#4: Lean, Green, Our Cards are in the Machine

delayedgames
Nov 19, 2021
2 min read

Welcome to Week 4! In our continued effort to streamline our playtesting process, we've successfully automated the most time consuming aspect of our physical playthrough two weeks ago: the card-based movement system.

There are three types of movement cards you'll be using to travel along the board: basic cards, precision cards, and power precision cards.

Basic cards randomly choose a value from within a range (1-6, 3-5, etc.). For example, playing a 2-4 card could result in your player moving forward either 2, 3, or 4 spaces.

A precision card is a single number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6) that moves your player exactly that number of spaces forward. Hint - use these in just the right way to guarantee you'll land on a planet!

A power precision card will only be a value of either 1 or 2, however this card allows you to move any player of your choosing (including yourself) backwards the exact number of spaces.

After playing a card, it is discarded from your hand. Landing on a Card Space will fill the empty slots in your hand with a random assortment of movement cards.

Wheels used to randomly generate types of cards during physical playtesting

With so much randomization being a part of this process (which card(s) to draw, the value a card will effect, etc), we set our sights for this week on automating this card-based movement system.

Prior to this effort, we used random number generators for every ranged card we played. When a player landed on a Card Space, we spun wheels whose outcomes determined which cards would refill a player's hand. In other words, we spent a lot of time...waiting (please, no more wheel spins). Not good!

Unreal implementation of Project ATX's card-based system

What is good though... is our fully automated card-based movement system (shown above)! While we know the photo above is difficult to understand (and includes features we'll be sharing more on later), the key detail is recognizing that each white box represents a card. Using the power of code, we can update these boxes instantly without needing to spin any more wheels. Hurrah for a faster, more efficient playtesting process!

We are so excited to continue forward with the implementation of Project ATX, as each additional automation will help us deliver a game that is as maximum fun as possible. From all of us at Delayed Games, until next week and have a great Thanksgiving!