Even though I still continue to develop the Wuxia Pian game, I did not have any time the last 6 months to even sit still and write a few lines.
New work, baby boy growing up, wife that I want to give attention to etc, etc, all prevented me from updating the blog...
Not That I have been sitting still designing though! The wuxia pian card game is further than ever, and even has its own awesome website now:
check it out, it has all the element and Warrior cards on it, and even a deckbuilder to create ready to print .pdf files.
What is missing is the "meat" of the game, the Combat cards. And this is where I got stuck. Not for designing them, but getting ART for it. It is impossible to take screenshots of martial arts moves from a movie without it coming out all blurry and fuzzy.. I am now at a point where I will probably just make 5 different layouts, and fill in text + numbers on that, without each card having unique art.
This inspired me to a new project, one where ART is everywhere, and easy to get.
Introduction:
One thing that always nagged me about card game, is the need for different cards for different actions. You´ll have your character to do X, your event card to do Y and another card type to do Z, next to equipment, mana producers, artifacts, locations etc..etc..
I somehow always end up with cards in my hand that I do not need at that moment. Like equipment when I have no characters in play, and characters when I need a location, etc..etc..
I got the idea that combining a lot of them into one card would not only provides more options for the players, it would also "save" on the amount of ART I would need for cards.
I thought: How would a game look like if there is just one card type, but each card can be played in 3 different ways?
that is where the Clone Wars card game was born.
there is a new cartoon tv series about it, under supervision of mr. Lucas himself, and it will span at least 100 episodes. They just started season 2 (season one had 22 episodes), and it has all I need to create a great game from. The game (for the moment) only has character cards, and as you can see below, there are 3 dots on the left side of the card. these are the three ways of playing the card:
1. As a character in play
2. To use it's action text (card gets discarded afterwards)
3. To generate Force (force are facedown cards from your deck, and are used to a variety of things, but mostly to draw cards from at the end of each turn.)
Next week I will post some basic rules so you can get an idea how it it played.
This, on the surface at least, looks similar to the original Decipher Star Wars game based on the first three films (Eps IV-XI); info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Customizable_Card_Game. Just saying, don't reinvent the wheel if you're just gonna end up getting sued for it :-D. This is assuming you're NOT doing this with Decipher or whoever holds their leash these days.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the dilemma of cards being useless in game states, I too have struggled with this in CCG design. Funny that we're thinking so much along the same lines; my concept-without-a-game for similar kinds of cards uses almost identical logic. Must come from joint exposure to nearly-1-year-olds and their associated diapers/formula/shapeless mashed food.
That is a great idea. UFS and Magic incorporate this concept to a small degree. The Warhammer 40k CCG is built on this idea as well (though that game's paradigm is completely different).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Force-draining, generating "Force" in the form of facedown cards, and being able to draw from said pile of Force at the end of the turn is exactly like the old Decipher Star Wars CCG. The lawyers smell blood =)
Actually, thinking about it, WOW's CCG also uses a "play it as itself or as a resource" mechanic, as did Hecatomb (R.I.P., you weirdo pentagonal mess).
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