What kind of game?• Card as central play element
• Cards are
• Token (playing piece)
• Action
• Interface
• Exception-based design
Simple but Deep• Easy to grasp
• Simple rules for card use
• Minimise non-card actions
• Add complexity through card rules
• Cards interact with one another
Player Actions• What can players do?
• Play Cards
• Actions caused by cards
• Draw cards, select targets…
• Other actions?
• Attack with creatures, end turn…
Card Effects• Cause one time effects
• Cause enduring effects
• Remain in play
• Have a position
• Can be a resource
• Can react and change
Resource Development• Change of resources during play
• Shapes tension
• Affects deck building
• Affects balancing of cards
Core Cards• Simple basic cards on which to build
• Allow you to play the game
• Help pin down the core power curve
Keywords• Help with card interactions
• With other cards
• With other playing pieces
• Players, status effects…
• Keywords can help with interaction
Deck Building• Requires different skills than playing
• Understanding randomness
• Seeing connections between cards
• Research (homework)
• Provides meaningful influence on game
• Opportunity to be creative
Decision Paralysis• Large Sets make things difficult
• Knowledge of available cards
• Knowledge of the meta game
• Acquiring the appropriate cards
Deck-Size• Depends on design
• Target play duration
• Desired predictability
• Set Size
• And on complexity of cards
The Board• Visual metaphor of “table top”
• Everything relevant needs to be visible
• Complexity depends on
• Amount of cards
• Complexity of cards
Cards as Interface• Cards are action indicators
• Minimise non-card elements
• Make those you have clearly visible
Card Layout• Strong visual hierarchy
• Important things visible first
• Edges & Corners for overlapping
• The image on the card is important
Simple Visuals• Make your animations feel physical
• Cards need a lot of artwork
• Find a style that works in volume
Card Text• Quickly readable
• Easy to be misunderstood
• Use keywords to shorten your text
• Provide way to look up keywords
Card Objects• Ideally somewhere easily to balance
• But complex card effects & interactions
• Our solution:
• We used scriptableObjects and a lot of custom editor scripts
• In hindsight would probably do differently and use either a scripting language or a FSM system
Command Pattern• Command Handler
• Cards generate a set of commands
• Based on game state
• Commands are then executed