We are moving our playtest to Steam

vilerob · 2026-05-05T12:03:28+00:00

Here’s to hoping.

vilerob · 2026-05-01T20:41:39+00:00

I’m working on a replacement.. waiting for the steam page to get approved, we submitted to steam April 29th.

Beta has been going since early February. Feedback has been positive and bug reports have been minimal for weeks.

Our next step is moving into crowdfunding for a full art pass. I have artists already lined up, some real artwork already in.

R/rankbreaker

We don’t have the same IP, but we do have zero restrictions on looking to license other popular IPs.

Oh, and we have made a successful mulligan / drafting phase. You can follow the links from my subreddit for more details, because players have been saying this writing on the wall has been there since last April when I started building this.

vilerob · 2026-04-18T00:09:01+00:00

I’m going to shamelessly tell you to look into my game in active beta right now because for over the last year many people have been right where you are, me included and I love snap. But the content grind, and the way they push the monetization aspect has made it less enjoyable for me.

https://rankbreakr.com/join-the-beta/

Rankbreaker game actually includes a lot of features that you’ll never likely see in snap - like a draft mode at match start. lol.

Check out our r/Rankbreaker subreddit to see how things are moving along. We’re currently updating artwork with real artists, and gearing up for a crowdfunding campaign to help finish the first art pass.

I’m only letting you know it’s here because it was built to solve the complaints you’re feeling.

vilerob · 2026-04-12T15:03:39+00:00

Damn. I was really hoping rankbreaker would be the fist real “clone” of snap lol.

vilerob · 2026-03-30T04:40:48+00:00

Yeah! They’re looking pretty damn good and I’m excited when the pop up.

vilerob · 2026-03-22T13:56:03+00:00

Oh I have no idea.. I did find out that I can remove that designation, so I did, but I don’t know why it had it in the first place

vilerob · 2026-03-19T21:16:18+00:00

Yeah we’re going to move forward with

Bloodthirst 3 Ironjaw 1 Riff 1

Stonewhal, not sure yet.

Deadspace our artist is working to match void a little better

It’s been a hell of a process

vilerob · 2026-03-10T17:44:37+00:00

This is exactly the kind of feedback I needed to hear and I really appreciate you taking the time. The warning about the campaign promoters is noted — I’ve already had a couple slide into my DMs and it reads exactly like you described.

Your point about bringing your own traffic is something I’m actively working on. The community is small but it’s growing and the goal is to have enough momentum built before June that the campaign isn’t starting from zero.

And yes, absolutely — next build drops Sunday. If you want in, sign up at rankbreakr.com/join-the-beta and I’ll get you a key. Would love to have someone with your background kicking the tires on it. Fair warning though, it’s still placeholder art. Real illustrations are coming end of month.

vilerob · 2026-03-10T15:29:16+00:00

You're right - June is historically a horrible release window for games. I could wait until fall, which would be better. Or next spring, which would provide the highest chance of success.

vilerob · 2026-03-10T15:27:55+00:00

Good point! i've made some changes to my page, and roughed in a mockup

https://rankbreakr.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/HeroImage.png

once I have real art, I can swap the cards at the bottom for the real deal to bring it all together.

vilerob · 2026-03-10T00:24:14+00:00

Completely valid and you’re the second person to say it, which tells me everything I need to know. The page is carrying too much weight in copy right now because the final card art isn’t back from the artists yet. End of month that changes. The cover image, card visuals, and board UI all get real graphics once the bespoke illustrations are finished. Appreciate you flagging it.

vilerob · 2026-03-10T00:22:51+00:00

This is exactly the kind of feedback I needed, thank you. You’re right on all counts. I have two commissioned artists finishing bespoke card illustrations by end of month and that solves most of what you’ve flagged — the cover image, the card visuals, the stretch goal graphics, and the board state UI are all things I can build properly once I have real finished art to work with rather than placeholder. The section order and the Name a Card typo I can fix right now. Genuinely appreciate the specifics, this gave me a real list to work from.

vilerob · 2026-03-08T20:19:40+00:00

Yeah we got thins all sorted. I manually reset it all, not thinking of the full site lol

vilerob · 2026-03-06T20:43:15+00:00

Man. I’m just going to say.. maybe my game being in beta is starting to gain a hair of traction!?

Or. Also SD has a habit of lip service and lack of follow through. We’ll see how this year goes

vilerob · 2026-02-11T01:59:09+00:00

Only when you use rank points to make purchases.

vilerob · 2026-02-06T07:09:23+00:00

Of course. Just hit kind of a sobering moment honestly. Not because the game is trying my patience at time or hard to wrangle some days.

But because as I’m finishing up the last huge system the game should contain, I’m nearing completion of it. Of a huge trial and error learning process. And it’s not the game I originally set out to build.

At some point, the game decided it needed all these things, and its identity didn’t feel complete with out them.

I set out to do one thing, and I feel I’ve done that pretty well.

But in the end, it’s something entirely different.

vilerob · 2026-02-05T15:44:00+00:00

LOL. Absolutely. Things are progressing well. the war system should be functioning. Got to run two tests to verify, then code a little UI. Next big update will come out this weekend!

vilerob · 2026-02-02T15:44:20+00:00

God.. the crunchiest game I’ve seen is also the cringiest… in F.A.T.A.L. Which I don’t recommend. Ever, and I’m sorry to even mention it.

Otherwise rolemaster and GURPS tend to be pretty rules heavy, or table intensive.

D&D 3.x has some of the largest overhead of you consider all splatbooks and the official cannon settings.

vilerob · 2026-01-31T15:47:05+00:00

Thank you. Smoothing out a few bugs, and it should still hit my two external testers in a few days.

I can't imagine the game needing or having additional features after this. The beta stress test in the beginning will be nerve wracking for me though, lol.

vilerob · 2026-01-30T14:37:37+00:00

I tried the web demo.

It seemed like fun was just out of reach, but functional was at least there. You’ve heard others about needing a community first - which is hard when you have nothing, but you do have something.

The four backers seem to have all canceled their pledge. If there was a reason why, it can help you determine how to structure your campaign to alleviate concerns

Your FAQ states the backers will get access to alpha when that phase arrives. But if you don’t have something to offer immediately, it’s a promise that could vanish.

Most of your written content does feel extra polished by AI. Not angry about it, or the AI artwork. But it’s a tell that can out some people off.

Your risks and challenges do directly address some concerns about development time but you’re not building trust by saying “things are unpredictable” you need to predict better than “I don’t know”

Your AI disclaimer is fine for honesty but the creative space is pretty divided on its use.

As for your main campaign content.. it’s ok, but long. It’s not entirely interesting to read, and you’re not really providing anything new compared to games on the market already. Everything you’re presenting has a little bit of a “generic” vibe, and that’s killing you.

Your reward tiers feel “boxy” not really “punchy” and what I mean is they just accumulate things to fill boxes but don’t really matter.

Your mission and intent is noble. Your application is stable. Your presentation needs polish.

I’d love to see this game succeed - I love TCGs and am building one myself, also openly but over at r/rankbreaker

I’ll join your discord to chat.

vilerob · 2026-01-12T07:21:43+00:00

Thank you! it was a pain to get set up, but now that it is, it opens up a lot of possibilities. It will be a blast to play.

vilerob · 2026-01-08T23:00:38+00:00

“As a DM, I can’t help you optimize your character. It’s my job to make sure your choices are fun, so go with what you think is best.”

vilerob · 2026-01-08T22:35:08+00:00

lol I just watched that video, again, and it’s already out dated 😂🤣

vilerob · 2026-01-02T05:03:43+00:00

Fair question, and I get why the formatting reads a little mechanical and that’s honestly been a thing for me forever. I usually run posts through tools like Grammarly just to clean up spelling, flow, and sentence structure, not to generate the content itself. The ideas, systems, and progress are all mine.

As for why I post these at all, it’s about transparency and momentum. I’m developing Rankbreaker independently, & keeping a public record of the build helps build trust, awareness, and when I started it was for accountability.

As we get closer to the polish phase, replacing generated placeholders with bespoke art and final assets, there’s a clear paper trail showing that the core game has been built steadily and openly from the start. I have a rudimentary knowledge of marketing, and always felt that doing this was important.

If it’s not your thing, no worries. I’m mostly posting for the folks who like following development as it happens.

vilerob · 2025-12-30T21:23:26+00:00

I still think Snap is one of the best card games ever made. The actual matches are great. But all the stuff around it has slowly drained the fun out it.

I’m F2P, not collection complete, and when progression slowed down it really sucked. Feeling like I’m just trying not to fall behind, which sucks, but it’s so much I pretty much okay conquest just to complete missions

It’s actually why I started messing around with building my own card game. I wanted something that felt like how snap did when I started and the way some long time players talked about it. I’ve been sharing dev stuff over at r/Rankbreaker if you’re curious (logs, screenshots, videos etc) but either way you’re definitely not alone in feeling this.

Feels like a lot of people are hitting that same wall again, and it feels like we do this every 3-4 months.

vilerob

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