Card Game Blog

Started in early 2024 and ending on the 22nd of May.

This project is all about the creation of my physical card game, from conception to alpha builds, to playtesting, to release.

The initial idea is a protest game over how corporations are corrupt, deal in greed and human lives as numbers on a board, with deception and a lack of empathy, the players must compete to become the richest corporation by any means necessary, if you try to take the high road you may not be able to win as other players steal from you, use slave labour, and sue you in court.

Initial Idea

The initial idea came from my own distaste for the tech industry, particularly Apple and their products being the same every year while preaching for advancement. Taking away beloved features for the sake of causing drama and getting themselves googled more... Bring back the headphone jack!

Development

Early development consisted of finding a style that matched the theme, while also still appearing game-like. I settled on using a Windows 98 style to show tech development and it's history. Research lead me to understand that the windows 98 style is no longer copyrighted, but the windows logo itself still is, so I omitted the original font and logo, while keeping the general aesthetic.

The game is heavily inspired by corporations, as such the design needed to follow suit. I looked into financial newspapers, websites, magazines, etc of both the early days of the year 2000 and the modern era, making comparisons and studying what has changed over the years as tech developed.

The theme was decided upon very early, from there I had made some sketches and basic models to playtest my ideas on the same day. One idea that did take some time to decide on, was whether money should be represented as Dollars or Numbers; Dollars are easily recognisable world-wide, while numbers mean you could impose your own currency onto the game. After some playtesting and bouncing ideas around with fellow students, I decided on using numbers, as it saved space and allowed players to imagine themselves as being a tech giant in their own currency.

Once the gameplay was decided upon, the following concern was design. Early on I wanted the design to be very business-like, whether newspaper or computer themed, after some practice designs, I decided on using an older Windows 98 theme for the cards, the blue and grey was very corporate, while also giving a sense of disconnect from the real world.

I had spent a couple weeks desiging 40 unique cards, I decided against spending too much time on the artwork inside the windows as I believed playtesting the idea was more important at this stage, the last thing I wanted to do was spend weeks designing and then find out some cards wouldn't work or would need to be changed and as such the artwork would potentially be wasted.

Above is the design of the card box, taking a deck box from another card game, cutting the glue and laying it out, followed by a quick scan and configure online, I made a rough design for the box and printed it out on 200GSM card. 200GSM is thinner than I would like, but my printer is only graded to print on 220GSM and below. So the box is flexible.

Veraion 1 of the deck box design.

From here, I printed out enough cards for 2 players (54 cards) on glossy 200GSM card and cut them with a Cricut machine, I followed up with the print and cut of the alpha version of the box. The following day I brought it into class to playtest.

Playtesting

Over easter break, I would playtest my game at every oportunity. A local board game meetup happens every monday at a church, so I brought my cards with me in order to playtest them.

During this entire process, I made sure to keep in mind the balancing of the game, trying to show what I am protesting, making it obvious, without taking away from the gameplay. I looked at it as a game first, even if you removed all of the names and mentions of corporations, the game is still playable. The player economy was the most important part, as a deck builder, you have to balance managing your resources, to save up enough money to win but also spend money to buy more powerful cards, this proved effective as every game had players using completely different stratagems that opened the game up to more ideas that I had not thought of before.

When adding the names, some players did not want to use certain cards, the most brought up card was the "Child Labour" card, some players would use it and not care as it had a powerful effect, while others refused to buy it and would shame others for using it. This had the exact effect I was looking for.

I playtested the game with friends and strangers alike, the common sentiment was that the game was very fun, but needs more pizazz. Unique designs for certain cards, like the starting hand. But the fact everyone enjoyed it and wanted to play multiple games is a good sign that the core of the game is both playable and fun.

Later playtesting was done with larger groups, and with revisioned cards.

Feedback

The box should be more corporate, perhaps make it look like a business card in design.
Buy sleeves for the cards so they don't stick together while shuffling.
Beak fold paper in the style of a newspaper, can use real world news articles with the rules etc mixed in.
Lean in heavily on black and white newspaper aesthetic.
Numbers on cards should be in unique colours.
Rare cards should look rare, perhaps holographic or inverted colour scheme.
Starting hand should have a unique design
There should be player cards that change the game based on what character you are.
The game needs a time limit as it's easy to have it go on forever.
The game needs dice to keep track of money.
One person recommended using a mascot similar to Microsofts Clippy.
Another person suggested taking photos that look like stock photos businesses would use in meetings.

Refining

The cards needed refining, they had no artwork, and some of the feedback about unique designs for certain cards were really interesting! Along with this, the box needed to be redesigned so it fit the theme better.

Starting things off, I listened to the feedback from players and created 2 new "rarities" of cards, based on Windows 98 themes, these act as a "Gold" rare (Only one in the entire game) and a "Black" rare, which are the most expensive cards.

These are based on "High Contrast Black" and "Pumpkin" themes from Windows 98. They have been slightly altered for ease of use (Pumpkin when printed was illegible) and to mitigate any potential copyright issues.

I also took onboard the idea to make the starter cards unique, so keeping with the windows theme, the starting hand, all worth zero money, are represented with a greyed out window, which is based on how windows would grey out if inactive, as seen in the pumpkin colour scheme above. A small and simple change that is still immediately identifyable.

The character cards have been given a look similar to that of Windows "Marine" colour.

Finished cards

Here is every finished card. Each name and design was based on, or directly relates to, real events, phrases, statements, etc throughout recent history. From corporate takeovers, to piracy, to IP theft. There are ways of making money in a legitimate way, but this is not easy, and the game shows that by providing cheap and easy ways to exploit the general public or other players.

Starting with the starter hand every player gets:

Followed by the unlimited cards:

The following are the limited cards:

The following is the rarest card in the game:

The following cards are character cards, they represent the players:

Newspaper

Due to the styling of the game, I decided to look into making a newspaper as either instructions, or as the box design.

The text for the rules are as follows:

4 new players have entered the game! Do they have what it takes to climb up the corporate ladder and take over the industry? Use your wits, cunning, and perhaps some illegal dealings in order to make as much money as possible, buy assets, build your deck and make some serious cash!

RULES:

At the start of the game, each player picks a character card which will represent them in the game. These can be at random or decided on during the game.
Each player is given a starter deck which consist of 6 unique cards that are worth 0 money, shuffle these cards and place face down on the table, this is now your deck.
Draw 3 cards. Place 5 shop cards in the center of the table, these are the cards you can buy.
Each turn you draw 1 card from your deck, once you are out of cards in your deck and hand, shuffle your discard pile and place it upside down, that is now your new deck.
You can do 1 action per turn, EITHER you play a card or you buy a card from the shop using the money you have saved.
If you purchase a card, it goes directly into your discard pile.
If playing a 2 player game then you play for 20 rounds, if you are playing a 3 player game then play for 15 rounds, if you are playing a 4 player game then play for 10 rounds.

Bonus situational rules:

Exceed finance + business card should make the player gain 10 money and only lose 5 if they don't spend all of it, you can buy multiple cards in the shop.
If a player uses the "Sale" card on a card that only has 1 turn waiting time, that card becomes instantaneous.

Box design

Th early design for the box would not fit the double sized deck or dice that are required. I instead looked towards other styles that would still be cost effective.

Initial ideas were to try and make the box look like a newspaper, but this did not fix the issue of space.

Following the printing of the entire game and procurement of Dice and Tokens, I realised a tuck box would not be appropriate. Instead I looked at Rigid Boxes, preferably with a tray that seperates the pieces inside. I looked at potential prices and realised that getting one custom made would cost potentially £50 for a single box, as such for the sake of this module, I went to a shop and asked if they had any spare boxes and made my own box for the time being.

I made sure to look into how much it would cost to have a box custom made, however costs for a prototype of the game was passing £50, so due to monetary restrictions I stuck to making everything myself.

Another hand-made box attempt showing how the pieces sit within, in the final design I would push for seperators within the box that keeps the cards from falling into each other and keep the dice/coin seperated from the rest.

Print & Release

It was important I researched the cost involved, printing adds up quickly, and making enough for sale would need considerable investment. The game is 4-player, meaning the basic number of cards would roughly multiply by 4 for a full game. Printing the instruction manual would also be needed, as well as a simple enough box to keep costs down.

I requested a quote from a well known board game printer, I went with the most basic of requirements in order to keep costs low: