Card Storm Idle

I try most new idle games looking for the content I'm after, and well this just isn't it. Games feels shallow, most parts of the content seem to still be missing and in development. Based on how much microtransactions are available based on the quality of the game, I'd say give this one a miss, it's a cash grab and likely won't ever get far beyond that. @the dev, you might want to scale the amount of DLC to the scale of the game as you develop. Otherwise people like myself might think it's an empty game hungry for money from suckers.

Here's the problem. Card Storm, as an idle game is... pretty standard fare. Some nice art work and a bit of cleverness with the various in game currencies say "a bit above standard." But you look a bit closer and you can see that it's like a movie set. Nice looking front walls and doors. But nothing inside. Just support beams. It's free so the closer look is, well, free. There is exactly one late game mechanic. It has four simple options. And by late game I mean if you play for an afternoon you are looking at late game stuff. Aaaaand a lot of waiting. It's an idle game so that's supposed to be expected. But I find that the best idle games still manage to keep me busy. And Card Storm fails to do that. You can sort of tell where things are aimed when you look at the games system tray logo. The developer is using the demo version of Game Maker. Not willing to shell pout the ...I think its $70 now... for the full system. Which would allow the game to use it's own logo instead of Game Makers logo. And I say this because it's trying to sell you on what it wants to call DLC. For the cost of one of the less expensive micro-transactions, I can buy a new copy of Elden Ring. (Imagine that sound Lewis Black makes when he's confused and upset at the supposed existence of something utterly ridiculous, like tax brakes for billionaires.) I get that the industry at this level is entirely dependent upon what it calls whales. (People with too much cash sitting around or kids who have swiped their parent's credit cards and are going to end up loosing the house when the rent is due) But $80 for a "booster" is um... a bit ambitious. I mean, I think these games overall wold make a lot more money if they were selling these things for quarters or a dollar or two for the major ones instead of the price of a deluxe copy of a new AAA title. But I digress. The thread bare bit, in the very end, seems to be that the game has no interest in pushing you to buy the micro-transactions. Which is, unintentionally, not a bad thing. Card Storm is an effort by a very novice seeming developer with a friend with some decent art skills. Free and nice to look at. But lax in content and REALLY greedy. I can not, even at this price point, recommend this game.

Saw it, it looked interesting, but holy ♥♥♥♥ those microtransactions. This is the kind of monetisation to low effort ratio that even EA would back away from nervously.