Six hours a day, most days, for weeks. And for most of those weeks INKTRICK refused to be fun, at least I felt that way. Four changes later, I keep playing past the point where I meant to stop and I really dig this feeling! The problem was my original inspiration Balatro. Not the game itself, but my imitation of it. I'd built INKTRICK around chasing a target score, and in a trick-taking game that simply didn't land. A trick needs somebody to take it from. So I rebuilt four things over the course of the last weeks.
You used to play against a number. Now every run puts two or three opponents in front of you and a boss at the end of the run. Each one has their own deck, their own abilities, and a twist on the rules you have to play around. Beating them feels like beating somebody, not clearing a bar and that is surprisingly important in this game. 😁
Both sides used to get four cards and play all four. Now you each get six, play four, and the two you hold back come with you into the next hand. This is the change I underestimated. Your best card is often worth more next hand than it is right now, and deciding what to keep is suddenly the most interesting move on the table.
Following suit is gone. Whatever's in your hand, you can open with it and that opened the game ALOT! Which suit scoops the biggest pile of points? Which trick do you hand over on purpose, because the card you save wins you a better one later? Every hand is a small puzzle with two or three tempting answers.
Multipliers used to climb by themselves as you won tricks in a row. Now every trick you win hands you the decision:
Bank the ink. Your points become ink, and nobody can take it back.
Feed the multiplier. Spend those points to make the next trick pay far more.
Lose that next trick and the boosted multiplier is gone, along with the ink you turned down to build it. Everything you banked stays banked. This is the moment I keep replaying. One more push, or take what's on the table?
Four changes, and INKTRICK is the game I wanted from the start: a cozy roguelite deckbuilder where every encounter is a small puzzle and every trick you win asks you a question. There's plenty left to build. But this is the first version I play for fun instead of testing, and that's the best sign I know. Now I have to heavily invest into more content ingame. The deckbuilder aspect is now more important than it was in the beginning and I need to create way more cards and content!