Spellcraft - Collectable Card Game - by Three Goblins Ltd

[Steve at ThreeGoblins]

Originally Posted by Sheinfell

@Steve the Goblin:
Question: How exactly does earning ranking points work?
I ask because I just got automatched with a rank 1, and won the game by having a Lava Giant's special ability drain away his last lifepoint at my turn start. The "game won" screen only showed me that I earned some gold, but not that I earned any ranking. Also, my ranking is still 15.
Until this game, I always went up at least one rank when I won the game.
Not that I am complaining, I just would like to know the details.

Might be a good idea to add that to the rulebook.

Well, the exact figures will remain shrouded in secrecy, as part of the player discovery process but essentially you won't gain ranks if you beat someone much lower than yourself. Similarly you could gain multiple ranks if you beat someone much higher than yourself.


Regards
Steve - Three Goblins
http://www.spellcraft-ccg.com/

[MrAlbum]

Since I didn't hear anything about potential iPhone versions, I PM'ed Steve about any plans of that nature Three Goblins has in regards to that issue.

I got this for an answer:

Originally Posted by Steve at ThreeGoblins

Mr.Album,

Hello there!

Yes, the next development is a universal App.

In fact, it's already started, but I wouldn't really expect it to hit the store, after testing, until the end of next month.

It is a very high priority of mine and I am badgering the main programmer daily. Lucky him

So, please do keep your eyes on our website for news

http://www.spellcraft-ccg.com/

Incidentally, it will look exactly the same, not a weird zoomed-in view or anything - exactly the same board and all, just smaller. I've got the prototype and it's quite "cute".


Best Wishes
Steve

I await with bated breath 8D

[Sheinfell]

Originally Posted by Steve at ThreeGoblins

Well, the exact figures will remain shrouded in secrecy, as part of the player discovery process but essentially you won't gain ranks if you beat someone much lower than yourself. Similarly you could gain multiple ranks if you beat someone much higher than yourself.

Your call, as you are the developer.
I just want to point out that I absolutely dislike it when any game mechanic is not openly accessible to the players, in a thoroughly documented manner.
Why? Simple, I grew up with boardgames and roleplaying games, aside from these times' computers and consoles (Atari2000, c64, first 33mhz processor PC, things like that. Back in the stoneage for today's youngsters, I bet ).
And these always had full manuals explaining all the game mechanics.
So I really do not approve when games do that these days.

To use a different example: Chess.
Can you imagine that the World Chess League (or what they are called) would say "Our ELO ratings work more or less like this, but we will leave it as part of the "played discovery process" for you to figure out how exactly it works" ?

So, please, take this as a serious appeal to reconsider the decision you described above.

[Sheinfell]

@Steve: Next question, this would also be a good addition to the manual:
In which order exactly do abilities get triggered at the start of my turn?
I paid quite some attention to what happens, and I think that the lower row (auras&items) applies first, in order from left to right, with minion abilities - for which I don't have an educated guess about the order - second.

Could you please clarify on this as well?

[Steve at ThreeGoblins]

Sheinfell,

Thanks for your excellent comments and insight, as always.

The reason I am not giving exact formulas out (at this stage) is simple:

(1) At this stage of development and player density the formula will not be precisely the same one as we use in future, by necessity. Close but not exact.
(2) Giving out a formula now, then meddling with it later will cause confusion and I will get 100 messages to let me know

Incidentally, I started gaming about the same time as you it seems.
Vic 20, C64, ZX-Spectrum. I was brought up on endless rules tomes of AD&D and I know exactly what you mean.

So, we will make it as transparent as we can just as soon as we are 100% sure of what (and when) it should be and that it's not likely to confuse people!

Hope that helps you understand our approach a little better.


Cheers
Steve @ Three Goblins
http://www.spellcraft-ccg.com/

[Mack the Knife]

why people wouldnt back up valuable data before totally wiping a App

steve, or anyone (except mr. hysteria) please give me the quick answer to this: i know it's been discussed but i am missing something. i regularly sync my ipad to iTunes on my PC. when i first installed Spellcraft it backed it up. HOWEVER (thus proving i have a shift key), when i make a change to the app like creating a new deck, adding new cards, or buying more gold and then sync with iTunes on my PC, i don't see these changes being copied. so, if i do what some nitwits do and whimsically uninstall the app, when i reinstall will i get the vanilla app or will i get all the updates i have done (new decks, new cards, campaign progress)?

if i don't get my updates then that's the way it goes but am i backing it up correctly to iTunes? (i also backup to icloud but that's only useful in a full device restore). do i need to do something special when backing it up so i get the recent game progress into the latest backup? (an incremental backup for those in the computer industry) anyone? (except, of course, Angst Jr.) is there some iTunes switch i'm not setting? thanks..

-----------

steve, isn't the FAQ new to your website? i'm pretty slow for a 9 year old so i'm not sure, but if it is - THANKS, it's a great addition and hopefully you'll keep it updated with all the dumb stuff we ask...

[Steve at ThreeGoblins]

Originally Posted by Sheinfell

@Steve: Next question, this would also be a good addition to the manual:
In which order exactly do abilities get triggered at the start of my turn?
I paid quite some attention to what happens, and I think that the lower row (auras&items) applies first, in order from left to right, with minion abilities - for which I don't have an educated guess about the order - second.

Could you please clarify on this as well?

Left to right, yes

[JaysUsernam]

Alright, I finally got to spend time with this and thought I'd throw in my unsolicited 2 cents:

First off, I am a huge iOS card gamer-I think the two are a match made in heaven. I would say that Spellcrafts closest competitors are Spectromancer/Card Kombat and Shadow Era. I like that it blends the lane based card combat of the first two with the random drawing from my prebuilt deck of the second.

I feel the addition of the second row really is a great evolution of the first two games and I appreciate the concept of making all card attainable without IAPs being mandatory. Mechanically, this feels like a solid addition to the Lane Based CCG that I will certainly spend more time with.

However...there is something that just isnt clicking for me. I think part of it is the art direction. While everything is bright/crisp/vivid the art and presentation has a certain 'kid-game' feel to it for me. I feel the cards themselves lack the sophistication of Shadow Era/Magic 2013 although credit has to be given for how visible they are. The actual characters feel very 'Killer Instinct-ish' from the old N64 days which I guess will appeal to some.

Now don't get me wrong, Im being very critical but only because there is a solid engine with enough freshness to fit in with the CCG crowd and Im very excited to see this game succeed.

[badmanj]

Originally Posted by Mack the Knife

steve, or anyone (except mr. hysteria) please give me the quick answer to this: i know it's been discussed but i am missing something. i regularly sync my ipad to iTunes on my PC. when i first installed Spellcraft it backed it up. HOWEVER (thus proving i have a shift key), when i make a change to the app like creating a new deck, adding new cards, or buying more gold and then sync with iTunes on my PC, i don't see these changes being copied.

steve, is that what you mean by backing up (and why aren't changes being copied?) or is there another process that i'm not yet aware of?

I'd like to add to this that if one deletes an app, the next backup to iCloud will not include this app - so then there's no longer a backup available.

Really, the only decent solution here is to implement decent iCloud backup and synching of game data from within the app. Relying on user backups really isn't a solution a dev can 'tote' as a valid approach imo.

Jamie.

[JaysUsernam]

BTW, I can't find any mention of your game over at boardgame geeks site...get over there and get noticed...this is right up their alley!!