Card Brew

This page contains an ever evolving list of interesting TCG design considerations, in no particular order. I feel like I’ll end up making a TCG at some point, so getting these down in writing is a good start.

Meta

• Themes, top-down or bottom-up design
• Are TCGs treated differently than other games?
• Why do TCGs have perpetual lifespans?
• Cobbling together mechanics vs being different for the sake of it
• Different kinds of wincons can set you apart:
  • Exodia-style “assemble the pieces”
  • Having 5 more of a certain resource than your opponent
  • A shared central “tower” that you fight to control
• Digital vs physical divide allowing different mechanics
  • upgrading or dusting
  • Tracking with tapped or untapped cards
  • steps and phases
• Deckbuilding with limited point (like Warhammer 40k)

Production

• Booster pack contents
• Rarities and complexity
• Sets & rotation
• Alternative methods of distribution (PnP, PoD, etc.)

Onboarding

• Intro products & follow ups
• limiting cognitive load

Gameplay

• Game length
• Win condition
• 1st turn advantage
• How to play
• Staple cards & Archetypes
• Momentum vs disruption
• Rulebooks
• Updates, errata & banlists
• Formats & rotations
• Resource systems
• Tributing monsters for bigger monsters
• Does combat favour the defender (magic) or the attacker(yugioh)?
• Factions/Colors/Archetypes

Game Idea: The Art Of War

By drawing on themes from this classical book, a basis for gameplay can be established: Make your opponent expend resources faster than you. So, when your resources reach zero, it’s game over. Each card you play might consume some amount of resources, but attacking your opponent also reduces their resources.

At the start of the game, you begin with 1000 “Silver”, and each card you play may consume some amount of this Silver¹. Only one “unit” can be played each turn, but any number of “tactic” cards can be played, and “stratagem” cards can be placed face down for use during your opponent’s turn. Units will attack to reduce the opponent’s Silver, and tactics are used during your own turn, but stratagems are used only during your opponent’s turn.

Each card on the field represents some kind of investment into the board state, so each card lost is a major blow. The exact details of the card can come later, but a match is played as best-of-three, with “40+15 max 3” decks. I’m not sure what the exact turn sequence would look like, and different options need to be tested.

Here’s some basic example cards:

Game Idea: Robot Engine Builder?

Construct a series of “Real Robot” mechas from constituent parts, like a chassis + guns + jump pack, etc. You build them in a “build row” and move them to the “deploy row”, and they can only attack from the deploy row, or you could retreat for repairs.

This sounds like Shard Bugs: https://youtu.be/uD4QsNODP1E?si=GyNc0g-11CDjQF3a&t=1020