So my last post about having the core mechanics complete for a demo aged like fine wine... in a hot car... while it's on fire.

Recently a company sucessfully filed a patent in the US which, if you go by the headlines refers to "Summoning and battling" mechanics, which at face value could include my game in it's current state. Obviously this could be a problem.

However, through reading the patent I am semi-confident, from a literal-interpretation, my game would already not come under that umbrella for multiple reasons:

• My game does not include a catch mechanic

• Auto-battling is not a feature

• It refers to specifically throwing an object (my game uses card placing)

• My battle UI does not resemble the stated layout in the patent

• The IP in question is not something I'm personally that interested in so any similarity is a coincidence of convergent evolution

• My understanding of the patent is that it refers to the exact battle process of that IP and does not just refer to 'summoning monsters to fight'

• I'm a small duck in the proverbial pond

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I am sensible enough to realise that interpretations can vary, so I am going to take a step back and slightly re-evaluate my card summon mechanic - for the sake of safety.

Changes

To clarify I still want to include the idea of starting with a deck of cards and placing them to spawn your party, but I will probably take an approach that makes it more like a tabletop.

My current ideas

• Control card placements?: instead of spawning a unit, the card is a draggable object, which can be placed in a grid. The placement determines <something> (i.e. enemies cannot attack characters behind other characters)

• Booster Cards?: Optional side quests could give you a card you play on a unit to boost them, so it's not just about spawning things

• Card Energy System?: Rather than placing one card per turn, you can place any amount of cards based on how much energy you have

• Shuffling the deck?: While there isn't currently enough cards to do this, starting with a random hand of your equipped cards could be interesting.

A lot of these ideas are still on the 'cutting-room floor' so to speak, but they would solve this dilemma.

In all retrospect, I may find this creates a more satisfying gameplay loop anyway.

TLDR: Game is still continuing, just with a change in the rpg mechanics