Hello, venturers, Today, we are starting a series of posts about the development of our game, as well as the challenges our team has encountered while adding new gameplay mechanics. The first post in the series is focused on the combat system in Treasure Atlas. In our game, you will choose a class and special traits for your character, which will directly affect the combat system. Both the classes and the cards are divided into three major groups, linked to typical game attributes: Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. There are no universal cards or classes, in theory: every card is always tied to a specific attribute. However, there are cards that are useful for any class or playstyle (for example, Basic Heal – a card that heals the character – is categorized under Intelligence, but in essence, it’s more of a universal card). To encourage players to explore game mechanics and collect interesting card combinations during gameplay, based on their chosen playstyle and character class, we introduced the native attribute system. The goal of this system is simple: to enhance cards that share the same attribute as the character. For example, Basic Attack – the simplest creature attack card that deals damage – comes in three variations: Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. All of these cards have the same base damage, but if you use a card with the character’s native attribute, the damage increases by 25%. This is where the first problem arose: not all cards can simply be enhanced by 25%. For instance, it’s unclear how to handle cards that disable the target (such as Stun or Silence). To solve this, we came up with alternative ways to enhance native attribute cards, but these solutions will be explained in more detail in future posts. The next step was to design the appearance of the cards to match their attribute and intended use. It’s important that players can quickly glean as much information as possible about the effects of any card at a glance. This requires carefully chosen, informative artwork on the card cover (which should still remain attractive and consistent with the game's aesthetic), along with meaningful names and concise descriptions. Even the card frame itself contains a lot of information – rarity, attribute, action cost, and reusability. We will be glad if our game interests you and you would add it to your wishlist