April was a big month. A lot of systems that had been roughed in got properly finished, lots of bug fixes and overall polish.
I had three big milestones set for myself this month (and managed to finish these although there is both more content and polish work left):
A basic meeting/event scene where the player experiences the story and can choose from different options to progress in the run. A new feature.
To have tactics be unlockable by using the teams funds in the Market scene. Before all the tactics were just available in matches which was very overpowered and was only for testing.
To create and implement "boss coaches". The last team the player encounters in each chapter is a boss coach that has a special ability. A new feature.
Card Keyword Tooltips
Hovering over a card now shows a tooltip explaining what keywords like Bench, One Shot, Persist, and Unplayable actually mean. Keywords were always visible on cards but never explained until now.
Conditional Card Indicator
Cards like Exploit (works only after a defender card is played) and Tip-Off (works only if played first) now show an orange outline when their condition is met. This makes it much clearer when the timing is right to play.
Animations
Added some subtle animations here and there.
Sound Effects
Added some sound effects here and there.
Coach & Boss Abilities
Added six Boss coaches that have unique abilities that change how the match plays out, for example:
A boss coach that throws Foul cards into your draw pile
A boss coach that disables one of your players each quarter
A boss coach that ramps up defender stats as the match progresses
Upgrade Card Scene
A dedicated scene for upgrading cards in your deck was built out this month, with polish passes on layout and the deck scroll starting at the top.
Pick Team Scene Redesign
The team selection screen got a full redesign and reimplementation — cleaner, more informative, better first impression when starting a new run.
Settings, Settings Everywhere
The settings menu is now accessible from all scenes, not just from the main menu.
Balance & Design
Lots of card balancing mainly with cost and effects.
Defender stat variance increased. Previously all five defenders on a team had nearly identical Steal/Block/Rebound values. Now each defender has a clear role. This makes targeting decisions more strategic and also cards that swap defender positions are more powerful now where as before this change they were basically just swapping positions of very similar defenders.
Notable bug fixes
Player items that affect the match (+Energy or +Draw) were quite buggy but are working as intended now.
Calculated values in card descriptions were often displaying the wrong values. Fixed.
Player third-tier upgrade silently failed when no items of the required tier existed.
Market trade highlight showed the wrong card selected when the player had Jinxed cards in their deck. Fixed.
Negative options were showing up in the Meeting scene where there should only have been Positive or Trade-off options.
Double Trouble (play next card twice) card was buggy. Fixed.
Jinxed cards were appearing in card packs, trade offers, and upgrade selections. All three cases are now filtered out.
Foul cards were playable (they shouldn't be). Fixed, and the card got a visual polish pass.
Various Event/Meeting UI bugs where Confirm buttons were greyed out or duplicated after completing sub-scenes. All fixed.
——————————
That covers the main beats of April. The game is in a noticeably better place than it was at the start of the month. Fewer rough edges, more things working as intended. Synergies are starting to form where it card picking is start to matter in relation to the cards you have in your deck already.
If you would like to know something specific about the game, the development or myself please feel free to drop me a line or comment.
All the best,
Frilli