Slay the Spire dev releases free game jam deck builder after ditching Unity
Slay the Spire developer Mega Crit has released Dancing Duelists, a free new deck builder created during a three-week game jam as it explored the Godot engine after the recent Unity controversy.
Mega Crit was one of many developers to criticise Unity's decision to begin charging studios fees based on the number times their game was installed by a user (Unity has since walked back on some of its changes, and CEO John Riccitiello departed not long after), writing, «Despite the immense amount of time and effort our team has already poured into the development on our new title, we will be migrating to a new engine unless the changes are completely reverted and [Terms of Service] protections are put in place.»
Shortly after Unity's controversial announcement, Mega Crit launched a three-week game jam to, in its own words «explore the Godot engine due to 'recent events'». The result of those experiments is Dancing Duelists, a «deckbuilding autobattler dance off with a BUMPIN' soundtrack».
As per the rules posted on itch.io, players pick a fighter (each with its own deck of cards) then go up against a randomly assigned opponent for a dance clash. Cards play automatically and a clash is won if an opponent's Hype Points (HP) are reduced to zero, if their cards are all trashed, or if the player reaches 50 HP. Additionally, the competitor with the most HP will be declared winner if a game reaches 20 turns. Players get two new cards ahead of each clash, special ability granting trinkets are awarded every other clash, and the goal is to win seven clashes to be crowned the «ultimate dance duellist».
Dancing Duelists is a pretty slick, characterful, and funky thing going by its gameplay trailer — especially so given its three-week
Read more on eurogamer.net
