Cards, connections and ASCII

Another short development update for MUSIMELOMANIA.

More ways to build a battle

Over the last few weeks, I decided to expand the player's arsenal: more cards, mechanics and ideas for builds. Honestly, I suspect people will often choose by how something looks. The numbers are secondary here.

The collection in September.

I settled on four card types:

Weapons
Connections
Events
Super abilities

In this version, you can take up to six weapons into a run. Each can reach level three by stacking copies in its weapon slot.

Stacking copies improves effects and stats.

Connections, the blue cards, attach to a weapon and give it a unique upgrade.

Connect a card for a weapon-specific effect.

Events are passive abilities that follow particular rules.

Pentagrams, crossing beams, explosions, flying knives and saws, all triggered by musical events.

There is one super ability slot. An active super can clear the screen or get you out of trouble. Some supers are passive and trigger under specific conditions. Here's an example.

The Atomic Microphone: an explosion after 24 drum events, once a minute in this build.

The foundation is more or less ready. There are around seventy cards. Another two or three hundred ideas were cut: great on paper, ridiculous in practice.

AI and the music analyser

AI helps me write code.

A hidden ASCII mode

Browsing the indie section also gave me another idea.

An Easter egg that turns on ASCII mode.

Adjusting character density makes the ASCII image softer or sharper.

What comes next

Next on the list:

Work on balance.
Clean up the visuals. There really is too much visual noise.
Add some context and lore. Yes, lore.
Add a tutorial. New players are understandably lost at first.
Test it properly. Thankfully, friends have been giving me encouraging feedback.
Eventually get this thing onto Steam, at least in Early Access.

Any feedback is welcome. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!