Hey everyone, I'm part of the team working on Paper Strike, a 3v3 arena game where you draw runes to cast spells. I'm starting this thread to share progress on the game.

I wanted to begin with the casting system. Your character has to stand still while you trace a rune, and a faster melee attack can interrupt you. You might know exactly which spell you want, but still need to get some distance before you can finish drawing it.

That gives the gesture a place in the fight itself. Learning the rune matters, but so does spotting an opening to use it.

The current free demo is available for Windows and macOS. It includes a tutorial and three modes: King of the Hill, Crystal Rush and Team Deathmatch.

We also recently fixed a scoring issue after reworking the game modes. The leaderboard had been stuck at zero. It now adds up your personal points across the three rounds of a run.

You can try the demo here: Paper Strike on itch.io.

If you've played it, what took more getting used to: drawing the runes, or finding time to cast during a fight?

Making the caster stand still is a nice way to turn the rune into a positioning question instead of just a memory test. I haven't played the demo yet, so I can't say which part clicked slower for me. From the design side, though, the interrupt rule only feels fair if players can read the threat coming, so a clear windup on the fast melee attack probably matters as much as the rune shapes themselves. It might also help to let newer players cancel a half-drawn rune cleanly without a long penalty, so getting interrupted teaches them to find space rather than just feeling punished. In 3v3 a teammate peeling for the caster could become its own little skill, which sounds fun. Good call fixing the leaderboard too, a stuck zero score kills motivation fast.