Progress

[NanoWar]

Whoa, I have only 1570 bytes left (975 + 595 on app page 2). I'm at 53 cards now and the graphics definitely account for a big part of the data.
I'm not sure if my infrastructure can support three app pages... meh. So much to do .

[NanoWar]

Aaah I've been playing around...

[Madskillz]

Beautiful work as usual.

[chickendude]

Awesome, though "A REVOLUTIONSOFTWARE PRODUCTION" these days seems to be equivalent to "A NANOWAR PRODUCTION" Awesome screen, though i dunno if it's worth the space if you've only got 1500 bytes left. I love your artwork, though.

[NanoWar]

Haha, I could use an extra app page just to include this

Oh, my. How are things coming by the way?

[NanoWar]

Hrmm, pretty good I think. I'm working on a routine that lets you see your opponent's hand and you can pick a card that he has to discard. And then this routine can get reused for similar effects like peeking at the next four cards from the top of your library etc.

Ahh, very cool.

[chickendude]

Btw, is the latest version available to download anywhere? I've got a long 40+ hour train ride coming up and i'd like to bring this gem with me, i just don't know if the 8-year-old ticalc version is the latest release or not.

[NanoWar]

I think this was the last version I released, but it is old: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25

I might upload a newer version this weekend for you. When is your ride?

[chickendude]

Early Thursday (Wednesday night for you Europe folks)

And i've downloaded that version and put it on my calc, thanks

[NanoWar]

Whoa, 40 hours, are you in Russia or what?

I just worked on Wizards, but I have no stable version, sorry!

[NanoWar]

Ok, wow, I have funny card combos now...

Reminisce: Plays your last played card again for free.
Burning Desire: Plays a random card from your hand for free.
Pandora's Box: Plays a random card.

My hand:
Reminisce, Reminisce, Burning Desire, Pandora's Box, Fireball

I play:
Burning Desire randomly casting first Reminisce which turns into Burning Desire randomly casting second Reminisce which turns into Burning Desire randomly casting Pandora's Box from hand which turns into a random Reminisce which turns into Burning Desire that can only cast your last card Fireball.
All your cards are gone .

Oh wow, that's pretty wild! :O

[NanoWar]

I'm pretty close to releasing a new test version because I reached my goal to implement 60 cards today!
I just need to get a few more things to work (shop, winning money, quest unlocking). I have only around 1000 bytes left .

I'm surpirsed you don't have more cards than that. The old version seemed to have quite a few (or do you mean 60 new ones?). I don't remember, but was this an app or is it nostub at the moment?

[NanoWar]

It takes an average of 4 hours to design and implement a single card, I would say. There is so much thinking, balancing, tweaking, you know. During the last two days, I implemented 5 new cards and you can do the math!
There have never been so many cards in Wizards but I also removed a few and redesigned many of them so that was again a lot of work.

Ahh, I see. I'm not surprised about some of the old designs needing to be changed/balanced. I understand the need for balancing too, but you can let testers shoulder some of that responsibility. Also, depending on how much you planned ahead on the game design, you should be able to somewhat tell what's balanced/what isn't on paper. I know charts with mana cost versus effect aren't everything, but they can help a lot, and still give you a pretty good idea.

[chickendude]

I'm in China Anyway, i played lots of Wizards on the train, even if it was just battling random enemies it was still lots of fun! I think my deck was too powerful though, i have still yet to lose a match (though i've come close) haha.

First, i think the interface is perfect, the menus are really pretty and i really like the little check mark that appears when "save" turns into "saved". The only thing i really noticed being a little weird was that the keys seemed to jump between Alpha and 2nd in the game. I think it'd be better just to use Alpha for everything text related, including starting a new round, and only using 2nd as a selector key. I feel like i had other little comments, too, but that's all i can think of for now. I know the version i played was rather old, i can't wait for the next release to come out

[NanoWar]

Very cool, thanks! Expert review!

Alpha and 2nd is really hard to get right. The idea was that Alpha does end the turn and you can just keep it pressed. When it's your turn again I put in a 2nd-break so you don't end your turn directly again. I hope you noticed that when you press Alpha the cursor jumps to the end turn "card". In what other parts did the Alpha-2nd keys confuse you?

I don't recall any issue with 2nd/alpha when I played the old beta. It seemed okay to me. New beta soon?

[chickendude]

Ah, i didn't realize you could just hold it down. I pressed it after each new text so it just seemed obvious to press Alpha again to start my turn. Anyway, currently you have to release the 2nd key to continue, you could just wait for the user to release the Alpha key before moving on. I don't think starting your turn before your ready really has any consequences. I actually had one or two times where i pressed 2nd too many times on the end turn button and ended up using one of my cards, though i guess the same thing could potentially happen with Alpha. Maybe that was your point?

Another thing is after using a card that draws new cards, if there's a new card that appears where the cursor is you can't see what it is unless you move off and back on to the card. Maybe have it so that pressing any key will switch from the little action window to the description of the card? That way, for example, you could just press Down. It's not a big deal, just something that i found a little inconvenient.

After winning a battle, "Press any key to continue..." really means "Press 2nd to continue...".

Also, i really liked the little touch where pressing Alpha or Clear sent you to the corresponding icon ;D

As for other issues with 2nd/Alpha, i can't remember now, Maybe it was that at first i expected Alpha to quit menus, but now Clear seems like the obvious choice so i wouldn't change anything there. In general, the keys feel really responsive and i very rarely had issues with selecting things on accident, and when i did it was from unusual situations like when the "monster" immediately ends its turn so you don't need to press Alpha for anything. I think you did a really good job with that

A new beta would be nice!

[chickendude]

I've got another long train trip coming up next early next month, so i'll be holding my breath until then for the new beta!

[NanoWar]

I've read your posts, thanks again. I just didn't manage to integrate your ideas, because as always in juni university is pressuring. I will code every now and then, but a bigger time slot will be in late july and/or september. Maybe I can sneak a little pre version to you .

[chickendude]

That'd be great, if not no worries, i'll find something to fill the time with. I should bring Legends, but playing against yourself is only entertaining for so long... Last time i also brought Brian Coventry's chess game, but the grayscale made it a little hard to see and the AI destroyed me every time so its charm didn't last quite as long as i thought it would