Look, I'm new at this, and I made the mistake of starting off with AI art. Now I'm starting over, painting my own art. Any constructive advice?

Here's what's left of my cards after I purge the AI art.

Is Canva cool with everyone or no? Not trying to find out later down the road Canva clip art is considered AI.

TIA

Well, first good one anyway. Next comes paint. It's a Reaper faction Forward Observer.

Hey all,

We're hosting our first ever design competition over on Dextrous - for a mini roguelike hand-builder.

Check it out over here on the competition page. Sumissions due by Nov 21.

Peace,

Gil

Hello there! I'm honestly new to Reddit, and I'm not accustomed to social media, but I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and go over the design process and decisions behind Vultucide. I like reading other peoples design process so I figured I would do one too. I plan on creating a video about this topic, so this would be good practice beforehand.

I've played a good number of games, familiarized myself in the study of game design, and enjoy creating art. I felt as though I was ready and capable of providing a “fun” experience instead of only participating in them. I solo-developed Vultucide, and AI was never used in any part of its creation, if you care about that sort of thing. I worked on this game for roughly the span of two years and most of that time was spent designing the cards and getting the rules and gameplay worthy.

I'll do my best to go over what I feel are the highlights of Vultucide's creation, and I'll answer any questions you have and I am always open to feedback and suggestions. If there is a way to make this game better I am all for exploring it. If any of the mechanics or ideas here interest you, feel free to implement them in your own project. Ultimately, I wanted to make something that I thought was cool and that I would want to play. “Just bee yourself,” you know?

Here we go.

Foundational Tenets

1. Player Customization

After reflecting on why I enjoy some of my favorite games, I noticed a common factor was the ability to express myself and enjoy a game based on the mechanics I choose to use. In TCGs and deck builders, I gravitated toward deck construction and theory rather than actually playing. Some of my favorite video games are Souls likes and mech games, where player customization is a major part of the design. I wanted players to be able to interact with the game even when they weren't playing by constructing and experimenting with different builds, just as I do.

2. Competitive, Engaging Gameplay

Another feature of my favorite games is competing against another player. I really enjoy fighting games, and I took a good amount of inspiration from traditional fighting-game mechanics and BattleCON, such as spacing, priority, a single-plane arena, and the need to focus not only on your own actions but also on your opponent's actions to be successful. Specifically, with fighting games, I wanted to capture and implement the idea that they're easy to learn but hard to master. On the surface, they're simple, but the more you study them, the deeper the gameplay becomes, including the metagame.

3. Easily Accessible

Not everyone will enjoy Vultucide, but I wanted to make participation as easy as possible for those who would enjoy it. I'm somewhat torn about how I've implemented this principle because Vultucide isn't an “immaculate” game. Each player needs a component outside the game which is a standard deck of playing cards. My rationale for requiring one is that playing cards are fairly ubiquitous, and I assume most people already have a deck. (They also provide another level of customization and self expression.) For the actual game pieces, you only need one Vultucide Gear card of each suit in a deck, and I provide free print-and-play files for all the cards. The physical products are fairly expensive for what they are because I use The Game Crafter, but it's better than nothing.

The Design

1. The Name

In the first iteration of this game, there were no Gear cards. Instead, you chose a face card with predetermined effects to use, much like a fighting-game character. I simply called it Card Combat. That sounded too generic, and I wanted a name that I hadn't heard before, was one word, and sounded “punchy,” if that makes sense. I was creating the game out of ether, so I figured I might as well make up the name as well. I decided to use Latin words because they sounded cool to me and helped complement the feel I was going for. Vultucide loosely translates to “Face Killer.” I liked the way it sounded, and since the player uses a face card to represent themselves and are trying to best their opponent in combat, the name just felt right. In some images and videos, I add “Card Combat” as a subtitle to help clarify what the game is about. Vultucide.

2. Game Feel

My primarily method of designing a game is a top down approach, so I quickly decided that I wanted the game to have a dark-fantasy/medieval atmosphere in which players feel as if “they” are the ones fighting in the arena. To achieve this, I rely on the player-customization feature of choosing your Gear and Champion before a match. I feel attached to choices like those, so I figured others would, too. I also try to use second-person pronouns in the rulebook as much as possible to reinforce this feeling, along with appropriate art and typefaces. In Vultucide, your playing deck acts as the means of using your Gear, tracking your life, and tracking your stamina. I hope the actual deck of cards conveys the feeling that it represents you, or at least a part of you.

3. Card Design and Aesthetics

The cards' appearance needed to do a lot of heavy lifting because they're the only things that make the game Vultucide, aside from the packaging and rulebook. Early on, I knew I was going to use The Game Crafter for early production, so I worked from their templates.

Cards needed to reflect the feeling I was trying to convey, so I decided on a “sharp gothic” design language. “Sharp” was meant to evoke danger and energy, while “gothic” reinforced the overall aesthetic. The card template went through several iterations, but I'm happy with what I came up with in the end. If this were something like a TCG, I would have given more space to the card's representative art. However, I wanted to focus more on gameplay, so I dedicated over half of each card's space to its mechanics and made the text the brightest component. Aside from the suit associated with each Gear card, all the necessary gameplay information is grouped together in the bottom section. For players who don't have certain forms of color-vision deficiency, a quick glance at the card's primary color can help them determine which suit it belongs to so actually looking at the suit is not necessary.

I wanted the cards to look different from those in most card games, so I used a Fibonacci spiral for the layout instead of a stacking hierarchy. Originally, I wanted the suit section in the top-left corner because that would make card types easy to identify when fanning a deck to look for certain cards, but it just didn't look good with the art on the right side. I will add a graphic to this post with all the iterations of the card design so you can see its evolution.

Small spike shapes where added around the card's frames to help guide the viewer's eye in different directions across the card. A larger section of spikes, or pointers, directs attention toward the card's mechanics, where players would spend most of their time looking. I wanted the cards to feel “heavy,” so I attempted to give them as much visual depth as possible, along with dark metallic and stone-like values and textures. To reflect the game's mechanical depth, I designed the card's layers with increasing levels of detail. The topmost layer (the frames) features almost no detail, the second layer (the text boxes) has more detail, and the third layer (the card's base) has the most detail. I doubt others will make this connection but It was something I spent a good amount of time trying to get right.

From a distance, the game pieces needed to look visually intriguing, so I decided to give each suit its own bright color. In an earlier versions of the template, the cards matched the standard playing-card suit colors: black and red. I quickly abandoned that approach because it didn't look good, and it caused confusion about which card belonged to which suit unless you looked closely. So adding colors for each suit was a must.

Accessibility is important, and that also meant not wasting players' time on decisions caused by the cards' visual design. Each card features three abilities, and their text is the largest text on the card. Once again, these are game pieces first. The icons I used on the right side of the abilities and for effects come from Game-icons.net and have been modified. The bottom ability is a special ability unique to each Gear card, so I made its frame slightly thinner and gave it more open space to help create a visual base for the whole card to feel grounded and easy to look at it.

For the border, I experimented with using each card's suit color, but in the end, a simple black border provided a better frame. Later on, I intend to change the template slightly by pushing the bottom Vultucide word frame farther into the border and adding artist information and set identifiers to the left and right, respectively. I also intend to experiment with adding names for the abilities to help immerse players.

\* <- A Big Asterisk: The Current Art

The art on the cards is crummy and my intention is that, if the game is successful (meaning enough people find it enjoyable), I'll crowdfund a version with better art. My plan is to use renders of purchasable 3D models to replace the current art and change the card names to better reflect the new images. The reference for this look is the item-description art in games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. I was a 3d modeler by trade for some time, so I'm confident in my ability to pull this off. I decided to release the game as it is now because I wanted to find out whether it was worth pursuing based on player feedback and engagement, rather than spending more time creating a Kickstarter campaign that might only be seen by a handful of people or spending money on said 3d models. As it stands now the game is still very much playable without better art.

4. Gameplay and Mechanics

If I had to distill Vultucide down to its essence, I'd say it's a more complicated version of War. However, I truly believe it's more than that.

I'll start with setup. I knew I needed a way to create an arena without requiring additional components, so I experimented with using face cards that you would remove from your playing deck and place them face down sideways to act as spaces for the arena. You would select only one to represent you or your Champion in the arena and set the rest aside so those other face cards are not being used for anything. This turned out to be a mess. The physical act of trying to pick up one card from on top of another felt bad and led to frustration.

You always hear in game design that you should try to incorporate multiple uses for components, so that's what I did. Setting up the play space is the first crucial act in Vultucide, aside from removing all the face cards from your playing deck and choosing your Gear cards. The players align their Gear cards and playing card deck with each other to represent spaces in the arena. Together with the “Miracle card” (which functions like a life or stock in fighting games), these components create an imaginary six-space track that each player's Champion occupies and uses for range calculations. It's not perfect, and the board state can always shift because of outside forces, but this approach gives both players' cards a role in keeping track of the arena. Another issue is that players might be playing in a space that requires them to be far apart from one another so keeping track of individual spaces can be taxing. I'm not sure there's a perfect solution short of using a board, but I genuinely don't think this is too bad.

Next is the win condition. To be victorious, a player must deal at least 30 wounds to their opponent while the opponent is on their Last Stand. After removing the face cards, a player is left with a 40-card deck. Since the average value of the remaining cards is 5, and Aces count as 1 wound, a player should, in theory, reach 30 wounds after taking six damage. This felt fine in terms of both fairness and game length. One exciting moment in early versions of the game was taking a wound from the top of the deck and seeing whether it would be a high card or not. These moments created tension, and I knew I wanted to keep that feeling.

As for the “Last Stand” part, each player starts the game with a Miracle. The Miracle acts as a marker for a space in the arena and as an extra life. Many competitive card games use a best-of-two format, and I wanted to reduce the time needed to set up and play. So, after you take your first 30 wounds, you shuffle all your playing cards together, excluding your Champion, draw back up to your starting hand of five cards, and draw your Miracle, giving you a slight card advantage. Then you begin playing right away again. After your Miracle is drawn, that space in the arena is also removed. I did this to make the arena increasingly tight to raise tension as to avoid excessive zoning playstyles.

Next, using the playing deck. In Vultucide, you use a Gear card by playing a card from your hand that matches its suit. With four suits, it can be challenging to get the cards you need to use the Gear you want. To mitigate this frustration, I added an action that provides either a two card-cycling mechanic or a way to draw two cards. You can select up to two cards from your hand, place them face down as a resource for abilities, and then draw back up to the number of cards you selected. Alternatively, you can simply draw two cards if don't want to lose any of the cards in hand. I found that drawing or cycling only one card made the game much slower than I wanted and made it more difficult to find the cards you needed, so I went with drawing two instead. It's hard to eliminate randomness, but this approach gave players a better chance of not losing because of their own cards. Also, many gear cards posses effects that allow you to draw to cards to keep your hand full.

Continuing with the playing cards, you have to gain priority to act before your opponent. You gain priority if the card you play has a higher value than your opponent. Players place their cards face down and then reveal them simultaneously. If the cards have the same value, they reveal cards from the top of their decks until someone takes priority. This created another moment of tension, and these moments during playtesting were a lot of fun. A few times, players drew up to three cards from their decks, and those were exciting moments for everyone.

As I mentioned before, cards also act as your wounds. Life decking is a contentious topic, but I felt that using cards as a physical damage tracker worked better than using mental math or requiring additional components like dice or pen and paper. Those alternatives are readily available, but one of my goals was to minimize the time it takes to set up the game and begin playing. There are also effects in the game that let you replace a card in your hand with a card in your wounds. This offers a way to recover cards you may want while also ensuring that you can never fully remove a wound, which would make the game drag on longer than it should.

As a side note, both players using a deck of playing cards means they know which cards the other player has. If you're able to keep track of the cards that have been played, you can make educated guesses about which cards remain in both players' decks. This offers a possibility and way for players to show off a level of unintended skill.

On to Actions. Since I wanted the game to feel fast-paced, I avoided using standard turns or phases in other card games. In Vultucide, you have three actions you can take: Lock In, Lock Out, or Exhaust. With Lock In, you're playing a card and ready for combat. With Lock Out, you're taking a breather and recovering some resources. With Exhaust, you're recovering most of your resources but leaving yourself vulnerable. Players take actions in response to their opponent beginning an action, so they need to stay engaged and attentive even when they aren't actively playing a card or using abilities. A game I really admire is Sentinels of the Multiverse. In that game, you end your turn by drawing a card. I like this because it gives you something to think about while you're not actively playing, and I wanted to add something similar to my game.

During playtesting, there was usually a slight stall when a player moved from one action to another because they might be drawing, cycling cards, or turning cards upright which naturally takes time. As players became more familiar with the game, that slowdown decreased. In the end, pauses in play became inevitable given the game's complexity. I wouldn't say it's overly complicated, but, like any game you're new to, there's always a learning curve.

Now, on to Gear cards and their abilities. I wanted each Gear card to feel unique. Some are easy to use and require few or no resources (stamina) beyond the card you Lock In. Others are powerful and deal heavy damage but require more resources, while some focus more on utility. Gear is what makes the game, so I did my best to offer a wide variety of effects to complement different playstyles.

Gear abilities read from left to right, starting with the cost, followed by the effect(s), and finally the ability type. I experimented with arranging the abilities vertically for aesthetic reasons, but that idea was quickly scrapped.

There are two types of effects: those represented by icons, which I call Fundamental Effects, and keyword abilities, which I call Special Effects. Fundamental Effects let you spend resources to increase their potency, while Special Effects simply just do a thing. Allowing players to spend resources on things other than abilities gave players using low-cost Gear a way to use stamina they might otherwise be unable to spend. In an early version of the game, you had to discard cards from your hand that matched a suit requirement to pay for abilities. I found that having to play pairs or three of a kind just didn't lead to a good experience, so I implemented a resource system. One issue I found with this system is that it can make the play space feel a bit messy, but I do my best to specify where and how cards should be placed in the rules to avoid this.

Another goal was to make the game easy to expand, and the Special Abilities really help with that. Since they're keywords that do something specific, it's easy to create more for future sets. I tried to make each Special Ability short and easy to understand, although some are more complicated. Some fighting games feature a type of character known as a summoner or puppet character, and I wanted to include something like that in Vultucide. That effect is the most complicated, but it offers a unique playstyle for someone who enjoys that sort of thing. I like providing as many unique options of play as possible.

Then there's the “Imbued Ability,” which is the ability at the bottom of each Gear card. I wanted players to have a way to use a Gear card even when they didn't have the necessary cards in hand to do so. I added a mechanic called “Loading,” in which you exhaust a Gear card to add its Imbued Effect to your currently Locked-In Gear card. The Imbued Effect also triggers whenever the Gear card is used, but using the Imbued Ability while Loading creates a neat opportunity for skill expression. Players can discover cool combos or ways to use their Gear that I didn't intend. I think the Imbued abilities give the game a good amount of depth at the cost of some complexity. In an earlier version of the game, the Imbued Ability activated whenever you Locked Out, starting with the leftmost Gear card and proceeding to the right. This was neat because it gave players a reason to think about how they arranged their Gear cards, but it turned out to be a balancing nightmare. I have an idea for making Gear-card arrangement matter in possible future sets, but for now, it doesn't.

Lastly, the Champions. I wanted everything in the game to have a reason for being there. The final part of the design that I struggled with was making the face card you choose feel impactful. Originally, Champions gave +1 to an effect based on the Gear card that matched their suit and the ability being used. Kings corresponded to the top ability, Queens to the second, and Jacks to the Imbued Ability. This method was confusing because not all abilities had a value associated with them, and the bonus didn't feel impactful enough plus it was just plain confusing overall. Instead, I settled on giving each type of face card a special ability that affects the Gear card matching its suit. This felt much better, and when building a Gear set, it allowed players to experiment further with how they wanted their playstyle to function. Each type of face card provides a different resource, such as card draw, stamina, or the ability to unexhaust a Gear piece. I also found a way to use Jokers, but they're more of a gimmick, offering players a way to play a quicker version of the game if they choose. I have ideas for expansions that add made-up face cards with different effects, but for now, I feel this is a good way to use the face cards.

OKAY, Thank you for reading this whole Iliad of text. If you'd like to check it out, all cards and rules are available for free at https://corporatesoftworks.itch.io/vultucide. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or feedback, I would love to hear them. I want to make the game the best I can. I hope this didn't come as me trying to market the game but rather a look under the hood so to speak.

If you're working on a game and really want to see it brought to fruition, keep going. You can do it. You'll have self-doubt, and you'll want to quit. Ask yourself whether it would be more torturous to keep working on it or to stop and face the reality of never seeing it finished. Even if Vultucide isn't a success, I'm happy with the design and proud of myself for completing it as it is now. There will be suffering, but without it, there is no peace. Try to find a way to enjoy the struggle of working on your project. You can do it.

Hello! I’m Carlos! A concept artist and illustrator. I have worked on a couple of Tabletop game projects and private commisions including character design, environment design and props. Would love to talk to you about your project!

Here is my portfolio

https://cara.app/itsumicarlo

Have a nice day!

My first campaign, sadly - thankfully - it didn't fund.

I didn't know it then, but both Phase and I weren't ready yet. I learned a lot from my failed campaign, and also from spending more time in the board game community - and getting feedback from yall, of course.

This time around, I'm at 47% of funding in the first 24 hours. My last campaign ended at 42%. What's made the difference? E V E R Y T H I N G. But, if there were one key factor: it would be scale.

Instead of reaching for 500, or even 250 games, I'm going for just 100. I'm only able to do that because I'm working small - with a local board game manufacturer - a 20 minute drive down Route 434 in upstate NY. Maybe you've heard of them, Superior POD.

Yes, the cost of production is higher, and it's so, so, so very worth it. I don't have to worry about tariffs, or additional shipping, or any of the other headaches I've heard my peers complain about. Superior POD is handling all my kitting and distribution, too. Not to be a talking billboard for S POD, but the flexibility alone in what I can offer for my campaign is worth every penny.

If you're looking to self-publish: You Don't Have to get 10,000 Copies from China. You can start small and succeed.

The second factor? Again, community.

Instead of focusing on spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on ads or influencers, I spent money attending small conventions. Meeting people, introducing them to Phase, playing and getting feedback - all of those things contributed towards a dedicated following. While small, they are supporting my efforts the hardest.

But I wasn't only focused on my game. I met other designers and play tested their games, too. I've found I'm just as excited to support their efforts as I am for my own.

So why am I sharing all this with you? Because from what I've seen, I'm doing things differently and I want others to know there are other options out there. Other avenues to success.

So if you're struggling or don't know where to start - lean into the community.

Thanks for all your support along the way. You know who you are. <3

I'm designing a print-and-play strategy card game inspired by elements of traditional and modern TCGs, using standard playing cards.

The game's defining feature is its 60+ interchangeable Codex pages, each featuring a different combination of 25+ possible Suit Abilities. I plan to release a handful initially, followed by one new Codex page each week for a year.

For PnP players, how would you prefer these game sheets to be designed?

A) All-in-One (the prototype that is pictured)

• Shared game sheet with Suit Abilities, Life trackers, and Spell references.
• Everything needed on a single sheet.

B) Spell Reference Optional

• Shared game sheet with Suit Abilities and Life trackers.
• Optional separate Spell reference sheet.

C) Separate Life Tracker

• Shared game sheet with larger Suit Abilities only.
• Separate printable Life tracker sheet.
• Optional separate Spell reference sheet.

D) Bring Your Own Life Tracker

• Shared game sheet with larger Suit Abilities only.
• Track Life however you prefer (d20, counters, pen and paper, etc.).
• Optional separate Spell reference sheet.

The trade-off: Including more information on the game sheet makes it more convenient, but leaves less room for the Suit Abilities, which are the most important information during play.

For additional context, here are some other Suit Abilities available in the game that demonstrate different styles of play and interactions. No ability is permanently tied to a specific suit. Each Codex page features a different combination of four abilities.

• Affinity: When summoning this Creature, exhausting matching-suit Mana produces 2 Mana instead of 1.
• Martyr: Triggers a special effect when destroyed while blocking after taking at least twice its Power in damage (e.g. Martyr - Draw 1, Martyr - Opponent Discard 1).
• Momentum: After destroying a blocker, ready this Creature. It may attack again.
• Rage: Deals extra combat damage equal to its damage counters.
• Rally: After surviving a block, ready this Creature.
• Spell Shroud: This Creature cannot be targeted by Spells.
• Spell Ward X: Targeting this Creature with a Spell costs X additional Mana.
• Support: Exhaust to boost another friendly Creature's combat damage by this Creature's Power.
• Toxic: Damaging your opponent also gives them 1 Poison. At 10 Poison, they lose.
• Trample: Excess combat damage dealt to blockers is dealt to your opponent.
• Unity X: This Creature deals X extra combat damage for each other friendly Creature in play of the same suit.

Perfect braindead thing to do while watching TV, but I need to take breaks to let my wrists rest.

This is for my new party game somewhat inspired by CAH that I'm calling either Cross-examination or Backed Into a Corner.

Is the latter name too long for a game name? Like what constitutes a good game name?

I’m a Product Design student from Brazil currently developing my undergraduate thesis on cooperative board games and player experience.

I’m conducting a short survey to better understand players’ experiences, preferences, and perceptions of cooperative board games.

The survey is available in both English and Portuguese and should only take a few minutes to complete.

I’m also looking for people interested in participating in future focus groups and playtests, so there will be an option to leave your email if you’d like to be contacted.

Thank you for helping with my research!

We, Pektis Studio, are developing a game called "Battle of the Knollen". We are still looking for some final names for our 6 hero potatoes. Maybe you would like to help us.

Meet the six potato heroes:

• Groll, the Warrior
• Lupina, the Rogue
• Salvira, the Priest
• Orin, the Mage
• Necros, the Necromancer
• Bru’tzlar, the Shaman

All six were drawn by my wife Echo, who gave every potato a personality of its own.

Funfact: I started making the game when I was cutting potatos and I had a realy discusting one.

At the moment I knew I want to make a fantasy potato game, Necros was the first Idea Ihad.

I hope this doesn't break any rules for posting. I am actually fairly active in this community. This is just an opportunity for local-ish designers to demo their game for free.

Hey there,

as in the original posting:

Currently I'm working on a solitaire pick up and deliver game.

It's pretty small scale:

On a hex grid with 7 hexes (2 left, 3 center, 2 right) you've got 7 guests. Deliver as many as possible with food of their liking.

However, I'm a bit at a loss regarding an interesting goal. Because currently it is "deliver as many as possible" leading to "beat this and that score to win" .. are you aware of any more interesting goals for a game like that?

Many thanks,

Kai

I just got my latest run of updated (hopefully the last that say "BETA") Combat Decks for my RPG. I'm about to run some demos at the game shops in my nearby area and generate some buzz! Shout out to DriveThruCards for being so easy to work with!

For anyone who has run a Kickstarter/Gamefound/etc campaign, at what point do you feel that you were ready for it?

Hello all,

I am looking for a distributor that can print randomized 3- or 5-card booster packs on demand to ship around the US. The ones that I checked so far are www.makeplayingcards.com (this one has a great price but requires higher order volume and the need for storage) and www.thegamecrafter.com (With this, the production cost goes up to 6 dollars, without the option of bulk discounts due to the randomisation element). Am I asking for too much? I am looking to sell the final product for as little as possible so I can keep a reasonable profit margin; could you give me suggestions, if any?

Thank you! :)