EOY Update 2024

So... here we are. I promised an update by the end of the year. And while it's not everything I wanted it to be at this point, it's here.

Overall, I'm proud of the progress I was able to make, this being a passion project with limited time available. I acheived the 2 main design overhauls:

1. Making the game educational

2. Implementing an interactive tutorial

The design took a while to come up with for the above, and it can definitely still be improved. But for what it is, like I said, I'm pretty proud.

I highly recommend downloading the game on Windows or Mac. (If anyone wants a linux version I can add that too)

You can play on the web version, but it takes up to a minute to load (30-40s for me) and when the game does run, it's not pretty. There's of lot of lag that I've been trying to work around. And I pledge to keep working on it until I can find an elegant solution.

Some things to work on in 2025:

• Optimization - make the game load faster. I really want to be able to show this to family and friends but I can't expect everyone to be patient enough to either download the game or wait up to a minute for the darn thing to load
• Mobile - I want to make the web version also playable on phones. Right now I'm restricted by the framework I'm using for this game, but I will try my best to find a way around that. On top of that, when I figure out optimization, I will add an Android version for users to download and play offline.
• More cards! - Now for the fun stuff. I have more card ideas that I want to add (specifically Tanach) and I can't wait to reveal these whenever they are ready.
• Make it pretty - The game is still a prototype and evidently so. When the other priorities are properly dealt with, I want to make the sprites cleaner and with an elegant and cool design. Plus add more tweens
• Audio - This is a big one. Whenever I get this done, the game will feel much more alive. I already have some ideas of the kind of background music and sound effects I'd like to add
• Bug fixes and polish - The game still has bugs that I always try to find solutions for. Plus other things like timing and subtle visual cues or card highlights that I want to add.

Will I get to all this by the end of 2025? Not likely, but anything is possible! Till then, happy secular new year and keep shteiging!

Oh, and of course I have no idea how people will react to this. So please send any and all feedback. All is appreciated.