I’m making a card game!
About two years ago, I created a card battle system using sheets of paper. It came to me basically fully formed. It had characters, accessories, rules and phases. It was designed with a static deck in mind. There were twelve cards, four of each type: melee, magic and defense. The players place down three cards a round, face down. They then flip the cards over. Cards across from one another of like type (melee, magic or defense) cancel out. Any plans the players may have are potentially ruined. Then the defense cards play. The order of which is determined by “initiative,” which is determined by a coin toss at the beginning of the game and then given back and forth each round. The defense cards play. Then the melee. Then the magic. The effects range from healing, to adding armor, to inflicting physical damage (subject to the opponents armor), to inflicting magic damage (ignoring armor but costing Ki). The rounds play out until either player’s HP is depleted.
My wife, Jaeden, and I QA’d the physical version of the game. Adding nuance here and there, altering card text to be more clear, changing affects to be more balanced, adding and altering accessories that significantly affect strategy. Jaeden is a lover of all things card games. Ex-Pokemon Card Game tournament player and current day mobile card game lover, she has become my expert reference. She has games on her phone that are years and years old that she still goes back to. And that is what this game strives to be.
I am no card game lover. But I am a lifelong RPG player and a lot of that knowledge transfers: stats, abilities, strategy, long term status effects, builds, etc… A new idea though (while maybe subconsciously there) is the idea of synergy. How do cards build to compounded affects? For instance, a melee card that does one damage may have that damage increased if the enemy is poisoned. So, throw in cards that poison the enemy. The more of them you have, the more likely you are to add benefit to the melee card. This synergy is something you can build for. How your deck is composed and giving the player the choice in how their deck is composed is one of the key features of a combat card game. And what card players are looking for.
This is enlightening to learn and the creative potential of that is exciting. But in that learning, like in all things, I’ve had to kill my darlings. My original concept was with a static deck. There are twelve cards. How those cards behave would be based on the character you choose to play as and the enemies you face. I like this idea, but I don’t think it’s what card players are looking for. I wanted an RPG with a card combat battle system. But card game players want a card game and one of the consistent mechanics between these games is collecting cards.
Which makes sense. You customize your deck, and hence build, by getting new cards and deciding if and how they contribute to your strategy. New cards make for handy rewards too. Like for winning a battle or finding loot. These ideas make sense and for the sake of the players, I’ll have to bend on whatever “vision” I had from the outset.
I think striking this balance between what I want and what the audience wants will result in a more fun game for more people.
Just as long as I don’t lose myself in the process.
Thanks as always for reading and following me on this journey.
Andrew
