When I started out trying to make a CCG game it was uncertain I would be able to make anything half decent. The engine I used was broken, the mechanics didn't work and it felt like I would abandon the project because I thought it would be impossible to make something of it due to my lack of experience making this type of game.

Crystal Duel started out as an idea where small pokemon type monsters would battle each other. The main aim was to use the monsters to break the opponents crystal while making sure to protect their own. It took months of learning code, adding in new types of abilities and effects. The engine I used was cheap and broken, it couldn't perform 80% of what is in the current version and that includes being able to buy cards, have an inventory and dialogue / story system in place.

Time moved on and I recently asked for feedback and one piece of feedback that stuck with me is that the cards don't look so great. So, over the weekend I got to work making new card graphics and making some wild changes to how the cards look. The result is looking a lot different to how I originally planned and I hope with this change that current players can see why this is actually a great thing.

 The new card graphics are more realistic and far from the pokemon style characters used before. Theres a few more key changes and differences to the old cards which are really a lot better such as the text font and layout of the cards.

All of the cards will be replaced with a refreshing new style and there's fair bit of change to the game table which I need to explore also!

Some of the card names have changes to reflect actions. I did this because this game feels like a war of strategy when playing. There's a few nice ideas in there such as setting up a camp to recover the Crystals energy or summoning magic arcane powers or beasts to deal damage to the opponents Crystal.

Each game against an opponent feels like a small adventure that lasts around 5-7 minutes long depending on how long it may take you to strategise or make your next move. It's turning out to be really something awesome and I hope there will be some good support for the project when I have a version uploaded to Itch.io.

The core story of Crystal Duel will remain the same. The game is about playing as a Rookie CCG gamer or who's trying to become proffesional and to do that you'll need to win games, make friends, buy new cards and make the decisive decisions. 

I hope you like the update and are excited about what's to come. It's getting there and I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Thanks so much for following.