I realised that I’ve only ever made two posts about my card game so thought I’d create a big update of my progress. These are all scans from my design journal. I planned out the smaller details of the game so I could start making the first prototype.
I planned out the number of cards to use and the layout of game. The design was very simple and enabled me to play the game with others and see how well it worked. I evaluated the good and bad points so that I could make it better for the second prototype.
Here are some of the cards from my first prototype. This builds up most of the deck and then there are objective cards telling the players how to place these in the grid.
I then improved this game and decided on some basic rules so I could start working out specifics of the game and ensuring that my rules were clear, concise and there weren’t too many, making the game too confusing.
I started deciding on objective cards and sorting out a way to make them fair for all players. I realised some of these were quite difficult and I’d need to make them slightly easier to make the game easier to win in order to stop players from getting bored and frustrated.
Here’s an initial list of rules to use alongside the game.
I then realised I needed to think of a theme for my game now I had the basic concept. Making a game aimed for 16+ I knew I would have to make an adult themed game so I brainstormed initial ideas.
I thought a good idea would be to incorporate driving so I decided on cops and robbers. This way they could either make their route through town to get away from the scene of the crime or towards the scene of the crime.
Using my initial prototype I worked out the proportions that the cards would need to be in order to make it fair, easily achievable but also challenging.
I added in some intruction cards to give the player a bit more to do than to make their route. They could then try and stop the other player from making theirs and improve their chance of winning.
I watched people playing my game and made notes while they were doing so. I noted down parts I had left out the rules and what I had to explain to them myselves. I could see parts of the game which weren’t working well and how to improve this.
Overall the feedback was very good and I’m really pleased with the outcome. I did notice there were differences from when I played the game at the weekend and when others played it Tuesday. I feel I have been playing the game too much in order for my feedback to be helpful anymore so I will have to use others in order to get feedback.
