5 Card Hero - Casual Puzzle/Poker RPG - Beta Testers Wanted!

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by kiwi interactive, Feb 21, 2013.

  1. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    Game Designer
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    #1 kiwi interactive, Feb 21, 2013
    Last edited: May 28, 2013
    WE LAUNCHED TODAY IN THE APP STORE!
    Thank you so much for your help everyone, we released today in the app store and would love for you guys to play our game :)

    App Store: http://bit.ly/107mbCj

    Site: http://www.5cardhero.com
    Trailer: http://youtu.be/cf8dKvPX5q0

    Thank you!

    --
    CLOSED BETA TESTING HAS ENDED
    We're finishing up the game and preparing to submit it to Apple soon :)

    Thank you everyone!!!

    Survey: http://bit.ly/WkHS5m

    Cheers
    --

    Hi TA! We're some-time lurkers of toucharcade and first time indie mobile devs. This game was made primarily by 2 people with a lot of help from friends since July of last year. We just wanted to make something fun and a little different, we hope you like it as much as we do :)

    [​IMG]

    The Kingdoms of Cardinia are at war... only you can unite them and save the realm! 5 card poker meets role-playing game as you play draw poker to fight monsters, collect their cards and unlock the mysteries of Cardinia!

    FEATURES
    • Over 45 bite-sized levels
    • Collect all 52 monster cards and power up your deck
    • Unlock all 4 heroes with distinct abilities and playstyles

    GAMEPLAY
    Here is a short gameplay vid from our current beta:


    SCREENSHOTS
    [​IMG]

    BETA TESTING
    We've closed off accepting new closed beta testers as of 3/13/2013. Thank you all!

    Thanks for making it this far down and let us know what you think!

    Cheers
     
  2. krautboy

    krautboy Well-Known Member

    Apr 20, 2011
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    I love these card / rpg hybrids! I signed up.
     
  3. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
    28
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    Game Designer
    New York, NY
    Thanks krautboy! Glad to have you on board!
     
  4. XvEsunavX

    XvEsunavX Well-Known Member

    Mar 20, 2012
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    Signing now. Looks interesting!
     
  5. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    Game Designer
    New York, NY
    Thanks Esuna!!! Welcome to the testing team! Also that is an awesome spell.
     
  6. TRB4

    TRB4 Well-Known Member

    Jan 30, 2013
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    I applied to test as well
     
  7. undeadcow

    undeadcow Well-Known Member

    Dec 4, 2010
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    Houston, TX
    Applied. Thank you in advance for any consideration!
     
  8. spikeyflip

    spikeyflip Well-Known Member

    Jul 29, 2011
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    QA lead
    Northern California
    Applied as well :)
     
  9. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    Game Designer
    New York, NY
    Awesome! You guys rock, you're all in :)

    Expect to hear from us next week! We're working round the clock right now to clean up the current beta so we can get you something relatively clean and balanced to test :)
     
  10. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
    28
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    Game Designer
    New York, NY
    Just a quick update from us, we're on track to get our beta out to you guys this week!

    We're finishing up bug fixes in our current version, and will test and fix any blatant bugs in our current version before getting a (hopefully) clean beta out to you guys.

    We also have a few spots left to test, so sign up now if you're interested in joining us!
    http://tflig.ht/WSgQPi

    Thanks everyone!

    Cheers,
    -Brian
     
  11. TRB4

    TRB4 Well-Known Member

    Jan 30, 2013
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    Cool, can't wait. The screen shots look great. I'm really interested in learning the mechanics of the game.
     
  12. XvEsunavX

    XvEsunavX Well-Known Member

    Mar 20, 2012
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    Thanks for the update; I've been really anxious to test this one out!
     
  13. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
    28
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    Game Designer
    New York, NY
    #13 kiwi interactive, Feb 28, 2013
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2013
    Closed Beta is LIVE! If you signed up you will receive information to download and install :)

    Added links to the first post of this thread for bug report/survey links. If you haven't registered a device you can't access it, but update your profile in testflight and we will get you on your way as well! If you're joining us post our beta launch announcement, we'll have you in our next build!

    Cheers all and thanks for testing with us!
     
  14. bramblett05

    bramblett05 Well-Known Member

    Aug 29, 2012
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    I signed up(hope not to late)
     
  15. XvEsunavX

    XvEsunavX Well-Known Member

    Mar 20, 2012
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    I was going to sleep but I'm going to have to give this a go for a little bit now. Been anxious for a build!
     
  16. krautboy

    krautboy Well-Known Member

    Apr 20, 2011
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    Thanks guys,just installed! I'll give it a good go later today.
     
  17. krautboy

    krautboy Well-Known Member

    Apr 20, 2011
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    Hey guys & girls,
    I just played a few rounds and i'm really enjoying it!
    I really like the card collection,slowly improving your deck.
    Nice clean interface and it looks really good on my Ipad3 despite being 2x.
    Nothing but good things to say so far.
     
  18. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
    28
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    Game Designer
    New York, NY
    Thanks krautboy! And let me know if you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer them here!
     
  19. TRB4

    TRB4 Well-Known Member

    Jan 30, 2013
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    #19 TRB4, Feb 28, 2013
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2013
    Card collecting seems to be entirely luck based. You pretty much have to get
    dealt a hand greater than a 3 of a kind to even attempt to collect a card.

    Also, I feel like the game is missing an economy. Coins should be earned from
    battles, and a shop should provide helpful consumable items. Items that would
    help you create better hands. Like for instance, how about an item that would
    allow you to choose a certain suit that you DON'T want when you exchange your
    cards, that way when going for a flush you have a 1/3 chance of getting the suit
    you need instead of a 1/4 chance. It isn't powerful enough to guarantee you a
    flush, but it might help. Or an item that allows you to choose a range of cards
    that your new cards we be selected from, like say your hand is (4,5,4,7,A) you
    could keep the 4, 5, and 7 and use your item to only get cards between 2 - 6. It
    certainly won't automatically create a straight, but it will help your odds.
    Those are only 2 examples of items you could make, I'm sure you could come up
    with better ones than that.

    Overall, the game is fun, but it is almost ALL luck. That is why you should add
    items that allow players to feel like they are a little bit more in control of
    the deals, but not enough to make the game to easy either. As far as balancing an item system, you could either choose to limit the number of items that you can use during each battle (perhaps 1 per enemy creature) or you could just make the items really expensive to purchase.

    That is my current impressions and suggestions. I post again after I play some more.

    EDIT:I also can not figure out how to switch characters.
     
  20. kiwi interactive

    kiwi interactive Active Member

    Jan 15, 2013
    28
    0
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    Game Designer
    New York, NY
    Thank you so much for this feedback, TRB4! It's really good and I will address it right here.

    And also on a quick note, this is our fault for not making it clearer, but you select different heroes by tapping on the bottom right chip on the map screen. When it pops out, it's actually 4 buttons on 1, the top right being the hero selection. You do need to find and unlock them first (which happens as you progress through the game).

    Luck
    Yes! The entire game is based on luck. You are playing 5 card draw poker with a randomized deck.

    However, you can reliably expect almost an even distribution of high card, one pair, two pair, with 3 of a kind being more rare, and a ~5% chance to hit jackpot hands (straight or higher). There are decisions of what to do w/ the normal actions, as well as when to hold cards. Do you hold your pair, or go for a straight or flush that can turn the tide of battle?

    However x2, I completely agree with you that it is currently affecting the card collection too much. We've received feedback from others as well about this and I will retweak the formula to make it more heavily influenced by Monster HP, as well as bonuses for your own level, so it becomes easier to return and collect monsters if you forge ahead.

    From the game design side, we are ok with a bit of a grind/luck being involved in card collection. Dragon Quest does this (x% chance to charm monster upon defeat), but we think you have a little more control as you can choose when to attempt to collect, as well as a couple more things I will outline next.

    Control
    Since the resource/energy portion of the game is based on luck, we tried to make room for control by having unique hero skills (... which unfortunately, our fault, you were not able to try). I will just mention a couple examples.

    The Club hero's 2nd skill gives you extra energy, which allows you to get a better 'action menu' or set of commands even with worse hands. His 1st skill is regen/heal, which enables you to turtle up at the end of battle if you want to wait for a good hand to try to collect the card.

    The Diamond hero's 2nd skill is to show you what the next cards are for 3 hands. It will show you 1, 2 then 3 cards that you would draw if you choose to discard while the skill is active. This is very helpful for not only collecting cards, but it makes the game different and feels fun as it feels like you're 'cheating' but without breaking the game.

    Economy
    I agree with everything you wrote here. Unfortunately, we do not have the budget to do this :( We're running on a really tight budget and just can't implement items or store at this time.

    We're hoping that we can balance the other elements of the game enough so that it can stand on its own, albeit even more 'casual' than 'rpg'.

    Thank you so much for the feedback! It really helps us focus on where to tweak, what to fix, and just how you think about the game in general.

    We will do our best to make it feel right and satisfying. We hope you guys will find it fun :)

    Cheers,
    -Brian
     

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