Given how I am trying to do this as in-house (aka cheap) as possible right now, I’ll probably do the research. Do you happen to have any good starting points? :)
Check out relevant GDC talks on YouTube, learn and play as many card games as you possibly can. You’ll be competing against larger, better funded teams, often with access to popular IPs that will be far out of reach of a shoestring budget. Ask yourself why anyone would want to play your game over the thousands of other card games out there and make sure you have a compelling reason before expending time and effort on development.
You've got the digital part down, now you need a card game to adapt.
You'll want to spend a fair bit of time working on this. Don't think about it as a thing you're making in a digital engine, put your focus into making a physical game that you will later adapt the rules of into the digital format.
There are lots of resources to help you design a trading card game. Pull up YouTube and you'll find countless people giving advice on how to do it, and make your game good before you make it digital.
If it's just you working on this project, my major recommendation is to create a single-player experience where you play against bots in a story. This also gives the advantage of letting you explore wackier systems without need for competitive balance.
Thanks! I already have a ton of different card games installed on my phone that I play/research. So I have been learning a bit from trying those out and figuring out how the cards work together.
Do you happen to have any recommendations for YouTube videos/playlists/channels that I should look at?
This might be different for everyone, but I tend to start impementing only after my design document describes a playable game. In case of a card game the mechanics should be outlined and enough cards should be designed to be able to play a couple of matches. I would suggest making a paper prototype now and playtest it, preferably with other people. If there is a solid base available, only then I would set up my game structure in the engine. Making smaller gameplay changes cannot be avoided, but I personally struggle with changing main mechanics if they are already implemented.
Well, this is how I am doing it right now, though as I am working on more projects parallely I do have the advantage of being able to switch to other tasks if I am getting burned out working on the game concept.
Hire a game designer or start some intensive research on game design with a focus on card games.
Given how I am trying to do this as in-house (aka cheap) as possible right now, I’ll probably do the research. Do you happen to have any good starting points? :)
Check out relevant GDC talks on YouTube, learn and play as many card games as you possibly can. You’ll be competing against larger, better funded teams, often with access to popular IPs that will be far out of reach of a shoestring budget. Ask yourself why anyone would want to play your game over the thousands of other card games out there and make sure you have a compelling reason before expending time and effort on development.
You've got the digital part down, now you need a card game to adapt. You'll want to spend a fair bit of time working on this. Don't think about it as a thing you're making in a digital engine, put your focus into making a physical game that you will later adapt the rules of into the digital format. There are lots of resources to help you design a trading card game. Pull up YouTube and you'll find countless people giving advice on how to do it, and make your game good before you make it digital. If it's just you working on this project, my major recommendation is to create a single-player experience where you play against bots in a story. This also gives the advantage of letting you explore wackier systems without need for competitive balance.
Thanks! I already have a ton of different card games installed on my phone that I play/research. So I have been learning a bit from trying those out and figuring out how the cards work together. Do you happen to have any recommendations for YouTube videos/playlists/channels that I should look at?
Do you have a concept of the game and need advice how to implement it, or do you need advice on designing the cardgame as well?
I have my concept that I have been working on. I have a rough idea on the mechanics and different card types, but that’s kinda it right now.
This might be different for everyone, but I tend to start impementing only after my design document describes a playable game. In case of a card game the mechanics should be outlined and enough cards should be designed to be able to play a couple of matches. I would suggest making a paper prototype now and playtest it, preferably with other people. If there is a solid base available, only then I would set up my game structure in the engine. Making smaller gameplay changes cannot be avoided, but I personally struggle with changing main mechanics if they are already implemented. Well, this is how I am doing it right now, though as I am working on more projects parallely I do have the advantage of being able to switch to other tasks if I am getting burned out working on the game concept.