Jonathan ChungITGM 705 Project B - Traders Card Game

Traders is a family friendly trading card game aimed at a younger audience that is designed to be easy to learn, competitive and educational. The game is played by 2 to 4 players and will have a game time that ranges from 15 to 30 minutes. The game's premise is that the players play as rival trading companies competing to be the first to amass a fortune. The game is a collectible trading card game similar to Magic the Gathering or Pokemon where players can extensively customize their own decks by purchasing additional cards from vvarious retailers. For the purpose of the prototype, 2 40 card starter decks will be made.

The core mechanic of the game is trading which is done through the various trader cards that players can use in the game. The goal of players in the game is to be the first to amass a fortune, this is done through clever manipulation of both trader abilities and other players in the game.

Traders is designed with a young audience in mind. The game aims to be both fun and educational, this is done through a head fake where the education is concealed within a fun compelling game. The game's depth however allows the game to be enjoyed by older audiences too.

TRADERSCollectible Card Game

Above is the paper prototype for Traders. The game was mocked up using other pre existing cards from other card games and card sleeves. A rough copy of the game rules was also made up so the people play testing the game could have an easy reference at any time.

The play testing process for this game was pretty straightforward, I had a couple of friends play test both with me and each other to determine what worked and what didn't. Over the course of play testing the following changes were made:

- - Reduced number of resources needed to form a fortune pile from 5 to 4, this dramatically reduced the amount of time a game would take and also helped pacing greatly.

- Changed the deck size from 50 to 40, I decided to add a rule that allowed you to shuffle your discard pile back to your graveyard if you ran out of cards, this allowed me to reduce the deck size while having the flow of the game stay mostly the same.

- Reduced the number of resources a player needed to manage from 4 to 3, This made balancing the game more manageable. In the full commercial version of the game, the number of number of resources will be raised back up to either 4 or 5.

TRADERSCollectible Card Game Rules Version 1.0

Resources in Play Player’s Deck

Trader in Play Fortune Pile

Discard Pile

Sample Game Layout

Fortune Pile

This is a suggested layout for a player playing the game, players however may choose to use their own layouts if they find it more comfortable. Just make sure that all necessary information is visible to other players.

Finalized Game Cards

Getting the game made

Making the actual game was pretty straightforward, once the cards and card backs were printed at Kinko's they were then cut out and glued together. The rule sheet was also printed and laminated at Kinko's.

The cards were made to fit into card sleeves similar to the prototype however the cards were a little too thick to fit into a regular card sleeve once they were glued to their backs. I will take this into account if I choose to keep working on the game.

The Final Product