Post by enomus on Jan 16, 2017 6:03:35 GMT 1
Hi, Im posting an idea for a game. Though it's unlikely this will become a serious project, I'd like serious opinions because talking about game design is fun.
Here's the setup: A card game with HS or MtG -like gameplay (in that there minions and spells, and in how minions work). But the mechanics for how you get cards are very different.
Instead of mana, players get gold, a resource used to buy cards. Instead of drawing cards, you can buy 1 card per turn. Cards are bought from banks, of which there are two: a public bank of "neutrals" and a private bank of "class cards". The cards in the public bank are chosen randomly at the start of the match, much like Prismata, while the private bank is built by choosing cards from a collection, much like deckbuilding in a typical ccg. Note that cards in the bank are in a limited number, so buying a card from the public bank can prevent your opponent from having it - this part is quite different than how Prismata works.
The cards in the public bank are public info, and when you buy a card from it, the opponent knows which card it was how much gold you spent. However the contents of the private banks are hidden info. When you buy a card from it, they won't know what card it was, though they will know you did and how much you spent.
In addition to usual ccg things like text, cost and stats, cards in this game have new parameters. "Initial stack" is how many copies of this card are in the bank when the game starts. "Restack condition" is a condition upon which a copy of that card is added to the bank. Usually that's something simple like "every n turns" or "when a copy of this minion dies". But you could have more elaborate conditions for your card depending on what you wanted. For example, a late game win condition might have an initial stack of 0, and a hard to achieve restack condition.
Some cards give you an "Extra Buy", a resource which lets you buy an additional card that turn. This means that the game has two resources - gold and buys - which are very analogous to mana and cards, the resources a typical ccg makes you think in terms of. An earlier version of this idea had a mana system as well, but I think having 3 resources to manage, and each card having a separate mana and gold cost, would make the game way too complicated. Because there is no mana system, you can "just play" the cards in your hand like in YGO.
Getting gold: while I am willing to consider more complicated ideas, right now Im going to the simplest system that's good enough, which is copying the mana system from Hearthstone. That means you earn 1 gold at the start of turn 1, 2 at turn 2, etc.
Determining starting hands: There is a "turn 0", essentially a pre-game, in which players get to pick cards. They start with a given amount of gold - right now 6 for player 1 and 8 for player 2 (the difference is to offset the going first advantage) - and take turns picking cards. Each turn is a double blind decision, to avoid further player 1 advantage, and because double blind is a good way of adding variance to the game. You can't buy cards with a stack size of 1 (or 0 obviously) during this phase, which can make certain cards with initial stack 2 priority targets.
Polymerization: This neutral spell card combines two or more minions from your hand or board to summon a stronger one. I am highlighting this because it completely changes the way the game is played when it's in the bank. Fusion minions should be quite strong, so this creates a "subgame" of jockeying for material minions. However the game needs to be able to show a player all the available fusions in a way that's not too information-overwhelming for new players. I worry that this might be a bad idea because of how game-wraping it can be, but it's an idea.
Some non-standard keywords for cards:
Refund means destroy a card and give its owner gold equal to its cost
On-buy is an effect which is activated when a card is bought. This can be used to implement cards with variable cost.
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Yeah that's what I have in terms of systems. Not going to post individual card ideas though I have some.
The business model will be unPerfect, in honor of Sirlin
Here's the setup: A card game with HS or MtG -like gameplay (in that there minions and spells, and in how minions work). But the mechanics for how you get cards are very different.
Instead of mana, players get gold, a resource used to buy cards. Instead of drawing cards, you can buy 1 card per turn. Cards are bought from banks, of which there are two: a public bank of "neutrals" and a private bank of "class cards". The cards in the public bank are chosen randomly at the start of the match, much like Prismata, while the private bank is built by choosing cards from a collection, much like deckbuilding in a typical ccg. Note that cards in the bank are in a limited number, so buying a card from the public bank can prevent your opponent from having it - this part is quite different than how Prismata works.
The cards in the public bank are public info, and when you buy a card from it, the opponent knows which card it was how much gold you spent. However the contents of the private banks are hidden info. When you buy a card from it, they won't know what card it was, though they will know you did and how much you spent.
In addition to usual ccg things like text, cost and stats, cards in this game have new parameters. "Initial stack" is how many copies of this card are in the bank when the game starts. "Restack condition" is a condition upon which a copy of that card is added to the bank. Usually that's something simple like "every n turns" or "when a copy of this minion dies". But you could have more elaborate conditions for your card depending on what you wanted. For example, a late game win condition might have an initial stack of 0, and a hard to achieve restack condition.
Some cards give you an "Extra Buy", a resource which lets you buy an additional card that turn. This means that the game has two resources - gold and buys - which are very analogous to mana and cards, the resources a typical ccg makes you think in terms of. An earlier version of this idea had a mana system as well, but I think having 3 resources to manage, and each card having a separate mana and gold cost, would make the game way too complicated. Because there is no mana system, you can "just play" the cards in your hand like in YGO.
Getting gold: while I am willing to consider more complicated ideas, right now Im going to the simplest system that's good enough, which is copying the mana system from Hearthstone. That means you earn 1 gold at the start of turn 1, 2 at turn 2, etc.
Determining starting hands: There is a "turn 0", essentially a pre-game, in which players get to pick cards. They start with a given amount of gold - right now 6 for player 1 and 8 for player 2 (the difference is to offset the going first advantage) - and take turns picking cards. Each turn is a double blind decision, to avoid further player 1 advantage, and because double blind is a good way of adding variance to the game. You can't buy cards with a stack size of 1 (or 0 obviously) during this phase, which can make certain cards with initial stack 2 priority targets.
Polymerization: This neutral spell card combines two or more minions from your hand or board to summon a stronger one. I am highlighting this because it completely changes the way the game is played when it's in the bank. Fusion minions should be quite strong, so this creates a "subgame" of jockeying for material minions. However the game needs to be able to show a player all the available fusions in a way that's not too information-overwhelming for new players. I worry that this might be a bad idea because of how game-wraping it can be, but it's an idea.
Some non-standard keywords for cards:
Refund means destroy a card and give its owner gold equal to its cost
On-buy is an effect which is activated when a card is bought. This can be used to implement cards with variable cost.
---
Yeah that's what I have in terms of systems. Not going to post individual card ideas though I have some.
The business model will be unPerfect, in honor of Sirlin