My entire career has seen me involved with game development of one kind or another, but I’ve never made a game of my own before. Where to start?
First, I decided to confirm that I had an original idea. There would be no point developing a game that already existed, so I went online and began researching games with a similar theme. I knew I would find other dungeon-crawling card games, but I was relieved to discover that none seemed to have quite the same flavour as my own. The next step was to order some games to get a better idea of how they might compare with mine and ensure the game mechanics were sufficiently different. Though I studied the rules of these games, I chose not to actively play any of them in case that somehow influenced my own ideas.
An unexpected side effect of the research process was an introduction to the components and packaging that could be used in a card game. The physical nature of my own game hadn’t really entered my head until that point but I could suddenly visualise exactly how I wanted it to look. That helped to decide my next course of action: I ordered some card blanks and a box of pens and prepared to make a first prototype.
Prototyping tools
I knew what the basic ingredients of the game should be, but I felt quite intimidated by the pile of blank white cards before me when I sat down to start work on the prototype. Thinking back to the dream and looking through my notes helped things to slowly start flowing. Far from the difficult task I was expecting this to be I was surprised to find I was soon having a lot of fun and laughing out loud as I worked. If that happens when I’m illustrating, I take it as a good sign and a chance that others will also enjoy what I’ve done. I hoped the same would be true of card games!
First cards
As the cards piled up, I realised there would have to be a limit. How many cards would be practical, and would that be enough to include all the elements I felt were necessary to sell the dungeon-crawling experience? Would there be enough variety to give the game replay value and to keep the humour fresh? Lots of questions began to come to mind. Only one way to get the answers…
Playtesting!