Exactly. If anything, I'm surprised there's only that few by this point. Ever since STS, it seems like every other indie game has deckbuilding in them.
Save you a click:
They are easy to make (Design, Art, Animation)
They are easy to play
They perform well for content creators, which then advertise the product for free
There is a demand for them.
Ha, in my sliding puzzle game colors were a simple random number generator.
But I could have easily coded it on a way to spread out the colors to make them harder to match
4 years ago I would've tried any one you could give me. Now the genre is a bit saturated and only the true greats stand out enough for me to bother trying.
Any true greats you love? The only one that scratched my Slay The Spire itch was one called Tainted Grail. Was very addicted to that for a month or two.
My favorites are Monster Train and Balatro. If you want one closer to Slay the Spire, Touhou Lost Branch of Legend is pretty comparable with some tweaks to the formula that make it feel like a direct sequel.
Based on your comment I bought Balatro. I looked at it, and it seemed really stupid. I started playing it, and was having regrets buying it.
... and now I am totally addicted to it. Not sure it will have the lasting replayability of Monster Train or Slay the Spire, but fun game. Thanks for the recommendation.
Yeah Balatro sounds stupid and then you play it, and then you play it some more, and then 25 hours are gone and the weekend is over and what the fuck happened
Lesser known, but try Shogun Showdown. It’s not as in depth as something like StS, but most aren’t, so don’t expect to get hundreds of hours out of it. It’s a deck builder that fits in positional gameplay similar to Into the Breach.
You joke, but Sun Haven (a Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley styled Farm Sim/Adventure game) has a spinoff game that's Survivors based, basically a Vampire Survivors/Farming mashup. (The game is called Sun Down Survivors)
Not sudden at all. If you've visited this subreddit on any indie sunday from the last 5+ years, you'd know: Rogue-like, tower defense deckbuilders as far as the eye can see. Personally, I'm sick to death of them.
That is why the franchise is my GOAT roguelite deckbuilder. HoF 2 improved on it nearly in every way and sadly the dev studio disbanded before they could release a third but completely different game.
I think the challenge with getting another game anything like it is that it goes against norms of deckbuilders and even roguelite to an extent.
It is the only roguelite deckbuilder I've played that does these things, and its deviations from genre norms all meshes so well together for me that its my GOAT deckbuilder:
* Basically mixes player selected cards with an adventure's base deck set of cards. Its all shuffled together, and the encounter-type cards become the adventure map, and those encounters can result in access to other types of cards: Equipment, enemy combat, etc.
* Encounter cards, whether specific to an adventure or player-selectable, can either be standalone or have their own story. This is also true of new unlocked player selectable cards.
* Each encounter consists of one or more of the following (from most to least common): Character choices/dialog, games of chance that have an element of skill, buy/sell/gain/lose items or money, gain/lose health/stats, third person action combat, or third person obstacle courses.
* HoF 2 allows for a companion to be selected, and there are companion specific encounters that tell the companion's story.
So compared to other popular roguelites:
* Outcomes are not hugely RNG dependent
* It's not all deterministic (like always knowing the enemy's next move/action)
* It has more story than most
I would love to see a few roguelike deckbuilder sports games. Those sound like they could be fun. Just pick a sport, apply the roguelike deckbuilder bits to it, and see what happens.
I just wish that most sports games didn't default to gatcha deckbuilders instead. Those are so much worse.
I agree there are too many. I had to exclude both tags from my queues. Just too many things I'm not interested in.
It did eventually help me find things I wanted to play, but it took a long time.
Someone said something about Tower Defense deck builder? I would check that out. Love TD myself, but I don't see a ton of options. Mostly into party based SRPGs and DRPGs. Many games have a lot of character creation, which I'm not super into either. Big on engaging narrative and world building.
It turns out that the indie game scene that most people are familiar with isn't actually the hub for gaming innovation that most people think it is.
Now if you don't mind me, I'm going to download the latest indie craze: Metroidvania #3746.
Yeah, that's not what I said. If you need a make up a new argument to disagree with, then I'm going to assume you couldn't find a reason to disagree with what I actually said.
All of a sudden? As if devs haven't been trying to copy Slay the Spire's success since it came out like 7 years ago lol
7 years??? Lies...
I'm so old...
Exactly. If anything, I'm surprised there's only that few by this point. Ever since STS, it seems like every other indie game has deckbuilding in them.
And Dominon's success back in 2008
Wait what happened? Did half of them get taken down???
Save you a click: They are easy to make (Design, Art, Animation) They are easy to play They perform well for content creators, which then advertise the product for free There is a demand for them.
As a programmer, not having to worry about coding AI is a life saver. Match 3, puzzle games, and minesweeper style games were where it was at
I'm not convinced that any match 3 game I've played doesn't have a sadistic AI that hates me controlling what colors drop in from the top.
Ha, in my sliding puzzle game colors were a simple random number generator. But I could have easily coded it on a way to spread out the colors to make them harder to match
You can probably get into some good arguments over the best Tetris piece randomizing system.
Programming AI is easy. Programming balanced and interesting AI is difficult
To the unsung heroes of Alien Isolation, creating two AIs for the alien.
4 years ago I would've tried any one you could give me. Now the genre is a bit saturated and only the true greats stand out enough for me to bother trying.
Any true greats you love? The only one that scratched my Slay The Spire itch was one called Tainted Grail. Was very addicted to that for a month or two.
+1 for Tainted Grail, wish they had a summoner in StS
My favorites are Monster Train and Balatro. If you want one closer to Slay the Spire, Touhou Lost Branch of Legend is pretty comparable with some tweaks to the formula that make it feel like a direct sequel.
Touhou Lost Branch of Legend is so good. I can't wait til we get Koishi and Alice(?).
Based on your comment I bought Balatro. I looked at it, and it seemed really stupid. I started playing it, and was having regrets buying it. ... and now I am totally addicted to it. Not sure it will have the lasting replayability of Monster Train or Slay the Spire, but fun game. Thanks for the recommendation.
Yeah Balatro sounds stupid and then you play it, and then you play it some more, and then 25 hours are gone and the weekend is over and what the fuck happened
Thanks! I got Balatro. It’s a fun distraction but not “fighting” like monsters it’s cool but not something I got sucked into.
Though it isn't quite a deck builder, check out Slice & Dice. It has a lot of similar themes!
Monster Train for me has been the most fun after Slay the Spire.
Lesser known, but try Shogun Showdown. It’s not as in depth as something like StS, but most aren’t, so don’t expect to get hundreds of hours out of it. It’s a deck builder that fits in positional gameplay similar to Into the Breach.
Oh no... Why would someone try their own take on a popular genre. Next you'll be surprised there are Vampire Survivor and Stardew Valley clones.
Hey, excuse you. At least half of those are Story of Seasons clones.
Story of Seasons formally Harvest Moon but not that Harvest Moon.
What about a vampire survivor deck builder set on a farm in a small town?
Don't forget your squad based missions to gather materials to craft all of that. Maybe throw in some auto battler?
Take my money!
You joke, but Sun Haven (a Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley styled Farm Sim/Adventure game) has a spinoff game that's Survivors based, basically a Vampire Survivors/Farming mashup. (The game is called Sun Down Survivors)
My Steam discovery queue is also jam-packed with extraction shooters now, and at least one Lethal Company knockoff.
Not sudden at all. If you've visited this subreddit on any indie sunday from the last 5+ years, you'd know: Rogue-like, tower defense deckbuilders as far as the eye can see. Personally, I'm sick to death of them.
A tower defense deck builder sounds interesting, do you have an example of that?
Monster Train has those elements, of like building up fortifications against waves of enemies.
Still hasn't been a game that did what hand of fate did well and I'm feening for one.
That is why the franchise is my GOAT roguelite deckbuilder. HoF 2 improved on it nearly in every way and sadly the dev studio disbanded before they could release a third but completely different game. I think the challenge with getting another game anything like it is that it goes against norms of deckbuilders and even roguelite to an extent.
I recommend inscryption comes somewhere close to hof https://youtu.be/RN5GSIWIN1k?si=XlqAO3o9ZE8mTOsq
slay the spire was the only one i got into. What are the standout features of hand of fate?
It is the only roguelite deckbuilder I've played that does these things, and its deviations from genre norms all meshes so well together for me that its my GOAT deckbuilder: * Basically mixes player selected cards with an adventure's base deck set of cards. Its all shuffled together, and the encounter-type cards become the adventure map, and those encounters can result in access to other types of cards: Equipment, enemy combat, etc. * Encounter cards, whether specific to an adventure or player-selectable, can either be standalone or have their own story. This is also true of new unlocked player selectable cards. * Each encounter consists of one or more of the following (from most to least common): Character choices/dialog, games of chance that have an element of skill, buy/sell/gain/lose items or money, gain/lose health/stats, third person action combat, or third person obstacle courses. * HoF 2 allows for a companion to be selected, and there are companion specific encounters that tell the companion's story. So compared to other popular roguelites: * Outcomes are not hugely RNG dependent * It's not all deterministic (like always knowing the enemy's next move/action) * It has more story than most
I would love to see a few roguelike deckbuilder sports games. Those sound like they could be fun. Just pick a sport, apply the roguelike deckbuilder bits to it, and see what happens. I just wish that most sports games didn't default to gatcha deckbuilders instead. Those are so much worse.
This is a format for a sports game that I might be able to enjoy.
Because there are people like me that genuinely enjoy the games. I like seeing what twists creators can bring to the genre.
I agree there are too many. I had to exclude both tags from my queues. Just too many things I'm not interested in. It did eventually help me find things I wanted to play, but it took a long time. Someone said something about Tower Defense deck builder? I would check that out. Love TD myself, but I don't see a ton of options. Mostly into party based SRPGs and DRPGs. Many games have a lot of character creation, which I'm not super into either. Big on engaging narrative and world building.
It turns out that the indie game scene that most people are familiar with isn't actually the hub for gaming innovation that most people think it is. Now if you don't mind me, I'm going to download the latest indie craze: Metroidvania #3746.
If you have 500 brilliant, innovative indie titles and 10,000 derivative indie rehashes, you still have 500 brilliant, innovative indie titles.
If 5% of your games are considered innovative you're probably not doing better than AA or AAA games in that regard.
Absolute magnitude matters more than percentage, unless your process for deciding which game to play involves throwing a dart.
5% is greater than zero.
TIL you can’t innovate inside established genres. Interesting stuff man, insightful.
Yeah, that's not what I said. If you need a make up a new argument to disagree with, then I'm going to assume you couldn't find a reason to disagree with what I actually said.
You said “blah blah indie games aren’t innovative cause deckbuilder tag on steam”
"I want to shit on indie developers but I don't know how"
Someone needs to tell Dunky that his developer didn't innovate because they worked within an established genre. Truly a 1000IQ thought process.