Remember when handhelds used to have single player card games, where you play through an RPG-like story collecting cards and having battles along the way? This long-dormant genre has always been one of my favorites, so I created Eternal Skies because I wanted a new one. Eternal Skies is a TCG RPG, where you advance through the story by having card battles. The card game and mechanics themselves were created completely from scratch, and are inspired by Slavic mythology and the old Dreamcast game Skies of Arcadia. Don't like the way the card game plays? Change it! There is a built-in card editor, and almost everything else relevant to the game is stored in easily editable plaintext.
Here are some bullet points about the game before I go into more detail:
A completely new TCG with a lot of depth!
Lots of cards and ability to add your own!
Customize basically anything!
Hardcore mode and grind reducing options!
Runs on a potato!
A story!
Arcade modes!
Beep-y music!
Difficult to pronounce words for English speakers!
Really horrible card art until I can afford better art!
Made almost completely by one guy!
Chock full of references and memes!
Sweet sweet 90s vibes!
Plot and Modes
In the story mode, conflicts in this world are settled by card battle. The only issue? The richest nobles control all the most powerful cards. You play helping a young girl named Zyna, and you don't even particularly like card games. However, you end up getting roped into a conflict that pulls you all around the country and then some. Travel around, fix problems, and collect cards and build better decks along the way. You'll need them.
In addition to the story mode, there are free battles if you just want to play quick games against previously beaten opponents, or to grind for more cards in your collection.
Speaking of grinding, the options menu allows you to adjust the number of cards and rarity distribution of cards in a pack, if you want to make it easier on yourself. On the other hand, if you want to make it harder on yourself instead, there are two built in Nuzlocke modes, where you lose cards permanently if they're destroyed in battle.
There are also several old fashioned arcade modes, where you create a deck and choose your loadout at the beginning, and have to play through a sequence of enemies playing a single deck. There are leaderboards for this mode based on score, time, etc. There are larger playthroughs of most characters in the game, and also smaller cups based on things like region and color.
Card Game Mechanics
The actual card game you play is brand new, and plays unlike any other card game out there right now. There are many, many mechanics that will be explained in the tutorial and as the game progresses, but here are a few highlights so you know what kind of a game you're in for.
More than 400 cards
Ship-based deckbuilding
Battles in two distinct phases
Crew members are used to provide mana
Ability to play on your opponent's turn
Equipment focused combat
Few distinct phases
Six colors with unique playstyles
Backgrounds and card backs can influence game mechanics, in ways from simple to wild
Really, and I mean REALLY customizable
Edit the cards or make your own, that's fine.
Edit your collection to give yourself cards, sure.
Edit the enemy decks if you want, go for it.
Put your own music in there, why not?
Replace the images with something else, okay.
Change the whole script, nothing stopping you.
Edit the map files, you're allowed.
You can basically turn it into a totally different game if you want! And then upload your changes to Steam Workshop so other people can play the completely different game you made!
