Amateurization
Amateur is a derived from a French word meaning "Love" (ie, Amore). When someone is an amateur at a particular endeavor, that means that they're doing it for the love.
I know it's slightly gangster in terms of phrasing (do it for the love, the love y'all), but I love card games. Particularly the collectable kind. I love how they feel, how they work, I love how they can evoke flavor and mystery and possibilities. I love how they challenge players, and I love how it invokes what I like best about poker (the bluffing), along with what I like best about all games, the skill involved.
My new CCG was created out of love for the genre. I love different aspects from different CCGs, and I appreciate the work that their game designers did and do put into them to this day. Magic has a very strong and outspoken community, one that obsesses over each new release, one that desperate claws for any information it can get its hands on, and through that passion is excellence.
I hope that through my passion comes excellence.
I created my own CCG as an outlet for everything I wanted to do in a card game. I have looked closely at each game I've played, whether I'm playing it now or later, and try to really point out what I love regarding it. This includes Star Chamber, which as a board game/CCG hybrid, simply feels ahead of its time. The players who get as enamored as I do by it stick around a long time, because they know a good game is hard to find. Particularly one as good as SC.
Of course, the experience differs for each player, but to me the fun of CCGs is that customizability. To hold on to what you feel is powerful and try to build around that. There are 3 types of players, as the old Magic axiom goes, Timmy, Johnny, and Spike. Noob, Artist, Cutthroat, in other words. The Lead Magic Designer, Mark Rosewater, feels that he is all three. I feel as if that is a big cop-out, as he certainly doesn't want to pigeonhole himself. I also feel like I'm all three, but who doesn't? Who doesn't like to awe over impressive cards (like Timmy), feel the rush of excitement by trying something new (Johnny), or the thrill of victory (Spike)?
These all add up to design decisions and breakthroughs made by myself, culminating in last night's brainstrom. You see, last night I finally discovered my Secondary Winning Condition. What I feel is truly great about it is that the duality of it fits very well. It is unique to CCGs, yet understood instantly and I feel will be a great asset to the game as development goes forward.
While I am forced to be very cloak and dagger about the design and how the game develops (just because I have parties who are interested in its final result), I will say that I am very happy that I can create a CCG that isn't just Smash Face. Now smashing face is fun (that is to say: using big characters to "kill" the opponent or their assets), but to add another layer to it was my goal and I believe I have something that works just that way.
Now, you could say that every CCG, or almost every one, has these systems in place. This is true. There are all kinds of ways to win and lose in Magic (I can't help but reference it constantly, as its the only CCG most of my readers will be familiar with), including cards that say "You win the game" and cards that say "You lose the game."
But to instill an alternate winning condition, and actually make it a core component of the design, that is my goal. The goal of Magic is to take the other person from 20 life points to 0. Simple as that. You can deck the opponent (get rid of all their cards in their deck, so they lose when they have to draw another), and you can poison them to death. But no matter what, the drive of that game is that life total. The best decks kill you, they don't get creative. It is 20 to 0 or bust. Because if you try anything else, you will most certainly bust.
I want to push the other side of that, the creative side, and hope that players really take to it and appreciate it. Who wants to design what has been designed before anyway?
But no matter what, another milestone has passed, and work on the CCG trudges on. It's right about now that I wish Blogger had sectionalization. I would love to put this into the box of "CCG Design and Notes" but I can't, it must remain here, in the General Store of blogging.
It's also right about now that I contemplate installing a different blogging system. Then I remember how godawful my experiences with that have been, and I think better of it.
I know it's slightly gangster in terms of phrasing (do it for the love, the love y'all), but I love card games. Particularly the collectable kind. I love how they feel, how they work, I love how they can evoke flavor and mystery and possibilities. I love how they challenge players, and I love how it invokes what I like best about poker (the bluffing), along with what I like best about all games, the skill involved.
My new CCG was created out of love for the genre. I love different aspects from different CCGs, and I appreciate the work that their game designers did and do put into them to this day. Magic has a very strong and outspoken community, one that obsesses over each new release, one that desperate claws for any information it can get its hands on, and through that passion is excellence.
I hope that through my passion comes excellence.
I created my own CCG as an outlet for everything I wanted to do in a card game. I have looked closely at each game I've played, whether I'm playing it now or later, and try to really point out what I love regarding it. This includes Star Chamber, which as a board game/CCG hybrid, simply feels ahead of its time. The players who get as enamored as I do by it stick around a long time, because they know a good game is hard to find. Particularly one as good as SC.
Of course, the experience differs for each player, but to me the fun of CCGs is that customizability. To hold on to what you feel is powerful and try to build around that. There are 3 types of players, as the old Magic axiom goes, Timmy, Johnny, and Spike. Noob, Artist, Cutthroat, in other words. The Lead Magic Designer, Mark Rosewater, feels that he is all three. I feel as if that is a big cop-out, as he certainly doesn't want to pigeonhole himself. I also feel like I'm all three, but who doesn't? Who doesn't like to awe over impressive cards (like Timmy), feel the rush of excitement by trying something new (Johnny), or the thrill of victory (Spike)?
These all add up to design decisions and breakthroughs made by myself, culminating in last night's brainstrom. You see, last night I finally discovered my Secondary Winning Condition. What I feel is truly great about it is that the duality of it fits very well. It is unique to CCGs, yet understood instantly and I feel will be a great asset to the game as development goes forward.
While I am forced to be very cloak and dagger about the design and how the game develops (just because I have parties who are interested in its final result), I will say that I am very happy that I can create a CCG that isn't just Smash Face. Now smashing face is fun (that is to say: using big characters to "kill" the opponent or their assets), but to add another layer to it was my goal and I believe I have something that works just that way.
Now, you could say that every CCG, or almost every one, has these systems in place. This is true. There are all kinds of ways to win and lose in Magic (I can't help but reference it constantly, as its the only CCG most of my readers will be familiar with), including cards that say "You win the game" and cards that say "You lose the game."
But to instill an alternate winning condition, and actually make it a core component of the design, that is my goal. The goal of Magic is to take the other person from 20 life points to 0. Simple as that. You can deck the opponent (get rid of all their cards in their deck, so they lose when they have to draw another), and you can poison them to death. But no matter what, the drive of that game is that life total. The best decks kill you, they don't get creative. It is 20 to 0 or bust. Because if you try anything else, you will most certainly bust.
I want to push the other side of that, the creative side, and hope that players really take to it and appreciate it. Who wants to design what has been designed before anyway?
But no matter what, another milestone has passed, and work on the CCG trudges on. It's right about now that I wish Blogger had sectionalization. I would love to put this into the box of "CCG Design and Notes" but I can't, it must remain here, in the General Store of blogging.
It's also right about now that I contemplate installing a different blogging system. Then I remember how godawful my experiences with that have been, and I think better of it.
1 Comments:
Cool man. Ive been trying to make my own CCG for years because I feel the same way. Magic is to cut throat and wallet/budget intensive if you want to succeed there. There are variants and stuff but Id still like to add the originality and 'depth' that you speak about to the game, so that whenever a game is finished, no one is frustrated or angry because they lost. I feel that any game should be played not just to win, but for fun as well.
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