Bluetracker

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First impressions

Hi, I just joined the game a few days ago, I played through the story, a few casual games against the AI and started a Gauntlet (but didn't finish picking my cards yet), and I want to share my first impressions.

I have been playing card games for about 5 years now, I spent most of this time on Hearthstone, but after quitting last year I tried a bunch of other card games (Eternal, TESL, MTGA, Spellweaver, Stormbound, PvZ Card game, Cards vs Castles, and probably a few more that I can't remember now). After trying all of these for a few weeks each, I settled with Eternal and I have been playing it regularly for the last half a year or so (1-2 hours a day on average).

I'm mostly a mobile player, I enjoy playing during my commutes or from bed, but occasionally I do play from PC (Windows).

I have seen Mythgard mentioned a few times before, the art always impressed me but I finally decided to join after reading the article by Chris Gravelle on r\digitalcards.

So here are my first impressions, hopefully it will be helpful to someone...

As I said, the first thing that caught my eye was the art. It's eye-catching, vibrant and absolutely gorgeous. I mean both the card art but also the story art. Spot on, great job.

Also the name of the game is very good. It's short, unique, memorable, and does hint of what you can expect from the game. Good choice.

Regarding story, I enjoyed it a lot, can't wait for the next chapters. One thing that bothered me a bit is the fact that the text/frames were auto-advancing, so I had to read the text in a rush to not miss anything, and did not have any time to enjoy the art. I would have preferred to only advance after I tap the screen.

Regarding the gameplay, I like the lanes, they give depth and strategy to the game without over-complicating it. I also like the "mana" system. It also introduces a strategy element to the game. It's not auto-gain mana as in HS, but it's also not totally luck dependent as in Magic or Eternal. I imagine it is near impossible to be flooded or screwed in Mythgard.

Both the lanes and the "mana" system remind me of Order and Chaos Duels, which was actually the very first card game that I played. It also opens up design space for cards to have certain effects when being burned, if it's a direction you want to explore.

On the other hand, I think you should redesign your cards to have all the costs and benefits on the same side of the card (both mana and gem cost, and the gem you get by burning them on the left side for example), and make this info always visible. Currently your hand is a mess. Sometimes you see the left side of your cards, sometimes the right, sometimes it's a mix between both and it's hard to read the cards. I hope this is just a bug, but if it's by design, please reevaluate this decision. You can check Eternal for inspiration, which also has the influece requirements on the cards and it works seamlessly. I guess once you get more familiar with your cards this will not be such a big problem, but for new players it's not a pleasant experience.

I noticed you can reposition your cards in hand. Nice touch, but make sure the opponent either sees you repositioning them, or they always see the cards in order you draw them no matter how you organized them in your hand. Card tracking is a skill too.

Regarding your hand, it's really weird how cards are handed out. Going from the left all the way to the right, almost showing you each card in slow motion, and then placed in your hand from the left again... It's kind of confusing and it takes too much time. I can check my cards once they are in my hand, no need for a fashion show before the game starts.

I like the graphics and special effects during combat. The game seems fluid, dynamic and fast paced, all thanks to the fast-paced special effects.

Checking the profile of opponents during a fight is bugged (at least on Android).

Emoting should be easier. Tap on your profile to bring up the available emotes, longtap for the options to check profile, etc. No need for an extra tap just to emote, which most people will be using a lot I expect. (Also add auto-mute as an option if not already implemented... it's the most requested feature regarding player interaction in any card game).

Cards seemed to have a good amount of keywords which are neatly explained if you enlarge your card. Also nice that you can see the generated card details (tokens, etc) when you see the main card.

I like that you have hero powers AND paths, adds another layer of complexity to the game.

Regarding general game UI, please don't make your deck-list scroll-able, make it a grid instead (or some other solution), the current system seems slow, and sometimes you accidentally scroll past the deck you want, leading to some frustration. Check Eternal for example for inspiration.

In the collection manager, after filtering cards, there are some numbers "burned" on the screen in front of the cards after you apply your filters.

In general I had great fun playing the game. The game has great potential, lots of cool stuff already implemented, and considering it's an Alpha version, looks, feels, plays very well. Looking forward to spending more time with it.

Edit: When you buy the starter pack, you get a message saying payment error or similar, but you do get the stuff and you do lose the money. So just a message bug I guess.

Edit 2: In-game deck tracker. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? That's AWESOME!

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