Lord of the Rings Battlecards

[DanielPower]

Hi, I just played my first few matches. The mechanics are very well done, and I'm pretty impressed with the AI. I have run into a few issues though.

1. Consider handling AI on a separate thread so that the game doesn't completely freeze while waiting for the opponent to think.
2. Allow the player to see their cards on their opponent's turn.
3. Especially since the game has a fixed resolution, it should not force fullscreen.

Bug: This happened to me on my very first match, though I wasn't able to reproduce it on further matches. I played Aragorn with the default auto-choose deck. On my first turn I did nothing (I didn't yet know how to play). On my second turn I did nothing again. Once I had a full hand, I finally sacrificed a creature, and started playing cards from my hand. After this though, I did not receive any new cards from my deck at the beginning of my turn. I eventually had to quit to the menu and start a new match, since my hand was empty and I was not getting any new cards.

[randomnovice]

Thanks, great feedback.

1. Yep, you're right. It's annoying having to wait to see cards etc. When I re-write the A.I. I'll definitely look into achieving this.
2. Yep, apart from Pass and Play, that makes sense.
3. Hmm, I suppose the ideal would be to look into adjusting to the screen resolution and working to that. I need to do some reading up on this and some learning!

Bug: It's possible this wasn't a bug if you were facing Thranduil as an opponent. Thranduil has an action card which "Imprisons" his opponent, meaning that they draw no cards at all for two turns (brutal I know!). Let me know if it repeats at all.

[randomnovice]

Version 1.1 updated!

- Upgraded to Love version 11.0
- A.I. completely rewritten. It seems to run much faster now and you can change the speed all the way down to "50" thought cycles on the options screen.
- In Single Battle your hand is always visible. Click on cards/interact too.
- Adjusts to screen size resolution. (Note, this may make the cards distorted on some resolutions).
- Minor other bug fixes

Get the latest update here

Let me know any feedback. Also if there's any crashes with having updated to Love 11.0.

[randomnovice]

(It's been a while sorry. Had a baby. Moved house. Quiet month really...)

Version 1.2 updated!

- Galadriel deck completed!
- Accidentally playing a card that cannot be played will now not lose your spending points
- Further improvements on A.I. to run more smoothly even with multiple allies in combat.
- Some graphical additions, well different coloured effects on cards
- Minor other bug fixes

Download version 1.2

Read me available here

[Jeeper]

Well you are obviously violating copyright laws and infringing on trademarks. The only question is if your game stays under the radar by not being popular.


With that out of the way, consider adding a few screenshots as well as linking the latest downlaod in the original post. While trying to play your game I have now downloaded 3 different versions. Everything I was about to start it I saw that there was a newer version.


It is clear that you have put a ton of effort into the game, quite an impressive amount actually. A thing I would change is the "PLAYER TURN" screen that appears every now and then, it feels very disruptive.


I think this has potential to become a great game, but for that to happen I believe you have to ditch the LOTR stuff. My tip to you is to reach out on forums and search for people to collaborate with. It's a lot easier to find people when you already have such a great game, then they know they wont be spending a lot of time and energy on a project that will die.

[randomnovice]

Thanks for the feedback Jeeper.

Edited the original post to latest version.
Simple fix on the PLAYER TURN screen thank you. It was a left over from "pass and play" but I've taken it out for single player.

Sounds like good words of wisdom on copyright though it's difficult for me to ditch the LOTR stuff because for me that's the fun of it, immersing yourself in the world of Tolkien. "Fantasy Battlecards" doesn't hold as much interest personally and I sort of feel that games like Hearthstone do a better job already but I guess there's not a lot of option. To be honest, I didn't think I'd manage to get it working at all so generally I've made more progress than I first expected!

I was thinking to get my head around online multiplayer at some point - which I think would mean as you say needing to take out the Lord of the Rings element entirely. Perhaps there's a way to made a "nod" to it with the names without infringing copyright: e.g. "Halfling" rather than "Bilbo", "Blue ring" rather than "Vilya" etc.

I'll see if there are any takers on the forums for helping shape things in that direction.

[Jeeper]

Thanks for the feedback Jeeper.

Edited the original post to latest version.
Simple fix on the PLAYER TURN screen thank you. It was a left over from "pass and play" but I've taken it out for single player.

Sounds like good words of wisdom on copyright though it's difficult for me to ditch the LOTR stuff because for me that's the fun of it, immersing yourself in the world of Tolkien. "Fantasy Battlecards" doesn't hold as much interest personally and I sort of feel that games like Hearthstone do a better job already but I guess there's not a lot of option. To be honest, I didn't think I'd manage to get it working at all so generally I've made more progress than I first expected!

I was thinking to get my head around online multiplayer at some point - which I think would mean as you say needing to take out the Lord of the Rings element entirely. Perhaps there's a way to made a "nod" to it with the names without infringing copyright: e.g. "Halfling" rather than "Bilbo", "Blue ring" rather than "Vilya" etc.

I'll see if there are any takers on the forums for helping shape things in that direction.

I totally get that part of the fun is making it LOTR. But like you said it could be a universe that is inspired heavily by it, instead of straight up using their names, images and sound. As for finding new members I would recommend looking at some other places than the Löve forums, most of us are programmers, very few artists have any reason to hang out here.

Online multiplayer would be really cool, Best of luck!

[bobbyjones]

There are a lot of fan made games that technically infringe on copyrights. As long as it's a free to play game it should be fine. My ideology with things is to just do it until someone with authority tells you not to. Sure it's breaking copyright laws but they may not care about it. Just make it obvious that your game is not official or endorsed by the copyright holders.

[randomnovice]

Thanks for the thoughts bobby-j.

I've been thinking today and there may be quite a good new way to approach things. The way the game is built, a lot of the copyright material is easily swappable (music, card images etc.). So I think I could manage to make a "base" version with no copyright infringements at all. Then I think I could make different "skins" downloadable.

I even think it might work that eventually two people could be playing the game against each other online with two different skinsets, say fantasy vs medieval, and the cards/images/sounds they see/use/hear would be different but it would still work, as long as the numbers/statistics are the same. One person's knight is another person's orc.

The snag in my plan is the effects that cards make and when they can be targeted. But I think that could be changeable too with a bit of work so that it's no longer hardcoded.

Not quite back to the drawing board - just a bit of work needed.

I would still be really interested in any feedback on balancing. I know things are WAY OUT at the moment - but it's painstaking for one person to keep playing the different heroes/decks to work out which decks and cards are under/over powered. My gut is that Sauron/Mordor is way too strong and Galadriel/Lorien is way too weak at the moment.

[Jeeper]

There are a lot of fan made games that technically infringe on copyrights. As long as it's a free to play game it should be fine. My ideology with things is to just do it until someone with authority tells you not to. Sure it's breaking copyright laws but they may not care about it. Just make it obvious that your game is not official or endorsed by the copyright holders.

Whether or not the game costs money is not the point. It's the brand that companies want to protect and unlicensed products can cause harm to that brand. My ideology is to take the safe before the unsafe and not let some company make an example out of you. Worth remembering is also that regardless if you are in the right or not, do you have the money for a prolonged legal battle?