The Deckbuilder Update

At long last, it's finally here: TIC TACTIC is finally a deckbuilder. 

Ok, yes, it was technically a deckbuilder before. You could collect tiles, and whatever tile you used was drawn from the collection you had amassed to that point. The enemy even telegraphed their upcoming tiles so you could see what you should plan for.

However, this system creates two issues:

1. You can't actually make a plan to counter the enemy's actions. You have to use whatever tile you're presented with (or skip your turn, which is occasionally a wise choice but is generally ill-advised).
2. The tiles aren't drawn from a deck, so you can get the same exact tile multiple times in a row. This led to some unfortunate lineups for a particular player (sorry Qwerty).

The new system is a take on the traditional deckbuilder system. You draw three tiles at the start of combat, drawing additional tiles whenever you place one on the board. You can choose which of the three you'd like to play on a given turn. 

Tiles are added back to your draw pile when removed from the board, so you need to monitor your draw pile carefully. This creates a host of new strategic options and changes the use of some particular tiles. For example, the fire tile now becomes a great way to reuse a tile that you already put on the board. On the other hand, the duplication tile gains a drawback: it (temporarily) adds a weak, standard tile to your deck. 

This also creates a new layer of danger, as you can run out of tiles and have to forfeit turns!

Clearing the Board

This change came in an earlier update, but was not covered in a dev log, so I'll mention it here.

Previously, any match ending action (ties, wins, and losses) resulted in a clear board. This had its pros and cons. It was nice to get a fresh start, but it also meant that you could just repeat the same strategy over and over until you killed the enemy (assuming there were no unique tiles to contend with).

Mechanically, the change was small: now, the board is only cleared on ties. Three-in-a-rows (Tiars? Let's brainstorm an acronym) no longer clear the board. Instead, only the matched tiles are cleared. In addition, matches return control to the player, so you can perform combos, launch a counter, or defend against an enemy attack. 

This makes some tiles more relevant, like higher damage tiles, since they can now be reused even if their original placement wasn't favorable. This also plays well with the deckbuilding changes, allowing you to remove tiles strategically to prepare for upcoming enemy turns.

Other changes

The two changes above were pretty significant, so this update is light on additional changes. However, I'll list a few of them here:

• A new background: I added some elements to the background. This will be a much bigger deal later, but for now, please enjoy the scenery.
• Extra settings: I've added a camera height setting. The base level should be good, but if you would prefer more or less sky, feel free to take the matter into your own hands.
• General UI updates: I moved some stuff around and made some minor changes all over the place. The settings menu is bigger, some buttons have been relocated, and some stuff got resized. Nothing too exciting, but hopefully it makes the game feel a little better.

Forecasting

The next updates will be much more content-heavy. This means new tiles, new enemies, and new bosses. Spoiler alert: the rooster is not actually a boss. This will take a while to fully flesh out, but I will be working diligently to get there.

I'm also working on a scoring and leaderboard system that I'll roll out in the next update. Scores will be generated based on the number of enemies defeated, the amount of health lost, and the number of turns used, and top scores will be displayed globally.  I fully intend to take the top spot, so good luck.

Finally, I'm adding a couple of other features. So far, the game solely consists of the combat system in a single environment, but this will not always be the case. I don't have many details to share yet, but this will be the primary focus of my efforts for the next few updates.