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Need help with tcg

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BrandonMH
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So I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with a good game mechanic with my card game, and I need a little help.

The goal of the game is to obtain 7 Eco Cards (short for ecosystem), and to do so, you need to defeat your opponents creatures.

So far, I have almost no idea how I'm going to make this work. What I mean is, I don't know what kind of mechanic these creature card should have.

I want the game to be fun to play, no matter what age. I want to go a little more in-depth with it, too, making you think a little in order to accomplish your goal.

I've added a picture of the creature cards I've created so far.

Card details:

The different colors represent the type of environment the creature lives in, which will effect some aspects of the game somehow.

Play cost: the cost it takes for you to be able to use that card

Descriptive name: not mush information at the moment, but I have an idea of what I want to do with this.

The heart is for health, the claw marks for attack power and shield for defense.

Eco Power: a special attack or ability that most creatures will have.

The little blue things at the bottom are supposed to represent rarity, but I'm planning on updating the look.

The set up of the cards is not final, and I'm willing to change anything about them. I just need a little advice on what I should change, keep or add.

Soulfinger
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So . . . you've invented

So . . . you've invented Pokemon, and you are looking for help making it not be Pokemon?

I get the impression that you don't need advice on mechanics so much as you need to get out and try more games. I would highly recommend "Zoon." Not at all a CCG, but still a good jumpstart for your perception of what a card game can be. Although it is out of print in the U.S., copies are fairly easy to find online at an affordable price.

BrandonMH
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That pretty much sums it up.

That pretty much sums it up. I, unfortunately, don't have much experience with this sort of thing.

I'll try and see I can find this Zoon you're talking about. I appreciate the recommendation. Thank you.

Soulfinger
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BrandonMH wrote:That pretty

BrandonMH wrote:
That pretty much sums it up. I, unfortunately, don't have much experience with this sort of thing.

I'll try and see I can find this Zoon you're talking about. I appreciate the recommendation. Thank you.

It's kind of like a card game variant on chess and Stratego but with comical post-apocalyptic animal people. I got a lot of play out of my copies with my nephews and now my son.

Fantasy Flight Games is another great place to start with all of their Living Card Games, be it their Android line, Cthulhu, Bloodbowl, Star Wars, and so on. They do a game called "Colossal Arena," which showed me how something could seem so simple that you'd imagine it to be boring but then in play turn out to be very competitive and engaging. My wife and I also enjoy frequent games of "Arcana," which is a deck-builder, like "Dominion," but with illustrations that I can stand to look at (everyone and their brother will recommend "Dominion" though). The FFG holiday sale should be coming up soon, which is great for stocking up on new games.

Other people will know far more about recent CCG releases than me, but as far as old out-of-print ones go, I recommend checking out "Heresy: Kingdom Come" for the amazing presentation they did of beautiful artwork on tarot-sized cards, and then "Vampire: The Eternal Struggle," which was fairly popular back in its day and worth investigating for the mechanics.

The main thing, as I see it, is to push your boundaries. If you come from a CCG background then try out other forms of game and consider how what you've played could be adapted into a CCG format. There is a good market for innovation, less so knock-offs. You are off to a solid start with your card layouts.

adversitygames
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BrandonMH wrote:So I'm having

BrandonMH wrote:
So I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with a good game mechanic with my card game, and I need a little help.

The goal of the game is to obtain 7 Eco Cards (short for ecosystem), and to do so, you need to defeat your opponents creatures.

So far, I have almost no idea how I'm going to make this work. What I mean is, I don't know what kind of mechanic these creature card should have.

So there are "ecosystem" assets, players wants these to win. Each ecosystem is some sort of region/territory that you're fighting over.

Then you've got some creatures and your opponent has some creatures and they battle. The winner takes the "ecosystem".

Right?
(I just want to check if I follow what you're saying)

If you want it playable by all ages you're better off keeping the basic mechanics very light and quick but with enough emergent depth to keep more skilled players interested.

So am I understanding correctly that you've added "attack", "defense" and "health" without actually knowing what mechanics they use? Would be better if you started somewhere, then people could suggest corrections or improvements, rather than just starting with a blank slate and asking people to fill it for you.

GeordieY
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Joined: 08/24/2016
iamseph wrote:Would be better

iamseph wrote:
Would be better if you started somewhere, then people could suggest corrections or improvements, rather than just starting with a blank slate and asking people to fill it for you.

Agreed. Everyone here has a thousand ideas, and they're all potentially great. However, the difference between an idea and a game is staggering. Passion, hard work, time and multiple failures are what it takes to make your idea into a game.

Accepting that almost no idea or mechanic is original anymore (and in doing so, don't be offended when someone points out that your idea sounds like Pokemon, because we are here to help!), that leaves you with 2 options: expand on an existing idea and/or mechanic(s), or set out to create something new. The latter is Mount Everest, while the former is the Empire State Building. Climbing the Empire State Building isn't so difficult given that people before you were nice enough to build stairs and install air conditioning, but it's still a lot of work. Put in the work, and you will find yourself at the top in time.

TCG's are a dime a dozen, and the well-established brands tend to keep their fan-bases. What will your game offer that the existing games don't? Why is your game so appealing that I would leave X game for yours, or add your game to my collection/weekly habits? Typically, the answer is usually the game is backed by a well established and popular IP (Pokemon, Warcraft, Star Wars, etc.). If yours is not, then it has to be REALLY special to draw people in. That's not to say that it can't be done, it's just that the bar is set pretty high.

If your game is awesome when you're done with the countless hours of brainstorming, prototyping, scrapping, revising, blind testing, etc.., then you'll need some awesome art to go with it. Awesome art will draw players in, and awesome gameplay will keep players coming back.

So, here's a challenge for you: Consider removing all thoughts about Creatures, Attack, Defense, Health, etc., and instead focus on your resource: Ecosystem. How might players compete to revive, restore, or control various Ecosystems? If you can come up with a compelling way to do that, I think that would be an interesting game.

Good luck!

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