Mega Crit Games co-founders Casey Yano and Anthony Giovannetti recently sat down with Ars Technica to discuss some of the finer aspects of interface design. The duo is responsible for the smash hit roguelike/deck-building game, Slay the Spire. At its core, Slay the Spire requires tons of information to be conveyed to the player to make tactical decisions. Making this information overload stream friendly was a colossal undertaking.

At its core, Slay the Spire is a very successful marriage of roguelike progression with deck-building combat. Players are fighting their way up a long dungeon list full of enemies. With each defeat, players choose from one of three cards to add to their deck for future fights. In this way, past victories help shape the outcome of the future. Creating decks that synergize well with each other and taking risks early on is the key to winning the game.

The monsters players face in Slay the Spire all have special abilities, which are communicated through the intent system. But that system wasn’t in pace when Mega Crit Games first started developing the game. Instead, it came about over hundreds of hours of play testing with an eager Early Access audience.

[via Ars Technica]