This is the gold update for our game "Way of the Cards" for EECS494 at the University of Michigan! Update consists of bug fixing, balancing, aesthetics, and audio. Posted by zghannam on Apr 22nd, 2025 This final submission build has brought mostly minor tweaks and changes to existing mechanics and visual designs. Overall, we’re prepared to wrap up and bring our finished product to our showcase. First, we made a large change, which is that once the player draws a card from their deck, they will not be able to draw that card again until they play it. This incentivizes collecting more that one of each type of card, and makes boost cards easier to use along with making the deck system more intuitive. We’ve made a few changes based on feedback we received from our most recent playtest. To start, some players were a bit overwhelmed by having to look at the next card timer at the edge of the screen so we moved the timer to show up above the next card about to be drawn. That way, the timer shows both where the next card will come and which position it will come in, all while staying in the players’ direct line of sight. We’ve also added more to the story and player guidance. Along with our intro cutscene, we’ve added an ending cutscene to close the story off and bring back a smooth gameplay loop. Also, during the tutorial, we show the magician’s bird going from room to room showing where the player needs to go. These small additions to guidance and story will hopefully deliver a complete gameplay experience to the player. This final sprint has also brought some bug fixes and QoL improvements. We’ve added a large health bar for the final boss, as well as adjusted some of its movement and attack patterns. We’ve finalized and adjusted the art style of the game, making it consistent across menus and scenes. Also, we’ve otherwise tuned a lot of visual, audio, and gameplay effects, adding more juice to these components and making them fit with the overall aesthetic of our game. Also see our game on itch.io and GameJolt