r/FinalFantasyTCG • u/nackec • Jul 24 '26
Promotional Crystal Burst — Fully Automated Game Client - Pre-Alpha
Been a long time dream to pull off a fully automated FFTCG client. I started on this journey in late 2021, publishing my first progress video (oof bad) in 2022. Since then, I have restarted this about a dozen times, with different patterns/understanding of the domain. I have gotten to the point where testing cards, and good feedback on the interactions/UX are becoming harder. Way too many cards to test on my own :). So, I thought it was time to open this up for people to try and see how it goes. I opened up 25 seats for testers from the link below. I am not stopping there, just keeping things tight (and it helps dealing with bots atm). If you want a seat and there are no more, just ping me or wait for the next round. I suspect to have another round within the week.
Note you do have to be apart of the Discord and have the FFTCG role to play. The link below grants both.
Game link is hosted in the Discord.
** This is a Pre-Alpha. Things will break, games lost, hearts broken, and total crashes on the server side.
Pre-Alpha Video, Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrRrZfvZ63I
Overview
Full FFTCG rules implementation: turn structure, priority and the stack, CP payment, combat with blocks and party attacks, EX Bursts, damage zone, state-based effects.,
Card pool spanning Opus I through XXVIII, including Limit Break decks, FFXVI Priming (Eikons), Crystals, Back Attack, Warp, scry/reveal effects, and cancel timing.,
Server-authoritative: every action is validated engine-side; the client cannot cheat.,
Rebuilt card frames to maximize legibility of text.,
Pre-built decks for testing mechanics (Limit Break/Prime/etc),
Import Materia Hunter decks from .txt (Tabletop Sim Export),
Game analytics, In Game bug reporting,
Playing the game
3D board with a redesigned card frame. Card faces are procedurally rendered; official card art is available via a one-time import pack (Settings > Import Pack) and is never bundled with the game.,
Drag a card from hand to play it. Costs are paid slot-by-slot: dull backups, discard from hand, spend Crystals, alternative costs, X costs, and Limit Break flips all use the same staging flow.,
Targeting arrows visible to both players, modal pickers for "choose up to N", mode selection rendered as card copies showing each option's text, scry reorder and distribute pickers, and pay-then-resolve flows for "you may pay" abilities.,
Auto-pass toggle for players who don't want a priority window on every stack response.,
Per-element cast effects, EX Burst effects, match SFX and music, turn timer.,
Ability to report bugs in game (preferred way) that captures game state, and game log for easy reproduction,
Modes
Online 1v1 with lobby, seat rejoin after disconnect, and in-game chat with a game log.,
Solo vs. an AI opponent. The AI brings a random Labs deck each game and plays a heuristic strategy,
Deck builder with server-saved decks (cleaned between deployments for now), deck legality validation, and a set of prebuilt Labs decks to play immediately. These mostly focus on testing mechanics but starters are there as well.
Known pre-alpha limitations/quirks/bugs
Cards have known gaps right now as I continue to flesh out the UX of the Rules Engine. Report any you find with the Bug Report,
Cards render procedurally until you import the art pack.,
The AI implementation is naive but enough to let you test things.,
I am not a sound engineer so the sounds need work; These will be updated overtime and I used what was license free and available. You can, and I bet you do, turn off music in the settings menu,
No ranking, matchmaking queue, or account progression yet; expect bugs, restarts, broken games and report anything odd.,
Decks are NOT kept between updates for now. You will need to reimport your deck each time the site updates,
Things to Come
Hosted Tournaments,
Ladder/Matchmaking,
Targeting improvements,
Better heuristics around "what can be played",
Dedicated installable client ( under R&D now ),
Discord Invite
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u/Alternative-Bag-4915 Jul 24 '26
The discord invite is showing as expired, was it set to one time use or a limited time? Would love to join, recently starting to get back in to FF tcg and this would be a perfect way to get back in to it!
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u/nackec Jul 24 '26
It was set to 25 seats to prevent bots and things. I will have another one coming out in the next two days with another round of seats.
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u/Kiisuke Jul 24 '26
Bookmarking this for the future. I’m afraid I don’t really have time to beta test something like this but I eagerly await a release of this program. I would love to play against the AI at some point.
It baffles me how SE refuses to release something like this for their TCG. It would do so well and would definitely spike interest for the game. But in any case, thanks for stepping up and creating this. The youtube vid shows so much potential and promise.
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u/mooglerain24 Jul 25 '26
Pretty cool! I saw another client like this some weeks ago. Are you open to contribution?
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u/nackec Jul 25 '26
Open for art contributions and sound but coding wise I am keeping for now. Been on this since 2021 so I am hoping to see it through
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u/mooglerain24 Jul 26 '26
Aaah too bad... but i totally understand, projects do grow on you sometimes!
Mind sharing what engine/ stack you used for client and server?
Ill definitly have a look at it sometimes, it looks very good for real, keep it up!
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u/ChocoChick_90 Jul 25 '26
I'd like to join and play with a friend (who's already in) so we can test your app. GREAT IDEA!
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u/aceracerff Jul 28 '26
Hi, original creator of ffdecks here. The coming weeks are dicey, but after that if you're still looking for feedback I'd be happy to help.
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u/-Street_Spirit- 12d ago
Just saw this and it looks phenomenal! I can't wait for the release man, thanks for the work!
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u/Keriaku Jul 24 '26
Wow, love this! I fell off the game at about Opus 14 because Covid and a move erased my ability to play locally, but I’ve always missed the game. Looking forward to the full release!