So You Want To/Make a Collectible Card Game: Difference between revisions

Second, even more important: ''play''. Don't just play your favorite CCG. In fact, put it aside for at least a month. Instead, go to the bookstore or whatever and ''try new [[Tabletop Games]]''. Play ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'', or watch people doing ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]''. Compare [[Chess]] to [[Risk]], [[Monopoly]] with [[Settlers of Catan]], [[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]] with [[Apples to Apples]]. If you're going to create a new game, you need to know what pre-existing games are already doing, so that you can avoid the things you don't like and steal the things you do. And besides, you'll have ''fun''--and isn't that the point of gaming?

If you are going to have [[Variable Player Goals]], you absolutely ''must'' have that ever-elusive quality "depth" in the sense that each goal needs to give you the capacity to interfere with a player who is trying to win the game some other way. As an example, the four characters described above (Eric, Grevon, Lenoia, Corlan) are the main characters in a CCG this editor ([[Tropers/slvstr Chung|slvstr Chung]]) was trying to create in which they compete to see which of them will succeed their father on the throne. Each character had their own power base--Grevon from the military, Corlan from wizards, Lenoia from the priesthood, and Eric from the smallfolk--and could leverage their influence to ''steal'' characters another sibling (IE player) had already deployed. In addition to trying to win a Popularity Victory (have supporters with Influence totaling X) or a Last-Man-Standing Victory (shame the opponents into withdrawing), there was also [[Loophole Abuse]]: getting popular doesn't make you king, plunking your arse on the throne does, and politics is simply a means to that end. If you can simply sneak into the throne room... This would be the "passive," defensive win condition, but it obviously leaves such a player vulnerable: they're busy assembling their [[Stealth -Based Mission]] and can have important supporters poached by the opposition. As such, the business of ''plotting'' an infiltration needs to give that player certain bonuses, which either help protect their most-important followers or weaken the enemy's support, making it easier for you or someone else to knock them out of the race. And that made life difficult for me, the designer. But no matter which goal The Player is pursuing, I knew s/he ''must'' have some ways of competing towards the other ones, if only to defend themselves.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20131203055100/http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Archive.aspx?author=Mark%20Rosewater Mark Rosewater]. He writes one of the most comprehensive design columns on the Internet; and, since he's one of the lead designers of ''Magic'', much of his advice is tailored to this genre. You don't really need much else. In particular, his "[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/174 Ten Things Every Game Needs]" article is so on-point that we could have just copy-pasted it here. But that would be plagiarism. [[And That's Terrible]].

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