Version 1.12 of DragonClash has hatched. Now that the Silver Channeler has entered the fray, I took a closer look at all three decks and realized that Sheen, the Blue Adept, was underperforming. These kinds of balance issues are expected. Part of the advantage of launching in Early Access is that I can better evaluate the game in action, and tweak the balance knobs and levers.
Update 1.12 largely focuses on improving the Blue Adept (and especially Sheen - the Blue Adept AI) challenge, but it also includes some general AI improvements and a variety of bug fixes. The most amusing bug I found was that the Silver Dragon egg was caught photobombing a number of the Silver Channeler cards, appearing in the card art. I've sent it back to its fluffy little cloud, and it only shocked me four times en route. #Winning.
AI improvements and deck balance are items I will be constantly tinkering with throughout Early Access.
Version 1.12 Patch List Gameplay:
Buff: Constrict cost reduced to 2
Buff: Tail Slash rank 1/2 damage increase
Buff: Ice Blood (all ranks) damage increase
You may no longer play cards that require a Battle Value draw if you have 0 cards in deck.
AI Revisions:
Use of counters vs Tail Bash discard threat and Unlimited Power discard threat
Tail Bash - lethal discard preferences
Burst use vs Unlimited Power
Use of Jaw Snap
Defend/Reckless use
Constrict use
Blue Adept Aimed Strike use
Taunting Breath use
Blue Adept/Silver Channeler learning preferences
Ascend preferences
General hoarding cards preferences
Slayers use
Blue Adept melee attack use vs Silver Channeler
General attack preferences with essence cost and attack advantage factors
Bug Fixes:
Fixed: Player feasting on AI Egg scored two wins.
Fixed: Cards in discard may not (visually) be removed when Ascending
Fixed: Display issue with Blue Adept Young/Mature serpent avatars active/inactive states
Fixed: Silver Egg photo bombing Arcane Tattoo and Redirect full card artwork
Fixed: SFX for AI Ascending not firing
Buttons may sometimes reappear after clicking - Fix applied. Tracking.
Fixed: Siphon Life effect removed if Gift is discarded during same turn. Should last until end of turn
Fixed: AI using Reckless with 0 cards in deck
Fixed: AI Bloodlust use with Tail Bash not always factoring properly
Fixed: Player Aura Darts highlighting as usable in Safe range
Fixed: AI use of Bitter Chomp factoring attack advantage incorrectly
Brown Mauler: Coming "Soon" With the AI patch behind me, I will be jumping into the mud pit for some Brown Mauler development and learning the cherished brown dragon art of napping. Ok, not really...but really. Never wake a sleeping brown.
Unleash The Storm
Greetings, dragons!
I'm excited to announce that version 1.11 of DragonClash has arrived, and with it comes glorious new content in the form of the Silver Channeler deck! Pull up your own fluffy little cloud and let's dive right in...
ABOUT THE SILVER CHANNELER The Silver Channeler dragon is a master of magic attacks, employing a variety of wind and lightning spells to bombard opponents from afar. Not only is the deck centered around ranged attacks, but the Silver Channeler has access to a variety of ways to help manipulate range in combat, whether it's blowing defenders back with a Lightning Breath to the gut or swooping away for free with Extra Wings. He's not very defensive minded, with few counters and a soft body vulnerable to melee attacks. However, what he lacks in defense, he makes up for with speed! The Silver Channeler loves drawing cards, and his Quick Feints pair nicely with attacks like Wind Strike and events like Sage Towers to cycle through the deck faster than normal.
CONTENT INCLUDED
The Silver Channeler deck, with 5 new attacks and an array of new Gifts, Actions, and Counters.
Mizral, a new AI opponent to hunt
The Silver dragon lair, available to evolve from an innocent fluffy cloud into a tornado hell storm...with rainbows.
Oh, and a new milestone board with additional Silver-themed badges and ominous looking placeholders for the future. Ok, maybe not so ominous but mysterious none the less!
OTHER UPDATES IN 1.11
Gameplay:
Inferno Breath was changed to follow proper Combat phase order. The card drawn for Battle Value will now return to the deck before the Inferno Breath effect takes place. This means that it will, at minimum, always remove 1 card.
General AI pass for use of counters, gifts, training, resting, discarding, and burst cards. Will continue to monitor and tweak.
Bug Fixes:
Cleaned up old "On discard" and "On counter" references in Rules
Fixed display issue with background shading behind card zooms
Sage Towers will no longer activate if you have 10 or more cards in hand. 10 cards is the hard max.
Fixed display issue when AI recalled an attack card from the top of its discard pile during Shed Skin action.
Fixed milestone/achievement tracking when you kill an opponent with a qualifying ranked attack
Fixed milestone tracking for Double Jaw use
Fixed an issue with Tail Bash rank 3+ attacks causing the wrong phase to display in the phase counter.
Quality of Life:
Your selected dragon will now save when navigating back and forth between lairs instead of defaulting to Red Breather
Tweaked tooltip sizing for text content
Added additional prompts to help describe AI actions
Adjusted various timing pauses through turn process
Just A Nibble
Greetings, dragons!
Version 1.10 for DragonClash is just a small nibble. The Silver Channeler is still hatching, so the larger update I promised is currently incubating in development. However, in the meantime, I wanted to push out a few changes to address a couple of issues.
CARD HIGHLIGHTS - NOW FLAVORED The card highlights during the Use Actions phase were a little deceiving. If a hoard action was available to you, the cards in your hand highlighted, even if they couldn't be played normally. This behavior was correct, as there is technically an action available with each card. However, I wanted to more clearly indicate cards that could be played versus cards that could just be hoarded. With this update, cards that can only be hoarded will be highlighted with a tan and brown glow. If a card can be played, it will be highlighted in its normal green glow, as illustrated above.
OTHER VERSION 1.10 UPDATES A couple crash reports bubbled up this past week. I'm still trying to trace the player behavior/actions that triggered the crashes, so please do report those bugs you encounter. However, the fixes in this update should address the issues causing the crashes. I'll continue to monitor the game and address as needed.
Coming Soooooon (ish) Silver Channelers: They're only cute until they sew your jaw shut with magic. Ssshh!
Gameplay Tweaks & Decklists
Hello, dragons!
I'm happy to announce the release of version 1.09 for DragonClash. This update features the first gameplay tweaks, some bug fixes, and another round of Quality of Life improvements (partially based on your feedback). Thank you to everyone who has shared their experiences with me on social media and the Steam forums. Your feedback helps fuel these updates!
EVENT CARDS - GAMEPLAY UPDATE Event cards are very powerful and can significantly alter a match. Although they can always be countered with other Events, they are just as likely to sit for long periods of time fouling up attack strategies or skewing the natural strengths of a specific dragon breed beyond what was intended. With update 1.09, Event cards now come into play with a 10-turn timer. Those turns are combined (player and opponent) and once they expire, the Event is auto-discarded. I've really enjoyed this change in testing, as it keeps the battle feeling more fluid and places new importance on when to use the Events for maximum impact.
DECKLISTS - FINALLY Imagine wanting to view your deck before playing it - in a card game. Oops - this one was on me. Sorry! Update 1.09 corrects my brain fart. You can now browse each dragon's deck in their lair.
THE CRONE IS COMING So you're happily hunting Corlock and Sheen without a care in the world when (surprise!) The Crone shows up to crush your dreams. Well, now a new boss counter on the deck select screen will tell you exactly how many wins you have left before having to face The Crone. She'll still crush your dreams, though. Your tears are delicious.
OTHER VERSION 1.09 UPDATES
Fixed lost audio bug.
Fixed hidden milestone badges not displaying.
Fixed Burst not highlighting on opportunities after the first in a turn.
Fixed crash that can occur if attempting to Reckless counter when you have 0 cards in the deck.
Fixed Credits page missing/incorrect entries.
Essence gained from resting (i.e. not using Actions) has been changed from 5/2 to 3/1.
"End Phase" button changed to "Begin!" during Setup phase.
Number of wins needed to level each lair is now displayed.
Updated Effect and Counter card text to clarify use.
A prompt should now display if you try and draw a card past the hard max of 10.
Tooltips have been added and/or tweaked.
Added card highlights when a player has to discard cards.
The card counter for attacks now displays the current rank for that attack (i.e. effect modifiers are included).
Rules updated to reflect above.
Other smaller UI tweaks.
Unless a hot fix is needed to address any critical issues, the next update (1.10) will be a big one - the Silver Channeler will finally join the fray! If Falkor (Neverending Story) and the Emperor (Star Wars) had a love child, the Silver Channeler may be that child. Also, eew. Ride the lightning!
Until next time - happy hunting!
Integrating Your Feedback
Hello, dragons!
It's been a week since DragonClash released in Early Access. The great news is that it's been very stable overall, with very few bugs/crashes to report. It's good to see that all that work spent polishing and testing has paid off, and I hope you're enjoying hatching and battling with the Red Breather and Blue Adept decks. Have you managed to smite The Crone, yet?
I've been collecting community feedback during the past week, and some have expressed that the game has a high learning curve with the various new mechanics introduced in DragonClash. I expected that somewhat, and have been working to integrate your feedback into the game to help ease that curve a bit. To that end, I'm happy to announce that version 1.08 has been released, featuring a first round of Quality of Life improvements.
I'll be streaming some DragonClash, starting at around 10:00am ET (UTC -4), September 12th. Come join me on Twitch.
VERSION 1.08 FEATURES
Added a hand size counter for the player, for quick reference. The hand size counter (both AI and player) also includes max hand size for you Ice Blood lovers.
Added new tooltips, including Total Essence on the deck size counter. I'll be continuing to look at refining these and adding more where needed.
Added range icons to cards in hand and attack cards in play so you know what cards can be played in what range without clicking down into them. Reminder: range on attacks only matters when you're attempting them during the Attack phase. You can train an attack from ANY range during Use Actions, assuming you have the Tactics and Ability to do so.
Added card highlights. These will pop-up around various cards during the relevant phases to signal that you can use them, play them, or hoard them. They also appear around the attack card your opponent selects during its turn. I'll be continuing to refine the look/feel of this feature.
If you have the tutorial slides on (in the Options menu), the Age Card tutorial slide will now always appear when you open an Age card (instead of just the first time) as a helpful icon reference.
Added a "preview" on Age Cards that shows the dragon's next age and the stats that will improve once leveled.
A bunch of other smaller tweaks and refinements.
As I mentioned above, this is just the first round of improvements aimed at the New Player Experience. The next content update will include additional items like deck lists (yeah, I know - I'll admit brain fart on this one), a boss counter (so you know when The Crone is coming), the ability to turn Sage Towers on/off by spending actions (to aid your discard attacks), and more UI refinements based on community feedback.
And yes...more dragons are coming! Thanks everyone and happy hunting!
Early Access - Here We Go!
Hello, community!
DragonClash will be unlocking for Early Access on September 4th, but you can wishlist the game right now! Thanks to all you awesome early-adopters. DragonClash has been a passion project of mine for years and your support and feedback will help me refine the game, develop new features, and continue to add content for everyone to enjoy.
I'll be streaming some DragonClash on release day, starting at around 9:30am ET (UTC -4), September 4th. Come join me on Twitch.
HATCHING As you begin your own Early Access journey into the world of DragonClash, I'd like to highlight some of the game's current features:
Quick Match: Currently DragonClash features two decks, the Red Breather and Blue Adept. You can jump into the game by selecting either for your first match. Your standard opponent will either be Corlock (a Red Breather) or Sheen (a Blue Adept), chosen at random. You can start learning about the game, honing your strategies, and accumulating those wins simply by playing.
The Crone: The DragonClash Early Access releases with a repeatable boss fight. The Crone will challenge you after every 3 wins (across all decks). Can you withstand her ruthless barrage and unnatural taint?
Milestones: DragonClash currently features 55 milestone badges (in addition to 15 Steam achievements). You'll earn milestone badges simply by playing and trying different strategies. I'll be adding new milestones and tweaking existing ones (some are VERY hard to achieve) throughout Early Access. How many can you collect?
Lairs: The red and blue dragons each come with their own lair with 12 levels of improvements. Every 5 wins with a deck earns you a new level for that lair!
However, before mashing that Start button, I strongly recommend you take a few minutes to scan over the rulebook available in-game. I know...rules...BORING! However, DragonClash is a deep card game with many strategic mechanics that interlock. Before diving in, it may be wise to understand why you can't Claw Attack from Distant range, what your Tactics value is all about, or what the heck a Battle Value is used for.
The game does include tutorial slides that will pop-up during play to give you a very broad overview of the concepts (you can turn those off in the Options menu), but the rulebook will offer a deeper dive into the game mechanics. The new player experience is something I will be continuing to look at and your feedback will help me develop a richer tutorial experience (more on that below).
THE ROAD FORWARD I will be continuing to polish, refine and add new content to DragonClash throughout Early Access. Upon the game's release, my first priority will be ensuring a stable, bug-free experience. I've worked hard to polish the game, but bugs can/will probably pop up. I encourage you to use the Steam forums to report any issues you encounter so that I can properly track and address them.
However, once things settle, here are some of the short-term "next steps" I'll be looking at:
More Dragons: The Silver Channeler and Brown Mauler decks will be two of the first big content updates.
More Bosses: The Crone isn't the only major threat for your dragons to overcome.
Lair Improvements: The lair leveling system is just a beginning. I'll be looking at improving the customization experience to make lairs a real hub for your dragons.
UI/Art Polish: As with bug fixes, this will be an ongoing goal during development as I combine your feedback with my own observations to continue to refine, polish, and expand the game's user interface and overall look/feel.
Full Tutorial: I mentioned it above, but let's have a more candid chat...
TUTORIAL DEVELOPMENT Tutorials are a huge time and resource sinkhole, and they're often ignored or skipped by players. That's not an ideal combination. While it's obviously important to have some kind of new player experience, implementing a full-on tutorial match takes a large amount of custom graphical assets and scripting, because (by its nature) it needs to be a controlled experience that can introduce key mechanics at planned intervals.
The tutorial slides currenly in Early Access will offer a quick overview, but they are not the final solution. They, along with the full rulebook, are meant as a bridge while I collect feedback to focus resources on creating a more detailed experience. So, yes, please use the Steam forums to let me know what you'd like from a tutorial and, more importantly, what concepts and mechanics tripped you up initially! This will help me better formulate a development plan for tackling this.
GROWING DRAGONCLASH This is not the end, it's a beginning. While the Road Forward highlighted some of the short to mid-term items I'll be working on following the Early Access release, I also have much more I'd like to add as I expand the game offerings and the game world itself. Keep an eye here for more on those in the future and, once again, thank you and happy hunting!
