I''m thinking of making a cool Trading Card game for someone I know. I''m wondering if anyone has any experience in this type of game design. I don''t know where to start.

I would guess that you design CCGs mostly like any other game, except that you''ll have to put a lot of focus on the mechanics of play. Think about M:tG, it''s in what, it''s 7th version? And they''re still tinkering with mechanics. I''d say get a vague idea of the mechanics you want, and then work from there, working back and forth with your cardset and the basic gameplay. That way you should start to see holes in your mechanics, or "broken" cards, and you''ll be able to get a lot of playbalancing done in the design steps.

Of course, this is uneducated,inexperienced, and semi-incoherent rambling, take it as such

One thing you can do is examine the games that DIDNT work, because believe you me, there is a ton, and I have played a few myself as I love to try new stuff and my gaming shop is always well furnished

Some of the things in common between all those games are:

- What background ?
The absence of some sort of storyline/background universe make for a very shallow game indeed.
For instance, in M:tG, there are all those cool little quotes that hint at something more, at some background. The best for this is without a doubt L5R (with M:tG now following in their step by having a "storyline"), the only CCG I know of that spawned an utterly succesful RPG.

- Doomsday Weapon Syndrome:
if your game has one invincible character that once gained cant possibly beaten, you got cheese. But if the game is a simple race to who gets the big guy out first, you are doomed.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that if there is no reason to keep all those little guys on the table, then why bother at all ? You have to keep some sort of way to make different tactics/styles of play attractive alternative, if your game is designed with only one style in mind, you are doomed.

- Black & White or the full palette ?:
Offer plenty of factions. And please make them different! Combine this with the previous item : each faction becomes an embodiement of a style of play. L5R has it, Magic has it and they are still here
And if you combine this with the first item, you get intrigue, manpulation, diplomacy, aaaah ... I smell victory !

- Wargame syndrome:
simplicity helps a lot. There is some sort of critical mass beyond which a card game turns into some sort of board game without a board, which tends to make players annoyed.
Guardians was a formidable game, with the best art ever on a CCG (along with Dark Age), but it played more like a really cool board game. I think they also had money problem... aaaw
Middle Earth the Wizards (IIRC) was the most complex game I ever tried, absolutely awful, and without the fact that it was the first LotR CCG, it would probably have sunk fast otherwise.

- My 3 years old helped me with those:
Well, if you have ever seen the first versions of Magic, you might wonder like me how it survived so long. Crap graphics wont kill your game if you have got everything else, it will just make collectors ashamed to show the cards to others.
But cool graphics are definitely a plus. Of course, that would be the last thing to worry about, after you got everything else right. I mean, if Magic survived after Celestial Prism (and indeed, most of Amy Weber''s art), there is hope...

There is probably more, but right now that''s what I can think of. There are some more boring problems like money, or just not getting a strong public enough (like Legend of the Burning Sands in France...) but hey, you could think of those

In one word, be curious, there are tons of CCG around, so go forth and play a few, and discover why some are popular and some not !


Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

interesting topic... how many ppl here have played / would play ccg''s?

i played a few, but i hated magic. It made my brain hurt.

Actually, i made a little TCG, but then it grew into something more and eventually just became a strategy game. I may still have a copy of the rules

One brilliant online TCG is called ChronX.
It reminds me of Chaos Overlords (a game by New World Computing) but with the CCG twist.
For the rest I play/played a ton of different TCG games (M:tG,L5R,LBS,MEtW,LotR,Guardians,DarkAge,Doomtrooper,Kabal and maybe a few more I forgot about )



Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

Since the typical CCG allows practically unlimited card types with all kinds of different features and powers, I think you would have to implement most of the games functionality with a scripting system. Completely hardcoding a CCG would either make it boring (non-extensible, few card abilities...) or a coding horror (try to think about every possible card combination and other effects and writing code to handle that).

I think that the Magic: The Gathering PC game is hardcoded, but the reasons for this are obvious. They want you to buy the expansion packs, and not be able to create all your own cards!

The first starwars CCG by decipher.

The game is based on the WWII Battle of Britain. This game will not be on computer, but on paper.

Anyway, in the game, each player must play location cards. On top of location cards, you can play a certain number of structures (based on the location) that give you points to put into playing plane cards, item cards, pilots (nneded to fly planes), and events (like Sorceries in Magic: the Gathering). These things can be played during certain phases during your turn. I'm thinking of including "Instants" (any-time spells), but I don't think they would fit the game too well.

Anyway, all locations and structures will have hit points, as will planes. You can use your planes to defend your locations and structures, or attack your enemy's. You win by destroying all of the opponent's locations and structures.

Yes, this is vague, but it's what I've got so far.

[edited by - gamechampionx on August 19, 2002 7:44:26 PM]

[edited by - gamechampionx on August 19, 2002 7:45:30 PM]

you''re doing the pen and paper approach...?

oops.

That''s how I started making games when I was a small, snot-nosed brat...
Now that I''m a somewhat bigger snot-nosed brat I have completely dedicated myself to the digital.

Well, thanks for the chance to make myself ridiculous, and good look with the card game.