Supermodel Snapshot - Version 1.1

IMPORTANT: Uploaded a hotfix. If you already downloaded 1.1, I strongly recommend updating to 1.1.1.

The day is finally here. Today, you get to try out the card game for Supermodel, though in a limited form. This is what I've been putting so much work into for about a year or so now, and I hope it shows.

What can you expect from this release? First, there is a brief, non-interactive tutorial I strongly recommend you go through. After that, there is one single match of Snapshot that you can play as often as you like with a premade deck of cards against Vanguard from Supermodel: Defenders of Desire. Each such match should take you about 10 minutes from start to finish.

What can you not expect? This isn't Supermodel: Defenders of Desire, not yet. You won't find any storytelling, dialogue, porn, or even nudity in this release. There is a lot of sexy stuff here, but nothing explicit. I want Snapshot to be streamer friendly. If you want porn, wait for the full (well, full first release, anyway) Supermodel later this year.

I've kept things simple for this first release. Your deck mainly contains Common cards, the game's most straightforward, essential cards. These cards form the bread and butter of most non-advanced decks and should cover many playstyles. But I have also included a small handful of Uncommon (green) and Rare (blue) cards to show what they might look like. In later releases of Snapshot and the full Supermodel, you will only get these cards by playing the game and opening card packs (earned with in-game money -- no microtransactions here!). While Uncommon and Rare cards tend to be more powerful than Common cards, they are also more situational. They might require specialized decks to truly shine. As such, these cards may be hard to find good uses for in this version. But they can turn the game around alone if you can get them to the table.

Needless to say, the full game (and all future releases of Snapshot) will contain many more cards than what you see here. This is simply a preview to whet your appetites, though I don't want to underplay things. This version still has 24 unique cards for you to play with.

Why am I releasing the card game as a standalone game instead of going straight for Supermodel: Defenders of Desire? Well, card games like these are enormously complicated and impossible to balance as a lone developer. I need feedback focused exclusively on the basic card game to make sure that it's as good as I can possibly get it and that all the game mechanics work correctly before I integrate it into the final game. Furthermore, I must ensure the game is FUN before committing too hard. I find it very enjoyable to play, but then again, I'm biased. I want YOUR opinion and to hear everything, both good and bad. Did you play a particularly exciting match? Tell me about it! Did you play a match where you felt doomed to failure no matter what you did? I want to know. Do you feel some of the cards are useless or that others are overpowered? I'm all ears! I want feedback; the more, the better.

Finally, it deserves to be mentioned that this is no ordinary first release for a crowdfunded game like this. I have given Snapshot a massive amount of polish to make it feel slick and professional, at least for a game made in Ren'py. I even spent an inordinate amount of time composing the music myself to avoid a repetition of the licensing mess in Long Live the Princess, so I hope you like it.

What's next on the agenda after this? First, I intend to finish version 1.01 of Long Live the Princess and release it for free. This shouldn't take me long. After that, work will continue on Supermodel Snapshot version 2.0. My current plans for that version are to add the ability to earn cards through gameplay and a deckbuilding mechanic that allows you to create and customize your own decks that you can then play with. I also expect to add one more model for you to photograph, but more on that later. Once 2.0 is out, I'll be ready to move on to work on the first version of Supermodel: Defenders of Desire, which is the real goal here.

A note on the Android version: Supermodel Snapshot was developed with Android tablets in mind and has been extensively tested on one. It should play wonderfully on a tablet. However, Android phones are NOT SUPPORTED. The game's interface will likely be far too small, and Ren'py's in-built phone adjustments will likely mess up certain parts of the game. If you wish to play Supermodel Snapshot on the phone, you do so at your own risk.

In any case, you probably want the download links by now, so here they are:

Download links:

PC 

Mac 

Android (Tablet only. Phones are not supported)

Patch Notes:

Update 1.1.1:

• Fixed a potential exception at the game over screen.

Update 1.1:

• Added two new, less punishing difficulty levels to help ease new players into the game.
• The Common level 3 Upgrade cards now generate an additional Heat per turn, making them a more attractive upgrade option.
• "Turned On" had its Heat cost reduced by 3 to compensate for the above change since it does not generate more Heat than before.
• Playing cards on top of your own cards (i.e., upgrading or discarding them) now requires the cards to overlap more closely. This makes it easier to play cards when your play area is crowded.
• Situations where some Challenge cards are "skipped" while dealing indirect damage should no longer occur.
• Attempting to play an Upgrade card out of order (such as trying to upgrade a Skill 1 card with a Skill 3 card) now notifies the player why the upgrade failed.
• Added error handling for the unlikely event of failing to draw Challenge cards, for example, if the Challenge deck runs out. The game should no longer throw an exception when this happens.
• Streamlined and standardized the terminology for Heat and removed the concept of Temporary Heat:
  - "Total Heat" is the total amount of Heat you have gained in this match, which is the value you must increase to win the game.
  - "Usable Heat" is the amount of Heat available for you to spend on things like playing cards. Any effect that says it costs Heat refers to Usable Heat unless otherwise specified. If you end your turn with more Usable Heat than Total Heat, you lose any excess Usable Heat.
  - "Heat" is shorthand for BOTH Total Heat and Usable Heat. If you gain Heat, you gain both types. If you lose Heat, you lose both.
• Rebalanced the "Insecurity" Challenge card to make it less punishing overall, particularly in the opening turns.
• Rebalanced "Ready When You Are" to make it more useful.
• Fixed a bug that caused "This is Fine" to generate more Heat than intended.
• Adjusted the hue of red and green values on cards for clarity.
• Manually discarding a card now gives you +2 Usable Heat.
• Cleaned and updated the tutorial.
• Replaced the "OR" wording on Challenge cards with "ELSE" for clarity despite the resulting grammar being suspect.

Known issues:

• If you discard a card during the mulligan phase, your first attack against a Challenge card in turn 1 won't be highlighted to show its validity. This is purely a cosmetic bug and doesn't affect gameplay.