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Shattered Realms – a free faction card game (vs AI / hot-seat). Looking for feedback on balance and feel!

A topic by FadeAwayToday created 25 days ago Views: 144 Replies: 6
Viewing posts 1 to 3

Hi everyone! I’ve been building Shattered Realms, a Hearthstone-inspired card game you can play right in your browser, and I’d love some fresh eyes on it.

How it works

  • Pick two of 11 factions: Vampires, Aliens, Dinosaurs, Plants, Fungus, Zombies, Dragons, Demons, Divine, Robots and Radioactive.
  • Your 60-card deck is built from those two factions.
  • Each faction plays differently:
    • Dragons set enemies Burning.
    • Demons pay with their own Health to summon bigger Demons.
    • Dinosaurs ramp with Primal Mana, but Extinction wipes their board every 7 turns.
    • Radioactive auras slowly drain everything around them.
  • Every faction pair unlocks its own Fusion Hero Spell. There are 55 of them, charged up as you use your Hero Spells.
  • Quick Play cards let you react during your opponent’s turn.
  • You can play vs the AI, or hot-seat with a friend on one device. It works on desktop and on phones, held either way.

👉 Play it here: Shattered Realms TCG

What I’d love feedback on

  1. Balance: does any faction or pair feel too strong or too weak? Which combos did you try?
  2. First game: was it clear what to do? Did the faction guides and card text explain things well enough?
  3. The AI: too easy, too hard, or did it make any silly plays?
  4. Feel: do the animations, sounds and Quick Play moments feel satisfying, or does anything drag?
  5. Bugs: anything that broke, looked wrong or got stuck. Your device and browser help a lot.
  6. Mobile: if you played on a phone, how was the portrait or landscape layout?

Even one sentence helps: tell me your favourite faction pair, or the card you hated playing against. I read every comment and I’m updating the game regularly based on what players say.

An Android app is on the way, with online matchmaking and ranked play coming after that.

Thanks for playing! 🃏

AI-assisted browser playtest from NextGenRunGames: I followed How to Play into a first match vs AI. The guide clearly states the 30-to-0 goal and breaks out mana, card types, Taunt, traps, Quick Play and ending a turn. My opening hand was The Crimson King (7), Blood Shield (1) and Werepyre Abomination (8); after the first draw I also had Vampire Gargoyle (3). At 1 mana I couldn't put either minion down, and Blood Shield reads as damage prevention for a friendly Vampire, so I reached turn one without an obvious proactive board play. Is that quiet opening intended, or could the mulligan/first-turn guidance make a playable early option clearer? I didn't test the hero spells, later turns, AI difficulty, faction balance, sound or mobile, so I can't assess those yet.

I have fixed the problem, let me know if you have any more issues. I look forward to more of your feedback! Thank you for helping me improve the game!

Thanks for the update. In this AI-assisted follow-up, I tried Blood Frenzy on my hero during another VS AI opening and saw Health go from 30 to 29 and Attack become 2. That gave me a first-turn action I hadn't tested in my earlier report. I also found the starting-hand swap option. I haven't assessed opening-hand consistency or broader balance yet.

yes that’s what the hero spell does. It makes you lose 1 health and have 2 attack you can use to attack enemy minions or a hero 

The 11-faction system sounds really interesting! 🎮 Which faction combination has been the hardest to balance so far? 🔥

(+1)

We've got 12 now! I just added Bees! Hardest has been anything with Dinosaurs. i had to come up with the primal mana system to make that passive work (they get 1 extra primal mana every turn but primal mana can only be used for dinosaur cards was my solution)!