When you pick different characters on the character select screen, the camera should whisk over to a different part of the town background where that guy would be hanging out. Like the pig merchant should be by the tents and the pirate lady by the docks
It'd be cool no doubt but it'd be a question whether it'd be worth the time and money to implement. Since you'd only see it for a short amount of time anyways.
I love how you talk about this game. I can feel the passionate care you have for it. You are a very put together young dude. Need more like ya. Can't wait to play this
Another highly upvoted commenter mentioned this but im reiterating for emphasis because they also mentioned a bunch of other things. Items should have "types" that allow for easy counter strategies; that way you arent playing multiplayer solitaire like in a lot of deckbuilders (looking at you Dominion). For example, lets say the snowglobe had the card type "tchotchke" or "trinket". Make there be some items that have an ability (or circumstantial bonus ability) that on round start disables one "trinket" or disables a trinket on hit. You can do this with upgrades too: the point is that you want to maintain the variability of the merchants/trainers/smiths while also making sure that you always have the option to interact to your opponents strategy to some degree, otherwise itll feel like youre just playing against the game and not against another player. Because selling items is always an option and it costs very little other than the opportunity cost of perhaps not seeing that item again in a store for a few rounds, you never feel bad about dynamically adjusting your strategy to react to the opponent, plus there is a little bit of a market themed "gamble" on whether or not you think they will sell or modify the item youre trying to counter before the next combat. Overall though this is the first version of the Bazaar that actually felt like a Bazaar game. The first sketches were things I always looked forward to because I love a good deckbuilder like Clank etc but it didnt quite feel like it had its own raison d'etre until now. Keep up the good work.
Hey some ideas popped out at me as you played the game! 1. Have you considered having a rotating pool of different merchants much the same way battlegrounds rotates it's different tribes? This adds a lot more complexity and choice to each game. 2. Each merchant can have a different flavour of items, hero powers and upgrades they can offer, as well as class specific cards. 3. Each merchant buys items for different costs, so you can sell items for higher prices to specific merchants. 4. Items can appreciate or depreciate over time in cost so you may want to buy items that take up slots but you can sell for loads later on. 5. Buying two of the same item can stack them on top of each other and upgrade them, incentivising you to look for the the same merchants who offer the items and keep items around. 6. There should be multiple ways to earn gems outside of battle, so there are different control and "economics" comps that players can choose, and pivots you can take if you're stunned out or overpowered in battle. For example, you may be able to purchase Gems directly from Merchants with a lot of money after getting a money engine going, or maybe some items after they're upgraded or layered enough can be sold for gems to specifc merchants, or some items can generate gems over time. 7. Ways to interact with or protect yourself from specific items, or "tribes" of items, so your opponent may need to pivot if you get the right counter. Maybe you may be resistant to laser guns but conventional guns or blades still work on you. 8. Buying items reduces the number of that item in the merchant pool. 9. It seems that once you have an endgame comp, replacing items is worse than simply upgrading them, being able to stack items or having every merchant offer upgrades (and hero powers and items) fixes the problem of always going to the Smith at the end game. 10. Ways to interact with your opponents gems and coins maybe? A thief mechanic or thief merchant/items? 11. Stun seems OP, maybe just slow down instead? There needs to be a way to get out of Stun. An item that counters Stun? Game looks really cool and I can tell you guys are really working hard and in the right direction!
the game looks pretty cool !! already read many great comments and critiques so i'll just leave some ideas: 1- i think a pretty cool concept that could be explored since we are in " THE bazaar " is the ability to sell the items we get to diferent vendors for diferent rewards, or even early / mid game items that only gain value when sold ( do X when sold / do Y when sold to Jay Jay ) 2- it would also be interesting to gain the amount of gems on the table ( yours + your enemies ) as a reward for winning and using those gems as a cosmetic / exclusive currency ( probably like crowns from fall guys ) in the game shown you'd get 40+26 gems that would acumulate to your gem count in the menu, people love exclusive cosmetics etc etc i think these 2 ideas would be pretty interesting and fitting for a game called " the bazaar " characters trade with gold but they are fighting for a rarer resource the gems, for ways to spend the gems ... carbacks ? card / play effects ? character skins ? board toys ? all those would have exclusive ( with gems ) and premium currency versions i guess
I like the direction you guys are taking. I have two suggestions for you and one concern ! 1. Maybe different shops can be included (where the merchants are) and if needed something players have to do to get there. 2. Maybe a comback mechanic system fits this version of the game (special offers for the player down on points). My one concern is that you can't add enough cards that feel different (design space). I love that you guys are making a fun and different strategy game - keep it on !!!
Love everything!!! Will make separate comment for saying how much I like it cause this will be long lol Ideas: - Combat conditionals (if you won last combat, gain gold. something powerful that breaks if you lose combat, etc.) - Adding/destroying board slots - Brittle hero powers - Something that autofills empty board slots at the start of combat - Manipulating explore phase (next turn, get an additional shop. next turn, get only one shop) - Conditionals on how much gold you have (if you have 50+ gold, if you have exactly 0 gold) - Colorless/neutral cards - Manipulating selling value (a card that sells for more the longer you hold it, a card that doubles the value of other cards you sell that turn, etc.) misc. You may already know about this stuff since you balance it and i've never played it lol but just some thoughts: - doubling or halving stuff can do super broken stuff, maybe limit to only one doubling/halving effect per item - making it more tempo based (maybe the ramping 1 gem per win is too slow. I know you joked about "fun and interactive" so you're aware but it would suck if early game stuff didn't matter and just stunlocking/economy is good) If you're already super cognizant of this, sorry, just watching some turns made me worry, even though I know it's still in development - maybe adding a bench. It seems to operate like an autobattler, and I saw where you were trying to transition out of an economy build and it felt clunky trying to transition. It felt like a bench would be natural to help aid that and give more agency/decision making to the player - reducing the amount of times pile of gold shows up in the shop. I know it's meant to add extra decision making, but it feels super boring to just get gold, even if it's good.
I absolutely LOVE the transparency throughout this entire process of creating The Bazaar. Seeing as you two are invested in the gaming world, I am sure you were frustrated at the lack of transparency from other gaming companies. Thanks for providing such insightful content on game design and for being honest with your audience on where the game has been and where the game is headed. Loving all the content, super excited for this game and am proud to see how far you all have come ❤
Few ideas: - Mid and late game cards could be in stock with different merchants that can only show up after certain turns. - A potion merchant that gives (maybe expensive) upgrades for one fight only as a late game money sink. - I still like the old idea of a day/night cycle. Shop during the day and fight at night. Great job, it's amazing to see the progress!
Super excited for the game. One mechanic that I think would be really cool is if you're planning to have class specific merchants, make it so that there's some way for both players to access some of the class specific stuff for their opponents as well. If you're in a marketplace while there may be a few people that sell only to you, most merchants would sell to anyone. Maybe you can buy things from the opponents class at a higher price? Doing this to me seems like a way to not only make every class seem unique, bug ever matchup as well
Couple of things that stood out to me. The ability to sell back cards to vendors really isn't clear or intuitive to me during the buy phase. There's no onscreen hints and it really "feels" like cards are locked in your row after placing them. Am I able to sell back any card to any vendor at full price? It feels like some vendors should prefer certain types of cards over others and value their resale value accordingly. But maybe it's better how it is. Can I sell all the cards I've bought or is there a limit per vendor? Can I see what my opponent is buying as they buy or do I have to wait until the combat phase to see what they bought? The cards from the vendors also don't immediately feel like I can pick and buy them. They just look kinda like they are just there. Is it possible to Mulligan vendors? The fight phase lasts way too long imo. It should be like half what it is in this video. I got a really impatient feeling while watching every combat phase. I also have very little interest or reason to really watch a lot of the combat phase. It's predetermined anyway. I kinda just want to get it out the way so I can go back to buying. If there were ways I could influence the combat phase ordering or interactions I think I would be more invested in it being longer and easier to follow visually. You keep mentioning about the animation desync but tbh didn't even care about that as there's nothing to even get interested in the combat phase anyway. Instead of having the green number be a charge up time in seconds. Why not just make the number become how many times that card is going to activate in the combat phase. It is a really jarring thing to think about the charge up mechanic. It's way less cognitive load to think about "this card is gonna hit 4 times next turn". Making me (the user) do the division completely complicates the buy phase unecessesarily and would make me hesitate to buy when looking at cards to buy. This could also make the whole combat phase activation ordering simpler because instead each card could just sequentially hit it's amount of hits that turn then move to the next card in your row. But it seems like you may have intended for the charge up timings to have interactions with other cards based on when they do their action which is understandable and cool. I just really don't like the charge up time way of describing the card activation frequency. I'm just one guy, the game looks pretty cool. Very polished even at this stage. Stun locking looks annnnnnnoyyyyying. But the core mechanics do look really fun. As a player I definitely would like a way to see what card pools are available at each vendor for each class. Kinda like a deck book. And definitely a way to know the "odds" or even rarities of getting each card at each vendor. So I can figure out "builds" this way. Knowing which are the common cards and which are the rare ones is important (if that is even a thing that exists in bazaar they might just be even chances?)
I think half a minute is a fine time to have a combat phase. Sure in buy phase you can see what your opponent has, but seeing how everything interacts makes it so you can more easily think about how to counter your opponent's strategy. Like if Reynad just skipped the second to last combat phase it's very possible to miss how he being stunned for 5 seconds initially translates to him being stunned permanently, and then he couldn't change his build to counter
I agree that there could be some more in depth selling. However, I disagree on your combat phase takes. Maybe in the first few turns it could go at double speed, but it's going to be SUPER important to see exactly how each card is interacting. For instance if they have a stun combo that triggers 12 seconds in, you could set yourself up to get armour and block that first stun at the right time, and having it actually play out will show you how things are happening (it would be insane to calculate the timing of every card in your head, especially late game when 5 different effects are changing the timing on each item). Also say you have an item that echos another item's effects, but it has a different cooldown, so sometimes it interacts with different items. I really need this all to be visualized. Regardless, it always feels good to see your strategy play out. Sitting there for 30 seconds watching my masterpiece unfold whole I rub my hands together feels amazing.
I personally like the length of the combat phase. It should be the exiting part of the game when you watch how your build works, just like in autobattlers
To Bazaar Team: Loved this video and getting to see the progress! Love how transparent you are with us and it really makes me excited for when the game comes out! Great production value (love the in-table screen thingie lol) and of course all the transitions/animations/title cards. I know it takes time to record, set up, and edit videos like this, so I super appreciate it. Getting to see the whole process of the game being made is super insightful and I've never seen game development being displayed in such detail. The vertical slice looks amazing. It's crazy how much of a difference it is just having audio/visuals is. Even though fundamentally it may be the same game, seeing it come to life is so much different. Love the "discover" a merchant phase. It fits perfectly in flavor, helps the "roguelike" feel to it, and gives the player a lot of agency without overwhelming them. Also, reynoodle, don't be shy to shout out/give props to the games that inspire you lol. I know that you don't want to feel like a copycat/unoriginal but nothing wrong with taking inspiration from your contemporaries. I feel like you are heavily inspired by other games (AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT) and I feel like being transparent about it would be best.
This is really cool to get to see. I appreciate you guys taking the time to give us this insight into the current state of development almost as much as I appreciate you making the game itself. Looks good. Also, I really don't think the troll statement "JUST ANOTHUR AUTOBATLR LUL" really holds water here. Game looks like it has a lot of potential, and as someone who hasn't been very interested in any of the auto-battlers to date I think this one looks like something that would be way more up my alley. Keep up the good work 👍
Thanks! I really think The Bazaar will appeal more to explorers. Instead of rolling from the same minion pool hundreds of times a game, you meet characters and encounter events to build your lineup. It will be less mechanical, and feel more like an adventure. We didn't even go over any of our big innovations in this video - there are huge reasons to play this game over autobattlers that we haven't talked about at all
I'm really into tft right now and I just want to point out that part of the reason that it's so fun is 1. you can buy stuff while the fight is happening 2. Gold interest vs. win streaking makes for a variety of strategies on when to buy and when to save 3. You are battling as a group of 8 people (maybe that could be a mode)
I like the concept of being able to plan ahead while stuff is happening like in TFT. The combat phase for The Bazaar is cool and adding interactivity while it is happening would help the game's organic feel. As a player, if I am playing a game yet not actively doing something, it feels a lot better if it is by choice rather then by the game preventing me from doing so.
One simple way to stop the infinity stun loop is a debuff resistance. Every time you enemy apply one stun like 2 seconds you character will gain stun resistence for the rest of the round. So the next stun will be reduce by a % like the next will stun by 1 second. And so on. This type of design can enable the freezer again and make this type of degeneracy less impact but still important.
Another good thing about this debuff resistance system is that early cards that apply less stun in one atk will lost is value even with double atks or a quick timing forcing the player to buy new things instead of just upgrades to hit more frequently.
A few thoughts: - Loving the look of the game, and I think the core gameplay has promise - There doesn't seem to be much interaction with the opponent at the moment. Seems you just hit face, maybe stun, and that's it. I hope the final game will have much more interaction with the opponent's cards and more strategic in how to counter an opponent's build. At the moment it comes across like hunter vs hunter in hearthstone. - The autoattacking phase feels pretty boring. Unlike, say, Battlegrounds, everything is pre-ordained, so there's not much excitement in it. Instead you're just watching some thing hit face a few times for however long it is. I dunno, I think the phase needs much more player interaction. More interatction with the opponent's cards will probably help fix this. - In general I think this is a solid foundation, but it's hard to see where the depth in the game is coming from at the moment
I think it would be nice to have a button to click somewhere to see a summary of your stats you currently have. It seems hard at a glance to see what your outputs are for all your items combined, like, total cash flow, total dps, etc. Looks very cool though. Great job so far, appreciate the upates. Best of luck to you guys!
Some ideas (I will continue to ramble about all ideas that come to mind, cause you said you can never have enough ideas. You can decide if anything is useful): 1. What about a set of items that fit together. Like the pictures completes a bigger picture when put together and has a special effect when completed. Similar to how Exodia works (not the insta win effect, just the concept). 2. Also maybe you get extra points when putting the enemy's health to 0. More points than just ending with more health. This would be exciting and maybe it's own playstyle. Trying to kill the opponent to get more points quickly. 3. You once wanted to make a night and day system. It doesn't need to be exactly that, but "whole board states" could be a thing. Maybe it's raining and thus some shops close. Some classes might have merchants that stay open during rain (just an example). 4. The buying phase should feel like exploring a market. But it doesn't seem like exploring if all merchants a immediatly there in front of you. Maybe you choose a district of the market and then find out what merchants show up. Some merchants frequent a certain district while others keep moving around. And maybe you can only choose a district once per fight. Makes sense that you can't just run from one side of the market to the other without it taking time. And maybe instead of having only merchants specific to classes, there could be class specific districts. Some classes might just not be welcome in certain places. And this of course also creates more space for mechanics, like an effect reducing cost of items bought in a certain district. 5. You will probably add more, but having more interesting encounters would be could. Maybe you can encounter a spy in the buying phase and pay him money. He will then reveal something about what the player ist doing, like showing one random item the player bought beforehand so you can plan your buys around that. 6. Also a way to balance selling items might be to make it so that merchants only have a certain amout of gold availabe so you can’t sell everything if the merchant doesn’t have the money to buy it. 7. You could introduce mutiple ways to get gems. Would create different winning strategies and ways of playing. 8. You will do so anyway, but I feel like the combat phase needs to really communicate in an efficent way. You don't have much time to look at what is going on so it should be clear at a glance how most of the fight will pan out and what synegies are at play. Otherwise it's just a "thow everything out and see if it works". It should be quite clear who is likely going to win the fight from the beginning. There should be a good amount of room for surprises. But not every fight should be a surprise. Also the charging seems a bit random at times, not because of the animation queue, but because you have to calculate how often a weapon will strike and so on. It should show the expected number of strickes, expected number of gold gained, show if an item will brake by the end of the fight etc. Just some "Preview" thing. Legends of Runeterra has a something very similar and it is quite useful I think. 9. Also maybe a trade option where you can trade a low cost item for a higher one because the merchant has an interest in one of your items. Could be randomly generated depending on some factors.
Great ideas! I can tell we're on the same wavelength. A lot of related things are already in the works. Let me know if your concerns were addressed when we show them in upcoming updates!
I think you guys are on the right path. This seems hugely improved with lots of interesting solutions and conclusions to problems and questions games like this struggle with. I think with a good amount of work this game could be very good. A few notes 1. As others have said the game has very little back and forth and player interaction. While I don't expect as much player interaction in a game like this I do expect some. I think the stuns and infinite combos could be fine even at some level if players had more ways to sabotage their opponent. Perhaps one class could be able to get an ability to steal a weapon from their opponent, one could destroy a weapon, another could have ways to become immune to stuns. Perhaps there could be a class that revolves not around making your stuff stronger as much but making the opponents stuff weaker as well, debuffs and whatnots. 2. I think there should be more than 3 merchants, but only 3 show at a time. Perhaps one sells spells of some sort. Maybe one sells pets. This would add more strategies and force builds to be flexible and not fall into min maxing as often. Overall I think it's good and can't wait to see more. It would be awesome if once a month or something we just got a quick recorded game in the current build. That would be an awesome way to do updates.
There kind of seems to be less of a point to watching the fight in the Bazaar than other autobattlers for the simple reason that there is more randomness to their fights. Like in Hearthstone Battlegrounds, you can be on the edge of your seat when you start winning the 50/50s that may lead to winning that 5 percent chance. In the Bazaar, it feels like if you know the cards, you could know the outcome of the entire fight as soon as it starts. You're just going through the motions.
That’s what my eyes are telling me. This game seems like it’s great in concept… but not as much in execution. I hope I’m wrong but that what the footage is looking like.
@@denissinner4625 Ehh I would say yes and no. I think I did underestimate it and did enjoy it in backpack battles. That being said, there is a reason you can play those fights at 3x speed. And imo it's a feature that kinda makes it feel more casual or mobile gamey - not a serious competitive game like the bazaar was trying to be.
The Pygmalien product placement with the oinkment and art on the matchbox gave great insight on the characters personality, could practically hear the jovialness from the ads for 'em. Coming together really well, keep it up.
Loved the update reynad. There should be a 4th shop "merchant" guy who sells things to interact with opponents items, because otherwise they can snowball easily. Maybe he could have abilities like "destroy an item" or "decrease the energy of an item"
This is a very unique direction you have taken the game. I was worried at the start of the video but you really turned it around. Suggestion: Hirelings! A unique position on the board like hero powers but with an upkeep cost per round.
Hey Reynad. I followed your development journey from the beginning and I have to say you already came a long way. The art and feel of the game looks on point. You really managed to gather a talented team to realize your project. Keep up the good work. Some thoughts about the game. 1) Narratively I’m still confused on what the game represents. Now two adventures buy items on an intergalactic bazaar to battle each other in different rounds for gems. However this makes the inclusion of certain items like the painting, matches and snow globe strange. If you want to go the battle route I would expect more things like armour, boots, ammo, consumables, ... 2) Now items are specific to the player character. Thematically this is strange since they are not the merchant (although some of them look like merchants). It seems narratively more clear to give the player characters affiliation with certain items (through character powers) but make the look of the items merchant dependent. 3) I think that the degradation of items is something you should keep in the game. It allows for more design space (items that degrade opponents items, items that repair other items, etc) and will make the game more dynamic since you can’t just keep a winning item combination. 4) I would reduce the possibility to sell items to one item per turn. That way players can anticipate more what their opponent will do in the next turn and you can try to buy counters to your opponents strategy more easily. 5) Now it seems items only manipulate the battle phase of the game. However maybe some item effects could also affect the buy phase (discount, more chance on certain items, reroll items, additional selling actions,...) 7) It seems that the battles could take place during the buying phase to speed up play. Now the screen is organized to allow player interaction but if this is not the goal of the game you could use the top half for battling and the bottom half for buying.
I really appreciate you putting out a video this long that really showcases the development and how things are going. It was great getting to see the match at the end
pretty good, thank you for following my advices from 12 months ago(autobattle + card game).... now I expect my 1% of company, one final advice you need to do the initial games faster, less jazy music, end turn, no "complete", zoom in on cards when buy(option in settings).... background ground color more pale, constructions more spunk, backgrounds that are intergalactic(space)
Great video, my initial thought on the current build are are that it seems fun on the surface, like Slay the Spire but PvP, however I think it becomes just two people playing a single player game, seeing who can make the craziest board, like an autobattler and the lack of interactivity is in my opinion the biggest 'flaw' I see with it. Art, music, the setting and everything seems way too good for how early of a build it is and just all around good. Been following the game for some time and wanna wish you all luck with the development. :)
This looks like a fun and interesting gameplay loop. Balance is gonna be very important though for the game to not get boring too quickly and the way the game is designed it looks like balancing is gonna be extremely difficult. One thing that I thought while watching the gameplay was, that you probably shouldnt allow duplicate hero powers and item upgrades for the sake of balancing and variety. Because youre gonna make mistakes in balancing for sure and if for example a hero power is broken the game will become about who can roll the most of that specific hero power which sucks. If youre gonna only allow one of that specific hero power though, both players have a good chance to at least find the one copy of it throughout the game and then at least the other two slots will be flexible.
This looks good and I think is moving in a good direction, but there are a few things that I think could be improved on. Idk if it is just because I don't know the cards but it seems like it is hard to counter what your opponent it doing, if you even can. Since each class has its own pool of cards (which I think is a good idea) it might be hard to prevent some classes from just always beating another class. Another issue that I could see arising from this is there is just one build that is always the best to go for each class. Maybe adding tech cards into each class that can counter particular strategies while maintaining the identity of the class could be interesting. Something that I think should be added is being able to see what your opponent is buying during the buy phase. I think this has the problem of doing nothing till the last seconds of the buy phase so your opponent can't counter you, but it does feel a little odd not being able to see what your opponent buys. I think there is also an issue where once you get to the end game and you have the build that you want to go with there is no longer a point to doing anything. If your board is filled with the items you want and they all have 2 upgrades with the 3 hero powers that you want there is nothing else to do. The way auto-battlers prevent this is having the ability to merge characters and having high cost characters. I think this could be prevented by having very strong items/upgrades/heroes powers that can only be found in the buy phase at the end of the game. I know this was mentioned, but I think that it is very important to keep the player chasing after something until the game ends. Maybe make all stun items brittle or have diminishing returns on stuns. Show the probability of getting different card rarities and show the rarity of the cards. Something else that is kind of interesting is how there is no RNG in the combat phase, I think this is something that is cool, but could lead to making games feeling similar. If 2 exact builds are facing each other there will always be a build that wins. Idk if this will be an issue when the game is released cause of the amount that build diversity there will be but could be an issue. This build looks really good for a starting point and I think with a few more iterations this game will be great. I hope this game blows up!
I like your first point a lot. Maybe at the start of the game, you get a secret card pool that fills your stores each round, but it's only a random subset of the total pool. You could have all the class cards always all in the mix, or you could also take a random subset from the class cards. Like a 400 card general pool of which your stores actually only draw from 100 at random. This will mean every class has optimal builds based on the specif random sample you start with; that is going to be very hard to net deck.
"The way auto-battlers prevent this is having the ability to merge characters and having high cost characters." Combining items in the Bazaar actually sounds like it would be super interesting. Like each item has multiple items it could combine with to make unique items that can only be obtained through combining. It would be sort of like items in Teamfight Tactics, but way more focused and impactful.
When I was excited about this game, I was excited for a deck building game like Dominion where I had to compete for resources etc with my opponent. Now I feel like I'm just getting another auto battler to fit with the current times. I'll still play because I love the theme and the idea about this, I think it's gonna be a really fun auto-battler from what I've seen so far in this video. However, I wish it was a separate game you decided to make and put the original concept of the Bazaar that I backed with my money on hold until you felt you could fulfil it. Cheers to making a really cool looking game so far and I'm sure I'll play.
We spent 2 years polishing and wrestling with the pure deck builder concept but just didn't feel like it was the best game that we could make. We're exploring an additional 1v1 mode rather than multiple opponents which might be the style of gameplay you're wanting.
YO that gameplay was eye-opening. I couldn't make much out of your descriptions and was very unsure about that autoplay mechanic but after seeing it the whole cycle of a turn really reminds me of TFT which is actually one of my most played games of recent times. Can't freaking wait for the Bazaar.
You can prevent exponential growth in card activation frequency by making upgrades grant cards "X% increased energy gain" instead of flat reductions to energy cost.
dude i have a feeling this game will really pop off in the streaming scene. would be so insane having a come back like OLD hearthstone, back in the day with all the badass brahs chillin in chat. IMAGINE IT BRAH
There is a lot I like about where this is headed, but definitely kinda surprised to see it come out feeling like an auto-battler. I haven't backed the game and had no real investment in the whole 'it has to be a deck building game' thing that was the original plan. I'm just keen to see a cool game at the end of it based on your vision. I've read through a few other comments that have highlighted in detail some issues I've kinda had. I think obviously things like the selling mechanic could be tuned to really flesh out the 'buy-and-sell/business' side of the game. You talk about how that is part of the core vision of the game's setting, and what you have here is definitely a step towards that. But I think right now the money feels too simplistic and just very similar in practice to something like Team Fight Tactics. More mechanics for trading would be cool to see as a result (bartering, limitations on selling, vendors paying more or less for things etc etc). Also there definitely needs to be more direct interaction with the opponent, I think that's probably the biggest thing that feels like it's missing atm. This could be achieved in the combat phase through items that you can to actually interact with (stepping back from the 'auto-battle' style). Alternatively perhaps you could sync the rounds in the 'explore phase' and give options to interact with the opponent here. Something like passing back and forth before combat resolves or just a method to see and interact directly with what your opponent is trying to buy/sell/upgrade. Last minor 'issue' I'll mention is the natural ramp up of complexity as rounds play out. You spoke about how in other card games turn 1/2 tend to have very few choices and actions that actually happen. However in this playtest on the first first round there were already 8 items in play during combat phase. That seemed a little quick/daunting to me but I also realise limiting this too much might mean turn 1 is incredibly boring. Shortening the explore phase to 2 or 3 steps on the early turns might be a clean way of addressing this (if it is an issue).
Great feedback, and our upcoming changes reflect this line of thinking. How do you feel about interaction when it's a different opponent every time instead of a 1v1 the whole game?
@@reynad27 Would this function in a similar sense to TFT where you have 9 players in the game and your opponent cycles until 'last man stands'? I'm not sure that would address the 'interaction' issue but it may improve the feel with having to design your build to multiple opponents (I guess if the game showed you who your next opponent was before explore phase, that would be a form of dynamic interaction). My concern here would be that it strays further from the original vision of what some people signed up for, being a 1v1 card game. Definitely a route that could work in your favour for the game's design overall. But may still be worth exploring other interaction options within the 1v1 design space. Will see what you come up with!
SNOW GLOBE OP but seriously I could see myself playing this a lot as soon as the game is released, an auto battler deck-building roguelike is such an interesting concept for a card game! Good luck to you Reynad and to the whole Bazaar team!
Awesome update ! I can really see this game becoming a big thing, especially if you keep improving it with the same dedication and love as you've been doing so far !
One thing I would think about would be to decouple energy gain with passage of time from a 1 energy to 1 second perspective. This allows you to speed up or slow down animations, do things that change the speed of energy gain that isn't related to seconds so you can change the round time if you want, etc. Doesn't specifically help from a card balance space, but from an understanding of the game space.
Couple of points mechanically that I think are necessary in the long run: 1) Energy reduction should always apply fixed duration reduction BEFORE percentage-based reduction. This makes it more difficult to abuse cooldown reduction 2) Additional stuns should not ADD to the duration, but instead take the longest stun currently on the character. Currently the mechanic takes no thought and promotes just "picking a card that stuns". Making the durations reset with every stun will add a lot more strategy and planning to your comp
Including money again would allow for a fun competitive mechanic in the form of auctioning: Say a salesman shows up and offers a really strong item for a little bit of gold. Then, the players could each offer a price, and try to outbid each other for the item. It could be a quick back and forth between the players, putting them in direct competition, and it allows for characters to play a bigger part in the game and world. It makes it feel a lot more like a Bazaar, in short. It's just an idea, keep up the good work!
One idea I have that I think would help in both a world building sense and gameplay sense is the idea of factions. Right now I love that there is such a diversity of cool characters and items and it really feels like you could find anything here but I think there's not much that grounds us in the world. If there were factions, perhaps competing businesses, or marauder gangs or maybe some type of government, when you have an encounter with a merchant you can see that they're actually a part of a larger organization. Maybe it's a symbol of status to be a part of certain organizations. Each class then could interact with the same merchants differently which I think increases re-playability. Maybe Pigmalion is associated somehow with Jay Jay and there's something on their card art that unifies them, so when you play as Pigmalion you get better prices from Jay Jay specifically. Maybe there's a different merchant from a competing organization and things cost extra for Pigmalion. Perhpas Vanessa has ties with a local gang, and she can get specialized weapons from them that no other character has access to. I think this increases design space in a few ways. Now as you add characters, you could have say two different characters from the same class, but because they're part of different factions, they interact differently with the merchants and thus have a different play style. I think it could be a cool way to get players invested in the world as they learn the relationships between the different factions especially if it melds with gameplay during the encounter phase.
Alternate shopkeeper idea: Genie. Genie lets you pick one of 3 random text options which might describe a dilemma you're in (e.g. "My opponent is constantly stun locking me", "I am dying to poison") and the genie will provide only one item that might help with that problem.
Had a look at one of Reynad's recent livestreams of this game and am now super excited to see this game develop and be able to actually play it. Looks super fun.
Possible music suggestion: Some games turn off/on instruments based on the phase. So in the buying phase you might just have a beat, but during combat you might turn on a base riff, then as your health gets lower some shredding on a guitar starts. Just a way to add some umph to the combat without changing songs every time.
I love this video. It's so interesting to see you guys be critical of your own work and I feel like I'm learning not just about your game but a lot about game design through this. Writing a few of my reactions as I go. When you talked about the issue of having to destroy your own items, it made me think of using items to combine/craft/upgrade into stronger items. When I heard about the issue of too many inputs (having to attack with each individual item every turn) I thought about having items "remember" their previous action. I now am at the part where you're talking about automating item attacks so you had a similar thought. Now that I see what the item attacks look like in the game walkthrough it looks awesome. Very easy to grasp. That stunlock is so broken ahaha. It's such a cool concept though, being able to manipulate your opponent's time. Creating builds looks like so much fun in this. After seeing that items can sell for full value, and seeing the scrapped durability idea, it gave me the idea of items being worth less the longer you have it. So you aren't punished for buying items in shops and then selling them before the battle phase starts, but after you've decided to add an item to your build you get punished if you decide it didn't fit your build after all. To add to this, I bring up the wild idea of selling cards to your opponent. If you're desperate for gold and have items which you've kept for so long that they've lost a lot of value, you can sell it to a "black market" for full(?) value - the downside being your opponent can then purchase from the "black market" the following turn. Obviously there are issues with this in terms of design space and balance, mixing cards between different classes and whatnot. I've reached the end of the video. The game is neat. I am in love with the simplicity of attacking your opponent and not their cards. Using time-based attacks is such a nice solution. Excited to one day play The Bazaar.
As someone who really likes auto battlers, this is an exciting development. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Bazar will evolve in the future. Though something I really find lacking in this build right now is a way to directly interact with your opponents cards and strategy, this being a 1on1 auto battler would open up a lot of opportunities for you to do that and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in the video. For example having a "merchant" who can sabotage your opponents items to put +2 sec charge time on one of them for example. Another thing that I felt was really missing, was an indicator for how many "victory gems" the next combat will award, so you know exactly how close each player would be to a victory. Seeing your opponent building their strategy over the course of the turn would also be nice, especially if you are going for a way to directly engage with your opponents items during your turn, which should open up a lot of strategy opportunities and design space for the game. Whenever I suddenly saw the opponents board pop in at the start of combat (sometimes very different to what it was the previous round) it felt very unpredictable and confusing. You only really knew if your build was looking favorable and which items and strategies you had to react to, after the buying phase was already over. I'm not really sure how something like this could be integrated into the current build for it to not feel too disruptive and slow (like how mtg area has a ton of phases and triggers where you manually have to advance), but my first expression of the vertical slice was that I would really like to see more interaction with your opponents build and ways for you to directly react to their strategy. Anyways, keep up the good work, you all seem really excited and passionate and I'm sure the game will turn out great :)
I'll have to agree with everyone else when they say that this game looks very polished and very pretty but I do have some suggestions and criticisms, so here they are and feel free to take from them as you like and if you don't like any of them then you don't have to use any of them: I know you all will probably remove stun from the game (it seems broken) but maybe more ways to play around it if you don't? Like there could be a cup of hyper coffee item that would counter stunning and make it so that you were immune to stunnning? In fact more of this type of tech cards against various strategies would make the game feel more interactive and bring in some complexity that would actually be good for the game since it would bring much needed depth of strategy. Also if you keep stunning I hope that it can become a legitimate strategy where you stun your opponent instead of dealing damage, and the goal could be like making money with money making items as an alternate win con maybe? Since, and I really do think that this would be cool, I think you should win when you get a certain amount of money and have that as a win condition as an alternative alongside or instead of the gems? I feel like the gems are unintuitive, like why am I getting these gems? What is their lore reason for existence? I feel like every aspect of the game should be able to be justified by the lore and it should make sense both logically and thematically, like if I'm using money why do I need the gems? Are they also money? If they aren't money then why is my goal to get them? I would just merge the gold and the gems. Also, another reason for this is that this is clearly a game about space capitalism, so it would make sense making money the goal and having that as both the way that you move the game forward along and the win condition; say when you have (and I'm just throwing an arbitrarily large number out there so don't think I'm actually suggesting this, you should obviously play with the numbers) 10,000 gems then you win, or maybe just when you have double the number or more of gems than your opponent - whatever the case, I think this would make sense within the theme of the game and I also bet that as a businessman and a capitalist yourself that you can appreciate this. When you win fights I think you should be able to steal an item of choice off of your opponent as well, this would mean that your opponent would need to buy another to replace it and it would give a good reason for the players to keep buying more items even into the late game, where I imagine that with this build once you get into the late game and your build solidifies then you aren't likely to do too much more buying after that point. Similarly I think it's a good idea to have late game items and hero powers that are very powerful, butI also think that alongside that the common items that you start the game being able to buy should get more powerful over time, up until a certain threshold and more powerful items should be added into the pool of potential items you can buy from not just in the late game but all throughout the game; I imagine it looking somethinh like this: Say you have a simple dagger that you can buy from the shop early game that deals 1 damage, every other turn the amount of damage that dagger can deal should go up by 1 so on turn 3 it could deal 2 damage and on five it could deal 3 and so on, but also on even turns 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 (and maybe 10 is where the late game is and that's when the _really_ powerful items get added or maybe it's later on than that even but if it were I would cap the turn after as when your items stop growing in effect so maybe that dagger from turn 1 is always capped at dealing 6 damage, this would have the downside of making it so that later in the game your more powerful cards would have quicker caps but since they would start out more powerful to start with I think it would be a fair trade off) you unlock those turns power level of items so say on turn 2 you could get a hammer that would start by dealing 3 damage and also go up in damage (and maybe not all the items scale in how much damage they deal or just how much they can deal but some of them get better effects like allows you to buy 3 things for free but scales up over the course of the game so that you would get more "wishes" after buying it over time or something like that) I also like that items have upgrade slots, but wht just two? It should be 4 or 5, after all, if you upgrade an item a lot and it gets stolen then that would be a huge loss and that intetactivity, even though it is a bit of a feel bad, is worth the trade of maybe making someone feel bad for the complexity that it can add to the game, after all, you want the game to have depth of strategy, that's what keeps people around and playing (also for that same reason is why, even though all the "cards" are going to be free I'm thinking you're gonna want to do rotations, opening up the possibility of new strategies to shine as new items enter the pool of buyables and old ones leave, also this opens up a non rotating format where everyone's favorite strategies from older rotations will still be found even if they end up just being memes) I hope you'll agree with me that each character should have their very own theme that plays when you're playing as that character to make playing as each character feel like it's very own distinct experience even more so Speaking of making the classes distinct, each class should have it's own philosophy that influences not just the cards that you can buy as that class but also which hero powers you can get and what those do, it's cool to have flavor but what I really love about MTG's color system is that each of the color's have their own philosophies that influence that color's gameplay and the cards it has available to ir's disposal, this means that a certain personality of person will always be attracted to a certain color because that style of gameplay will attract that person to it, this is good for building a playerbase who are die hard fans, it essentially lets them make the game their own and entrenches their interests because it makes it an expression of their identities, "maining" makes games last is what I'm trying to say As an addon to those last two it's hard to come up with items for these characters to me because I don't know who they are, what their backstories are, what they want, what their philosophies are - they're just two dimensional pictures to me basically I do know this though, there needs to be a place where I can see all of a classes items and to be able to click on them to read their flavor text (which should be fun, whimsical and based on memes), flavor text brings charm to the game and if you can charm someone they'll stick around, this is why Hearthstone's cartoonish style of visual presentation *works* , because it charms you into sticking around through being whimsical, I like the "oinkment" item for this reason, that's a good one In that vein yall need to get some animations, celebratory ones for each character for when you win a battle and a different one for each character for when you win a match, damaged and worried ones for when you lose a battle and sad ones for when you lose a match, this not only would let you identify with the character more (they're going through the same thing you're going through and so it gives you someone to sympathize with because you're really sympathizing with yourself) it also makes the game feel more real and dynamic You also need emotes (which by the way for monetization purposes I would make those be a pay to unlock feature but I would also make them auto squelchable) that are different for each character (if you have these already you didn't show them) for basically the same readon yall need animations Ooh, to help getting space on board maybe do an item combination system modeled on Hearthstone's magnetic mechanic? Only for items it makes sense to be able to combine of course, but this allows (within the confines of a mobile game) for more complexity and complexity is a good thing *if* it brings depth with it I don't think you should always get the same shopkeepers, also, I would flavor them as vendors because you're supposed to be a shopkeeper right? So then you would source your supply through a vendor. But anyways, there should be a pool of generic vendors that everybody can get and then class specific vendors or even character specific vendors (who would obviously have better wares) that would randomly show up for youu to choose from, maybe make it so that you always get at least one class specific vendor and the other two would be random but you shouldn't always see the exact same vendors every game, too much sameness can turn people off from the game, if everything always feels the same every time and every gane the same thing is happening it gets boring after a while Also, like others have said don't have it so that all the items sell back for the sane amount every time, vendors should have interest levels, 25% interested would get you back 25% of the item's cost, 50% would get you back 50% and 100% 100% so that way if you can't find a 100% interested buyer you might just have to sell anyway, this would make money management more important and thus raise raise depth of play and the skill ceiling Umm and that's it for now I think, if I think of anything else I'll write a new comment but this is all I can think of for now, thank you for taking the time to read this if you have I hope to have been of some amount of service to this awrsone game idea, thank you.
Game looks super fun, and i can't wait to play it. So far the outcome of fights seem to be determined very early, im wondering if there could be some kind of built in swing mechanic or items with swingy property's. Also i know the exact numbers will change but winning early rounds seem underwhelming
I was a bit sceptical about the game when noodle first started promoting it, but this video seals the deal. It's definitely quite unique and looks very fun. Hope it sees success!
The game changed so much, but it really takes advantage of the digital capabilities now, like a autobattler. Great job Ronaldo, can't wait to stream this
I am absolutely on the same page as you guys about "The First Build". Items fighting other items feels weird and the loss of any economy (gold) made the game feel flat and confusing. The new direction is a little close to autochess (I had voiced concern when Reynad initially brought up being inspired by the genre a year ago), but I still think it is a good identity on its own. If it keeps the same direction, I can now tell friends "it may remind you of some aspect of autochess, but what you are considering or strategizing around is a lot more like typical deck building."
Looks like a polished Auto-Chess variation, which can be nice. Two main points to improve in my opinion: 1. 30 seconds is too long, since you can already calculate at the start who will win (in Auto-Chess, there is more randomness) and you don't destroy or kill anything. So, you are essentially just waiting 30 sec. 2. The screen shaking makes me dizzy, I would not play it with this shaking. Edit: two more ideas to make the progress more visible during the game: have the characters say quotes after each fight, unique based on the opponent and who is winning; and updating the character portrait dynamically based on the situation (for example damaged clothes when losing)
Maybe at the start of the game you can calculate who will win, but it seems to get way more complicated the longer you play, so calculating ahead seems impossible. I think the 30 sec combat time is fine.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing at the start of their playthrough with 30 seconds being too long, but by the end of it there was so much going on that I feel like the full 30 seconds is kinda required to clock what exactly your opponent's boardstate is doing and why you won/lost. I guess I'd have to play a few games to make a final judgment on the optimal length of time required though.
I don't think you can calculate at the start who will win. While it's technically possible it's quite complicated (and going through the entire calculation gives you little benefit). That said, I could see it happening that people write scripts or overlays for it. I think 30 seconds is a fine timeframe. Watching the demo game I was engaged with watching the battle play out, and it didn't feel tedious at all.
I've been following since the announcement. I've adored joining you on the journey. I found myself liking each development and iteration a little bit more until we reached this point. I feel like you guys crossed a threshold with this one. This was the moment I knew with full certainty that I would be purchasing this game. I am so tired of the same principles being rewashed and rebranded when it comes to digital card games. It feels like we're hitting mobile gacha territory at this point. You guys have really brought a new perspective to the genre, and I genuinely cannot wait to play. I hope we get the chance to do some testing for you guys. I'd love to dive in and help identify any issues. I see so much potential here. Keep up the fantastic work.
Have you considered the current design but with a non-combat holding board? Perhaps 3 slots wide, underneath or in a seperate section beside it to hold onto items you might want in the future but can't fit.
Not sure how finalized everything is, but a bit of feedback from me would be: - Bigger portraits where possible; Hero portraits, hero powers etc. - Merchants have a pool of voice lines they say whenever you interact with them or the items. Maybe even items have different audio noises they make when you buy them. - The battle button could be a seperate button, so we don't accidentally battle when clicking fast. Maybe also the border around the merchant row could glow or something when you're done talking with a merchant, or all the merchants, to indicate your next action is to battle. - Maybe vary the icon borders or display method for each merchant.
Really like every step of the process and the vertical slice looks great. The one thing that it needs is something unique to each class. From just the first glance Pigmaleon and Vanessa kinda look the same. Like having the possibility to do a stun lock
Looks promising! Some thoughts I had: - 30 seconds seems too long for combat phase, maybe scale it down. - Items should have a limited number of upgrade slots, so that you can't infinitely stack upgrades. It would be cool if each item had a specific number of upgrade slots, not just a universal cap. This way, you can have some items that are weak without upgrades, but are very scalable, and some items may have strong base strength, but less upgrade slots.
I wasn't a fan of the previous versions but I wasn't worried since you always showed great observations in the updates. Now we have a game that looks great, is easy to pick up and is definitely something I would play at this state already. The exploration phase felt relaxing and fun as well. So you and your team did an amazing and I can't wait to see the final product!
You really should move away from this real time thing and have items do one thing per turn. The real time aspect just slows the game down and the only thing it brings is multiple activates for items. You could replace stuff like "half energy cost" with "activates twice each turn". Make positioning important so you can have big combos. Also hero powers and items are just the same thing right now. If you don't plan to make them more different than just get rid of hero powers.I was sceptikal about the game for a lot of time but the new changes seem really good especially the exploration phase. But there is a system that I think could make it better: Each item has a color (that reperesents the type of the card, or what region of the Bazaar world did it come from). Merchants have two color symbols below ther portraits, that indicate which type of items will they sell and which are they collecting. You can only sell your items after you selected a merchant at one of the turns of the exploration phase. Merchants that sell the item color that you are trying to sell them, will buy your items at a low price (for example x0.5 rounded down). Other merchants will buy it for full price. But the ones who collect it buy it for higher (for example x1.5 rounded up)! This would only work with many colors and merchants. If you wanted to make this more complex you could have merchants collecting and selling multiple colors of items.
wow im seriously loving how this new build looks. all of my issues with it are pretty obvious issues you mostly mentioned on wanting to fix anyways. keep it up
Suggestions: 1) instead of shops item pools automatically getting better as the game goes on, introduce a shop "tier" or membership system. Either a separate purchase option that will upgrade the specific shop (and maybe give a consolation prize, so it's not a 'wasted turn') OR the shop will passively gain 'upgrade points' as the player spends gold in that specific shop. 2) a goblin hero centered around bombs and funni gizmos
So excited to see where this project is heading! I've been following you since the creation of zoolock and always appreciated the mind you have for card games. This build looks so dope! Keep up the good work!
I think it would be cool to have a 'trash can' icon under each merchant to let you know you can sell items. You would just drag it to the icon instead of anywhere on the shop. Right now it does not seem intuitive you can sell items.
Idea: Modifiers on the Events. Maybe one of the merchants glows yellow indicating he has a Sale during that encounter. Maybe sometimes they glow green indicating the presence of a rare item they don't often sell. Would probably need to offer these symmetrically to the players to keep the parity even.
If you are thinking about using a market feel and money system instead of battling, Focus on rare items that are difficult to get. Maybe you can buy rare items or fuse items together. maybe another win condition could be when a player collects a certain number of rare items, they win the game. Instead of trying to fight. The battle system could still be there, but it’s just another way to play. Instead of discarding items to create more space for items, players can scrap them for coins (currency), sell items to other players for lesser value, so that it doesn’t feel bad when getting rid of items. Merchant, Smith, and Trainers Is an awesome concept and you guys should continue it. I understand that the game is still in its infancy. However, I have faith in you guys. keep it up!
Great video, love it! Instead of desroying Items, to have Space for new ones, you could add a little storage pile where you can park x amount of Items.
My 2 cents : Gameplay suggestions and ideas : - Maybe reduce the number of encounters on the first turns : 1 or 2 on the first turns and then go up to any number you think is the best fit. - Improving items is a great idea. - Reduce combat time ? I'm not sure players want to spend half of their playing time watching stuff and doing nothing. But I might be wrong. AutoBattlers are a thing and In Hearthstone, you still spend half of your time watching your opponent plays. So maybe 30 seconds is fine. - Stun is a cool mechanic. Can I recommend steal to steal money from your opponent ? - +5 gold seems really OP in the first turns. - Have you thought about fusing items ? To make unique ones ? - Isn't it frustrating to go to a merchant and see that we can not / want not buy anything from him ? - Having the same hero power multiple times feels weird ? Or not I don't know. - Instead of energy , have you thought about 'number of activations' : the item effect will resolve X times, X being the item's number of activations. - Talking about speed, you could set 3 different speeds fast/medium/Low. fast items trigger first, then meidum, then low. - Remember that a mobile game should be pretty fast. (Less than 20 minutes imho) Animations : During the buying phase, the row (the shop ?) of your opponent is hidden by a curtain and when the fight begins the curtains reveals your opponent's shop (the shop opens). The road is still long, but the game seems fun. Can not wait to try it out. Good luck and be brave, Bazaar Team !
Hell yes! I am so behind this version. You guys have nailed it for me. I can't wait to learn all the cards and start streaming. I'm most excited about cards like Caltrops that can counter your opponent's strategy. I like the idea of stuns but I think stunlocking shouldn't be possible. Maybe stunning items can only stun once per turn. Again, can't wait to get my hands on the game! I really hope you guys release the game before it is balanced and let us try to break it so you can know which cards need balancing. And have regular balance updates ongoing.
Maybe add a tag that makes an items energy cost further unchangable, could help with stunlock so that big mana reduction enchants also apply that tag to the item, or make multi hit weapons start with it to limit stunlock or potential poison damage stacking/similiar mechanics. Thing I liked from gwent was the "baiting enemy into spending too much resources until next round", which isn't possible since you can't really waste gold if you sell at full value, making enchants sell for less might make them feel as an investment to pressure your enemy into playing faster instead of just being a default free buff. As you said late game items will be stronger so its not like you're clogging your endgame items with bad enchants.
Very nice vidéo & I really like the game design process you went through. What I liked : - the global direction of the game, - the focus on the buying, - the feel of auto attack as auto battler do, - the artistic direction is cool (need more darkness :D) Yeah i was worried about the game and this video reassure me a lot !! Congratz ! What i think should be improved : - interactivity on opponent hand, when you play, except about the stun lock you try to avoid, you never really look at opponent strategy... may be because Raw DPS was at the center of your builds. - the buying phase lack of interactivity with the opponent, - the stun lock
i really like the new mechanics and looks. Love it. What I want to mention: maybe add indicators to each purchased item so you can instantly see, how many (and which) upgrades are applied. EDIT: ok there are indicators, but these don't show which upgrades are applied
Been following the game since I heard you talking about it on Twitch years ago, really glad to see everything coming to fruition. Keep up the great work!
I love the gameplay, can't wait to play it! My only issue is flavor wise, I think the items should be units/creatures and the improvements should be items. Right now it just feels like an auto-battler in disguise, but I know it'd mean a lot of new artwork, so I get it if you don't change it now
Holy shit, this is amazing! This is it. This is the game I want to play. It's had some rough spots and taken a while to find itself, but I think this is the right path. Looks smooth, flexible, lots of options but not much headache. So happy I backed you when you first started fundraising, and I can't wait for alpha or beta or whenever I get to help this game take off! Animations are going to help a lot to see what and why things are stunning you. Heck I don't even know if that mechanic will make it through - seems pretty easy to abuse. I do like the idea though of the control deck strat that doesn't attack. Perhaps a good balance point would be having some items ignore stun (for instance maybe stunning only stops weapon attacks from going off). That way you could have multiple "types" of stun that stop different specific actions - freeze, silence, root, disarm, etc.
Have you thought having "initiative" instead fo cooldown and each of them playing only once (outside of specific windfury/reactivation combos that could be implemented)? It would be easier to balance and play around oponent´s cards. Basically all cards have initiative, play in order based on it. This way you can a) have stable health pool that is affected by each round (because each card plays only once) b) you can adjust your strategy based on how it played out (without seeing how oponent adjusts himself/herself).
This looks really good. Keep on iterating, the game gets better every time. One effect suggestion for you: If you win the fight, you get 1 additional gem, if you loose, your opponent gets +1. Basically it is a way to introduce aggro play into the game. If you are confident in your current board state, you can buy a 'do nothing' to speed up the game and capitalize on your leed. Anyway keep it up!
If you move the player icons from the middle of the bar to the right/left side, you can probably have items being used simultaneously because they won't be crossing each other.
That was awesome. Really liking how it's turning out. At first I wasn't so sure but after watching the 1v1 it definitely looked awesome. Would love to see more interactions with the opponent but you guys probably already have that stuff in the works. I noticed a comment about how about doing more than 1v1. I feel like reducing the amount of auto battler things would make the game more unique and more deck builder style so I would say please keep it 1v1, then it's more about outplaying your opponent throughout the tug of war and from a competitive point that's more interesting to me personally. Looking forward to seeing how it shapes up, this could be the next big deck builder strategy game and that's exciting! A 2v2 mode could be good, but I definitely don't want to see 9 players and we can sort of see auto battlers don't actually have sticking power so inspiration is good, but making it more like it extra is probably not a good idea.
The one thing I really want about game and that's for the characters to talk and taunt each other if they win or deal a big hit it could be kinda like how injustice or overwatch does its interactions
I think having the battle stage automatic makes it to much like an Auto battler, which makes you compete with like Hearthstone Battlegrounds and TFT. I think if you made the battle stage an Active phase, like the combat in Clash Royale, it would make it way more unique and fun!
We talked about taking it further in that direction but then it quickly becomes APM-based gameplay. There are technical implications too, because without realtime inputs we have way more leeway with networking. Ping won't matter so we can pair you with people across the world, etc
When you pick different characters on the character select screen, the camera should whisk over to a different part of the town background where that guy would be hanging out. Like the pig merchant should be by the tents and the pirate lady by the docks
Yes! Good idea!
This is a great design idea
Def like this idea
Good idea
It'd be cool no doubt but it'd be a question whether it'd be worth the time and money to implement. Since you'd only see it for a short amount of time anyways.
I love how you talk about this game. I can feel the passionate care you have for it. You are a very put together young dude. Need more like ya. Can't wait to play this
This update is a short film and I love it!
we don't have the same definition of short
"I lost the coin flip, as usual" xD
An hour video?! That fills in for all the weeks when there were no updates!
Another highly upvoted commenter mentioned this but im reiterating for emphasis because they also mentioned a bunch of other things. Items should have "types" that allow for easy counter strategies; that way you arent playing multiplayer solitaire like in a lot of deckbuilders (looking at you Dominion). For example, lets say the snowglobe had the card type "tchotchke" or "trinket". Make there be some items that have an ability (or circumstantial bonus ability) that on round start disables one "trinket" or disables a trinket on hit. You can do this with upgrades too: the point is that you want to maintain the variability of the merchants/trainers/smiths while also making sure that you always have the option to interact to your opponents strategy to some degree, otherwise itll feel like youre just playing against the game and not against another player. Because selling items is always an option and it costs very little other than the opportunity cost of perhaps not seeing that item again in a store for a few rounds, you never feel bad about dynamically adjusting your strategy to react to the opponent, plus there is a little bit of a market themed "gamble" on whether or not you think they will sell or modify the item youre trying to counter before the next combat.
Overall though this is the first version of the Bazaar that actually felt like a Bazaar game. The first sketches were things I always looked forward to because I love a good deckbuilder like Clank etc but it didnt quite feel like it had its own raison d'etre until now. Keep up the good work.
Hey some ideas popped out at me as you played the game!
1. Have you considered having a rotating pool of different merchants much the same way battlegrounds rotates it's different tribes? This adds a lot more complexity and choice to each game.
2. Each merchant can have a different flavour of items, hero powers and upgrades they can offer, as well as class specific cards.
3. Each merchant buys items for different costs, so you can sell items for higher prices to specific merchants.
4. Items can appreciate or depreciate over time in cost so you may want to buy items that take up slots but you can sell for loads later on.
5. Buying two of the same item can stack them on top of each other and upgrade them, incentivising you to look for the the same merchants who offer the items and keep items around.
6. There should be multiple ways to earn gems outside of battle, so there are different control and "economics" comps that players can choose, and pivots you can take if you're stunned out or overpowered in battle. For example, you may be able to purchase Gems directly from Merchants with a lot of money after getting a money engine going, or maybe some items after they're upgraded or layered enough can be sold for gems to specifc merchants, or some items can generate gems over time.
7. Ways to interact with or protect yourself from specific items, or "tribes" of items, so your opponent may need to pivot if you get the right counter. Maybe you may be resistant to laser guns but conventional guns or blades still work on you.
8. Buying items reduces the number of that item in the merchant pool.
9. It seems that once you have an endgame comp, replacing items is worse than simply upgrading them, being able to stack items or having every merchant offer upgrades (and hero powers and items) fixes the problem of always going to the Smith at the end game.
10. Ways to interact with your opponents gems and coins maybe? A thief mechanic or thief merchant/items?
11. Stun seems OP, maybe just slow down instead? There needs to be a way to get out of Stun. An item that counters Stun?
Game looks really cool and I can tell you guys are really working hard and in the right direction!
the game looks pretty cool !! already read many great comments and critiques so i'll just leave some ideas:
1- i think a pretty cool concept that could be explored since we are in " THE bazaar " is the ability to sell the items we get to diferent vendors for diferent rewards, or even early / mid game items that only gain value when sold ( do X when sold / do Y when sold to Jay Jay )
2- it would also be interesting to gain the amount of gems on the table ( yours + your enemies ) as a reward for winning and using those gems as a cosmetic / exclusive currency ( probably like crowns from fall guys ) in the game shown you'd get 40+26 gems that would acumulate to your gem count in the menu, people love exclusive cosmetics etc etc
i think these 2 ideas would be pretty interesting and fitting for a game called " the bazaar " characters trade with gold but they are fighting for a rarer resource the gems, for ways to spend the gems ... carbacks ? card / play effects ? character skins ? board toys ? all those would have exclusive ( with gems ) and premium currency versions i guess
The Bazaar: 1 hour video with gameplay!
Me: What a nice guys.
I like the direction you guys are taking.
I have two suggestions for you and one concern !
1. Maybe different shops can be included (where the merchants are)
and if needed something players have to do to get there.
2. Maybe a comback mechanic system fits this version of the game (special offers for the player down on points).
My one concern is that you can't add enough cards that feel different (design space).
I love that you guys are making a fun and different strategy game - keep it on !!!
Love everything!!! Will make separate comment for saying how much I like it cause this will be long lol
Ideas:
- Combat conditionals (if you won last combat, gain gold. something powerful that breaks if you lose combat, etc.)
- Adding/destroying board slots
- Brittle hero powers
- Something that autofills empty board slots at the start of combat
- Manipulating explore phase (next turn, get an additional shop. next turn, get only one shop)
- Conditionals on how much gold you have (if you have 50+ gold, if you have exactly 0 gold)
- Colorless/neutral cards
- Manipulating selling value (a card that sells for more the longer you hold it, a card that doubles the value of other cards you sell that turn, etc.)
misc.
You may already know about this stuff since you balance it and i've never played it lol but just some thoughts:
- doubling or halving stuff can do super broken stuff, maybe limit to only one doubling/halving effect per item
- making it more tempo based (maybe the ramping 1 gem per win is too slow. I know you joked about "fun and interactive" so you're aware but it would suck if early game stuff didn't matter and just stunlocking/economy is good) If you're already super cognizant of this, sorry, just watching some turns made me worry, even though I know it's still in development
- maybe adding a bench. It seems to operate like an autobattler, and I saw where you were trying to transition out of an economy build and it felt clunky trying to transition. It felt like a bench would be natural to help aid that and give more agency/decision making to the player
- reducing the amount of times pile of gold shows up in the shop. I know it's meant to add extra decision making, but it feels super boring to just get gold, even if it's good.
Good points Bobby. Very intriguing
I absolutely LOVE the transparency throughout this entire process of creating The Bazaar. Seeing as you two are invested in the gaming world, I am sure you were frustrated at the lack of transparency from other gaming companies. Thanks for providing such insightful content on game design and for being honest with your audience on where the game has been and where the game is headed. Loving all the content, super excited for this game and am proud to see how far you all have come ❤
Few ideas:
- Mid and late game cards could be in stock with different merchants that can only show up after certain turns.
- A potion merchant that gives (maybe expensive) upgrades for one fight only as a late game money sink.
- I still like the old idea of a day/night cycle. Shop during the day and fight at night.
Great job, it's amazing to see the progress!
Super excited for the game. One mechanic that I think would be really cool is if you're planning to have class specific merchants, make it so that there's some way for both players to access some of the class specific stuff for their opponents as well. If you're in a marketplace while there may be a few people that sell only to you, most merchants would sell to anyone. Maybe you can buy things from the opponents class at a higher price? Doing this to me seems like a way to not only make every class seem unique, bug ever matchup as well
Couple of things that stood out to me.
The ability to sell back cards to vendors really isn't clear or intuitive to me during the buy phase. There's no onscreen hints and it really "feels" like cards are locked in your row after placing them. Am I able to sell back any card to any vendor at full price? It feels like some vendors should prefer certain types of cards over others and value their resale value accordingly. But maybe it's better how it is. Can I sell all the cards I've bought or is there a limit per vendor? Can I see what my opponent is buying as they buy or do I have to wait until the combat phase to see what they bought? The cards from the vendors also don't immediately feel like I can pick and buy them. They just look kinda like they are just there. Is it possible to Mulligan vendors?
The fight phase lasts way too long imo. It should be like half what it is in this video. I got a really impatient feeling while watching every combat phase. I also have very little interest or reason to really watch a lot of the combat phase. It's predetermined anyway. I kinda just want to get it out the way so I can go back to buying. If there were ways I could influence the combat phase ordering or interactions I think I would be more invested in it being longer and easier to follow visually. You keep mentioning about the animation desync but tbh didn't even care about that as there's nothing to even get interested in the combat phase anyway.
Instead of having the green number be a charge up time in seconds. Why not just make the number become how many times that card is going to activate in the combat phase. It is a really jarring thing to think about the charge up mechanic. It's way less cognitive load to think about "this card is gonna hit 4 times next turn". Making me (the user) do the division completely complicates the buy phase unecessesarily and would make me hesitate to buy when looking at cards to buy. This could also make the whole combat phase activation ordering simpler because instead each card could just sequentially hit it's amount of hits that turn then move to the next card in your row. But it seems like you may have intended for the charge up timings to have interactions with other cards based on when they do their action which is understandable and cool. I just really don't like the charge up time way of describing the card activation frequency.
I'm just one guy, the game looks pretty cool. Very polished even at this stage. Stun locking looks annnnnnnoyyyyying. But the core mechanics do look really fun. As a player I definitely would like a way to see what card pools are available at each vendor for each class. Kinda like a deck book. And definitely a way to know the "odds" or even rarities of getting each card at each vendor. So I can figure out "builds" this way. Knowing which are the common cards and which are the rare ones is important (if that is even a thing that exists in bazaar they might just be even chances?)
I think half a minute is a fine time to have a combat phase. Sure in buy phase you can see what your opponent has, but seeing how everything interacts makes it so you can more easily think about how to counter your opponent's strategy. Like if Reynad just skipped the second to last combat phase it's very possible to miss how he being stunned for 5 seconds initially translates to him being stunned permanently, and then he couldn't change his build to counter
I agree that there could be some more in depth selling. However, I disagree on your combat phase takes. Maybe in the first few turns it could go at double speed, but it's going to be SUPER important to see exactly how each card is interacting. For instance if they have a stun combo that triggers 12 seconds in, you could set yourself up to get armour and block that first stun at the right time, and having it actually play out will show you how things are happening (it would be insane to calculate the timing of every card in your head, especially late game when 5 different effects are changing the timing on each item). Also say you have an item that echos another item's effects, but it has a different cooldown, so sometimes it interacts with different items. I really need this all to be visualized. Regardless, it always feels good to see your strategy play out. Sitting there for 30 seconds watching my masterpiece unfold whole I rub my hands together feels amazing.
I agree with all of these suggestions
Think the selling is fine thats how most autobattlers work
I personally like the length of the combat phase. It should be the exiting part of the game when you watch how your build works, just like in autobattlers
To Bazaar Team: Loved this video and getting to see the progress! Love how transparent you are with us and it really makes me excited for when the game comes out! Great production value (love the in-table screen thingie lol) and of course all the transitions/animations/title cards. I know it takes time to record, set up, and edit videos like this, so I super appreciate it. Getting to see the whole process of the game being made is super insightful and I've never seen game development being displayed in such detail. The vertical slice looks amazing. It's crazy how much of a difference it is just having audio/visuals is. Even though fundamentally it may be the same game, seeing it come to life is so much different. Love the "discover" a merchant phase. It fits perfectly in flavor, helps the "roguelike" feel to it, and gives the player a lot of agency without overwhelming them. Also, reynoodle, don't be shy to shout out/give props to the games that inspire you lol. I know that you don't want to feel like a copycat/unoriginal but nothing wrong with taking inspiration from your contemporaries. I feel like you are heavily inspired by other games (AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT) and I feel like being transparent about it would be best.
This is really cool to get to see. I appreciate you guys taking the time to give us this insight into the current state of development almost as much as I appreciate you making the game itself. Looks good.
Also, I really don't think the troll statement "JUST ANOTHUR AUTOBATLR LUL" really holds water here. Game looks like it has a lot of potential, and as someone who hasn't been very interested in any of the auto-battlers to date I think this one looks like something that would be way more up my alley.
Keep up the good work 👍
Thanks! I really think The Bazaar will appeal more to explorers. Instead of rolling from the same minion pool hundreds of times a game, you meet characters and encounter events to build your lineup. It will be less mechanical, and feel more like an adventure. We didn't even go over any of our big innovations in this video - there are huge reasons to play this game over autobattlers that we haven't talked about at all
I'm really into tft right now and I just want to point out that part of the reason that it's so fun is
1. you can buy stuff while the fight is happening
2. Gold interest vs. win streaking makes for a variety of strategies on when to buy and when to save
3. You are battling as a group of 8 people (maybe that could be a mode)
I like the concept of being able to plan ahead while stuff is happening like in TFT.
The combat phase for The Bazaar is cool and adding interactivity while it is happening would help the game's organic feel. As a player, if I am playing a game yet not actively doing something, it feels a lot better if it is by choice rather then by the game preventing me from doing so.
Love the point about focus on economy. And the fantasy of walking around in a bazaar and buying from different people
One simple way to stop the infinity stun loop is a debuff resistance. Every time you enemy apply one stun like 2 seconds you character will gain stun resistence for the rest of the round. So the next stun will be reduce by a % like the next will stun by 1 second. And so on. This type of design can enable the freezer again and make this type of degeneracy less impact but still important.
Another good thing about this debuff resistance system is that early cards that apply less stun in one atk will lost is value even with double atks or a quick timing forcing the player to buy new things instead of just upgrades to hit more frequently.
A few thoughts:
- Loving the look of the game, and I think the core gameplay has promise
- There doesn't seem to be much interaction with the opponent at the moment. Seems you just hit face, maybe stun, and that's it. I hope the final game will have much more interaction with the opponent's cards and more strategic in how to counter an opponent's build. At the moment it comes across like hunter vs hunter in hearthstone.
- The autoattacking phase feels pretty boring. Unlike, say, Battlegrounds, everything is pre-ordained, so there's not much excitement in it. Instead you're just watching some thing hit face a few times for however long it is. I dunno, I think the phase needs much more player interaction. More interatction with the opponent's cards will probably help fix this.
- In general I think this is a solid foundation, but it's hard to see where the depth in the game is coming from at the moment
I think it would be nice to have a button to click somewhere to see a summary of your stats you currently have. It seems hard at a glance to see what your outputs are for all your items combined, like, total cash flow, total dps, etc. Looks very cool though. Great job so far, appreciate the upates. Best of luck to you guys!
Some ideas (I will continue to ramble about all ideas that come to mind, cause you said you can never have enough ideas. You can decide if anything is useful):
1. What about a set of items that fit together. Like the pictures completes a bigger picture when put together and has a special effect when completed. Similar to how Exodia works (not the insta win effect, just the concept).
2. Also maybe you get extra points when putting the enemy's health to 0. More points than just ending with more health. This would be exciting and maybe it's own playstyle. Trying to kill the opponent to get more points quickly.
3. You once wanted to make a night and day system. It doesn't need to be exactly that, but "whole board states" could be a thing. Maybe it's raining and thus some shops close. Some classes might have merchants that stay open during rain (just an example).
4. The buying phase should feel like exploring a market. But it doesn't seem like exploring if all merchants a immediatly there in front of you. Maybe you choose a district of the market and then find out what merchants show up. Some merchants frequent a certain district while others keep moving around. And maybe you can only choose a district once per fight. Makes sense that you can't just run from one side of the market to the other without it taking time. And maybe instead of having only merchants specific to classes, there could be class specific districts. Some classes might just not be welcome in certain places. And this of course also creates more space for mechanics, like an effect reducing cost of items bought in a certain district.
5. You will probably add more, but having more interesting encounters would be could. Maybe you can encounter a spy in the buying phase and pay him money. He will then reveal something about what the player ist doing, like showing one random item the player bought beforehand so you can plan your buys around that.
6. Also a way to balance selling items might be to make it so that merchants only have a certain amout of gold availabe so you can’t sell everything if the merchant doesn’t have the money to buy it.
7. You could introduce mutiple ways to get gems. Would create different winning strategies and ways of playing.
8. You will do so anyway, but I feel like the combat phase needs to really communicate in an efficent way. You don't have much time to look at what is going on so it should be clear at a glance how most of the fight will pan out and what synegies are at play. Otherwise it's just a "thow everything out and see if it works". It should be quite clear who is likely going to win the fight from the beginning. There should be a good amount of room for surprises. But not every fight should be a surprise.
Also the charging seems a bit random at times, not because of the animation queue, but because you have to calculate how often a weapon will strike and so on. It should show the expected number of strickes, expected number of gold gained, show if an item will brake by the end of the fight etc. Just some "Preview" thing. Legends of Runeterra has a something very similar and it is quite useful I think.
9. Also maybe a trade option where you can trade a low cost item for a higher one because the merchant has an interest in one of your items. Could be randomly generated depending on some factors.
Great ideas! I can tell we're on the same wavelength. A lot of related things are already in the works. Let me know if your concerns were addressed when we show them in upcoming updates!
@@reynad27 will do 👍
I think you guys are on the right path. This seems hugely improved with lots of interesting solutions and conclusions to problems and questions games like this struggle with. I think with a good amount of work this game could be very good.
A few notes
1. As others have said the game has very little back and forth and player interaction. While I don't expect as much player interaction in a game like this I do expect some. I think the stuns and infinite combos could be fine even at some level if players had more ways to sabotage their opponent. Perhaps one class could be able to get an ability to steal a weapon from their opponent, one could destroy a weapon, another could have ways to become immune to stuns. Perhaps there could be a class that revolves not around making your stuff stronger as much but making the opponents stuff weaker as well, debuffs and whatnots.
2. I think there should be more than 3 merchants, but only 3 show at a time. Perhaps one sells spells of some sort. Maybe one sells pets. This would add more strategies and force builds to be flexible and not fall into min maxing as often.
Overall I think it's good and can't wait to see more. It would be awesome if once a month or something we just got a quick recorded game in the current build. That would be an awesome way to do updates.
There kind of seems to be less of a point to watching the fight in the Bazaar than other autobattlers for the simple reason that there is more randomness to their fights. Like in Hearthstone Battlegrounds, you can be on the edge of your seat when you start winning the 50/50s that may lead to winning that 5 percent chance. In the Bazaar, it feels like if you know the cards, you could know the outcome of the entire fight as soon as it starts. You're just going through the motions.
That’s what my eyes are telling me. This game seems like it’s great in concept… but not as much in execution. I hope I’m wrong but that what the footage is looking like.
With Backpack Battles proving this kind of game concept can be a huge success, this comments didn't age well.
@@denissinner4625 Ehh I would say yes and no. I think I did underestimate it and did enjoy it in backpack battles. That being said, there is a reason you can play those fights at 3x speed. And imo it's a feature that kinda makes it feel more casual or mobile gamey - not a serious competitive game like the bazaar was trying to be.
This looks awesome. I was optimistic before, but now you've made something I'm truly excited to play. I honestly can't wait for beta!
The Pygmalien product placement with the oinkment and art on the matchbox gave great insight on the characters personality, could practically hear the jovialness from the ads for 'em. Coming together really well, keep it up.
Loved the update reynad. There should be a 4th shop "merchant" guy who sells things to interact with opponents items, because otherwise they can snowball easily. Maybe he could have abilities like "destroy an item" or "decrease the energy of an item"
This is a very unique direction you have taken the game. I was worried at the start of the video but you really turned it around.
Suggestion: Hirelings! A unique position on the board like hero powers but with an upkeep cost per round.
Hey Reynad. I followed your development journey from the beginning and I have to say you already came a long way. The art and feel of the game looks on point. You really managed to gather a talented team to realize your project. Keep up the good work.
Some thoughts about the game.
1) Narratively I’m still confused on what the game represents. Now two adventures buy items on an intergalactic bazaar to battle each other in different rounds for gems. However this makes the inclusion of certain items like the painting, matches and snow globe strange. If you want to go the battle route I would expect more things like armour, boots, ammo, consumables, ...
2) Now items are specific to the player character. Thematically this is strange since they are not the merchant (although some of them look like merchants). It seems narratively more clear to give the player characters affiliation with certain items (through character powers) but make the look of the items merchant dependent.
3) I think that the degradation of items is something you should keep in the game. It allows for more design space (items that degrade opponents items, items that repair other items, etc) and will make the game more dynamic since you can’t just keep a winning item combination.
4) I would reduce the possibility to sell items to one item per turn. That way players can anticipate more what their opponent will do in the next turn and you can try to buy counters to your opponents strategy more easily.
5) Now it seems items only manipulate the battle phase of the game. However maybe some item effects could also affect the buy phase (discount, more chance on certain items, reroll items, additional selling actions,...)
7) It seems that the battles could take place during the buying phase to speed up play. Now the screen is organized to allow player interaction but if this is not the goal of the game you could use the top half for battling and the bottom half for buying.
I really appreciate you putting out a video this long that really showcases the development and how things are going. It was great getting to see the match at the end
pretty good, thank you for following my advices from 12 months ago(autobattle + card game).... now I expect my 1% of company, one final advice you need to do the initial games faster, less jazy music, end turn, no "complete", zoom in on cards when buy(option in settings).... background ground color more pale, constructions more spunk, backgrounds that are intergalactic(space)
Great video, my initial thought on the current build are are that it seems fun on the surface, like Slay the Spire but PvP, however I think it becomes just two people playing a single player game, seeing who can make the craziest board, like an autobattler and the lack of interactivity is in my opinion the biggest 'flaw' I see with it. Art, music, the setting and everything seems way too good for how early of a build it is and just all around good. Been following the game for some time and wanna wish you all luck with the development. :)
I agree
This looks like a fun and interesting gameplay loop. Balance is gonna be very important though for the game to not get boring too quickly and the way the game is designed it looks like balancing is gonna be extremely difficult. One thing that I thought while watching the gameplay was, that you probably shouldnt allow duplicate hero powers and item upgrades for the sake of balancing and variety. Because youre gonna make mistakes in balancing for sure and if for example a hero power is broken the game will become about who can roll the most of that specific hero power which sucks. If youre gonna only allow one of that specific hero power though, both players have a good chance to at least find the one copy of it throughout the game and then at least the other two slots will be flexible.
This looks good and I think is moving in a good direction, but there are a few things that I think could be improved on.
Idk if it is just because I don't know the cards but it seems like it is hard to counter what your opponent it doing, if you even can. Since each class has its own pool of cards (which I think is a good idea) it might be hard to prevent some classes from just always beating another class. Another issue that I could see arising from this is there is just one build that is always the best to go for each class. Maybe adding tech cards into each class that can counter particular strategies while maintaining the identity of the class could be interesting.
Something that I think should be added is being able to see what your opponent is buying during the buy phase. I think this has the problem of doing nothing till the last seconds of the buy phase so your opponent can't counter you, but it does feel a little odd not being able to see what your opponent buys.
I think there is also an issue where once you get to the end game and you have the build that you want to go with there is no longer a point to doing anything. If your board is filled with the items you want and they all have 2 upgrades with the 3 hero powers that you want there is nothing else to do. The way auto-battlers prevent this is having the ability to merge characters and having high cost characters. I think this could be prevented by having very strong items/upgrades/heroes powers that can only be found in the buy phase at the end of the game. I know this was mentioned, but I think that it is very important to keep the player chasing after something until the game ends.
Maybe make all stun items brittle or have diminishing returns on stuns.
Show the probability of getting different card rarities and show the rarity of the cards.
Something else that is kind of interesting is how there is no RNG in the combat phase, I think this is something that is cool, but could lead to making games feeling similar. If 2 exact builds are facing each other there will always be a build that wins. Idk if this will be an issue when the game is released cause of the amount that build diversity there will be but could be an issue.
This build looks really good for a starting point and I think with a few more iterations this game will be great. I hope this game blows up!
I like your first point a lot. Maybe at the start of the game, you get a secret card pool that fills your stores each round, but it's only a random subset of the total pool. You could have all the class cards always all in the mix, or you could also take a random subset from the class cards. Like a 400 card general pool of which your stores actually only draw from 100 at random. This will mean every class has optimal builds based on the specif random sample you start with; that is going to be very hard to net deck.
"The way auto-battlers prevent this is having the ability to merge characters and having high cost characters."
Combining items in the Bazaar actually sounds like it would be super interesting. Like each item has multiple items it could combine with to make unique items that can only be obtained through combining. It would be sort of like items in Teamfight Tactics, but way more focused and impactful.
@Benjamin Shumaker Thanks for your reply and I look forward to seeing the new changes!
End game problem could be solved by having a merchant, or something you can put money into to get stronger cards.
When I was excited about this game, I was excited for a deck building game like Dominion where I had to compete for resources etc with my opponent. Now I feel like I'm just getting another auto battler to fit with the current times. I'll still play because I love the theme and the idea about this, I think it's gonna be a really fun auto-battler from what I've seen so far in this video. However, I wish it was a separate game you decided to make and put the original concept of the Bazaar that I backed with my money on hold until you felt you could fulfil it. Cheers to making a really cool looking game so far and I'm sure I'll play.
We spent 2 years polishing and wrestling with the pure deck builder concept but just didn't feel like it was the best game that we could make. We're exploring an additional 1v1 mode rather than multiple opponents which might be the style of gameplay you're wanting.
@@reynad27 sounds great! I understand the reasoning and all for sure. Just wanted to express it. I hope for a successful launch when it comes!
YO that gameplay was eye-opening. I couldn't make much out of your descriptions and was very unsure about that autoplay mechanic but after seeing it the whole cycle of a turn really reminds me of TFT which is actually one of my most played games of recent times. Can't freaking wait for the Bazaar.
You can prevent exponential growth in card activation frequency by making upgrades grant cards "X% increased energy gain" instead of flat reductions to energy cost.
Good call! We switched to doing this in all card sets after this initial one.
@@reynad27 Sweet! The game already looks fun. I can't wait to see the finished product.
dude i have a feeling this game will really pop off in the streaming scene. would be so insane having a come back like OLD hearthstone, back in the day with all the badass brahs chillin in chat. IMAGINE IT BRAH
There is a lot I like about where this is headed, but definitely kinda surprised to see it come out feeling like an auto-battler. I haven't backed the game and had no real investment in the whole 'it has to be a deck building game' thing that was the original plan. I'm just keen to see a cool game at the end of it based on your vision. I've read through a few other comments that have highlighted in detail some issues I've kinda had. I think obviously things like the selling mechanic could be tuned to really flesh out the 'buy-and-sell/business' side of the game. You talk about how that is part of the core vision of the game's setting, and what you have here is definitely a step towards that. But I think right now the money feels too simplistic and just very similar in practice to something like Team Fight Tactics. More mechanics for trading would be cool to see as a result (bartering, limitations on selling, vendors paying more or less for things etc etc).
Also there definitely needs to be more direct interaction with the opponent, I think that's probably the biggest thing that feels like it's missing atm. This could be achieved in the combat phase through items that you can to actually interact with (stepping back from the 'auto-battle' style). Alternatively perhaps you could sync the rounds in the 'explore phase' and give options to interact with the opponent here. Something like passing back and forth before combat resolves or just a method to see and interact directly with what your opponent is trying to buy/sell/upgrade.
Last minor 'issue' I'll mention is the natural ramp up of complexity as rounds play out. You spoke about how in other card games turn 1/2 tend to have very few choices and actions that actually happen. However in this playtest on the first first round there were already 8 items in play during combat phase. That seemed a little quick/daunting to me but I also realise limiting this too much might mean turn 1 is incredibly boring. Shortening the explore phase to 2 or 3 steps on the early turns might be a clean way of addressing this (if it is an issue).
Great feedback, and our upcoming changes reflect this line of thinking. How do you feel about interaction when it's a different opponent every time instead of a 1v1 the whole game?
@@reynad27 Would this function in a similar sense to TFT where you have 9 players in the game and your opponent cycles until 'last man stands'? I'm not sure that would address the 'interaction' issue but it may improve the feel with having to design your build to multiple opponents (I guess if the game showed you who your next opponent was before explore phase, that would be a form of dynamic interaction). My concern here would be that it strays further from the original vision of what some people signed up for, being a 1v1 card game.
Definitely a route that could work in your favour for the game's design overall. But may still be worth exploring other interaction options within the 1v1 design space. Will see what you come up with!
Definitely not the game that I was originally expecting but pleased with how its progressed so far. Excited to play it when it comes out
SNOW GLOBE OP
but seriously I could see myself playing this a lot as soon as the game is released, an auto battler deck-building roguelike is such an interesting concept for a card game! Good luck to you Reynad and to the whole Bazaar team!
Awesome update ! I can really see this game becoming a big thing, especially if you keep improving it with the same dedication and love as you've been doing so far !
One thing I would think about would be to decouple energy gain with passage of time from a 1 energy to 1 second perspective. This allows you to speed up or slow down animations, do things that change the speed of energy gain that isn't related to seconds so you can change the round time if you want, etc. Doesn't specifically help from a card balance space, but from an understanding of the game space.
Couple of points mechanically that I think are necessary in the long run:
1) Energy reduction should always apply fixed duration reduction BEFORE percentage-based reduction. This makes it more difficult to abuse cooldown reduction
2) Additional stuns should not ADD to the duration, but instead take the longest stun currently on the character. Currently the mechanic takes no thought and promotes just "picking a card that stuns". Making the durations reset with every stun will add a lot more strategy and planning to your comp
Including money again would allow for a fun competitive mechanic in the form of auctioning:
Say a salesman shows up and offers a really strong item for a little bit of gold. Then, the players could each offer a price, and try to outbid each other for the item. It could be a quick back and forth between the players, putting them in direct competition, and it allows for characters to play a bigger part in the game and world. It makes it feel a lot more like a Bazaar, in short.
It's just an idea, keep up the good work!
One idea I have that I think would help in both a world building sense and gameplay sense is the idea of factions. Right now I love that there is such a diversity of cool characters and items and it really feels like you could find anything here but I think there's not much that grounds us in the world. If there were factions, perhaps competing businesses, or marauder gangs or maybe some type of government, when you have an encounter with a merchant you can see that they're actually a part of a larger organization. Maybe it's a symbol of status to be a part of certain organizations. Each class then could interact with the same merchants differently which I think increases re-playability. Maybe Pigmalion is associated somehow with Jay Jay and there's something on their card art that unifies them, so when you play as Pigmalion you get better prices from Jay Jay specifically. Maybe there's a different merchant from a competing organization and things cost extra for Pigmalion. Perhpas Vanessa has ties with a local gang, and she can get specialized weapons from them that no other character has access to. I think this increases design space in a few ways. Now as you add characters, you could have say two different characters from the same class, but because they're part of different factions, they interact differently with the merchants and thus have a different play style. I think it could be a cool way to get players invested in the world as they learn the relationships between the different factions especially if it melds with gameplay during the encounter phase.
Alternate shopkeeper idea: Genie. Genie lets you pick one of 3 random text options which might describe a dilemma you're in (e.g. "My opponent is constantly stun locking me", "I am dying to poison") and the genie will provide only one item that might help with that problem.
Had a look at one of Reynad's recent livestreams of this game and am now super excited to see this game develop and be able to actually play it. Looks super fun.
Possible music suggestion: Some games turn off/on instruments based on the phase. So in the buying phase you might just have a beat, but during combat you might turn on a base riff, then as your health gets lower some shredding on a guitar starts.
Just a way to add some umph to the combat without changing songs every time.
I love this video. It's so interesting to see you guys be critical of your own work and I feel like I'm learning not just about your game but a lot about game design through this.
Writing a few of my reactions as I go.
When you talked about the issue of having to destroy your own items, it made me think of using items to combine/craft/upgrade into stronger items.
When I heard about the issue of too many inputs (having to attack with each individual item every turn) I thought about having items "remember" their previous action. I now am at the part where you're talking about automating item attacks so you had a similar thought.
Now that I see what the item attacks look like in the game walkthrough it looks awesome. Very easy to grasp.
That stunlock is so broken ahaha. It's such a cool concept though, being able to manipulate your opponent's time.
Creating builds looks like so much fun in this.
After seeing that items can sell for full value, and seeing the scrapped durability idea, it gave me the idea of items being worth less the longer you have it. So you aren't punished for buying items in shops and then selling them before the battle phase starts, but after you've decided to add an item to your build you get punished if you decide it didn't fit your build after all. To add to this, I bring up the wild idea of selling cards to your opponent. If you're desperate for gold and have items which you've kept for so long that they've lost a lot of value, you can sell it to a "black market" for full(?) value - the downside being your opponent can then purchase from the "black market" the following turn. Obviously there are issues with this in terms of design space and balance, mixing cards between different classes and whatnot.
I've reached the end of the video. The game is neat. I am in love with the simplicity of attacking your opponent and not their cards. Using time-based attacks is such a nice solution. Excited to one day play The Bazaar.
As someone who really likes auto battlers, this is an exciting development. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Bazar will evolve in the future. Though something I really find lacking in this build right now is a way to directly interact with your opponents cards and strategy, this being a 1on1 auto battler would open up a lot of opportunities for you to do that and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in the video. For example having a "merchant" who can sabotage your opponents items to put +2 sec charge time on one of them for example.
Another thing that I felt was really missing, was an indicator for how many "victory gems" the next combat will award, so you know exactly how close each player would be to a victory. Seeing your opponent building their strategy over the course of the turn would also be nice, especially if you are going for a way to directly engage with your opponents items during your turn, which should open up a lot of strategy opportunities and design space for the game. Whenever I suddenly saw the opponents board pop in at the start of combat (sometimes very different to what it was the previous round) it felt very unpredictable and confusing. You only really knew if your build was looking favorable and which items and strategies you had to react to, after the buying phase was already over.
I'm not really sure how something like this could be integrated into the current build for it to not feel too disruptive and slow (like how mtg area has a ton of phases and triggers where you manually have to advance), but my first expression of the vertical slice was that I would really like to see more interaction with your opponents build and ways for you to directly react to their strategy.
Anyways, keep up the good work, you all seem really excited and passionate and I'm sure the game will turn out great :)
I'll have to agree with everyone else when they say that this game looks very polished and very pretty but I do have some suggestions and criticisms, so here they are and feel free to take from them as you like and if you don't like any of them then you don't have to use any of them:
I know you all will probably remove stun from the game (it seems broken) but maybe more ways to play around it if you don't? Like there could be a cup of hyper coffee item that would counter stunning and make it so that you were immune to stunnning? In fact more of this type of tech cards against various strategies would make the game feel more interactive and bring in some complexity that would actually be good for the game since it would bring much needed depth of strategy.
Also if you keep stunning I hope that it can become a legitimate strategy where you stun your opponent instead of dealing damage, and the goal could be like making money with money making items as an alternate win con maybe? Since, and I really do think that this would be cool, I think you should win when you get a certain amount of money and have that as a win condition as an alternative alongside or instead of the gems? I feel like the gems are unintuitive, like why am I getting these gems? What is their lore reason for existence? I feel like every aspect of the game should be able to be justified by the lore and it should make sense both logically and thematically, like if I'm using money why do I need the gems? Are they also money? If they aren't money then why is my goal to get them? I would just merge the gold and the gems. Also, another reason for this is that this is clearly a game about space capitalism, so it would make sense making money the goal and having that as both the way that you move the game forward along and the win condition; say when you have (and I'm just throwing an arbitrarily large number out there so don't think I'm actually suggesting this, you should obviously play with the numbers) 10,000 gems then you win, or maybe just when you have double the number or more of gems than your opponent - whatever the case, I think this would make sense within the theme of the game and I also bet that as a businessman and a capitalist yourself that you can appreciate this.
When you win fights I think you should be able to steal an item of choice off of your opponent as well, this would mean that your opponent would need to buy another to replace it and it would give a good reason for the players to keep buying more items even into the late game, where I imagine that with this build once you get into the late game and your build solidifies then you aren't likely to do too much more buying after that point.
Similarly I think it's a good idea to have late game items and hero powers that are very powerful, butI also think that alongside that the common items that you start the game being able to buy should get more powerful over time, up until a certain threshold and more powerful items should be added into the pool of potential items you can buy from not just in the late game but all throughout the game; I imagine it looking somethinh like this: Say you have a simple dagger that you can buy from the shop early game that deals 1 damage, every other turn the amount of damage that dagger can deal should go up by 1 so on turn 3 it could deal 2 damage and on five it could deal 3 and so on, but also on even turns 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 (and maybe 10 is where the late game is and that's when the _really_ powerful items get added or maybe it's later on than that even but if it were I would cap the turn after as when your items stop growing in effect so maybe that dagger from turn 1 is always capped at dealing 6 damage, this would have the downside of making it so that later in the game your more powerful cards would have quicker caps but since they would start out more powerful to start with I think it would be a fair trade off) you unlock those turns power level of items so say on turn 2 you could get a hammer that would start by dealing 3 damage and also go up in damage (and maybe not all the items scale in how much damage they deal or just how much they can deal but some of them get better effects like allows you to buy 3 things for free but scales up over the course of the game so that you would get more "wishes" after buying it over time or something like that)
I also like that items have upgrade slots, but wht just two? It should be 4 or 5, after all, if you upgrade an item a lot and it gets stolen then that would be a huge loss and that intetactivity, even though it is a bit of a feel bad, is worth the trade of maybe making someone feel bad for the complexity that it can add to the game, after all, you want the game to have depth of strategy, that's what keeps people around and playing (also for that same reason is why, even though all the "cards" are going to be free I'm thinking you're gonna want to do rotations, opening up the possibility of new strategies to shine as new items enter the pool of buyables and old ones leave, also this opens up a non rotating format where everyone's favorite strategies from older rotations will still be found even if they end up just being memes)
I hope you'll agree with me that each character should have their very own theme that plays when you're playing as that character to make playing as each character feel like it's very own distinct experience even more so
Speaking of making the classes distinct, each class should have it's own philosophy that influences not just the cards that you can buy as that class but also which hero powers you can get and what those do, it's cool to have flavor but what I really love about MTG's color system is that each of the color's have their own philosophies that influence that color's gameplay and the cards it has available to ir's disposal, this means that a certain personality of person will always be attracted to a certain color because that style of gameplay will attract that person to it, this is good for building a playerbase who are die hard fans, it essentially lets them make the game their own and entrenches their interests because it makes it an expression of their identities, "maining" makes games last is what I'm trying to say
As an addon to those last two it's hard to come up with items for these characters to me because I don't know who they are, what their backstories are, what they want, what their philosophies are - they're just two dimensional pictures to me basically
I do know this though, there needs to be a place where I can see all of a classes items and to be able to click on them to read their flavor text (which should be fun, whimsical and based on memes), flavor text brings charm to the game and if you can charm someone they'll stick around, this is why Hearthstone's cartoonish style of visual presentation *works* , because it charms you into sticking around through being whimsical, I like the "oinkment" item for this reason, that's a good one
In that vein yall need to get some animations, celebratory ones for each character for when you win a battle and a different one for each character for when you win a match, damaged and worried ones for when you lose a battle and sad ones for when you lose a match, this not only would let you identify with the character more (they're going through the same thing you're going through and so it gives you someone to sympathize with because you're really sympathizing with yourself) it also makes the game feel more real and dynamic
You also need emotes (which by the way for monetization purposes I would make those be a pay to unlock feature but I would also make them auto squelchable) that are different for each character (if you have these already you didn't show them) for basically the same readon yall need animations
Ooh, to help getting space on board maybe do an item combination system modeled on Hearthstone's magnetic mechanic? Only for items it makes sense to be able to combine of course, but this allows (within the confines of a mobile game) for more complexity and complexity is a good thing *if* it brings depth with it
I don't think you should always get the same shopkeepers, also, I would flavor them as vendors because you're supposed to be a shopkeeper right? So then you would source your supply through a vendor. But anyways, there should be a pool of generic vendors that everybody can get and then class specific vendors or even character specific vendors (who would obviously have better wares) that would randomly show up for youu to choose from, maybe make it so that you always get at least one class specific vendor and the other two would be random but you shouldn't always see the exact same vendors every game, too much sameness can turn people off from the game, if everything always feels the same every time and every gane the same thing is happening it gets boring after a while
Also, like others have said don't have it so that all the items sell back for the sane amount every time, vendors should have interest levels, 25% interested would get you back 25% of the item's cost, 50% would get you back 50% and 100% 100% so that way if you can't find a 100% interested buyer you might just have to sell anyway, this would make money management more important and thus raise raise depth of play and the skill ceiling
Umm and that's it for now I think, if I think of anything else I'll write a new comment but this is all I can think of for now, thank you for taking the time to read this if you have I hope to have been of some amount of service to this awrsone game idea, thank you.
Game looks super fun, and i can't wait to play it. So far the outcome of fights seem to be determined very early, im wondering if there could be some kind of built in swing mechanic or items with swingy property's. Also i know the exact numbers will change but winning early rounds seem underwhelming
I was a bit sceptical about the game when noodle first started promoting it, but this video seals the deal.
It's definitely quite unique and looks very fun. Hope it sees success!
The game changed so much, but it really takes advantage of the digital capabilities now, like a autobattler. Great job Ronaldo, can't wait to stream this
I am absolutely on the same page as you guys about "The First Build". Items fighting other items feels weird and the loss of any economy (gold) made the game feel flat and confusing. The new direction is a little close to autochess (I had voiced concern when Reynad initially brought up being inspired by the genre a year ago), but I still think it is a good identity on its own. If it keeps the same direction, I can now tell friends "it may remind you of some aspect of autochess, but what you are considering or strategizing around is a lot more like typical deck building."
Looks like a polished Auto-Chess variation, which can be nice. Two main points to improve in my opinion:
1. 30 seconds is too long, since you can already calculate at the start who will win (in Auto-Chess, there is more randomness) and you don't destroy or kill anything. So, you are essentially just waiting 30 sec.
2. The screen shaking makes me dizzy, I would not play it with this shaking.
Edit: two more ideas to make the progress more visible during the game: have the characters say quotes after each fight, unique based on the opponent and who is winning; and updating the character portrait dynamically based on the situation (for example damaged clothes when losing)
Maybe at the start of the game you can calculate who will win, but it seems to get way more complicated the longer you play, so calculating ahead seems impossible. I think the 30 sec combat time is fine.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing at the start of their playthrough with 30 seconds being too long, but by the end of it there was so much going on that I feel like the full 30 seconds is kinda required to clock what exactly your opponent's boardstate is doing and why you won/lost.
I guess I'd have to play a few games to make a final judgment on the optimal length of time required though.
i think the first rounds should have less time and have the time scale as the rounds go by
I don't think you can calculate at the start who will win. While it's technically possible it's quite complicated (and going through the entire calculation gives you little benefit). That said, I could see it happening that people write scripts or overlays for it. I think 30 seconds is a fine timeframe. Watching the demo game I was engaged with watching the battle play out, and it didn't feel tedious at all.
"reynad's hair through the years" vid would slap
I've been following since the announcement. I've adored joining you on the journey. I found myself liking each development and iteration a little bit more until we reached this point. I feel like you guys crossed a threshold with this one. This was the moment I knew with full certainty that I would be purchasing this game. I am so tired of the same principles being rewashed and rebranded when it comes to digital card games. It feels like we're hitting mobile gacha territory at this point. You guys have really brought a new perspective to the genre, and I genuinely cannot wait to play. I hope we get the chance to do some testing for you guys. I'd love to dive in and help identify any issues. I see so much potential here. Keep up the fantastic work.
Thanks for the kind words Eddie!
Thank you for your continued support Eddie. We are going to bring you the best game possible. Thank you for your offer!
Have you considered the current design but with a non-combat holding board? Perhaps 3 slots wide, underneath or in a seperate section beside it to hold onto items you might want in the future but can't fit.
Adding Deuce with a cap when both sides are at match point will be cool. It always adds tension in games that win with a point system.
Not sure how finalized everything is, but a bit of feedback from me would be:
- Bigger portraits where possible; Hero portraits, hero powers etc.
- Merchants have a pool of voice lines they say whenever you interact with them or the items. Maybe even items have different audio noises they make when you buy them.
- The battle button could be a seperate button, so we don't accidentally battle when clicking fast. Maybe also the border around the merchant row could glow or something when you're done talking with a merchant, or all the merchants, to indicate your next action is to battle.
- Maybe vary the icon borders or display method for each merchant.
The current build is a thousand times more interesting than previous versions. Great work out there, fellas.
Really like every step of the process and the vertical slice looks great. The one thing that it needs is something unique to each class. From just the first glance Pigmaleon and Vanessa kinda look the same. Like having the possibility to do a stun lock
Looks promising! Some thoughts I had:
- 30 seconds seems too long for combat phase, maybe scale it down.
- Items should have a limited number of upgrade slots, so that you can't infinitely stack upgrades. It would be cool if each item had a specific number of upgrade slots, not just a universal cap. This way, you can have some items that are weak without upgrades, but are very scalable, and some items may have strong base strength, but less upgrade slots.
I wasn't a fan of the previous versions but I wasn't worried since you always showed great observations in the updates. Now we have a game that looks great, is easy to pick up and is definitely something I would play at this state already. The exploration phase felt relaxing and fun as well. So you and your team did an amazing and I can't wait to see the final product!
You really should move away from this real time thing and have items do one thing per turn. The real time aspect just slows the game down and the only thing it brings is multiple activates for items. You could replace stuff like "half energy cost" with "activates twice each turn". Make positioning important so you can have big combos. Also hero powers and items are just the same thing right now. If you don't plan to make them more different than just get rid of hero powers.I was sceptikal about the game for a lot of time but the new changes seem really good especially the exploration phase. But there is a system that I think could make it better: Each item has a color (that reperesents the type of the card, or what region of the Bazaar world did it come from). Merchants have two color symbols below ther portraits, that indicate which type of items will they sell and which are they collecting. You can only sell your items after you selected a merchant at one of the turns of the exploration phase. Merchants that sell the item color that you are trying to sell them, will buy your items at a low price (for example x0.5 rounded down). Other merchants will buy it for full price. But the ones who collect it buy it for higher (for example x1.5 rounded up)! This would only work with many colors and merchants. If you wanted to make this more complex you could have merchants collecting and selling multiple colors of items.
wow im seriously loving how this new build looks. all of my issues with it are pretty obvious issues you mostly mentioned on wanting to fix anyways. keep it up
Suggestions:
1) instead of shops item pools automatically getting better as the game goes on, introduce a shop "tier" or membership system.
Either a separate purchase option that will upgrade the specific shop (and maybe give a consolation prize, so it's not a 'wasted turn')
OR the shop will passively gain 'upgrade points' as the player spends gold in that specific shop.
2) a goblin hero centered around bombs and funni gizmos
So excited to see where this project is heading! I've been following you since the creation of zoolock and always appreciated the mind you have for card games. This build looks so dope! Keep up the good work!
Damn I wanna see more long form videos. This is what I like!
I think it would be cool to have a 'trash can' icon under each merchant to let you know you can sell items. You would just drag it to the icon instead of anywhere on the shop. Right now it does not seem intuitive you can sell items.
Seems like there are so many cool paths you can go with on design with this iteration. I would love to develop within this structure!
What if instead of having the the hero powers and items scale automatically you have to pay to level up the merchants (possibly individually)?
Interesting concept. Hopefully each hero still plays kinda different and it's not just purely cosmetic
Idea: Modifiers on the Events. Maybe one of the merchants glows yellow indicating he has a Sale during that encounter. Maybe sometimes they glow green indicating the presence of a rare item they don't often sell. Would probably need to offer these symmetrically to the players to keep the parity even.
If you are thinking about using a market feel and money system instead of battling,
Focus on rare items that are difficult to get. Maybe you can buy rare items or fuse items together.
maybe another win condition could be when a player collects a certain number of rare items, they win the game. Instead of trying to fight. The battle system could still be there, but it’s just another way to play.
Instead of discarding items to create more space for items, players can scrap them for coins (currency), sell items to other players for lesser value, so that it doesn’t feel bad when getting rid of items.
Merchant, Smith, and Trainers
Is an awesome concept and you guys should continue it.
I understand that the game is still in its infancy. However, I have faith in you guys. keep it up!
Great video, love it! Instead of desroying Items, to have Space for new ones, you could add a little storage pile where you can park x amount of Items.
My 2 cents :
Gameplay suggestions and ideas :
- Maybe reduce the number of encounters on the first turns : 1 or 2 on the first turns and then go up to any number you think is the best fit.
- Improving items is a great idea.
- Reduce combat time ? I'm not sure players want to spend half of their playing time watching stuff and doing nothing. But I might be wrong. AutoBattlers are a thing and In Hearthstone, you still spend half of your time watching your opponent plays. So maybe 30 seconds is fine.
- Stun is a cool mechanic. Can I recommend steal to steal money from your opponent ?
- +5 gold seems really OP in the first turns.
- Have you thought about fusing items ? To make unique ones ?
- Isn't it frustrating to go to a merchant and see that we can not / want not buy anything from him ?
- Having the same hero power multiple times feels weird ? Or not I don't know.
- Instead of energy , have you thought about 'number of activations' : the item effect will resolve X times, X being the item's number of activations.
- Talking about speed, you could set 3 different speeds fast/medium/Low. fast items trigger first, then meidum, then low.
- Remember that a mobile game should be pretty fast. (Less than 20 minutes imho)
Animations :
During the buying phase, the row (the shop ?) of your opponent is hidden by a curtain and when the fight begins the curtains reveals your opponent's shop (the shop opens).
The road is still long, but the game seems fun. Can not wait to try it out. Good luck and be brave, Bazaar Team !
Hell yes! I am so behind this version. You guys have nailed it for me. I can't wait to learn all the cards and start streaming. I'm most excited about cards like Caltrops that can counter your opponent's strategy.
I like the idea of stuns but I think stunlocking shouldn't be possible. Maybe stunning items can only stun once per turn.
Again, can't wait to get my hands on the game! I really hope you guys release the game before it is balanced and let us try to break it so you can know which cards need balancing. And have regular balance updates ongoing.
Daaaaaamn. Congrats to the art team, the gameplay build looks gorgeous
Maybe add a tag that makes an items energy cost further unchangable, could help with stunlock so that big mana reduction enchants also apply that tag to the item, or make multi hit weapons start with it to limit stunlock or potential poison damage stacking/similiar mechanics.
Thing I liked from gwent was the "baiting enemy into spending too much resources until next round", which isn't possible since you can't really waste gold if you sell at full value, making enchants sell for less might make them feel as an investment to pressure your enemy into playing faster instead of just being a default free buff. As you said late game items will be stronger so its not like you're clogging your endgame items with bad enchants.
Very nice vidéo & I really like the game design process you went through.
What I liked :
- the global direction of the game,
- the focus on the buying,
- the feel of auto attack as auto battler do,
- the artistic direction is cool (need more darkness :D)
Yeah i was worried about the game and this video reassure me a lot !! Congratz !
What i think should be improved :
- interactivity on opponent hand, when you play, except about the stun lock you try to avoid, you never really look at opponent strategy... may be because Raw DPS was at the center of your builds.
- the buying phase lack of interactivity with the opponent,
- the stun lock
Even in his own game RNG fucks him haha 36:50
looks very promising :)
remove/hard rework stun?
implement barber shears (its a good item)
i really like the new mechanics and looks. Love it.
What I want to mention: maybe add indicators to each purchased item so you can instantly see, how many (and which) upgrades are applied.
EDIT: ok there are indicators, but these don't show which upgrades are applied
Been following the game since I heard you talking about it on Twitch years ago, really glad to see everything coming to fruition. Keep up the great work!
I love the gameplay, can't wait to play it! My only issue is flavor wise, I think the items should be units/creatures and the improvements should be items. Right now it just feels like an auto-battler in disguise, but I know it'd mean a lot of new artwork, so I get it if you don't change it now
Holy shit, this is amazing! This is it. This is the game I want to play.
It's had some rough spots and taken a while to find itself, but I think this is the right path. Looks smooth, flexible, lots of options but not much headache. So happy I backed you when you first started fundraising, and I can't wait for alpha or beta or whenever I get to help this game take off!
Animations are going to help a lot to see what and why things are stunning you. Heck I don't even know if that mechanic will make it through - seems pretty easy to abuse. I do like the idea though of the control deck strat that doesn't attack. Perhaps a good balance point would be having some items ignore stun (for instance maybe stunning only stops weapon attacks from going off). That way you could have multiple "types" of stun that stop different specific actions - freeze, silence, root, disarm, etc.
Thank you for your support!
@@reynad27 I second this. This looks really really really fun. Please follow thru on this version 🙏
Have you thought having "initiative" instead fo cooldown and each of them playing only once (outside of specific windfury/reactivation combos that could be implemented)? It would be easier to balance and play around oponent´s cards. Basically all cards have initiative, play in order based on it. This way you can a) have stable health pool that is affected by each round (because each card plays only once) b) you can adjust your strategy based on how it played out (without seeing how oponent adjusts himself/herself).
This game looks SO COOL!
I was mildly interested, but now I'm very excited :D
Can't wait to be able to play it
alternate win condition of money? maybe getting to choose money over an item
This looks really good. Keep on iterating, the game gets better every time.
One effect suggestion for you:
If you win the fight, you get 1 additional gem, if you loose, your opponent gets +1.
Basically it is a way to introduce aggro play into the game. If you are confident in your current board state, you can buy a 'do nothing' to speed up the game and capitalize on your leed.
Anyway keep it up!
If you move the player icons from the middle of the bar to the right/left side, you can probably have items being used simultaneously because they won't be crossing each other.
That was awesome. Really liking how it's turning out. At first I wasn't so sure but after watching the 1v1 it definitely looked awesome. Would love to see more interactions with the opponent but you guys probably already have that stuff in the works. I noticed a comment about how about doing more than 1v1. I feel like reducing the amount of auto battler things would make the game more unique and more deck builder style so I would say please keep it 1v1, then it's more about outplaying your opponent throughout the tug of war and from a competitive point that's more interesting to me personally. Looking forward to seeing how it shapes up, this could be the next big deck builder strategy game and that's exciting! A 2v2 mode could be good, but I definitely don't want to see 9 players and we can sort of see auto battlers don't actually have sticking power so inspiration is good, but making it more like it extra is probably not a good idea.
"I lost the coin flip as usual" 🤣🤣 I miss your streams
The one thing I really want about game and that's for the characters to talk and taunt each other if they win or deal a big hit it could be kinda like how injustice or overwatch does its interactions
I think having the battle stage automatic makes it to much like an Auto battler, which makes you compete with like Hearthstone Battlegrounds and TFT. I think if you made the battle stage an Active phase, like the combat in Clash Royale, it would make it way more unique and fun!
We talked about taking it further in that direction but then it quickly becomes APM-based gameplay. There are technical implications too, because without realtime inputs we have way more leeway with networking. Ping won't matter so we can pair you with people across the world, etc
I'm proud of you Reynad. And Ben.