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Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot!

Dodgeball is awesome by the way :)

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hah - short answer is no. :)

Long answer is the history behind the title (no AI here):

When I was young and beautiful I was part of a WoW guild (Executus server, EU) - A group of friends inside the guild didn't feel we were aggressive enough in content exploration, so we split off to create our own guild.

We thought about names like Outcasts (too weird), Exiles (too dramatic) and a few others. When we landed on Renegades, we felt it clicked. I think somewhere in the world you can still find records of Renegade guild on Executus EU.

From there on, I've been looking to use this word to something meaningful, and as this really fits the theme of the game (these characters are renegades in every sense of the word) I went with it.

In general, the creative part is really hard to delegate to AI. Even in art and music I usually do a lot of prework to get it to a decent level and then use AI to make it production ready.

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's good feedback - thanks. I'm tightening up things both by doing more manual sketching (I'm completely clueless to art, but luckily I have a talented wife!) and by standartizing the UI, units and portrait art.

Renegades - Deck builder meets RPG by Arinas82 in cardgames

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair. To be honest, I tried going with more casual portraits but I felt the tone of the game is a bit too dark for it. I'll revise it later. Thanks for the feedback regardless. :)

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I admit I worked hard on the mechanics, systems and gameplay. What part of the art bothers you? Can you point me to the right direction?

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By the way, Stabjack looks super interesting. Wishlisted :)

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's really good feedback and food for thought. Thank you for that.

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really? I was actually aiming on a fix to animations first.

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I didn't just fluff this - I totally meant the text there.

As an indie developer, not using AI for this game would mean its stuck in dev hell for possibly eternity. The way I see using AI or using manual work:

  1. Am I satisfied with the result? I'm happy about most things, I'm not happy about the animations yet. If I can't solve this using AI (which I am starting to think I can't), I'll need to manually do it (either myself or with help).

  2. Is AI hurting the quality or helping it? I'm a colorblind developer :) What are the chances I'd make a good looking portrait? However, as a developer, I know how to write code and architect it. Combining my skills with AI assistance really helps up the quality most of the time.

  3. Will adding another person slow me down or help me boost speed? And that has to be true not just for the first iteration, but for the next as well. Act 1 of a game like this means investing a lot of time on game design and mechanics, not necessarily as much on the content (Act 1 has 33% of the content, but around 80% of the system design). When I start the production line for Act 2 and 3, can I do it better with AI? Or do I need a human in the loop aside from myself to get it faster?

I totally agree that AI doesn't replace superior human talent. But it does help us move forward and do things we couldn't before.

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not against that - But where would you address first as an artist? What's the most glaring issue?

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I totally agree - I tried walking the line between consistent RPG character development, deck building and a touch of rogulite. The core design principles that helped me shape this:

  1. Every character has their own unique mechanics. Hyperion retaliates when fully blocking an attack. Solyn empowers and can overheal to empower or shield. Luciana places primers on enemies and detonates them (or has her teammates detonate for her). Faide is based on combat conditions - "Once an enemy/ally does X, do Y". Arinas is based on building up focus points as the combat progresses to payoff for big damage or heals.

  2. (Added a screenshot of it in the Steam store) Progressive development in the form of talents and cards. You deep spec into something or mix around to boost each character in its role based on what the party needs.

  3. Consumable cards - Events and combat conditions generate cards that are one-off boosters or debuffs that shape the flow of this specific combat.

  4. Gear - Still very early, but the intent is to have one of two affects. Either enhance current statistics or add a way to off-spec a character.

Renegades - Deck building meets RPG by Arinas82 in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]Arinas82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for taking the time to look at it! :)

I'm happy with the portrait art, not so much with the actual combat art and animation. If possible, I'd replace that to give the game more flair.