I've posted the new version.  It adds in several very useful commands, and should allow most of you guys to make the games you're imagining.  Obviously this engine has a specific "feel", and you may need to be creative to get some of your ideas to work within it.

The old version had variables "good" and "bad", and I've replaced that with user defined variables.  I believe I left all of the old code in the engine, so anything you wrote using "good" and "bad" should still work, but moving forward it will be best to use the newer way of handling variables.

I really am looking forward to what people come up with.  I've been getting little ideas for different ways to do games on this engine, but I haven't had time to sit down and type any out.

No I never ended up adding dice combat because I couldn't think of a way to add it, without taking the engine in a completely different direction than this deck and cards approach.  I'm not against the idea, I just haven't seen yet how to make such a thing fit.

With the current game engine features, I've been brainstorming ways it could be used to do different sorts of games.  At first I was going to keep these to myself, so that no one else would feel cheated if I share the same idea they had come up with themselves.  Also if I share an idea it may make others specifically not want to do that idea, for fear of not seeming original.  Actually even typing these last 2 sentences if starting to talk myself back into keeping the thoughts to myself, ROFL!

One of the thoughts was how to use the variables for things like stores, upgrades, or spells.  You could, for example, start the player with some amount of money.  Various cards could be describing an item on a shelf, where option 1 is to buy and option 2 is to pass.  If you buy, it lowers your money and adds extra cards to your deck related to this item.  If you pass, you lost your chance to buy this item, which of course changes the game each time you play.  Perhaps you like the item offered to you, but if you buy it you can't afford another item you hope you'll draw soon.  What if you pass and the other item isn't drawn in time though?  Those sorts of choices are very cool.

The upgrades idea could function a lot like the store, but perhaps it's a farming game and the "store" was an option to buy a new plot of land and plant potatoes on it.  Buying it adds in a card (or more) where you harvest potatoes for a profit, and that raises your money.  Basically some purchases could be thought of as investments, because they give you very rewarding cards that you may pick later from your deck.

Spells could be mana or power being used.  If someone was willing, nearly every card in the deck could add 1 to the variable, simulating the player's power recharging over time.  Perhaps monster encounters would have an option to use a spell (costing mana) that fends it off without you being hurt, or the non magic option that lowers the player's health (another variable).  Healing spell cards could offer to spend mana to raise health.  Store and upgrade/investment ideas could be added along with this to make something pretty expansive.  I'm actually excited to think of all the many ways this engine's options can lead to fun game ideas.

I just realized there is a game mechanic that's in the engine, but not shown in the readme.txt file.  I'll add it when I get some time, but it's one of those things that seems simple, but is rather hard to use in the right way.  It's a script [Clear], which tells the game to completely clear the player's current deck.  This was originally planned as a way to start up a whole new section of a game.  Sort of like advancing from level 1 to level 2, where you want them to start over with a whole new deck.  You would use [Clear], then add in several cards to get them started again.  This feature should totally work, I just never got around to using it in the Swamp Deck sample game, and forgot all about listing it in the readme.

OK, one last thing for today:
Could you expand your NextCard-Option?
I will give you an example:
I am still collecting ideas for my spacetravel-project. I would like to have some shippingtasks of different distance.
Short transport, middle range transport and long distance transport.
So i would like to draw the reach-targetdestination in 3 6 or 10 cards later.
HAHA! And of course i will have totaly randomly distance so maybe the poor ship is transporting the cargo for more than 30 turns. I dont have to tell you that a higher cargo-value will attrack some very nasty pirates, haha.

Firefly, I'm not sure I'm completely understanding your extra NextCard idea.  Can you describe it in a different way for me?

Hmm, I do think I understand you now.  I'm not sure of a good way of doing that, just because newly added cards gets randomly shuffled into the player's deck.  The NextCard command randomly picks one of the target cards and moves it to the top of the stack.  Technically nothing would stop a command from moving cards into the top 10 cards, or into spots 10-20, ect.  The problem though is that as more cards are played between now and then, extra added or removed cards would start randomizing up the deck and there would no longer be any guarantee about the cards you wanted to show up.  Not sure if that makes sense, but basically by having cards set up to be drawn in the future, cards you draw between now and then are going to mess it up.

No, but I think it's funny that I've gone this long without thinking of adding that!  ROFL!  When I get a chance I'll work on one.

Hi!
I have noticed after playing only game, but not from dd, there are not played any music. Is It bug, or not?
Thank You.

I was thinking of making a life simulator, with cards that make the player lose hunger, trip, buy stuff, eat, etc.

I have thought about letting cards have more options, but so far I've talked myself out of it.  It would be very easy to add into the engine, but in my experience limitations are what cause game designers to be the most creative, and those games created within very strict limitations are enjoyed more than their complex counterparts.  I can tell this sounds needlessly preachy, but it's something I've seen over and over in my life.

The old 90s console era forced game designers to fit their entire games into very tiny amounts of memory.  Graphics and sound abilities of the time were super limited and forced people to come up with ways around them.  The number of tricks employed by designers of those days were unimaginable by today's standards, yet those games are still held up as the classics.  Often times the sequels were packed with dozens of extra features, but were less fun to play in the long run.

All of this could be due to nostalgia though too, haha!  I'm willing to admit that this is all a theory.

I've also seen people ruin games for themselves that they loved to play.  Diablo and Diablo 2 come to mind right away, where I knew people who dumped huge portions of their free time into playing them.  I remember how everything would change for them once they finally downloaded cheats to give themselves extra items and spells.  Sure it was fun to finally have so many choices, but the struggle was over and they never looked at the game the same way again.  Limiting game designers to 2 choices per card is sort of the main struggle, and I worry about messing with it. 

I fully agree though, in some cases 3 4, or even 5 would be better!  ROFL!  I've had a lot of ideas where I could only make it work if this engine supported more choices per card, so I do understand why you've asked. 

Giovani, I think I forgot to include the music file in the zip.  Whoops!

Omer, I'll download this and give it a try!

Pates try running the checkup.exe file, and see if that solves it.

Oh, so when it is run in Dynamic Deck where it reads from cards.txt the music plays, but when the game is compiled it does not play?