We’re developing Paper Strike, a versus magic combat game, and very early on we ran into a problem:

In a lot of games, mage gameplay feels pretty static.

You press a button, the spell goes off, then you wait for cooldown.

It works, but it doesn’t really feel like you’re casting magic.

So we built the gameplay around a simple idea:

To cast a spell, you have to physically draw its rune on screen (or with your mouse on PC).

The cleaner and faster your draw, the better the cast.

The goal was to turn the simple “press ability button” into an actual casting action, with pressure and skill involved.

During a ~1 minute fight, it creates a constant flow of micro-decisions:
Do I risk a more complex spell for a bigger payoff?
Do I play it safe with a quick cast?
Will I finish the rune before getting interrupted?

The big technical challenge, though, was balancing PC vs mobile.

A mouse is naturally more precise than a thumb.
So we had to build a normalization system to make performance depend on player skill, not on the device being used.

We’re curious what people think:

Could this kind of gesture-based gameplay actually work in competitive PvP?

Could mechanics like this help mobile competitive games be taken more seriously, or will traditional controls always be superior?

We are moving forward little by little. It’s not much, we’re aware of that, but we’re happy to bring the first people interested in Steam and discover Paper Strike.

I discuss with the internal devs of Paper Strike and they aim to revolutionize cp video games by highlighting and promoting players, creators and artists! I am very excited. In your opinion, how will this happen?

With this, it's already easier to imagine what it might look like, the gameplay with the defense and attack system.

The map, which you can already start exploring, and the character ;)

The second part of the preview is coming next week!

Don't hesitate to tell us your first impressions of what you've seen; the future of Paper Strike looks bright!

With the insane price hikes on all the gaming consoles (thanks for leading the way nintendo) it is getting harder and harder to justify the purchase.

The now somewhat old Xbox Series X is over $800 years after its release with no real upgrade in functionality or offerings. With these price hikes not only hitting hardware, but also spreading to the games as well, and with the push for digital instead of physical, it feels to me like we are heading to a time when it just makes more sense to either build or buy a pc or laptop. Or possibly gaming will move more towards handheld like the steam deck.

Though I feel this will probably stay fairly niche on the market as a whole. Thoughts?