Roguelike Deckbuilder Where You Make AI Generated Poetry!! | Let's Try Verses of Enchantment

Wishlist / Play the Demo for Verses of Enchantment:

A magical card game where you duel wizards using AI generated poetry. Travel a rich world, meet fellow wizards, collect cards and build a deck that will inspire enchanting poetry!

The Let's Try series is a way to preview / review games in order to get my first impressions through the first moments of gameplay.

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#VersesOfEnchantment

[nachtvlam]

Hi Retromation,

Lead developer of the game here. Watching you play the game was a real joy!

The game is still in development indeed, so things like the starting deck, card balance and the poetry AI will change over time. I'm very glad you like the concept though. Listening to you read out the poems is a lot of fun.

Cheers
Ibe

[brandonsattizahn]

"I mean beauty is good, but pain is just busted." -Reto 2022

[khgaming_kai]

"This is your deck of cards. Yo" has to be my favorite video game mistake ever lol

[ManlyPicnics]

Doth thou long for the weird?
Mayhaps for games of the roguish ilk?
Then look no further with elation;
For here we have, Retromation!

Be it cards or dice, he volunteered;
With gamer skills and a voice of silk
The latest gems, he has information!
How can one hate this combination?

My amazing poem about Reto (I've never written a poem before).

What an interesting concept. The poems are honestly fairly legible, which is impressive on its own, but the actual mechanics are quite nifty. I'm glad to see all sorts of funky concepts hitting the scene.

[adrienmignot]

I hope there is an "Earth" card so you can do an "Earth, Wind and Fire" play

[QtNFluffyBacon]

Sun, Snow and Desire

The winter was cold and the sun shone cold;
Snow lay like a frozen snowflake;
But I longed and struggled with my desire,
For I felt my life like an unquenchable fire.

The poem shows the writer's struggle with their emotions as they are feeling a forbidden love.
Emotions and love are usually associated with summer, yet in this poem, the writer chose to set the scene in a cold winter, where even the sun shines cold, instead of its usual warmth. This is a clear representation of how nature follows laws. This is foreshadowing, as the writer's emotions struggle to be as they are supposed to be. At the same time it serves to really set the scene, which is then reinforced in the second line: the snow is unaffected by the sun, as its rays are cold and the only way the writer can make sense of it is with the double entendre of "snowflake" because not only is snow laying like snow would, as a snowflake, but it is also used a portmanteau of snow and lake: The lake is frozen, it is filled with snow, no earth to be seen, only the cold rays of sunshine that bounce right off of the icy ground, following the cold hard truth that are the laws of nature.

And then we enter the climax, the turning point. In this sea of white snow, embodying innocence, we have desire. The writer struggles with it and longs for something different. They do not tell the reader what it is the desire, what they long for, but we can only imagine how forbidden it must be. For it is worth contradicting these strict laws, for the desire makes their life an unquenchable fire.
The writer is using implicit color here, to paint a picture like a painter might, red and yellow strokes of desire over the icy expanse of white innocence. It is not enough to melt the snow, but it is stronger than the sun, as it refuses to shine coldly, it refuses to be quenched, nay, it will long and struggle for as long as it must. And just how winter is cold and hard, the laws of nature dictate that it shall eventually give way to spring and summer again, where the desire may run rampant.


Flora was an impressive artist for their time. They didn't mind provoking potential readers and it is said that they wrote this poem in an answer to Merle's "Joy, Love and Sorrow". Attentive readers may pierce through the veil of modesty and see their raw emotions wrapped in this exchange. Flora was still recovering from their heartbreak, but their poem "Sun, Snow and Desire" is a testimony to how your emotions will always find a way.

Finally I could put my literature MA to good use!

[gemodemplay]

I lived the day to see this game happening. What a concept.

[auroraPalace_]

this game is so cool! i love the concept of chaining these poems, and even though they're not masterpieces, it's a super creative idea!

[bear-like-duck]

People are always asking
Is water wet?
But no one asks the important question
Is soap clean?

[caydensmith]

these poems make me giggle like an idiot. they're so like.... genuine? but just so uncanny valley

[owenliquidnitrogen]

We're gonna see a lot of really good AI integrated in games in the coming 2-5 years. It'll be really interesting to see, since the tech is improving so quickly as well.

[olivewooled]

Some of the poems this generates give me some real Ring of Pain vibes.

Also, since you asked for a poem dissection, at 24:05: It seems that the speaker in this poem is sealed away and appears to be a servant to some higher power, (it's some sort of lesser demon perhaps?) it appears to be biding it's time, awaiting the moment where it gains freedom to travel to a different continent/island to achieve some objective (perhaps it's wanting to prepare a vessel or open some rift?) To bring its dark lord into power.

[omerdonmez]

You probably make so much people's day because you make my day man :D

[StonedtotheBones]

Oooo this is neat! I've seen AI mad libs, but putting it in a game essentially, is an undertaking. Also, from the art, I just picture the characters writing poems to each other passing 1 notebook back and forth.

[thefairytalelizard]

This was amazing, never did I think there would be a card game about battle poems

[shonbendavid]

This is the best poetry reading I'v been to yet

[Isaac_Holger]

28:19 Rhyming a word with the exact same word? Such brilliance we have only witnessed from Pitbull~

[joelhaggis]

18:56 I think this poem about how life goes on. There's a war going on, but the subject doesn't care, "her home is a distant hill"

[giahuypham]

Tbh could fall asleep to retro reading poetry 😅

[joelhaggis]

This reminds me of that episode of regular show where pops wins a rap battle by complimenting his opponents.