Cardboard Conquest

Devlog

• 0.7.8: every card gets somewhere to stand
  September 10, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  Every card in the game has somewhere to stand now. The picture behind a card's art was a recoloured template: a banner on a pole for the powers, a chevron ridge for the spells, two flat bands for the... Continue reading

  
• 0.7.9: the moon comes up red and never sets
  September 10, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  Wally has always been the boss who turns into something else. Until now he only turned once. This build gives him the ending the whole fight was walking toward: at nought health the sky is dragged rou... Continue reading

  
• 0.7.7: a lair for every lord, and the box gets its depth back
  September 05, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  Every enemy lord has a lair now: forty-two of them, cut from paper and taped to the back wall of the box, where before a lord stood in front of whatever its theme's wall was. The box itself went throu... Continue reading

  
• 0.7.5: a new title theme, and Uncle Jim cut from paper
  September 03, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  The menu has a new song, and it is the game's name. Uncle Jim, who walks you through the first act, was the last drawn face on a desk made of cut paper, and he is cut from paper now too. Around those:... Continue reading

  
• 0.7.3: less lag, on the desk and on the phone
  September 02, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  This one started with a phone. The Android build went out with 0.7.2 and the first report back was one word, unplayable, so most of the week went into finding out where a frame goes on a handheld, and... Continue reading

  
• Every unit on the board, redrawn
  August 31, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  # Every unit on the board, redrawn Almost every piece that stands on the board is a new drawing this week. 594 of them, plus an Act 0 that belongs to Uncle Jim, three clips of your run you can send so... Continue reading

  
• Every commander gets a stage of their own
  August 28, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  # Every commander gets a stage of their own This one is mostly about looking at things. Forty-two enemy commanders, forty-two hand-drawn arenas, and a browser build that finally runs like it should. T... Continue reading

  
• 0.7.0: Warlords is now Cardboard Conquest
  August 27, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  The game has a new name and a new look, and they are the same decision. Warlords is now Cardboard Conquest , because the whole game is cut out of card: every soldier is a die-cut standee on a corrugat... Continue reading

  
• 0.6.1: Spells fight the army
  August 12, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  Version 0.6.1 leads with a rule change: spells cannot touch a commander any more. They are a weapon against the army again. Behind it are a new three-part event chain, an upgrade preview on every card... Continue reading

  
• 0.6: the whole game, redrawn
  August 11, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  Version 0.6 changes what Warlords looks like. The photoreal art that has carried the game until now steps back to being an option, and a hand-drawn cartoon style becomes the game: every card, every ar... Continue reading

  
• 0.5.65: the battle builds itself in front of you
  August 08, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  A battle used to begin with a loading screen: a column marching under a studio logo while the arena was generated somewhere out of sight. Now the field builds itself where you can watch it. Roads pain... Continue reading

  
• 0.5.64: what the enemy pays
  August 07, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  An enemy lord spends a purse each round exactly like you do. That number was always there and you could never see it, so a fight that felt arbitrary was often just a lord spending three energy on eigh... Continue reading

  
• 0.5.63: Forbidden Lore, and one look for the whole game
  August 07, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  This is the biggest visual pass the game has had. Every screen was rebuilt into one design language, four of the five warlords stopped being costumes and became rules, and the Infernal Legion is gone... Continue reading

  
• 0.5.62: the rosters get their retune, and it plays on a phone
  August 06, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  This covers 0.5.59 through 0.5.62. Last time the hidden multipliers came out, which left every lord's difficulty living entirely in its roster, and said the rosters had not been retuned for that yet... Continue reading

  
• 0.5.58: the enemy stops hiding its numbers
  August 05, 2026 by thepaulbooth

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  This covers 0.5.57 and 0.5.58. The theme is honesty: the enemy used to get numbers you were never shown, and most of this update is about taking those away and putting the difficulty somewhere you can... Continue reading

  
• 0.5.56: the fight looks like a fight now
  August 03, 2026 by thepaulbooth

  Five builds have gone out since I last wrote one of these, so this covers 0.5.52 through 0.5.56. Most of it is the fight itself: what it looks like, what it sounds like, and how much of it you can rea... Continue reading