Bear with me: http://i.imgur.com/3VjisFe.jpg

Ignore the Heroes / Ults for now (look at the 4 cards on the middle / right). There are two classes of cards which sit in different decks. Basic cards are cheap (top), Legendary cards are expensive (bottom). Visually, they are distinguished by their outside border being either silver or gold.

Next, there are four types of cards, which determine how the cards are played and used. They are distinguished by the background of the text and the inner border colour.

The reason this is important is because if someone is sitting across the table, you want to visually know what kind of cards they have out, even if you can't necessarily see their stats.

Each player only has one two-sided Hero card, so the distinction between Hero and Ultimate is mostly visual to follow suit.

apologies for the delayed response!! v Ok that makes more sense. I thought at first that you meant there would be different fonts which signified something. The color scheming and everything definitely makes sense, and it pops, which is good for the exact reason you said. I still think the borders need to be more simple, both for that reason, and aesthetically it just distracts from the awesome art.

just reiterating again that this is an awesome project and I wish you guys the best of luck!

ketomai

United States2789 Posts

March 24 2015 12:31 GMT

#43

I love how this side project has progressed over the years.

The artwork is stunning as well, great job guys.

pNRG

United States333 Posts

March 24 2015 14:02 GMT

#44

For everyone complaining about the "ripoffs" - what other character archetypes would you propose?

batsnacks

United States4466 Posts

March 24 2015 17:05 GMT

#45

On March 24 2015 23:02 pNRG wrote:
For everyone complaining about the "ripoffs" - what other character archetypes would you propose?

Cat girls are always good.

hp.Shell

United States2527 Posts

March 24 2015 21:28 GMT

#46

On March 21 2015 23:24 Psyonic_Reaver wrote:
I think kingjames has a good idea about making this more accessibile online. Instead of making a computer "game" the fastest growing market online in terms of gaming are Apps for the iPhone or Android phones.

After you nail down the board game and things are looking successful, I would consider attempting making an App version that people could play either vs other players or like how Cards Against Humanity approached it.

Great work non the less. I'll sign up for a beta test, I have board game night with about 5-10 people once a month that always involves drinking. =) I got them to get into munchkin, I'm sure I could get them into this.

Interesting idea as all the artwork appears to be digital at this point. It seems to be built for an app environment.

Capped

United Kingdom7236 Posts

March 25 2015 20:36 GMT

#47

On March 24 2015 23:02 pNRG wrote:
For everyone complaining about the "ripoffs" - what other character archetypes would you propose?

You cant see a problem with a night elf riding a tiger mount or a place called "Dark Portal" ?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=night elf riding tiger&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=fhoTVbuJCoG2UfurhNgD&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#imgdii=_

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=night elf riding tiger&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=fhoTVbuJCoG2UfurhNgD&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=dark portal&imgdii=_

Because unfortunately i do. Theres a few other bits that arent as pronounced but those two examples are pretty direct. I dont know anything about copywriting anyway so for all i know that stuff is completely fine.

I think the project is cool but i also think this game seems really complicated and convoluted to be considered a drinking game, of course ive never played or know how a game plays out but from the information ive seen it even seems convoluted for a standard card game.

Also the game times were like 1 hour or so right? Seems too long.

Chill

Calgary26004 Posts

March 25 2015 23:25 GMT

#48

On March 26 2015 05:36 Capped wrote:

Show nested quote +

Appreciate the feedback. Just want to address a few things.

I guess the white tiger is the night elf's mount in WoW? I couldn't find any particular Hero / character this is tied to and I've never played WoW myself. I don't see this as an issue, nor a ripoff. Our Ranger Hero, Quill, gains an extra Mana per turn, letting her take more actions, hence the mount. You'd have to ask Coagulation why he chose a tiger, but we both liked it.

Again, I've never played WoW and came up with names for these cards based on what they did. The Dark Portal isn't tied to the lore at all so the name could easily be changed if it leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. Looking quickly, it seems to be a single quest in WoW, so I'm not too concerned.

The goal of this game has always been to achieve the complexity of an "introductory" game, such as Settles of Catan, Dominion, etc. Any of those games take 15-20 minutes to quickly explain the rules, just like Mana Spirits. Just like in the first time you play those games, even though you understand the rules, it will still take a game or two before you fully feel you get it. We are not trying to be convoluted, but we do want meaningful decision making in our gameplay. We are not aiming to be a pick up and go drinking game like Kings or Beer Pong. Drinking is part of the rules and the experience, but it's not necessarily the core purpose of the game. The rules are on par or simpler than 1st edition M:tG.

An hour has always been the target. Modern introductory games typically fall around this time frame as well.

If you have any other questions or criticism, please post them. Or feel free to read the FAQ: http://mana.firecaster.com/faq/

Liquid`Drone

Norway28916 Posts

March 25 2015 23:49 GMT

#49

I've never played WoW but dark portal does immediately make me think of warcraft universe - because of the War2 expansion pack.

but then "dark portal" should be such a common fantasy term that it can't belong to a single universe and a dark portal is gonna look either like a dark portal or like a portal leading to darkness so whatever, it's not a name but an item of a particular color.. I don't think plagiary is really a thing in fantasy lore designing unless you start naming your orcs Thrall, wizards MiThRanDir or you introduce corrupted rings of invisibility.

Acrofales

Spain18487 Posts

March 26 2015 02:33 GMT

#50

Well, having a night elf stand before a dark portal is pretty warcrafty. But who really cares?

Oh, and being simpler than 1st edition MTG is a requirement for anything unless you are specifically aiming at the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. If you aim at a general public it has to be around Settlers of Catan levels of complicated... and if drinking is any part of the game, core purpose or not, that is probably what you should aim for, because even the 1% of the 1% of the 1% isn´t going to make much sense of MTG-level rules while shitfaced. Hell, fizzbuzz gets hard after a few beers, and things go downhill from there.

Coagulation

United States9633 Posts

March 28 2015 01:49 GMT

#51

thanks for the feedback guys. we decided to try out some other concepts for the ranger and see if we could come up with something better.
this is what we are probably going with.
+ Show Spoiler +