Pranksters

How To Play:

Pranksters only requires a mouse or trackpad to play, and takes around fifteen to twenty minutes to complete. When starting the game, you will start at the title screen. Here you can click credits to see who helped create this game, or you can click start to begin the game.

After clicking start, you will start backstage. This is where you can check your deck of cards, and also gain permanent upgrades for yourself by exchanging Time. Time is a currency that can be saved up and spent on upgrades. You start the game with ten Time and will gain an extra five after every round you win. Every corner of the screen while backstage holds a button that leads to a specific upgrade store. The bottom left leads to the courage store, the bottom right leads to the energy store, the top right leads to the planning store, and the top left leads to the card upgrade store. 

In the courage store, you can increase your starting maximum courage of ten by three for the cost of one Time. You can use this button as many times as you want, but the cost of Time required will increase by two every third time you press it. Your maximum courage is the amount of courage you start each round at. Courage is a number that represents your ability to keep standing. When your Courage reaches zero, you will become a fool and lose the game. 

In the energy store, you can increase your starting maximum energy of three by one for the cost of five Time. You can use this button as many times as you want, but the cost of Time required will increase by another five every time you press it. Your maximum energy is the amount of energy you start each turn of a round at. Energy is a number that represents your ability to play cards based on the cost of a card (displayed on the top left of every card), and your ability to draw a card from your deck which costs one energy during a round. 

In the planning store, you can add one of the six cards on display to your deck by clicking on them for the cost of two Time. These cards refresh and change after every round. Your deck starts out with only two Apple Splats (basic prank placing cards), two Turns (basic turning cards), and two Heavy Turns (a more powerful turning card), so it's recommended to collect new cards in order to expand your options during a round.

In the card upgrade store, you can select one of your non-upgraded cards from your deck and be given the option to refine or enchant that card for the cost of three Time. Refining a card will make that card stronger and more efficient to play, while enchanting a card will make the card gain more unique properties. 

Once you are done upgrading yourself, you can click the next round arrow on the right of the screen to start the next round.

During a round, you will face off against a contestant. Your goal is to lower the contestant's courage meter beside them to zero while also keeping your courage meter next to you above zero. To lower someone’s courage, you must load and activate pranks on the wheel of pranks. The wheel is split into 6 sections and has a purple spinner that will always point towards one of these sections. Many cards and contestants have the ability to add pranks to the wheel’s sections either at random or with a pattern. A prank will be activated when either player ends their turn and the pointer is pointed towards a prank. Activated pranks will target the person who didn’t end their turn. Once someone ends their turn, the spinner will move to another section on the wheel. 

You and the Contestants can also apply status effects onto each other or yourselves. Status effects are effects that alter gameplay positively or sometimes negatively to you. The effects you and the contestant have are displayed beside your corresponding courage bars. You can hover over a courage bar to learn what a prank does. 

When you start a round, you will draw 4 cards and it will be your turn. When it's your turn, you will gain energy based on your max energy and have the option to play and draw cards until you run out of energy. During your turn, you have the ability to see what the opponent will do when it's their turn which is displayed above the contestant's head by purple orbs that contain a  picture and a number. You can hover your mouse over each orb to get a description for that move. When you want to end your turn and try to activate a prank on the wheel, click the spinner on the wheel. If your courage drops to zero, you will be brought to a game over screen and must restart the game from the beginning. If you drop the contestant's courage to zero, you will be brought to the backstage area to begin prepping for the next round. This cycle continues until you are able to beat all six of the increasingly difficult contestants and all three elite contestants which appear every third round. If you manage through, you will be crowned the master of pranks and mischief and win the game.