This is my favorite time of the month writing these devlogs. Not because I love writing or putting in together in general but because this is the only time I really allow myself to look back and see what I've been up to in the game development. Since I'm doing this game solo I try to have a fairly simple system of working. I use the Things app for tasks and I break features into small tasks and aim for not working on more than 2-3 at a time. Once a task is done I complete it in the app. Then when it comes to writing these devlogs I basically just sit down and go over the tasks completed this month. This month I completed 249 tasks. Of course it can be hard to compare months since tasks can be different in size and scope even if I try to have them "small". However, compared to May this month was great but May only had 128 tasks so I'm really happy about that. Anyway, here's the gist of June in development of Dribble Deck. Sound design
Added lots of sound effects:
Cards
Matches
Shootout (shooting, rim hits, ball spawns, the reward spinner)
Market actions
Pack reveals, player swaps, stat changes, and more.
The Shootout minigame
This is basically a whole new gamemode in the game. The idea comes from the NBA Shootout (don't know if they have that any more) that I remember so well from when I was a kid. There is a reward system for how well the player does and the Shootout mode is also available from the main menu for practice. In the practice/standalone mode you can set your own difficulty but in the traditional run the Shootout gamemode gets harder as you progress in the run.
Balancing and card rework
Rebalanced a handful of cards and items that were too powerful. Particularly "+X per Y this match" style cards like Box Score and On Fire. Fast Break, and Lockdown got upgrades. Took a look at energy cards (too many, not fun enough). Also fixed several bugs where Jinxed card logic wasn't working correctly in trades, upgrades, and random rewards. Card related I also added a "Reroll" option to the card reward screen.
Tactics
Removed attempts from the tactics system and redid the bonuses accordingly. Rebalanced tactics after finding they were too powerful overall.
UI and UX
Rebuilt the main menu, redesigned the options/settings panel, redesigned the quarter scoring window, made the tactics hover cleaner, made the deck/players/map views accessible via keyboard shortcuts, fixed ultrawide monitor layout issues and added a semi-transparent overlay when selecting cards to discard or bench in a match. I also decided to simplify the backgrounds in the scenes to a solid color. I really want to do some juicy backgrounds but I decided that for now it's not a priority and felt it would be better to just have them plain for now.
Bug fixes
Fixed a range of bugs like the 9th chapter having an extra null match, the "done" node state in the Map not restoring correctly on continue, the end screen not triggering after the final match, a rookie joining with incorrect stats, the defeat panel showing placeholder text, and several issues with card auto-discard logic when only one card is in hand. I feel like I squashed at least five bugs a day the whole month.
Art and illustration
Illustrated loads of player portraits (happy and sad/shocked faces) and also the new rookie players. Designed 54 coaches, redesigned item art (Dead Crowd, Find Position, Intimidation) and updated all team logos.
Trophy room and Steam page
Designed the Trophy room which is the achievements part of the game. I felt it was a nice theme to collect trophies for achievments unlocked.
New content
Added three new items (MVP, All-Star, Rookie of the Year), an Overtime item (triggers if you lose the fourth quarter), and a new card that sends the next card played to the top of the draw pile. Also added a starting deck that varies by star level and random player items when picking a random team. General status
69 cards (and counting, aiming for around 90)
135 players
2 rookies (likely will end up with 5+)
54 boss coaches with different abilities
30 items (out of probably ~50)
Demo
As of now the demo is available on itch.io. I decided to put the alpha demo up there and when the game is a little more polished I will add it to the Steam page.