First Mojang's Scrolls full game posted

[pakoito]

I must say I am not impressed. The mechanics are very clear but lacking a lot of "fun factor":


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IRtDVsGEB0c


Creatures have 3 stats: Attack, HP, Speed.

Attack and HP are easy to understand: attack determines damage and HP is how much damage a unit takles until it dies. Speed determines how often a creature attacks, i.e. a value of 2 means it attacks every 2 turns. A value of 1 means every turn. Most creatures also have active or pasive skills.

Turn sequence:


Manapool is filled to its max. Draw a card.
Discard a card to either: a.- Draw two cards b.- Increase your total and current manapool by 1.
Summon creatures or play spells using their manacost. In the video we can see a steroid spell (2 mana, +1 attack to one creature) and a huge AoE damage Spell (1 Damage, range 2, 6 mana)
Use creature's skills or move them one tile.
Creatures ready to attack will do it at the end of the turn. They attack the first creature they find in their way so positioning is important.


The game ends when either one player has no creatures or destroy's every opponents back pylons (one per line, 10HP each)


At its current state looks like a mix of HoMM, Clash of Heroes and Summoner Wars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnpEGxUQevA&feature=relmfu), and I would rather play the later because it feels more startegic.

[Lukasz]

wasn't the game supposed to be released on 11/11/11?

[VassiliBat]

wasn't the game supposed to be released on 11/11/11?
I think that was pure Bethesda baiting, rather than anything serious.

[calabi]

Its does look pretty rubbish, I cant see anything unique or interesting in it.

[ZIGS]

I wish id would expand their RAGE card game into something like this (a full-fledged game that you can play online)

[Cooper]

wasn't the game supposed to be released on 11/11/11?Nope, that was Minecraft.

[David_Landriault]

I am sure that they are going to the same thing that they doing with minecraft and update it a lot until it is perfect.

[pakoito]

I am sure that they are going to the same thing that they doing with minecraft and update it a lot until it is perfect.

You can patch cards, but not the basic game mechanics. Right now it's pretty dull for what phase of development it's in. This problems should have been found through the past months of fast prototyping.

[Cooper]

Regarding the mechanics; it's like they thought "hexes are cool" without realising why they are cool.

[ado]

How can people say it's dull without playing it and experiencing all the elements of the game? I mean, all card games look dull until you sit down and play them yourself...

[TillEulenspiegel]

I dunno, I always thought L5R looked pretty cool even though I've only briefly watched people play and glanced at the cards.

It's not the best way to judge a game, but Scrolls doesn't excite me. It looks a bit generic and uninspired.

[Spider Jerusalem]

i'm a bit more interested in card hunter at this point, although things have been a bit silent on that front for a while.

[pakoito]

i'm a bit more interested in card hunter at this point, although things have been a bit silent on that front for a while.

If you follow their twitter feed (https://twitter.com/#!/RudolphoCH) they are working on "finishing the game", which is that boring plateau of making it content-complete and iron most general bugs.

[gwathdring]

How can people say it's dull without playing it and experiencing all the elements of the game? I mean, all card games look dull until you sit down and play them yourself...


I've read the rulebook to every board game I've purchased, and I've only been dramatically wrong once about how much I thought I'd enjoy playing the game from that information. I still try to playtest and read reviews and such, but those initial rules-based impressions tend to work out pretty well. Video games tend to surprise me more because there are usually more variables. But if you play lot of games and spend the time to take apart the game or the experience afterwards, it's fair to gauge the experience before playing.

Edit: I do like that you can discard a card to draw new ones. It's good to have a way to cycle your cards whenever hand management is involved as long as it comes with penalties--you don't want to defeat the purpose of hand management mechanics but it's nice to be able to limit the role of luck.

[Spider Jerusalem]

If you follow their twitter feed they are working on "finishing the game", which is that boring plateau of making it content-complete and iron most general bugs.
ah, i see. thanks for the tip.

it seems that they're approaching a beta. that's good news.

[pakoito]

ah, i see. thanks for the tip.

it seems that they're approaching a beta. that's good news.

Just look at the number of tweaks per day: https://twitter.com/#!/RudolphoCH

[7hink]

Edit: I do like that you can discard a card to draw new ones. It's good to have a way to cycle your cards whenever hand management is involved as long as it comes with penalties--you don't want to defeat the purpose of hand management mechanics but it's nice to be able to limit the role of luck.

This is what I liked most about it as well. In a deck based card game you should not lose because of a bad hand. In MTG the least fun decks you can play against are discard decks and land destruction decks. Those emphasize the weakness of MTGs mechanics. Still, I have yet to play a TCG which is as good as MTG is. Sadly MTGs online games aren't the exactly stellar or cost too much money to be interesting.

[gwathdring]

This is what I liked most about it as well. In a deck based card game you should not lose because of a bad hand. In MTG the least fun decks you can play against are discard decks and land destruction decks. Those emphasize the weakness of MTGs mechanics. Still, I have yet to play a TCG which is as good as MTG is. Sadly MTGs online games aren't the exactly stellar or cost too much money to be interesting.

I agree that Magic is the best TCG I've played and I certainly enjoy it from time to time, but for me it makes more of a sad testament to the genre's disabilities than anything else.

[Screwie]

Yeah hand management seems nicely planned, as does the alternative with permanently ramping up your mana pool.

Disclaimer: I've only seen the two trailers and not done any other reading around. However the following are what to me seem conspicuously sparse/absent, strategy-wise:

1. An apparent lack of interesting or meta spells... buffs and explosions only go so far. I hope the complete game has movement spells, deck manipulation and grinding, and graveyard play.

2. Is there only one mana colour? It may get a little bit M:tG, but having multiple mana themes and being able to mix them would add a lot of complexity.

3. Out-of-turn actions. So far there does not seem to be a way to react to or interrupt your opponent.

That's just the cards. This game could add a lot more complexity into the creatures themselves, and with the hex grid special terrain could also be introduced.

It's a nice basis for a game, but I hope there is a lot more depth coming.

[soldant]

I really don't think Scrolls will be much of a success. It looks so bland and uninspired. From observation I can't fault the mechanics but there's absolutely nothing here that would make me want to play.

Also, perhaps this is a little mean, but I'd kind of like Scrolls to fail. The gaming sector (particularly blogs) seem to have a love affair with Notch where he is incapable of doing anything wrong and his opinion is immediately reported apparently for the sake of quoting him. A mediocre game might remind people that the name alone isn't enough to carry a game, and that Mojang aren't infallible. Sounds cruel, but it might be a pertinent lesson.

[pakoito]

Also, perhaps this is a little mean, but I'd kind of like Scrolls to fail. The gaming sector (particularly blogs) seem to have a love affair with Notch where he is incapable of doing anything wrong and his opinion is immediately reported apparently for the sake of quoting him. A mediocre game might remind people that the name alone isn't enough to carry a game, and that Mojang aren't infallible. Sounds cruel, but it might be a pertinent lesson.
Notch did not make this game, he is just helping with design and producing it.

[soldant]

Notch did not make this game, he is just helping with design and producing it.
Oh, right, just saw that it's not his own personal project like Minecraft... though in reading around, he has thrown his weight behind it so like it or not he's going to be fairly well attached to the project through association.

[bonkers]

It's developed by his company, so I hope he puts his weight behind it. As every decent boss should...

[pakoito]

It's developed by his company, so I hope he puts his weight behind it. As every decent boss should...
Hopefully he will read this, or my reddit post. Or maybe this is just alpha and those changes listed on last page are coming.

Thing is, first impression: meh.

[Smashbox]

@Bonkers: When I saw your name and picture, I laughed/stifled my laughter way to out loud in front of my co-workers.

I don't know why.

[calabi]

I mean the cards dont even look interesting. MTG cards have flavour, unique detailed artwork, and when you first view them they look complicated and deep albiet they arent. This just looks generic.