Board Thread:Suggestions and Ideas/@comment-24454571-20141012213528

... ... ... I've had Card Games on my mind for quite some time -- from Pokemon to Bridge, which I fail to understand from what I've attempted to learn about it -- to reading about Whist, and Bumblepuppy -- and 5 Card stud to Texas Hold'em; Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, Munchkin. Go Fish & Old Maid, probably. There's a great many more that I am less familiar with, like Yu Gi Oh and Rummy.

... ... ... I'm interested in working on a project that basically accentuates the best qualities of a Digital, Card Game. I've had quite a few ideas, but so far the direction that I have been going in makes it seem quite a bit like a Turn-Based RPG; you choose an Action, then a target -- although I've considered simplifying/complicating the rules in such a way that Swapping the positions of characters counts as an action, and that you can only attack the card in front of you. I don't know how this corresponds with the plans that I have for my game, but it's interesting to think about.

One of the most important aspects that I'll be focusing on is use of the Screen Space on the DS. As of now I imagine there is a Library function, and a Play function. Inititally I won't foresee myself creating any AI for the computer, but over-time I may understand the game well enough to create a flawless AI.

It will be Comprehensive in scope, meaning that everything is accessible to the player immediately. As intriguing as Collecting cards can be, that's not what I'm initially going for -- I do think, among friends who agreed to play in a controlled manner, that such things could be incredible fun. If, say, for example, there were a shared single-player world where everyone agreed to play at the same time, for the same amount of time, to lend credence to the idea of like, opening a booster pack, so that you can boast to your friends and be like, "I got an Earth Elemental, get crushed!" because you all had the same opportunity, a fair chance, and then, some kind of objective to fight over, like a tournament, for example.

For now, I plan on simply working on the game itself. So far, this includes Two Primary Types of Card, Races, and Monster; Races are basic Naked Cut-Out Dolls of things like, Angels, Demons, Humans & Sprites (small people, pixies), of which can take on Classes, like Paladin, Druid, or Ranger, or equip Items, Weapons & Armor, such as a Healing Potion, Spell Book, Sword, pieces of Plate Armor -- I mean, I don't know quite how complex that should really get, a few simple options should suffice -- like, Head, Body, L-Hand, R-Hand; some things would probably take both the Body & Head slot, like... Plate Armor.

Monsters are much different; they are just like, a Thing, a beast, an elemental, a dragon, but the one thing about every Monster is that they Act Randomly. They're generally more powerful than Races, though.

I have played around with several other ideas, regarding Resources/Costs, such as Experience cards to Level Up your characters, which would essentially hit a Cap in Value, like 20/50 for example, where-upon I had entertained the idea of a God-like property. What that should entail, I haven't really considered too deeply -- but I have now also considered the idea of something like Gold to pay for equipment. Before I was considering, that you draw armor, therefor you can equip armor onto a character, but now I think perhaps Gold as an Attribute of a character could be quite compelling. There could be even be Gold cards to bestow gold upon your characters, but that would generally be seen as a hinderance to the value of your deck -- spending card slots for Gold, just to allow characters to equip better equipment is kind of risky; you need to draw all of those cards, you're not putting other cards in those spots. It should be pretty damn strong, essentially, and seen as an alternative to investing in Experience to a degree.

The primary rules that I've been knocking around with are sort of like Hearthstone combat, opposite-Pokemon victory conditions, JRPG combat. You'd select a number of reverse-Prizes, which are awarded to the players whose Characters are defeated -- essentially giving you a bit of Card Advantage to make a come-back into the game. I think there would be like a 'Rotation of Cards' that composes your hand. It could scroll right to left or left to right, which comprises your hand, and if it floods then it could burn cards.

I haven't thought about how many stacks I want though; Resources could be seperate from Characters -- I imagined the Deck Building process to involve putting cards together that you think can Combo well, or that provide some Strategic Value, and those would be randomly drawn for you -- in the same sense that Pokemon has limitations regarding the contents of your deck, in that there needs to be Pokemon, I must consider all of the implications of such a system. I recall in the original release of Pokemon TGC, as in the game which exists on the GBA, some strategies were viable by only putting certain Pokemon in your deck, like Mr. Mime, Mewtwo, etc.

First of all, I think there should only be Four [eight] Characters [on either side] at any given time. (See where the whole Switching places could have been kind of interesting? I'm sure it could -- I'll have to continue to consider it) -- I do have some ideas I'd like to implement, though -- Block & Protect, for example, as Defensive moves -- Block stops one character from attacking anyone but the Blocker, Protect protects one character from any attack.

I don't have a whole lot of experience building Menus... This all should be very interesting when I start to try to build it... For now, I must focus on the Content of the Game.

Back to stacks, though -- if Fighting Characters is the point of the game, then there must be some solvable means of Putting Characters into the game, while allowing for a Dynamic range of Choices to be Made, as it Builds. Perhaps characters at Level 1 are generally very innate, with stats like 1/7 -- perhaps they have some Cost for being played... Hmm, I must think... It could be possible that when playing a Character card, one must Shuffle another card from their hand back into the deck. Maybe there are different rules regarding how each different Race enters the field, and/or how Monsters enter the field.

Perhaps 'Putting Cards Back' could be a pretty big resource, but this would require many Card Drawing components -- which I don't disagree with, I think that sounds like a fine idea. It creates a kind of economy -- cards vs. card draw. A low economy deck would opt not to use much card draw, but play cards that didn't cost much or made up for their cost in value. It could be difficult to balance value vs. card-draw though.

Cards could have variable costs & functions -- very complex variables & functions; playing a Demon could require that you send a card to a Graveyard, playing an Angel could mean putting a card on the top of your deck. For now, I'll just think about Aggression vs. Support, because there are too many hypothetical details for me to consider yet. Support, being the act of choosing not to put on Aggression, which wins games, in order to gain a Tempo advantage, or an Advantage Over Time. There's a lot to learn from Pokemon... if I planned on implementing different reverse-Prizes for winning, there are balance issues that must be considered -- 4, 8 or 12, for example, Prizes, is a pretty huge chunk of cards from a deck size of say 30 cards. Some cards just might seem to get more value in a 4 game than a 12, for example. (Skirmish, Campaign, Epic Saga).

I want putting many Character cards into your stack to be an Effective, Viable strategy. Perhaps characters have the ability to Retreat to the hand. One must consider the flow of the game, though -- is there One Card Drawn per Turn, ordinarily? What happens when you have No Characters in play? What if you draw No Characters. Maybe if it's the beginning of your turn and you have no Characters in play, then you are forced to draw a Prize (of defeat). That in itself might balance out the curve from 4 to 12. If you have no cards left at the beginning of your turn, then you draw a Prize.

In these manners, some of the components of the game can begin to spin a dynamic web of organizing your Hand and playing your cards. If you play an Angel, you're constantly recycling cards back into your deck, but it essentially delays the drawing of a new card, where with a Demon, you're getting rid of a card, but you get to see the next card. Getting rid of a card could become useful, if you find yourself bouncing characters too much to avoid Death. -- I was considering, however... The Scroll of Cards -- starts from the Right, and as it goes too far to the Left, then cards start being Destroyed -- that could be a way to solve the issue of accumulating Character cards in your hand. But... With the way things have been being set up, you need a bunch of starting cards so that you don't end up drawing a Prize because you have no character.

Hm, these variables can all be pushed and pulled in little way to completely change the suggested motiff of developing gameplay. For me, picking out which ones are the most diverse is important. I'll be looking forward to returning to write some more as my ideas shape into fruition. 