Dev Diary 1: Looking Forward

All right, we're now about a week out from the opening of early access for Cloister Cards, so let's get an overview of where I'm at.

First of all, a quite overview of the long-term plan. There will be at least two more minor updates before the next big patch (i.e. when the level 2 ancillary buildings get rolled out). These will each introduce a handful of cards and events, which should make the game more interesting and offer a way to test new cards. Some of them may be nerfed or changed, so expect more flexibility in these cards compared to the ones already in-game. As for what else is coming, read on...

So, a bit more on the events. Cloister Cards is currently rather short on events, and those that do exist are (excluding the one that fires after your first year) all quite nasty. That will start changing with the next update. The new events are all built around getting ahold of particularly unusual cards, as follows:

• Mill - a new holding, but not one the level 1 donation card can offer (more on higher-leveled cards in a later diary). The event offering it is quite rare, and you can pay for its construction in gold or by giving up a wetland holding. While it doesn't offer a particularly high direct value (only +3 gold), it allows you to Seek as many Harvest cards as your draw deck and hand allow.
• Brewery - another new holding not on offer through level 1 donation cards, and available through a similarly rare event. Although it begins with no return, it gains Temporary +1 Gold for each Orchard and level of Harvest you play. 
• Market - only offered through event, this card allows you to exchange your highest resource for your lowest. This is a convenient way to handle minor deficits in your monastery at low cost.
• Monastic Garden - another card with a small return but a special feature, this card will Seek your Infirmary, making drawing the Infirmary more reliable in a larger deck. The event will only be possible once your infirmary is built.

From a card perspective, that's largely it for the next update. I look forward to any and all feedback, particularly if one of the new cards feels underwhelming.

So, what else is on the way? Well, it's about time that I did more with the white space that dominates the screen:

This is just a first draft of how holdings will be visualized, but I'll be settling on a final format and start adding in holding visualizations piece by piece.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to put this out now and start making it a priority to get some sort of update out by the end of as many Sundays as possible. This of course makes it rather inconvenient that I won't have time next Sunday, but hopefully I'll have more to share in two weeks' time.