The BEST CCG/TCG ever!!! :P

hmmm....well I'd be interested in having a look...but as Leeton pointed out, how will anyone know their interest level and what they can input until they know the concept ;)

I'm not a big CCG guy but would have some ideas I'm sure that may be useful. I do feel this is perhaps your own social experiment though....

The NDA you mention is off putting....if a designer were to join, add some ideas he may have from his own bag of tricks..who then owns that IP?

Why not just get 'X' amount of people interested and run it on here....for all to see? You'd be securing you IP as it's on the forum here and you may get more and more people adding ideas etc, making it even better.

As for the profit sharing.....perhaps if/when the game is done, agree on the initial print run, self publish and divide equally allowing each design to promote/sell it as their own indie game and make a healthier return on time invested.

Don't get me wrong..it sounds exciting...and it would be fun to co-op design on a game.... What's the old saying though..Too many cooks spoil the broth

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but by what you're saying it looks like you basically want to get as many people to strengthen/discuss an idea so all sorts of perspectives are given for the content, it's problems, etc.

But I don't think you're really thinking of the big picture. If it does actually penetrate the market, what happens then? Where does the money go? How do you divvy it up? How do you weigh the importance of one input over another? A theory/concept that makes the game is equally as important as one that doesn't or one that fails in testing. Every element and that thought has any effect on the final product has an impact.

There would need to be strict guidelines and some sort of body in charge to determine that X's input had 5% merit, while Y's input had 10%, thus Y deserves a bigger chunk of the pie, both financially and with credit.

And on top of that, a publisher doesn't want to deal with multiple designers, especially a high number. Which would mean that again, a body would have to take charge on that front. Everyone involved would have different opinions and directions, which will naturally conflict.

Basically, I'm struggling to see how this got logically work with mutual benefit for everyone involved. There's no guy out there going "Hey, did you know I was involved in MTG? I didn't get any financial gain from it, but that's okay, my name is on the box." Meanwhile, a handful of people are reaping all the rewards, both with credit and financial gain. And nobody tends to look at the minor credits, it's the big names that grab your attention.

I'm still interested in the idea and not trying to shoot it down, but you really have to think about it and put it across more clearly what your intentions actually are. Right now it looks like a tricky project with headaches for all involved. Simply saying it will be the best game ever because there's so much input does not make it so, you need strong planning before you even consider the rest of it. Still intrigued, though. :)

I'm gonna withdraw my interest but best of luck with it. I'm still interested to see how it turns out, so hopefully you can take it the distance. :)

So... You want to set up a project where a bunch of designers would all agree to not create any projects similar to a project they have yet to see... And stand to gain nothing from by working on besides being one of a large list of designers to be credited on a project that they can't even evaluate before agreeing to?

I'm sorry, but that doesn't seem like a win-win. It seems like a lose-lose.

While I've no intention to actually join the effort, I'm still curious and will help you bash out the logistics a bit. :)

To be honest, I'd imagine 3 or 4 designers would be the maximum needed. There's only so much you can do with a CCG/TCG in terms of mechanics and it's really about coming up with interesting and different mechanics. If you have too many people working on it you'll get nowhere, as then there's far too many ideas going in all directions.

No matter the number, a designated "lead designer" needs to be in charge to make the final decisions or to at least be in charge of putting things to vote. You might want to keep the designers at an odd number so that you'll never get a tie vote. Or maybe you'll want a unanimous decision.

It's quite hard to settle on the number without knowing exactly how you want the whole thing run, as multiple people giving input with no order or direction will never get anywhere. But for a sort of base platform to build from, I'd say 3 or 4 designers. :)

Insteresting... but not quite interesting enough.
I think it'd be best for a group of gamers (8+) to do this and justrun a kickstarter or indiegogo project.
Everyone desides where $ goes. They are all "friends." They all have feedback in a physical form. You know who really contributes positively and who doesn't.

And open source ccg would be hard because if I made a card and someone came along overnight and changed my card again, I'd be pissed.
Honestly, it sounds more like a ponzy scheme, contract and all, than a community project. ... :(

I'd say shoot for PnP/POD service and make templates available for all the community to make whatever decks/cards they want... itd never become a physical trademarked game with the idea as is.
Plus.. i dont like giving out my real name and address to random people on the internet...

First, there is no such things as the best CCG ever. Even if you do have an interesting concept that most people like, it's going to be reintegrated in new games that will find the flaws in your game and borrow the concept they found nice that would make their game the best CCG ever according to their point of view.

Second, the whole NDA thing is the error that newbie designers makes. Almost all my ideas are on my website and nobody stole anything yet. The idea in desiging games is to reuse other people's ideas into your game. That is how creativity works.

If you reuse ideas of a game before it gets published, it does not gives you a better edge because in the end, both game will be different. It's not like an invention where being first actually matters.

For example, I reu-sed the "Focus" mechanic from Alien Ascendency/Omega Centauri game which is still not published yet. His game will probably be published before mine. But let say that I published my game before him, I would not hinder much his game since they are both 2 different games in mechanics and theme.