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Just started my journey to design a card game and document it with a podcast

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dr_draft
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Joined: 11/19/2018

Hello Everyone,

great to be here. The entry was indeed a but bumpy :-). But I am thankful to become a member of the community.

My name is Marvin, I am aspiring game designer on its quest to create a co-op fantasy card game. The vision for my game is:

My game is a co-operative fantasy adventure card game with multi-facetted encounters that wants to create an rpg-like atmosphere and deep character progression by using legacy mechanics.

In addition I just started a podcast called the Nerdlab to document my design process and to dig deeper into game design topics. This is also my way to give something back to this awesome game development community.

The Nerdlab podcast has three main purposes:

1. Examine one Game Design Topics a week
One aspect of this podcast is to examine one game design topic more closely in each episode. Exemplary topics could be mechanics like combat or encounter systems, turn order or resource systems. But also topics like card design, finding artists, marketing or preparing a kickstarter campaign. To analyse these topics, we will be looking at existing card games and board games and take a deeper look at their core mechanics, which we can then can use as inspiration for our games.

2. Test Game Design Ideas (Weekly Design Review)
In addition, I want to be your game design crash test dummy. I am willing to make the mistakes so you don’t have to. For this I want to document and share all my successes and failures during the development process of my own game (A co-op fantasy adventure card game). My hope is that you can learn from my reports and don’t have to make the same mistakes.

3. Holding myself accountable
I know that I am certainly not alone with the problem of overcoming obstacles and road blocks on the way of bringing a game from the first idea to final production. This is another (to be honest a more selfish) reason why I started this podcast. Every single one of you will be my credibility partner. By promising to give you a weekly update on the status of my project, I can no longer afford any excuses to distract me. And if you want to reach out, I am more than happy to be your credibility partner as well.

In episode 1 I talk about vision statements and how to define your core design pillars for your game. In Episode 2 I started a three-part series about combat and encounter design.

Here you can find the podcast: I would love to get some feedback.

Nerd L.A.B. Podcast
http://nerdlikeaboss.com

questccg
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Joined: 04/16/2011
I'm not sure

It seems like your vision comes from crafting a game out of "pure" thinking. And I can speak to the fact that I have two (2) completed designs and working on two (2) others to hopefully bring to market a third game.

I think this is your "first" design? I may be incorrect.

You talk about MVP (Minimal Viable Product) from a "design" perspective. Which is okay ... but I no longer THINK this way. Having gone through the process in various ways with a Self-Published game to having a game developed by a Publisher, one of the MAJOR differences is that before INVESTING too much time on an idea, I work up a PROJECTION with regards to the profitability of a game.

If there are too many components, I forget about it. If there is too much artwork I forget about it (I have 2 games on-hold because of this). If the sales model for the game doesn't support 4 players I shelve it (some Publishers like Stonemaier games require 5 players).

I can usually find a "Hook" or something unique about each game. BUT I don't waste time on a design knowing it may be very difficult to bring it to market.

So that's something that I wanted to state and share with the rest of your wisdom and experience in talking about what it is YOU hope to accomplish. I'm not taking anything away from your desires or creativity, I'm just trying to give you another angle to think about...

One that appears once you've have developed a few games.

Super-Tooned
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Joined: 07/10/2017
questccg wrote:I'm not taking

questccg wrote:
I'm not taking anything away from your desires or creativity...

Of course you aren't. Why would you be?

let-off studios
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Joined: 02/07/2011
Good Luck Marvin!

It seems like you've gone "all-in" with this game idea of yours, particularly in going on leave from your day job.

Enjoy your exploration, the journey, your learning, and of course in achieving your success. :)

dr_draft
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Joined: 11/19/2018
Thanks for the input

Thanks a lot for your input.

I am currently trying to find out how many components I will need. Therefore, I produce prototypes (MVPs) of my game in Tabletop Simulator. Of course I will have to do my profitability calculations. However, I think I first need the input values such as number of cards needed, number of tokens needed, number of artworks needed etc. before I can come up with a reliable calculation. How do you make your calculations without that information?

I currently don't have the feeling that the game I have in mind requires to many components to be "unpublishable".

dr_draft
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Joined: 11/19/2018
I do!

let-off studios wrote:
It seems like you've gone "all-in" with this game idea of yours, particularly in going on leave from your day job.

Enjoy your exploration, the journey, your learning, and of course in achieving your success. :)

Thanks, I do enjoy it a lot at the moment :-)

Jay103
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Joined: 01/23/2018
dr_draft wrote:I am currently

dr_draft wrote:
I am currently trying to find out how many components I will need. Therefore, I produce prototypes (MVPs) of my game in Tabletop Simulator. Of course I will have to do my profitability calculations. However, I think I first need the input values such as number of cards needed, number of tokens needed, number of artworks needed etc. before I can come up with a reliable calculation. How do you make your calculations without that information?

I currently don't have the feeling that the game I have in mind requires to many components to be "unpublishable".


Start with reading all the background info on printninja.com. It’s a fantastic place to learn about card manufacturing, including things like that you get 54 cards per printed sheet, so you don’t want a game with, say, 110 cards in it. Can also get a not-total-ripoff quote on the cards and box instantly.

If yiu want a more serious quote that includes tokens and stuff, I could help you get in touch with my manufacturer for a real quote (moq 1000). There are a number of “standard” manufacturers in China, though some are slow to respond. I did my entire transaction by email.. language barrier not really a problem. You wouldn’t need final numbers, just an estimate like 3 8x10 sheets of punchouts, etc. I could also teach you a bit about materials if you need. (Cardboard thickness etc)

You want to blend your design with those quotes, to get the best game. Better to know early if your tokens will cost you $1 or $3, or whether anyone can easily source the weird plastic stuff that you want to add.. my design changed based on how big I wanted the box to be (to a better one!)

Start a Facebook page right now, instagram etc, to get more eyes on your podcast.

Jay103
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Joined: 01/23/2018
Btw, I love your thought

Btw, I love your thought processes on this.

dr_draft
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Joined: 11/19/2018
Jay103 wrote: Start with

Jay103 wrote:

Start with reading all the background info on printninja.com. It’s a fantastic place to learn about card manufacturing, including things like that you get 54 cards per printed sheet, so you don’t want a game with, say, 110 cards in it. Can also get a not-total-ripoff quote on the cards and box instantly.

If yiu want a more serious quote that includes tokens and stuff, I could help you get in touch with my manufacturer for a real quote (moq 1000). There are a number of “standard” manufacturers in China, though some are slow to respond. I did my entire transaction by email.. language barrier not really a problem. You wouldn’t need final numbers, just an estimate like 3 8x10 sheets of punchouts, etc. I could also teach you a bit about materials if you need. (Cardboard thickness etc)

You want to blend your design with those quotes, to get the best game. Better to know early if your tokens will cost you $1 or $3, or whether anyone can easily source the weird plastic stuff that you want to add.. my design changed based on how big I wanted the box to be (to a better one!)

Start a Facebook page right now, instagram etc, to get more eyes on your podcast.

Thanks for your advice. I will definitely have a look at the resources you recommended.

I know Facebook and other social media pages have to come. Will do my best to get them up asap. Twitter check. But the rest is still missing.

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