Trading Card and Video Game

I design and maintain this entire project, from the minutiae of card values, system details, to goofy story dialogue. I also design the graphical components of every card and the playmat, as well as all of the rules and variations between systems and cards. I also write the scenarios and roadmap the progression throughout gameplay.

I have extensively studied the field of trading card design by playing almost every single one available, from the big three to the smallest niche. I have had a lifelong passion for trading card games and feel that there is still so much left to explore and design in the space of card games. I have spent years crafting a card system that fulfills my design goals of being easy to learn, fast to play, and fun to master. The system is expressive while still adhering to what makes card games fun: randomness! But I also strive to satisfy and challenge those that wish to push themselves and master the systems. Throughout our playtesting, the skilled players frequently come out on top, even in a system that maintains some level of comeback potential. I pride myself on this game's core rules, and feel that it is truly unique in a field dominated by clones. I want players who are intimidated by card games to feel that this is the one that captures the feeling of the anime-type comebacks and hype matches that they grew up watching, while not being needlessly complicated.

I have to wear many different hats throughout this entire process and feel that I have gathered experience of every facet of game development. I am keenly aware of the challenges that every aspect of a project requires to be overcome, and want to share what I've learned with this project once it is completed. I hope that my devlogs and design streams and openness of design thoughts can help open the door for future designers to pursue their creative passions.

What I Do

• Create entire original card-based rules and deck-building restrictions

• Construct exciting and layered interactions between numerous component and system rules

• Tune dozens of components to facilitate optimal play experience

• Design the graphical components of game cards, HUD interfaces, and game boards

• Maintain large spreadsheets and documents of card balance design and data

• Conduct playtests and observe player behavior

• Parse feedback from playtest audiences to determine whether components or features need adjustment and to what degree

• Research card game systems to stay abreast of the current design landscape and ensure my experience is unique & quality

• Shift work modes frequently to avoid burnout and maximize progression and expression throughout the project

• Catalogue my progress through livestreams and devlogs to inspire others

Challenges

Being the solo developer for an entire trading card game experience is exceedingly difficult. Compounding on that difficulty is the struggles that comes with trying to make an adventure game with a level of polish and depth that players expect from indie to AA video games. I spend most of my time working on game essence and making sure that the action of pressing buttons and decisions players make rewards them with succinct and reflective feedback. This is my first project I've worked on myself and every new requirement comes with a new challenge. I maneuver through these challenges in cycles to keep myself from burning out and staying on top of individual portions of a project of this magnitude.

One example of challenges faced during the process was the base resource system. I didn't want a default mana system or none at all, striving for something expressive and usable at all times. Research and design iterations led me to a system where you can choose when to draw and when to play cards of a certain value. This allows players to always be in charge of their card economy. If you don't want to play cards, you can draw cards instead on your turn. This interplay is what truly separates the beginners from the experts. Sometimes it's the right move to sit and draw a bunch of cards! However, this system has the possibility to be incredibly volatile if they can draw so many in the base rules, and allow for cards that can also draw more cards.

A version of the system scaled from 1 resource, to 2, and finally 3 for the rest of the game, meaning you could draw 3 cards during your turn if you spent all of them on draws. This combined with any other future draw abilities meant that I had to really hamper my design space to prevent analysis paralysis on huge hands. Through more playtests and iterations I discovered that 2 was also too slow. I wanted to encourage players to spend resources and not sit on them, so I currently have the default at recharing 2 per turn, with a cap of 3 total. So you can spend 1 point to draw on your turn and save the other one for a future turn, or you can spend 2 points every turn to stay on a consistent curve. This allows for more strategy around foresight and a fun interplay of calling bluffs with counter cards that also cost resources to be spent on your opponent's turn. Is my opponent saving for a future turn, or are they saving for a counter?!

I'm happy to share more design insights and stories. Feel free to contact anywhere!