Dream Tactics News

Hello everyone! We are happy to share that the development of Dream Tactics is progressing smoothly, and we are on schedule for the game’s release at the end of the year. As well, we want to express our thanks to all the players who took the time to try out the demo and provide us with feedback. Your input has been very much appreciated, and we have already finished implementing a few popular suggestions.

In this update, we want to talk about one of the unique and exciting features of Dream Tactics: The Nexus.



The Nexus lies deep within the heart of the Dream World, granting players quick passage to a wide variety of different areas. At its very centre, a crystal known as the Core radiates with energy, acting as the world’s foundation and providing it with life.

On Neru’s quest to save the Dream World, she must use the Nexus to travel to four different areas, each with their own story, items, and unlockable party members. What makes this especially exciting, however, is that these areas can be attempted in any order! For example, one player may start their journey in the Coral Oasis, while another may start in the Empire of Ashguard. Each of these players will experience the game differently, as all items, cards, and unlockable party members are unique to each world.



Of course, at any point in the adventure, players can return to the Nexus and choose another area if they find one of them too challenging, or if they want to collect different items or party members. Returning to an area will put the player right back where they left off, so you will never have to waste time backtracking!

While exploring each of the four areas, players will be on the lookout for a collectible called Dream Fragments. These fragments can be used to obtain some of the strongest items in the game, giving players a massive power boost for those that find all of them!

And you’re going to need it. The game’s final boss, Dream Eater, can only be fought after clearing all four areas. Dream Eater is a significant cut above the rest of the bosses in the game, so only the strongest and most well put together teams will stand a chance at defeating him in the hardest difficulties.

While we would love to go into more detail, we want to save some of the excitement for players to discover for themselves when Dream Tactics releases at the end of the year.

That being said, we’re always happy to answer any questions. Feel free to join our discord and ask us!

Thanks for reading,
Spectra Entertainment

Hey everyone,

We'll be doing a live stream this Next Fest, where we'll play through the demo and answer any questions from the community!

Come and say hi!

Spectra Entertainment

Hey everyone,

We'll be doing a live stream this Next Fest, where we'll play through the demo and answer any questions from the community!

Come and say hi!

Spectra Entertainment

Hey everyone,

We want to start writing some blog posts about the design decisions we’ve made in Dream Tactics. Let’s start off by talking about our decision to use deckbuilding and cards in the SRPG genre.

[h2]Why Cards?[/h2]

In Dream Tactics, we don’t want combat to feel repetitive. Our goal is to make every turn feel unique and different.

We feel like the best moments in tactics games are when each turn feels like a small puzzle rather than just carrying out formalities. We also believe that if combat is too predictable, then it quickly becomes uninteresting and the player is left simply carrying out the motions.

By incorporating deckbuilding and card drawing into the SRPG genre, we believe that we’ve added a level of unpredictability to the core gameplay that keeps every turn fresh and exciting.

[h2]Mitigating RNG[/h2]

One of the biggest challenges with deckbuilding in SRPGs is that players generally don’t like getting screwed by RNG. As hardcore tactics players ourselves, we also felt concerns about excessive RNG and wanted to mitigate it as much as possible. To accomplish this, we’ve made some crucial decisions on how drawing cards work in Dream Tactics.

[h3]Redraw Points[/h3]

The primary mechanic in Dream Tactics for mitigating bad RNG is redraw points. At the beginning of battle, every unit starts with 3 redraw points and gains 1 every turn.

You can spend these points to redraw individual cards which can help tailor each hand to best suit your strategy. For example, you can spend redraw points to draw more attack cards to press an offensive advantage, or save them for when your team is low on health to guarantee healing cards.

[h3]Deck and Hand Size[/h3]

Every unit has a deck of 15 cards and each turn they draw a fresh hand of 5 cards to play. As such, each unit will draw ⅓ of their deck each turn.

These numbers mean that duplicates in your deck can greatly sway the probability of encountering certain cards. For example, players who prefer more reliable decks may equip the same healing card multiple times so that their healer will almost certainly have it every turn.

[h3]No Discard Pile[/h3]

There is no discard pile for cards played in battle. As such, all cards are returned to the deck and reshuffled at the beginning of every turn. We made this decision for a few reasons:

1. Having a discard pile will slow down combat since skilled players will feel the need to constantly check it for planning multiple turns ahead.
   
2. It makes drawing a bad hand affect multiple turns. For example, if a character drew all of their healing cards in a single turn, they would have to wait until their deck gets shuffled before they would be able to draw them again.
   

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

As passionate fans of the genre ourselves, we understand that degenerate RNG systems can ruin an otherwise fun experience. However, we also understand that some degree of RNG is important for creating fun and engaging situations.

We believe that our card system with redraw points, specific deck and hand sizes, and lack of a discard pile have brought forth the best that cards have to offer while minimising the unfair aspects of bad RNG.

Despite the misgivings that some may have about cards in tactics games, we believe that Dream Tactics has some of the best core gameplay in the genre. We encourage you to try it for yourself!

Thanks for reading,
Spectra Entertainment

Hey everyone!

We have been hard at work developing Dream Tactics and we can't wait for you all to play it!

On that note, we are super happy to announce that we'll be participating in Steam Next Fest next month!

We will have a demo available to play then, so keep on the lookout!