Magarena successor : Dreamwalkers

[ubeefx]

I tried Magarena on my iPad with the Splashtop remote desktop app, which is not expensive.
I works quite well, but to be really optimal some UI tweaks are still necessary.

I also tried my current Dreamwalkers prototype UI, which is touchscreen optimized.
Like Magarena, animations are kept minimal so the remote performance should be very good.
It works like a charm, even the sound effects are played thanks to Splashtop.
This is very cool. It will be possible to play Dreamwalkers on iPad or other tablets before it is actually ported.

[Incantus]

Thanks, I like the Incantus video clip.

Hey, thanks. this is a really old interface. It didn't work too well for desktop/laptop computer use, so I decided to go with a more standard CCG interface that you see today.

[Incantus]

I also tried my current Dreamwalkers prototype UI, which is touchscreen optimized.
Like Magarena, animations are kept minimal so the remote performance should be very good.
It works like a charm, even the sound effects are played thanks to Splashtop.
This is very cool. It will be possible to play Dreamwalkers on iPad or other tablets before it is actually ported.

That's cool! I'd love to see a video of it when you feel it's ready.

[ubeefx]

I have still a lot of work to do. I will probably go for a closed beta first when I have something playable.

[mtgrares]

A new trading card game (TCG) I think it really cool, especially if it can be played offline. Yes the rules will be different from Magic, and yes they probably will be a little complicated to learn, but videogame TCGs are a rare breed. There are 101 first person shooting games but only a few offline TCGs. If the offline version is successful you could work on adding the option to play online. People like competing against their friends.

iPad and other various devices aren't interesting to me but I don't own I either. I know that iPad (and other devices) is a huge growing market but I wouldn't discount a regular PC game.

The artwork for the cards is probably the trickiest part. You can fine some royalty-free artwork on the web but the quality doesn't compare to the art used for Magic cards. Hiring an artist sounds like the best option but I have no idea how much that costs. Any art or photos owned by the US Government are royalty free, so you can use old Western photos or space pictures. Another suggestion is to use humor in your artwork or card name. Most people know that you aren't a huge company like Wizards so you have to use less-than-perfect art.

About the price, anything under $10 sounds very good but I wouldn't mind paying $20 because TCGs are so rare. (1 euro is approximately 1.5 dollars) You can also offer various discounts, like half off this week or various 1 day sales. I would also suggest using http://store.steampowered.com/ or something similar. Steam doesn't have any TCG games except for Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers.

[ubeefx]

Thanks for your input!

Knowing how to play Magic will be a huge plus for quick learning of Dreamwalkers.
The game will be less complex than Magic or Magarena, but I am still designing parts.
The game will also show all available choices as Magarena does and there will be undo.

Idea is that the game will be very playable on iPad with a remote desktop, but making a PC game is first goal.

The artwork is something that will be much less than Magic.
But I think the game can still be very enjoyable with the current solution I have.
A game like this can get many updates so this could be improved over time.

About Steam, that would be very nice if the game would become popular.
First I will probably host it on a website and sell it with PayPal.

[mtgrares]

I would gladly be a beta tester and when Dreamwalkers is finished, I'll advertise it on my blog.

I hope things are going well.

[ubeefx]

Thanks. All is going well, but still a lot to do.
I have a good feeling about this project so I want to finish it.
You are certainly welcomed as a beta tester.
I will let you know when I start to have something playable.

[jeffwadsworth]

Well, Windows 8 looks like it will allow native windows apps to be run. That thing is going to be sweet on tablets and other mobile devices.

[ubeefx]

I made some gameplay screenshots of the current prototype UI.
It should give an idea what Dreamwalkers will look like.
But I will not give away too much details yet, game is still in design.
What do you think?

Dreamwalkers screens

[Aswan jaguar]

It really looks nice and promising and you've got my curiosity going.As you've said you kept all the great Magarena aspects-UI,message,undo...

As you've said you will need help with card images.

A suggestion for attachments like Gear don't do it like Magarena I forgot to mention it there,but attach it above the creature so the title of the card will be visible right away and don't have to put the mouse over to remember what attachment you attached.

[ubeefx]

Thanks. The focus is on putting very clear information on the cards.
The card images always show their actual state and are fully dynamic.
Cards will be generated like items in an action RPG. So there will be not a fixed set of cards.
This also means that the card names will be very generic too.
While I agree this is far from what people are used to in Magic, I like it.

But I have an idea to add an enhanced card image mode in the game.
Then the user could add possibly copyrighted content to the game to enhance the images.
I will take some more screenshots when I have this feature implemented.
It will be like themes for cards.

There are already 11 built-in themes in the game, and you can hot swap between them!
On the iPad you can even swipe the screen to switch theme.
The screenshots show a couple of them.

About Windows 8 tablets. Sounds very cool, maybe I will get me one.
If these would fully support Java, then this game could work out of the box.

[ubeefx]

I made a new gallery with the enhanced card images.
The card art can be custom and will not be included with the game.
Needed art will be limited because it is determined by card types.

Dreamwalkers screens

[ubeefx]

I managed to improve the regular card images.
Still busy working on the card generator, which will be a very important part of this game.
The cards in the screenshots are currently just hard coded test cards.

[jeffwadsworth]

Looks like it will be a blast to play. Please keep us updated.