Phil, sort of both.  Well actually it isn't really a bug because I just grabbed the hawk sound from Lunimals.  I guess it was in stereo.  If it is annoying to have a stereo sound mixed in with the mono ones, let me know and I can convert it (and any others you guys spot).

Good catch Phil, I had that sound in the wrong format.  I've uploaded a fixed zip, so people can download again to have that file corrected.

Hi,
Is there a key to read the current score? It would be helpful to be able to know it before making a critical decission on placing tiles.

Well, I feel as though I don't really understand what's going on here, but my first battle was a draw, so... beginner's luck, I guess.

Firence, I can put a language file into this game.  It had completely slipped my mind.  I'll probably add that tomorrow after I wake up.

Yujin, excellent suggestion, and I just finished adding that.  I didn't notice Firence's language file suggestion in time, or I would have coded it into this new update as well.

Orin, the AI issue is for a 3rd small game I'm working on.  The larger stuff is still on my list, but I was talked into taking a short break from big projects (Swamp and Castaways 2) to crank out some of these smaller games.  Frankly I have loved getting back to small games these past 2 weeks.  I say it so much that half of you are probably sick of hearing it, but I really hate being tied down by Swamp.  Even with normal everyday stuff I was able to program 2 games and almost a 3rd in this time, because I've ignored 99% of everything Swamp related people have emailed and messaged me.  I think that's a good example to show just how much time I normally have to spend on that stuff, and in the end I have nothing cool/fun to show for the time and effort spent.  At least when I'm working on other projects, I have something to show for it at the end.

Ironcross, the game's rules take some getting used to.

Well done Stefan.    Here's an update:

Changes from 0.5c to 0.5d

- Pressing Z during a battle shows you the current score.

@36 Yeah, It's been my observation that many games with communities surrounding them are always hounding the developer(s) for updates, shoving ideas at them, etc. Sometimes you gotta do stuff you want to do, lol. Because giving them what they want all the time, they will get used to that. When they see you have a life outside of swamp, then they might just back off a bit, but probably not far, lol.

Thanks Dark.    I guess you're right about it not being a "small" game, but it's back to what I'm used to calling a small game.  Anything I can put together in a weekend falls into that category for me, even if I can spend more time on it later to polish it up.

Thanks for the complement about uniqueness.  I often get suggestions from people, wanting me to make things that are basically the same as what we already have around here, and wondering why I hadn't thought of it already.  Those guys don't understand that I'm ignoring those "obvious" game ideas on purpose.  In almost all of my games, I start out with some concept or game mechanic that I think needs introducing/expanding, and a game is designed around it.

There are a few exceptions, but they are obvious exceptions.  That puzzle divided game was just something tiny that had no real deeper plan to it, and pet rock and dark ruse were both just jokes.  haha.  This one is another exception because I was just remaking someone elses original design, though I did see how making it would fit into a larger plan I'm working on.

It's better suited for the Paw Prints thread, but that game had one huge element that I centered the game around.  Game developers are always looking for ways to bottle emotions into their project.  With the proper plan, you hope that you can make your players feel actual fear before turning a corner, true excitement when they win, and perhaps sadness with story elements.  It's not always easy (I've never played a Yahtzee game that made me afraid), but I do think it's on the mind of all game developers as they work on their projects.

Before Paw Prints, I'd often thought about adding faith to that list of feelings.  Can a game be designed in such a way, that you can invoke a true feeling of faith?  I formed my own opinions about what might help that work... an extremely harsh environment, drama, a lack of concrete numbers (wolf bites you for 22 damage points), a system that is shrouded in mystery (randomness around ever corner), and finally a set of religious rules that can be interpreted in a variety of different ways.

Who knows, it might not work at all, but it was worth a shot.  There aren't enough players yet to see it take shape, but eventually I guessed that people would begin falling into camps, convinced that they had figured out which is the correct religion in the game.  Without any concrete proof of who is actually right, their experiences in the game are all they can go on.  Some will be correct and some will be wrong, and knowing that there actually IS a correct answer should help the whole thing move along faster than it otherwise would.

ROFL, I can tell how this sounds a bit over the top.  Trying to plan out stuff like this might just be the madness contracted by game developers.  Someone can prepare my rubber room and straight jacket for me. 

Smoothgunner, I guess I can see why people would shoot down the idea of one built into Swamp.  In the past I shot down having card games built in, where people could sit at the safe zone an play them with each other.  Those guys probably remembered that old conversation and felt your new suggestion would be rejected too.

Triple triad is using tiles instead of cards, for 2 reasons.  First, I wanted to make it feel a little less like you're just playing one of the existing Triple triad games out there on the internet.  Different for the sake of being different I suppose.  The second reason is that I made a trading card game already, set in the Castaways universe.  Actually instead of saying I made it, I should say it's done to the point where I can play it, but it lacks many needed accessibility features.  Another problem was that the matches took too long for my taste, and the game was set aside to work on one of the emergency Swamp patches people were bugging me about.  I assume one of these days I'll go back to rebalance it and to add in the rest of the accessibility features.  Such a shame that the game was so close to being finished when it got set aside.  That was the 3rd week in January, of this year, because I wrote the game while I was on vacation in Florida.  Wow, I didn't realize that game has just sat there for 7 months!  That's just plain depressing.

Hey Aprone. Well yes, I'm not a game developer, but I've been in contact with games and developers enough time to say that my "madness" grew
I honestly agree with you and would like to add in my own point of view. I see games as a form of art. We have many art elements such as music, literature, visual art for those able to see, and the list goes on... Many games does not receive the deserved care and we end up having lots of clones with different names instead of the message from the developers.
Best regards, Haramir.

Awesome, I can't wait to try this one. I've never played anything like this, it will be fun to check out.
Aprone just keeps on truckin'!

@Aprone, I've  played a number of games, particularly online ones where you have a faith system as you describe and must occasionally do things required of the game, indeed sinse paladin is my goto rpg class I often get entangled with such. However, that is not really how Kodp works, sinse in Kodp you don't necessarily know what the gods require of you or whether your pleasing them at all, and though you can get blessings from the gods that can improve your situation, that is no guarantee that the gods or your ancestors or some other power in the game won't get annoyed with you.

Also, Kodp has a great mythological system, and  a major part in winning the game involves enacting the myths of the gods, however how well you succeed at this is pretty random depending upon a lot of things, you can do everything right and still fail, or make several wrong choices but still succeed depending upon a variety of factors, including which god a person worships etc.

I will say the execution is very different, sinse rather than working on the pawprints model as you describe of not knowing if or not a universal  god exists and having to guess, Kodp works more on the basis of older, shamanic beliefs that Gods and spirits do! exist, but what they want and the ways they effect the world are rather hard to comprehend, indeed one of the things I love about Kodp is that you need to actually think about the Orlanthi culture and society, from rules of hospitality to when or not to declare a clan fud, to what sort of generosity to give to rivals etc.

Either way suffice it to say I definitely! agree that art and games do exist togetherand have found some wonderful examples of such (not that it has anything to do with Faith, but most recently A dark room and The ensign are  certainly! art).

Getting back to the matter at hand, and speaking of art, one rather amusing idea might be instead of just "the such and such tyle captures the such and such tyle" to put in very short battle descriptions (perhaps even as short as one adjective).

So that "the giant zombie mawls the enemy Kamen" or "the Bores trample the enemy cats"

These could be longer, eg "Daytona bombards the enemy so and so with gold"

But you see my point. Sound effects for the tyles would be great, ut we all know about the sound effects availability problem, however sticking in some colourful descriptions of battle actions, one for each tyle would be a nice way of giving the game some more fun elements and making it feel slightly more like a crazy anime battle, and slightly less like a static cardgame.

Of course, sinse you would need one description for each tyle this might be too much of a painus in the anus to add, but if not, it could be fun.
I recall a wonderful amigar chess program called Battle chess. What was great, was that the peaces all attacked each other in amusing ways. The queen raised her fingers and had a wand that shot lightning, the pawns would smack opposing peaces in the goolies with staves, the knights would do a monti python esk little duel, the bishops would raise a staff with a cross and a hole would appear below the peace to be captured, and the castles were giant rock troll monsters that crushed things.
The best was when a king took a queen, sinse he'd throw his arms around her and kiss her, then knife her in the back .

The only problem is people got so carried away with the amusing death sequences you'd usually end up sacrificing all your peaces .

Either way you see my point. If as I said, not posible fare enough, but on the art level it might be rather amusing.