Playtesting a physical prototype has revealed that this game may have been a little too simple to be entertaining for longer than one round at a time. As such, I'm testing a major change: Action cards. These replace the one-action-per-turn mechanic. A new deck of 76 cards (16 Change Shape cards, 16 Change Weapon cards, 16 Change Target cards, 16 Attack cards, 8 Defend cards, and 4 Mass Attack cards) has been added. Each player draws three cards at the start of the game. On your turn, you now take as many actions as you wish by discarding the corresponding Action card. When you choose to end your turn, draw one new Action card.

Let me know your thoughts if you decide to give this change a shot!

@CanadianSnow thanks for the feedback! The end-goal for this game is a physical release. It's a card game, not a video game. The scripting we're adding will be to make playing the game in TTS smoother/easier, not to make it into a game that can't be replicated in reality. And card counting is one of the core elements of the game. The rule to pull a card at the start is there to help mitigate it, and I am strongly considering shuffling that card back in and pulling a new one on every reshuffle, but I certainly don't want to eliminate card counting entirely.

I'm not sure if there's a way to script Spectators not being able to see hands, but I'm also not sure I would want to. I think it simulates reality for spectators to be able to see what the players see. If somebody's spoiling games by blabbing from the sidelines, kick 'em out of your lobby :P

I also found that playing with a timed turn helped keep things from getting out-of-hand time wise - it seems that TTS doesn't have "timed turns" as a feature yet but I'm sure you could script it.

I like that you guys are scripting the game, but please make sure to have the hybrids as an option.

I also like the idea of using a script to automaically give each player a random card (with super low percentage changes of a hybrid) instead of having a deck because there are card-counters out there vs people with no memory, and while that CAN be a nice touch to the game, for those with short memories (most people who play video games) it would be much better to have it automated.

If you guys check out games like Dead of Winter (scripted) or "Terraforming Mars" there are some sweet things you can do with scripting like having a box for automatically setting up games using different rules/options/expansions etc :D

Good luck and thanks for all the work - maybe some day this'll become a DLC.

Hey, I wanted to suggest a couple things for this awesome game:
* Could you turn the Weapons and Targets decks into buttons? This would make it quicker and easier to play. ( * You should also be able to make it so that clicking said button would end that player's turn.)
* Can you make it so that spectators also cannot see the hands? It would be a nice and easy way to prevent spectators from giving away hands etc

Sorry if this is already suggested/being worked on.

Update: Dustin showed me a gif of the scripting work he's doing. Soon, TTS players will no longer need to fumble/search through the shape deck to set it up every time somebody leaves or joins, or have to pull stuff before a reshuffle based on who's been eliminated, because it'll all be automated!

I'm going to work on an overhaul of the rulebook, but it's mostly for clarity, and some common sense things I didn't think were necessary (but obviously are) like, "No looking through the discard pile to see what's been played." A couple of rule *changes* I'd like to playtest, though:

-Reinserting the pulled card into the discard for each reshuffle, (then pulling a new one before play continues.)
-Pulling three random cards for each eliminated player instead of one of each.
-Reshuffling after each elimination, before the survivor draws a new card.
-Pulling one additional random card every reshuffle to speed up the game, possibly instead of pulling cards as players are eliminated.

(Continued from the post above this one. Try not to be confused.)

And I'm open to suggestions, particularly ideas that speed things up. I've been playing a lot of games without hybrid shapes, which I think is a big factor, but I'm seeing a fair amount of late game drag. What should be a 10 to 15 minute round is taking 20 to 30 in some cases. Still plenty of fun if you're one of the last two standing, but not so much when you're the first one out. So ideas that keep up the pace without losing the spirit of the game would be much appreciated. Feel free to try your own homebrew rules when you play next and report back on how they work out for you!

Gladialiens is a unique game that is easy to learn and can provide fun for hours on end. It is a great strategic game that requires the player to keep track of all of the cards on the table and determine information based off of them, keeping track of target cards is especially important as they can help you determine what your alien's shape is. Overall, I can't wait to see what this game has in store for the future and I definitely am interested in purchasing a physical version if it becomes available.

Very easy to learn w/in a single game, & rather snappy paced matches. Fun & intrigue grow exponentially as more players are involved.

Amazing Game! Played with Creator and he was very informative and quite good! This game is very fun as it gets into a mind game kind of feel. Being the last two alive is probably my favorite part of the game as there are plenty of bluffs and nail biting times where you could lose. If this game were to become paper, I'd gladly order it.

Dustin, creator of Don't Let it Die, Loading..., and some other original games you may have seen in the community spotlight is joining me as a contributor on this one to help with some of the TTS implementation I'm not so great at. He's also at least 50% responsible for the artwork I'm using. So, thanks, Dustin!

Awesome game of prediction, bluffing and strategy! Quick matches and fast gameplay mean you can get in a lot of plays in a short time. Highly recommend you everyone giving it a try! Would be really fun at partys.

Made a quick and dirty how-to-play video that's now on the Workshop page and on a tablet that loads up when you launch the game. Still looking for reviews, but hopefully this makes the game more accessible to people and entices them to post those reviews for me :)

I believe the game design is finished at this stage, and I'm ready to start submitting it to publishers, with one exception: I need reviews! If you've played this game, especially without me there to explain the rules to you, I would love your feedback. Post a comment here or email mccarley@alumni.usc.edu. Thanks!

Got a physical copy of the game printed and tested with 8 players tonight. It works! Very well, in fact. I think the additional players made it even more entertaining. With 4, it can feel almost too simple. With 8, there are so many cards to take stock of you don't feel that at all.

Notes:

-Need to add specification to the rulebook on removing cards before re-shuffling based on how many players have been eliminated.
-Need to add rule that removes one card at the start of the game to limit the advantage of being really good at counting cards.
-Need to add tokens to track when a player has to skip their next turn due to a failed attack.
-Test hybrid shapes. Basically, replace one of every shape card used at setup with one of each two shape hybrid, which can use either associated weapon, or be targeted by anybody with either target card.
-Headbands instead of card stands to display shape cards in future physical release would be better.

Added new artwork in anticipation of a possible physical release. Also decided to remove the hidden zones in lieu of reverse-hiding Hands for Shape cards. I think that'll make teaching new players where to put which cards a little easier.

Honestly think this game works pretty well: it's quick, easy, fun, the only question is how many players can it support? I've only managed to test it with 4 in TTS. Might just have to get a prototype printed so I can try it at my next game night with a bigger group. I'm hopeful it'll work with up to 8, but it may drag the pace down too much.

Only managed to playtest changes in a 1v1 setting, but I'm confident they improve the game significantly, so I've gone ahead and updated the rulebook. Eager to try it out with a group, to see if it's more fun than the previous iteration, and especially to see if it works with 5-8 players.

Don't know if anybody cares about this game at this stage, but I came back to it and did a little more testing yesterday. Works really well as-is for 2 player games, but with 4, it's a bit slow and a bit too luck-based for my tastes. Toying with some ideas that I think will increase the strategy. I'll see if I can get a group together to try them out and update the game if they work.

Playtested this for a few rounds with 3 people, and based on that... I've got no changes to make. This game's quite a bit of fun. I'm interested to see how it plays with a larger group, but conceptually, it should work with any number of players from 2 to 12, as long as the number of cards is adjusted accordingly. I'm not sure, though; with a large group, it may end up being a bit too slow. I'll have to get a few more people together for another test at some point.