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Squads

ROLE

Designer/Creator

DESCRIPTION

Created a card based battle system designed to be played by any number of players. Made a set of 20 unique cards for players to use. Tested using Tabletop Simulator and implemented changes based on testing feedback. 

YEAR

2022

GENRE

Multiplayer Card Battler

Tools

Photoshop/Tabletop Simulator

Design Doc: 

Original Concept

The original idea behind making this game was to create a card battling system that could be played by any number of people at the same time. This also meant that the the game needed to be simple enough that new players who wanted to join could learn fairly quickly. 

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One of the main ways I was able to achieve these goals was to make two decks that would be shared by all players. This eliminates the need for each player to have their own customized deck that is a common mechanic in other card battling systems. Players who are unfamiliar with the game also learn faster, since they are playing with the same set of cards as experienced players and can see their strategies. 

Card Design Philosophy

An important aspect when creating this game was to make sure that the designs of each card were simple. This meant making sure that each card's unique ability was simple enough to understand easily and didn't use any keywords that could be confusing. To do this, I made sure every card had an ability that only affected the basic attach and health stats that could be found directly on the card rather than doing more complex things like manipulating the deck or discard pile. 

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This also applied to the basics of the game's economy. Instead of requiring a cost to play cards, there is a cost to allow the cards to attack and use their abilities. This meant that all players were able to see the game state at any time rather than keeping each player's individual economy obscured in their hands. 

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Testing Results

On first testing, players seemed to enjoy the game, but eventually it became apparent that some cards in their hands ended up being fairly useless. The amount of randomness that comes with drawing cards from the deck ended up being more important than I intended because players wouldn't be able to do anything if they didn't draw the equipment cards they needed. 

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To counter this randomness, some balance changes needed to be made. The amount of cards that players draw needed to be changed in order to make sure that players were getting their needed resources in more even amounts, the scarcity of certain cards needed to be lower, and some card costs needed to be lowered. 

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