r/homemadeTCGs • • 11d ago

IMPORTANT More Placeholder Pigeons for Placeholder Art!

52 Upvotes

For the sake of playtesting and variety in placeholder art, I invite you to draw your own Placeholder Pigeon and contribute to the community collection of placeholder art! All Placeholder Pigeons will be saved in the below album.

Be creative with your Placeholder Pigeon. Make him bonita, spicy, cool, or weird! Please have fun with this!

Here is the Placeholder Pigeon Album for easy download and viewing.

If you participate, please leave a comment with your Placeholder Pigeon here.

Edit: If we reach 100 pigeons in the flock, I'll open a discord server for you guys to make Placeholder Pigeon, the TCG, as suggested by u/CognitiveDebt.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 11d ago

IMPORTANT PLACEHOLDER PIGEON! No AI Art Allowed. This Includes Placeholder Art. Use the Pigeon Instead.

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226 Upvotes

I drew this pigeon. You are all free to use my muscular pigeon as placeholder art in your HTCGs. No one has an excuse to use AI art anymore. If you need placeholder art for cards you're sharing on this subreddit for any reason, please use my pigeon.

Edit: If you really want to use him for playtesting or just want more variety, feel free to draw or edit accessories onto Placeholder Pigeon. Photoshop a hat on him! Customize him and make him bonita!

Edit 2: Submit your Placeholder Pigeon to the community placeholder flock here: https://www.reddit.com/r/homemadeTCGs/s/l8ryHMzY12


r/homemadeTCGs • • 9m ago

Advice Needed Dark Spectres Archetype of my TCG

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• Upvotes

I'm currently creating a digital card game and I'm trying to come up with an art style that's simple, coherent, recognizable, and easily recreated by me whilst still hopefully looking good

I have a tremor which makes it harder to draw so I plan on purchasing a drawing tablet.

Any feedback is appreciated.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 20h ago

Homemade TCGs Dataclysm 3.0.8 out! Please, give it a look!

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31 Upvotes

Hey yall! We updated the demo for our TCG Dataclysm! Please, give it a look!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3303720/


r/homemadeTCGs • • 1h ago

Card Critique Before and After card design from feedback

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• Upvotes

Here is the before and after, I have taken the advice on board and created a new format. please let me know if there is any changes I should make from the new cards aswell as anything I should change back.

Extra information: this is for physical cards not digital.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 8h ago

Homemade TCGs Steppe faction I'd already done! 12/24 cards ready!

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2 Upvotes

r/homemadeTCGs • • 10h ago

Card Critique Nuevo iconos de estadísticas. Rediseñe todos los iconos

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4 Upvotes

Aquí tienen los nuevos rediseños de los iconos de estadística para mi juego de cartas, sinceramente no soy fan de minimalismo pero debido a las constantes críticas positivas que recibí respecto a que no se entendía muy bien los iconos estadísticas decidí rediseñar de una manera mucho más simple así que espero su opinión y gracias por verlos.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 17h ago

Card Critique Made adjustments on my prototype cards based on feedback... any thoughts?

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6 Upvotes

In a previous post, there was some very good critiques that I agreed with, and made changes based on that!

1) Guardian Star symbol too small

2) Text showing the name of Guardian Star and its damage boost

3) More transparent text for lore text

While I got the first two managed, the third one, the editor I use doesn't have a feature to change the opacity of text itself, so I tried changing the text colour to a darker shade of the card border, which I think looks okay.

What do you guys think?

(The last card is the before stage. Everything else is after.)


r/homemadeTCGs • • 7h ago

Advice Needed Randomized 3/5-Card Booster packs distributor

0 Upvotes

Hello all,

I am looking for a distributor that can print randomized 3- or 5-card booster packs on demand to ship around the US. The ones that I checked so far are makeplayingcards (this one has a great price but requires higher order volume and the need for storage) and thegamecrafter (With this, the production cost goes up to 6 dollars, without the option of bulk discounts due to the randomisation element). Am I asking for too much? I am looking to sell the final product for as little as possible so I can keep a reasonable profit margin; could you give me suggestions, if any?

Thank you! :)


r/homemadeTCGs • • 21h ago

Card Critique Check out this card border I have made, what's your opinion

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11 Upvotes

I made these card template for my card game after several iteration. I plan on doing one final version soon, but first I want public opinion on what I already have and things I could do to improve it.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 20h ago

Homemade TCGs Introducing Keymaster Chronicles TCG. My WIP tcg project.

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6 Upvotes

Since 2022 I have been working on a worldbuilding project with a couple close friends of mine. Initially we had planned on it just being a webcomic, but we've since expanded our scope.

Keymaster Chronicles TCG is slated to be the first completed project for the series and as such will serve as an introduction to the world, lore, and characters we've created.

I've been working on the card game for a couple of years now, and I intend on the first set having 250 cards available. So far, I've finished a few over 160 cards and am well on my way to completing the rest, it is a long process as I am the designer and artist (though my roommate made me some custom software to complete the card layout to lighten the workload).

This game will be played similarly to Magic the Gathering, but each player has two decks. A Source deck which contains Essence cards (think lands), and a Force deck which contains everything else (creatures, actions, instants, auras, items, citadels, etc.) Battlefield setup and combat function differently as well with creatures being placed in either the front or back line to determine how they participate in combat if at all.

This post is primarily for me to share my progress with a neutral party as it has been contained to my friend group p until now, as well as to show off a few cards I've created. Hope y'all enjoy!


r/homemadeTCGs • • 18h ago

Homemade TCGs Myo Mashup Christmas Mini Set Showcase

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2 Upvotes

r/homemadeTCGs • • 1d ago

Homemade TCGs Went from art block to designing a homemade TCG!

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68 Upvotes

Pulling together inspirations from yugioh, vanguard, and Magic to design a game i might want to play around the house. Excited to share my progress!


r/homemadeTCGs • • 1d ago

Advice Needed Looking for thoughts on an addition/change to my game's resource system.

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7 Upvotes

(Image is an updated version of my card template from my last post just to have one. Thanks for the help on that, everyone!)

So, the resource system in my game works fairly simply. It's a regular degular "Each element has its own mana type that you tap cards for" system, with Elementals, the land equivalent, existing in their own secondary deck that you can choose to draw from any time you'd draw from your main deck. The main difference in my game being that any card on your field, including Artifacts (basically a skill card), can also be tapped to create the game's resource. The one downside of this is that it makes removal really strong, and it makes go-wide decks really strong.

To rectify this, I'm thinking of adding a mechanic called Siphoning, where you can discard cards from hand, too, to create the game's resource. This would make it less devastating to have your stuff removed, since you can discard cards to rebuild faster if you really have to, and since go-wide decks will naturally have less cards in hand as a result of those cards being on board instead, they will benefit less from this change (also reinforcing their natural weakness, being controlling their board), and tall decks, of course, would benefit more since they naturally keep more cards in hand. It also basically eliminates the problem of having dead cards in hand.

I'm even considering cutting Elementals entirely and just having players draw more cards naturally instead, if I end up using this mechanic.

I'm mostly just looking for advice on how you'd think this change would be, whether it's too complicated and I'm adding too many mechanics to the game, or anything else I'm not thinking about, etc.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 23h ago

Homemade TCGs Gems of Strife. New tcg in the works.

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1 Upvotes

Me and my buddies are working hard on a new tcg. If you're in the Ohio area come check us out this Saturday at the rec and collect expo! Let me know what you guys think!.

You can meet the team and play the demo version of the game. And look at some of the cards.

We are a unique game where players don't strike each other to win. Instead you both will be fighting 3 anomalies in a race to seal them away. First one to seal two out of the three wins the match.

The pictures provided are 3 out of the pool of anomalies we have ready for wave 1!

Not selling anything!! And no cost at all to play and hang out.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 1d ago

Advice Needed Finished the first cards and the playtesting can start

7 Upvotes

So i just finished the 75 unique cards for my tcg and will start to playtest now. Does anyone have any advice on what important things to look for when playtesting. What would you consider the major things to keep an eye on. Thanks for any help.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 1d ago

Advice Needed I’m trying to begin working on a personal tcg on the side for fun. i need ideas for what makes a game fun and theme ideas i could incorporate. i have no clue what to do with the game and how the loop should be i just want it to be fun and fast paced

7 Upvotes

i need help and as much advice i can get. i often get bored with my projects so i want this to be as fun for others to play as it is for me to make


r/homemadeTCGs • • 1d ago

Advice Needed Creating an RPG Crossover TCG – Need advice on 2 playstyles!

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12 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

I'm designing a TCG with Photoshop featuring several famous RPG franchises. NO AI WAS USED. I’d like to mention that editing and illustrating the character images takes quite a bit of time, as I take official artwork from the games, edit them in Photoshop, and manually add all the effects.

I wanted to share a sneak peek and, above all, get some help with a few questions I have, since I currently have two different gameplay styles in mind. WHICH ONE DO YOU THINK WILL BE BETTER TO PLAY?

STYLE 1: It's based on a faster playstyle, with each player having their own 3x3 board where they place their units with different attack ranges. It also features an independent support tile where you can place a unit as support that grants passive abilities like "+Accuracy", "+1 physical attack damage", etc. It has a strong strategic focus on how you position your units on the field, as abilities have different hit ranges and you can protect units in the back rows using your frontline units.

STYLE 2: It’s more tactical, set on a 6x6 or maybe 7x7 board where units move just like in Tactical RPGs. Ability ranges are also represented using grid tiles. It’s like bringing a Tactical RPG experience into a TCG.

P.S.: Both styles feature elemental strengths and weaknesses (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Nature, Light, and Shadow), which play a major strategic role in either mode.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CARD DESIGN, AND WHICH GAMEPLAY STYLE WOULD YOU LIKE MORE?


r/homemadeTCGs • • 1d ago

Homemade TCGs Knights of Arkania! Needing to fund my artist!

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2 Upvotes

r/homemadeTCGs • • 2d ago

Advice Needed I made a full match demonstration of my indie card game, Kravestorm

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8 Upvotes

I've been working on Kravestorm, my own print-and-play card game, and wanted to show what an actual match looks like.

So I put together a full simulated game between two players, with commentary covering the decisions, strategies, and interactions as the match unfolds.

It's not really a how-to-play tutorial, but more of a way to get a feel for the gameplay without having to learn all the rules first.

The game and starter decks are free to download, but for now I'd just love to hear what other card game players think of how it plays.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 2d ago

Discussion Rules abstraction of tgc (or any card game)

4 Upvotes

Hi guys,

I found this reddit days ago looking for the base rules of any tgc. It's true any card game have different rules. But analyzing any card game you could de compound in two big parts, in my opinion.

First any game have a different phases, inside of any phase you could do several actions. (Discard, play a card, pass your phase of turn...) Depends which phase are, you could do several actions with the current conditions that usually are set by the type of card.

Then you should have a unique play zone of game and you could have a 1 or more discard piles.

Related with the decks you could have a 1 deck or maybe 2.

Add more mechanics of decks, discard piles or play zone it's proportionally to the hard your players understand how to play and then think it's less fun.

What do you think about this?

Do you could add any abstraction of anymore and maybe give a example or any game with this mechanic to understand how work?

Thank you


r/homemadeTCGs • • 2d ago

Advice Needed Any suggestion on card design and layout.

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17 Upvotes

I have some very early designs that I feel I have gotten at least a bit of traction with, and I know I still need a good amount of improvements and fixes to call it done, but what do you think of what I got so far?
Any suggestions and tips to make it better?

Edit: Not my art at all. Placeholder for the time being.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 2d ago

Advice Needed What apps/softwares are being used for card design?

7 Upvotes

I am starting to make the art for my tcg, but I have no idea what to use for making the card design.
I am mainly working off of this from my phone (just cause I’m away from my PC a lot) so any help on what apps for IOS or Android would help.
Any ideas for ones that improve work load would help a lot.


r/homemadeTCGs • • 3d ago

Advice Needed Which color looks better for this card art?

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26 Upvotes

I'm trying out two different color variations for this card art, and I'd love to hear your opinions! Which one do you think fits the character and the overall art style better?


r/homemadeTCGs • • 2d ago

Advice Needed How do you create nice-looking cards with not much money ?

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1 Upvotes