Fully Operational:
Collectible Card Game Design in Epic Duels Design
By Mike Maloney
In the last installment of Fully Operational, I explained the distinction between Scene Decks, Theme Decks, and Character Decks. In this installment, I hope to show how design precepts that apply to building a deck in a collectible card game can also be applied to Epic Duels deck design.
One of the things that make playing a collectible card game (CCG) fun is the variety of strategies that can be employed. These strategies are sometimes developed by clever players who see potential strategies in the card pool. This is particularly true of “combo” decks, which revolve around a game-winning card combination and try to piece it together as quickly as possible. These decks tend to exploit an unforeseen interaction between cards to win and, while interesting to build, are not very fun to play against. However, the bulk of CCG decks are built around a themed set of cards or a new mechanic introduced by the design team.
An Epic Duels deck designer creating a Theme or Character Deck[1] essentially plays the same role as a CCG designer. These decks can be constructed in one of two ways: either by creating a series of talent cards with similar effects that are already in the game or by introducing a new mechanic. The former type can revolve around movement, discarding, action denial, attacks that don’t count as actions, or any other established Hasbro mechanic. The latter type of deck breaks new ground by introducing a gameplay element that Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau didn’t use. This could literally be anything, including accessing the discard pile, placing tokens on the board, adding counters to characters, or swapping attacks on the fly. While I personally do not ascribe to the practice, some designers have even achieved a unique feel by giving characters static abilities that are not card-dependent.
CCGs can also be looked to for some common aspects that give cards a certain feel. When looking at different CCGs, the same elements of the game tend to be used to represent the same out of game concepts. For instance, the deck often represents the future because new cards are drawn from it, the discard pile represents the past because cards go there after being played, and the hand represents knowledge because cards in a player’s hand are his/her options. When designing cards, especially when naming them, appealing to these representations can help a card to “feel right.”
When designing decks, collectible card games are a great place to find inspiration because just like in Epic Duels, simple rules and mechanics are constantly being stretched and expanded.
Thanks for reading and may the creative Force be with you!
For more of my work, check out my page at http://epicduels.weebly.com.
[1] Maloney, Mike. Fully Operational: Scene, Theme, and Character Decks.
http://epicduels.weebly.com/articles.html
One of the things that make playing a collectible card game (CCG) fun is the variety of strategies that can be employed. These strategies are sometimes developed by clever players who see potential strategies in the card pool. This is particularly true of “combo” decks, which revolve around a game-winning card combination and try to piece it together as quickly as possible. These decks tend to exploit an unforeseen interaction between cards to win and, while interesting to build, are not very fun to play against. However, the bulk of CCG decks are built around a themed set of cards or a new mechanic introduced by the design team.
An Epic Duels deck designer creating a Theme or Character Deck[1] essentially plays the same role as a CCG designer. These decks can be constructed in one of two ways: either by creating a series of talent cards with similar effects that are already in the game or by introducing a new mechanic. The former type can revolve around movement, discarding, action denial, attacks that don’t count as actions, or any other established Hasbro mechanic. The latter type of deck breaks new ground by introducing a gameplay element that Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau didn’t use. This could literally be anything, including accessing the discard pile, placing tokens on the board, adding counters to characters, or swapping attacks on the fly. While I personally do not ascribe to the practice, some designers have even achieved a unique feel by giving characters static abilities that are not card-dependent.
CCGs can also be looked to for some common aspects that give cards a certain feel. When looking at different CCGs, the same elements of the game tend to be used to represent the same out of game concepts. For instance, the deck often represents the future because new cards are drawn from it, the discard pile represents the past because cards go there after being played, and the hand represents knowledge because cards in a player’s hand are his/her options. When designing cards, especially when naming them, appealing to these representations can help a card to “feel right.”
When designing decks, collectible card games are a great place to find inspiration because just like in Epic Duels, simple rules and mechanics are constantly being stretched and expanded.
Thanks for reading and may the creative Force be with you!
For more of my work, check out my page at http://epicduels.weebly.com.
[1] Maloney, Mike. Fully Operational: Scene, Theme, and Character Decks.
http://epicduels.weebly.com/articles.html