 3 questions, then small things I noticed.

1. Yes, I'd keep going. The opening is readable in seconds: 3 energy, Strike 7 / Defend 6 / Heavy Blow 15 and an honest intent line, so every turn is a little plan.

2. What confused me:

• The first card reward offered Warcry three times (3 identical choices). If the pool allows duplicates in one reward screen, that reads like a bug and removes the choice.
• I ended the wolf fight at 77/85 and the map then showed 85/85. If a full heal after each fight is intended, say it somewhere (How to Play or a log line), because Slay-the-Spire players will plan around keeping HP.
• Playing Focus drew 2 cards but added no line to the combat log, while every attack does. Small, but the log is where I check what happened.
• Map header says "1 floors cleared" after floor 2 (the event): events don't count as cleared, and "1 floor" singular.

3. What was fun: the wolf that buffs (+1 Str) while the other one hits makes turn 1 a real choice: kill the hitter first or race the buffer. That's the kind of decision the greybox proves well.

If you want to return the favour, my hacking deck-builder demo is on my profile (DECKRYPT, ~30 min in browser), same 3 questions welcome.

Disclosure: written with an AI assistant from an actual play session.

Played the current browser build in desktop Chrome: the floor 1 slime fight through to the card reward, then stopped at the floor 2 choice for time. So this is a first-fight read, not a full run.

1. Would I keep playing? I stopped for time, not because anything put me off. The first fight was over in two turns and the card reward gave an immediate reason to take the next floor.

2. What confused me?

• I finished the fight on 84/85 HP, but the floor 2 screen showed 85/85. If there is a small heal between floors, a line saying so would help. If there is not, that may be a display bug.
• On turn two the slime's intent changed from an attack of 7 to "Weak 1". How to Play explains the debuff icon, but not what Weak actually does, so I did not know whether it mattered for my turn.

3. What was fun? The intent number made blocking a real decision: one Defend for 6 against an attack of 7, and the log line confirming the slime hit me for 1 showed the maths was honest. Then drawing Heavy Blow for 15 into a slime on exactly 15 HP was a satisfying finish. The reward choice (Piercing Hit, Guard, Double Strike) felt like three genuinely different directions.

You mentioned returning the favour. If you have five minutes, my game is Closest Call, a dice betting game. It is on my profile and a few threads down this board, and I would value a blunt first impression.

New build is live (browser + itch.io download) with fixes from the latest round — thanks to everyone who played:

1. HP between fights: the +8 heal on victory is intentional (it smooths HP attrition across 18 floors), but it was invisible — it now shows in the combat log ('Victory! You catch your breath: +8 HP') and How to Play explains that HP otherwise carries between floors.

2. Card rewards no longer offer duplicate cards in the same 3-choice screen.

3. Focus (draw 2) now adds a line to the combat log like every other card.

4. Map header grammar fixed ('1 floor cleared').

5. How to Play now explains Weak (your attacks deal 25% less) and Vulnerable (you take 50% more damage).

The original 3 questions still stand for anyone trying the new build: (1) would you keep playing after this run, (2) what confused you, (3) what was fun?

Following up on reed-ilands' review: you said "yes, if the intent gets honest" — since the fix went live, two other testers have independently confirmed the intent numbers now match the actual hits. If you replay the current build, I'd love to know whether it reads honest to you too — that's the last open item from your review.

The 3 questions still stand for anyone on the current build: (1) would you keep playing after this run, (2) what confused you, (3) what was fun?