The Valiant: a History

I have been developing The Valiant for a very long time.  In my mind I thought I'd been on it for a couple of years... but after talking to some of the folks who helped me playtest in the VERY early stages, it turns out I've been at it (off and on) for about 6 years.

With a development cycle that long, it's interesting to see how much it has changed over the years.

If you have any familiarity with The Valiant, you probably picture it as a card game.  But in its earliest infancy, it was actually a square grid, move-and-attack game.  This version of the game essentially had 4 effect types: Attacks, Reactions (defenses), Passives, and Fortune's Favor. While Reactions and Attacks have been folded into the broader "Abilities" category, you can see that the basic structure of the classes had already begun to form up.

In truth, that game was pretty fun, and I may revive it sometime soon -
albeit with some refinements and much needed beautification.

8-Bit Royale - Beta rolls on

I played through the current beta of 8-Bit Royale at a local gaming group. Definitely needs some refinement. On the plus side, people seemed to really respond well to the art work. Also a plus, the drafting style of team building seems much better.

 

On the negative side: some pacing concerns, power balancing (which I expected), and currency imbalance need to be addressed. The overall effect was not a slam-dunk play experience.

A few tweaks to the rules about taking and spending coins will probably address the largest issues. Power balancing is still a little nebulous, though. We'll see how things change after the next rule revisions.

 

 

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