Yomi and Puzzle Strike (2nd Printing) Pre-orders

At long last, you can finally pre-order Yomi and the 2nd printing of Puzzle Strike. Both the games will be available in January. This is the first release ever of Yomi after 6 years of development. I already released Puzzle Strike, but this new version will finally allow the game to be available in large quantities and at a lower price (with cheaper shipping in the US, also).

I made a couple videos that show the components of the games. I don't go into the awesomeness of the gameplay in these videos, so you'll just have to take my word that they both have pretty awesome and balanced gameplay. Or you can play the early-in-development online versions for free at fantasystrike.com/dev and see for yourself. (Players there will be happy to teach you, I'm sure.)

Here's a video showing what's in the Yomi box:

And here's one showing what's inside the Puzzle Strike box:

This is the culmination of years of work of design, balancing, tournament playtesting, art creation, packaging design, and exacting manufacturing preparation. When I saw the finished product and how well it turned out, I was supposed to feel excited, but really I just felt relief. Now it's your turn to get excited though.

I hope you enjoy Yomi and Puzzle Strike.

Yomi version 8.1

Yomi: Fighting Card Game is now up to version 8.1 (more like version 800, maybe I should have numbered these differently). You can get the pdfs to print all 10 decks here: www.sirlin.net/yomi
(There's a link at the bottom of that page to download all 10 at once, too, if you want.)

The game is getting pretty close to final, but remember that this is still a beta version.

Knockdown

This new version adds a bunch of new artwork, some balance changes, and a system-wide change with how Knockdown is handled. Before, knocking the opponent down disabled their dodge and their innate ability next turn. Now, it disables their dodge and weakens their block next turn. Argagarg's innate is rewritten so it still gets disabled if he's knocked down, and Rook's innate was changed slightly to compensate as well.

What does "weakened" blocks mean? It means you can't block odd-numbered normal attacks with even-numbered blocks, and vice versa. You can think of it like the opponent doing a high/low mixup or crossup as you get up from a knockdown.

The effect this has on gameplay is actually remarkably similar to how it works in a real fighting game. The opponent knows his block is more risky than usual, but he can avoid the entire bad situation by doing a reversal, like a dragon punch or a flash kick (Dragonheart or Flash Gear in Yomi). Those will beat out any normal move, and remember that only normal moves become harder to block in this knock down situation, not specials or supers. But you know the opponent wants to do a reversal. A predictable, bad opponent will reversal every time here, and you can either block it (to gain card advantage) or dodge it (to hit back with a single powerful move). A more skilled player knows he can't reversal every time, and he will sometimes block...but that means he is susceptible to getting hit by a normal attack into a full combo.

There's also strategy surrounding whether to use an odd or an even in these situations. Some characters prefer one or the other, so matchup knowledge will help you here. Also, the fastest normal attack is a 2, and attackers will want to use that against a knocked down opponent, but the knocked down opponent knows that and is probably more likely to block with an even numbered card. You can use this tendency against him by attacking with a 3 or a 5 instead.

Setsuki

On another note, Setsuki also got a pretty interesting change in this version. Usually, if she starts a turn with 1 or 0 cards in hand, she gets to draw 4 extra cards. That's still true, but now she also gets to hit back with a full combo if she dodges an attack that turn. Characters can usually only hit back with a single move after a dodge, but Setsuki has a full six combo points to work with here. Remember, it's only on turns where she activated her Speed of the Fox innate (by starting the turn with 0 or 1 cards), though.

Unity

We're testing the Unity version of Yomi right now, and it still needs a bit of work before all of you can join in, but it's getting close. It still has no rules, so you have to know how to play the game already, but it's a nice virtual card table suited specifically to play Yomi, so even in these early stages, it's pretty useful. Stay tuned for more info on that.

T-shirts and Prints

In the meantime, check out the the pics in the sidebar of the various Fantasy Strike / Yomi prints and t-shirts you can now buy. Available immediately, shipping worldwide. Enjoy a classy, framed print of DeGrey's Pilebunker or a simple Yomi t-shirt. Those who like to throw and hold down/back a lot might enjoy the Final Dragon Buster hoodie.

The Goings On At Sirlin Games

Here's an update on what's going on with Sirlin Games. We're working on physical and digital versions of all three of the announced card games: Yomi, Flash Duel, and Puzzle Strike.

The digital versions will appear on a new site with all sorts of nice multiplayer features. The site will use Flash while the games will themselves will be in Unity. Even cards are more fun in 3D. We're sadly lacking in Flash and UI artists, and I don't know what we're going to do about that yet, but functionality and design are coming along.

Yomi

Yomi is now at version 8.0, which is really more like 800 or something. New decks here (scroll down in that link to download pdfs fo all the decks). This new version has been a long time coming because we completely changed the way the card images are generated. The new method is a pain in the ass, while the old method was a gigantic pain in the ass, so that's a great improvement. Also, there's a bunch of new art in this version, but also several placeholder pieces. There might be technical problems here and there with the new cards, but you'll tell us pretty quickly I bet, and we'll fix them.

To play Yomi before its actual release, you could print your own physical version from the pdfs linked above, cut them out, and sleeve them against CCG cards or something. Or to playtest online, you're stuck with having to use Lackey for now (see forums). We're working hard to change this state of affairs though!

For our upcoming "real" online version, we're working on the core functionality of playing Yomi. That means seeing cards in your hand, dragging them around to rearrange them, playing to the table (face down or face up), looking through discard piles, and so on. We're basically starting by creating a virtual table that doesn't know the rules of Yomi, but at least lets you play the game in a reasonable and easy way if you do know the rules. And that just feels good when it comes to moving cards around, drawing them, playing them, etc. We're trying to make it feel really nice! More on that in a future post.

We have a lot of features lined up for this new site, but our first goal is to get the basic mechanics of our virtual card table, and having those 3D cards look exactly the same as the print version's cards. When just *that* works, even though parts will look ugly (things like placeholder text for your health instead of a nice looking health bar), even though the site itself will be entirely placeholder art, we're going to let you guys try it. That will be weeks from now still, but I think it's better to get it into someone's hands early than to wait months instead of just weeks.

After we reach this first goal, we'll then add the game logic to enforce all the rules of the game, and I think we'll also add rule-less versions of Flash Duel and Puzzle Strike so you have an easier way to play test those games, too. If you're willing to put up with in-development, placeholder stuff, you can help us develop the site and the games together.

Yomi Art

For some reason, it's taken literally years to get the necessary art for Yomi. Certainly not for lack of me paying money, I'll tell you that much. Anyway, let's take a look at Valerie Rose, Manic Painter (by GenzoMan):

Valerie has heterochromia, meaning she has one blue eye and one green eye. She "sees things differently," and expresses herself through painting. Emotionally, she experiences highs and lows, which she believes gives her even more appreciation for the full spectrum of human feelings. She also happens to like both boys and girls--a crime in the capital city of Flagstone. She now lives at Rook's Morningstar Sanctuary, a protected city labeled as "enemy of the state" by Flagstone. She serves as Rook's artistic advisor, alongside Max Geiger, Rook's scientific advisor.

Valerie's punch, kick, block, dodge, and throw sprites (by Long Vo):

Flash Duel

This game is now a "Final Candidate" phase. That means it

Click to read more ...

Yomi Card Game Playtest to be at Evolution Tournament

(Larger version)

After years of the development, the Yomi card game is approaching its final form...slowly. At this point, I'm just waiting for Udon to complete the rest of the art (and waiting...and waiting...), though there is still time for minor balance tweaking in the meantime. This is a strangely familiar situation for me.

The deck boxes for the two main characters are pictured above, along with some of the cards. Looking good?

If you're going to this year's Evolution fighting game tournament in Las Vegas (www.evo2k.com), you'll get to see the game in-person, and playtest all 10 decks (not an official event, I just mean while you're waiting around). I won't actually be selling decks there--again, not all the art is there even though the gameplay is--but if you're going to attend the event and you're really intent on buying some decks rather than printing them out yourself, check out this thread.

Incidentally, you can print out playtest versions of all 10 decks yourself (currently one version out of date, but update coming within a week!) and find more information about Yomi at www.sirlin.net/yomi or just download the rules here.

Yomi: Fighting Card game is a simple card game that simulates the mindgames that occur during a fighting game. It's a fixed-deck game, so all you need is one deck and an opponent with one deck to play. There's no rip-off scheme of selling you rare cards in random packs. There will be 10 decks in the initial release, then 6 boss decks in a (much) later release. Each deck represents one character and can also double as deck of regular playing cards. The characters are from my Fantasy-Strike world, and they seem ripe to be in a fighting game someday.

If you are publisher/distributor and are interested in Yomi, or if you are would like to make a connection for me with publisher or distributor, use the contact form.

Card Games and Evolution 2006

Years later, Capcom would deny me the use of the Street Fighter license for this game.

Evolution 2006 went even smoother than any of our past tournaments. There were of course lots of great matches, which maybe I'll get to talking about in a later post.  

For me, though, the highlight was finally playtesting in public the Street Fighter card game I've worked on for months. You can see from the pic that it was popular, and people even played money matches in it.  

The game uses a modified poker deck (so you can play poker with the same cards, too). Each deck represents one character, and there is no deckbuilding or card trading. This is a stand-alone card game not a tcg. It's not a tcg. It's not a tcg. That gets lost on a few people so I figure it's best to say it three times. The game is designed to test exactly two skills: 1) yomi (the ability to read the opponent's mind) and 2) appraisal/valuation (the ability to judge the relative value of pieces in the game). I figured nothing else was important so I threw out everything else to keep it simple.  

Oh and by the way, the game is based on paper, rock, scissors. After years of looking at how paper, rock, scissors worked and didn't work in various games (and writing articles about it...), this is me trying to demonstrate how to do it right. My tagline is "it's the best game of paper, rock, scissors that nature will allow."  

Now, what's very unfortunate is that there are already two other Street Fighter card games out there. One is by Score and distributed by exclusively by Blockbuster, and--surprise--it doesn't sell well (isn't Blockbuster obsolete by now?). The other SF card game is published by Sabertooth games as part of the Universal Fighting System. You can play Soul Calibur 3 cards, Street Fighter cards, and Penny Arcade cards together. That one manages to sell well, which is quite a hindrance to me. Check out this bad card from this bad game.

This card damages the Street Fighter brand.

IF YOU ARE SKIMMING, NOTE THAT THIS IS TOTALLY NOT MY CARD GAME, thanks.  

What really gets me is that Sabertooth has created a terrible, terrible game. It's clunky, bad at capturing the license, inelegant, and has lots of terrible art. I don't even know where to start with this "Yoga Short Kick" card. To be fair, it also has some great art by Udon, but much of it is copy and pasted from their comics. Anyway, this game is offensive to me as a game designer and Street Fighter player. It's kind of a toss up between the Sabertooth game and SF Hyper Fighting on 360 when it comes to what is damaging the Street Fighter brand name most these days. sigh.  

I will most likely move forward with a my own characters in an online version of my card game, and have the Street Fighter (and Virtua Fighter!) characters ready once (if) I can make the business deals with Capcom and Sega.

This is the greatest card ever (not) created.In other card game news, details of the World of Warcraft TCG are out. I've followed them closely and I can't even tell you how impressed I am. I tried for literally *years* to make a card game as complex as Magic: The Gathering, yet better and different (my SF card game is not part of that; it's way simpler). Anyway, what I did come up with on that front looks disturbingly similar to what the WoW TCG is...except they did it better than me. They were a little more clever here and there and really made it come together. Simple and good resource system, good combat system, and good hero system. I will say that this game is so far the ONLY trading card game that has the potential to be better than Magic: The Gathering, in my opinion. Note that I'm not even talking about the Warcraft license, just the game mechanics themselves. Oh, and it also happens to have great art and great card layout.  

I'm not surprised to find out that Brian Kibler is one of the leads on the project. I read his articles and tournament reports for years. Brian, I still remember when you beat Jon Finkel at Pro Tour 2000 with an Armadillo Cloaked Rith for the win. They called you "the dragonmaster" back then. My hat is off to you guys at Upper Deck right now, more than to any other game developer out there. Coming up with a trading card game on par with MTG is about the tallest order you could have, and I think you guys did it.

I wonder if I could release a card game through Upper Deck with similar rules but with a different license. Hmm...  

--Sirlin