Sadly, this is a game that is still in the early phase with no art, but all the core mechanics are already being patched into the game. And to enter to though the Engine, FMOD will be required.
The basic idea is based on the fact that I personally like fast-paced game experiences (even though it does not seem to match the card game genre, which requires a certain amount of time to think), and I am wondering what if I could create a fast-paced card game.
In this case, there surely needs to be a way to restrict the player’s thinking time to make them rely on their gut or think faster. If I just use a timer for the player, I am pretty sure it would be the most boring thing ever. Then, I started thinking: is there any game genre that has a constant demand for the same amount of time within the game? The answer is straightforward – rhythm game.
Personally, I don't want to punish players too much, so the card will have an additional effect when the player is right on the beat. To achieve my original goal of making the game fast, all cards the player plays ahead will be stored in the sequence and played later. However, if you miss a beat, the cost will be reduced by one as a penalty.
Additionally, the balancing is based on the assumption that it is properly played without simplification. Therefore, the difficulty of the game is casual.
For rhythm games, the factor used to determine the difficulty is the BPM of the song. Therefore, different songs with varying BPM are added to the game to represent different difficulty levels, giving players more options.
This system ensures that players can get rewards for performing perfectly and playing fast as expected, with a small penalty for failing to play the card on time.
The penalty is also tied to another unique system – the pendulum cost system.
Since it is already a rhythm game, I want to create a sense of players and enemies performing back and forth. And since it is also a card game, the biggest behaviour for players are the cards and actions (which is also cards in this case) for enemies. Then, cost becomes an excellent mechanism for players and enemies to engage in this back-and-forth dynamic.
When players use cost and the tracker falls into the enemy's territory, it will immediately switch to the enemy's turn, and vice versa.
“You gotta let the others also perform!”
For now, these are the most significant differences when comparing this game with other DBG games on the market. I now believe that rhythm games are the hardest game genre to create on the planet.