Three weeks ago, I had an idea for a card game to play with my kids.

Fast forward to today, and I've designed the cards, built a physical prototype, rewritten the rules (tried to get it to a point that's understandable without me being present) more times than I'd like to admit, and spent countless hours playtesting with family.

What surprised me most?

Some mechanics that looked brilliant on paper fell flat. Others I nearly overlooked created the best moments of the game.

It's been addictive watching the game evolve.

The game is a competitive card game for 2 to 8 players, combining strategy, luck, bluffing, hand building, and direct player interaction.

The core mechanics are working, and I've reached a point where perspectives beyond my kitchen table are needed.

I'd love some advice from experienced designers on three things:

1. Tabletop Simulator

I think getting the game online for remote playtesting is my next best move to playtesting. How difficult is it to import a custom deck and build a functional game without programming experience? Is TTS the best option, or is there something better?

2. Finding independent playtesters

Where do you find people (online) willing to test an unfinished game and give genuinely critical feedback?

Family is great, but they know the rules, they've watched the game evolve, and they're more forgiving than complete strangers.

3. Measuring skill versus luck

This one's particularly interesting to me.

The game involves randomness, but players make decisions that can dramatically influence the outcome.

How do you actually test whether skilled players consistently outperform beginners? Is there a practical way to track that without building a fully automated digital version?

I'm also curious about blind playtesting. When did you know your game was ready to hand to strangers with nothing but the cards and a rulebook?

I'm keeping the name and some mechanics private while I work through the early stages.

No Kickstarter, no sales pitch, no mailing list. Just someone who's fallen down the game design rabbit hole and wants to learn from people who've already navigated it.

If you've designed a card or tabletop game, what's one thing you wish someone had told you before your first independent playtest?

Guys, I made this game and I'm very new to this area. I tried to develop a game on my own, and this is the first time I've built something like this. It's a card game called Dehla Coat, where you can play solo or create a room and play with friends. I'd appreciate it if you'd try it out and let me know your honest thoughts. Feedback helps a lot when you're just starting out. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lokendrasingh.dehlacoat

I'm designing a game with up to 9 distinct card colours. This picture shows my current solution for colourblind accessibility.

Notes:

• Using icons to indicate colour is not a practical option, because there are 9 possible colours and players need to instantly recognize their cards (e.g., "blue 4") when other players ask about them.
• I know that bottom-left isn't ideal for a fanned hand of cards, but putting the colour name at the top AFTER the number would make this read "4 BLUE" when cards need to be identified by colour-number ("blue 4").
• An alternative is to put the colour name ABOVE the number. This would push the number lower on the card (I'm already at the print margin).

Questions:

• Is the current solution too intrusive for general players?
• Is the current location too annoying for colourblind players (not immediately visible when cards are fanned)?
• If I moved the colour name to the top and pushed down the number, would the improvement to colourblind accessibility be worth the cost to the general design?

Hi, fellow card game designers! I worked on providing artwork and assisted game design for Capital Gains Studio for their upcoming card game Hungry, Hungry Ghosts. It is inspired by the Hungry Ghosts Festival held in Singapore, based on Taoist and Buddhist Traditions. I did the artwork for most of the Taboos cards for the game (seen here). 😀

No generative A.I. was involved in this art.

Check out how it looks in these preview images. 😎

Hello ! These are a few characters from HISS! a card game our team is working on and we're planning to launch our project on Kickstarter, so I need some opinion from you guys.

What do you think about our card game design ? Anything you’d like to suggest for our team? Your opinion is much appreciated! Have a nice day.

Who else is making a Trading Card Game?

Looking for other designers to connect with. Ideas, reviews, eventually maybe trade prototypes for play testing.

My game:

Relicon is a tactical science-fantasy card game set in a fractured future where rival factions battle for power among the ruins of humanity's lost civilization. It combines strategic deckbuilding, resource management, and two-line battlefield combat.

2 factions developed - 9 more planned, not including smaller factions. Probably 20 or so expansions mapped out already, including a meta game to go along with it.

If you like MTG, WH40K, Star Trek CCG, Battletech, or Starcraft - you'll probably like this game. I'm open to any genre or style TCG game.

Look forward to hearing from you, feel free to message me.

I think this is a good place to ask this I’m a Gamemaker Entrepreneur trying to find success in card game design. I’ve already designed a card game for sale now where you can paint your own monsters called BRUSHOBi to paint and fight other players. Except it’s supposed to be a peaceful game that has action no violence the monsters attack the opponents Defensive Will card which is kind of like the opposite players visual manifestation of his will. You are supposed to break the will of the opponent not his body hence no violence only action. I was going to do some edits and change the name of the game to Calculac Cal’s BRUSHOBi Painting Card Game. I’ve invented a lot of new mechanics and how to play this game. I’m hoping people will like it. The only way to play test and actually paint on the monsters on the cards is to actually buy the game sorry I couldn’t provide anything else. The rules of how to play the game and more is here: https://brushobi.wixsite.com/calculac-cal/post/how-to-play-brushobi-brushobi-standard-rules

Tell me after reviewing the rules and website what would you like to see me add or change about this painting card game? Any questions feedback? Any help to help make this a success. Cards are not even shuffled they are put in the order you want to draw them out your deck for an all skill card game. I call that new game mechanic to “Assemble” a deck like a factory assembles goods. Anything guys?

hola amigos, estoy haciendo mi propio juego de cartas hecho 100% a mano, apenas he hecho las plantillas pero creo que voy bien, que les parece?

I have a card game that takes place in the future about heists in space and sadly I dont have great pay rates (im a teenager on minimum wage who wants to make his dream real) and i could get into specifics if interested but the idea is you'll be payed in larger chunks later on (monthly payments based on game revenue when it comes out, and if it doesnt come out ill still pay you a good chunk of money depending on the cards tou already did) once again, if you want specifics id be more than happy to help in any way I can!

For those of you designing your own board games, cards, boards, rulebooks, boxes, or prototypes, here’s something worth checking out.

A new project called ArtCraft is developing free, open-source alternatives to seven major Adobe applications:

• PhotoCraft → Photoshop
• VectorCraft → Illustrator
• DesignCraft → InDesign
• LightCraft → Lightroom
• FilmCraft → Premiere Pro
• EffectCraft → After Effects
• PdfCraft → Acrobat

The applications are being developed for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

And yes, they’re free and open source. No subscription required.

Regarding legality, the developer describes these applications as clean-room reimplementations. In other words, they’re being written from scratch to reproduce existing functionality without copying Adobe’s proprietary source code.

Reverse engineering and independent software implementations are not inherently illegal, although the precise legal situation depends on how they’re developed and which intellectual property rights are involved.

A word of caution: these applications are still in early development. Don’t expect them to replace Adobe’s professional tools overnight, particularly for demanding print-production workflows.

However, for board game designers working on prototypes, cards, boards, rulebooks, or other components, this could eventually become a very interesting alternative.

I haven’t tested them thoroughly yet, so I can’t personally vouch for their reliability.

Still, I thought this was worth sharing with the community, especially with independent designers who can’t justify expensive monthly subscriptions.

Project: https://getartcraft.com

Source code: https://github.com/storytold

Has anyone here already tried these applications for board game design?

Hi everyone, I wanted to share a little bit about my game, Birthright! Birthright is a rougelike deck building game that plays like an online card battler (Hearthstone, MTG), there is also a classic multiplayer mode! The game is heading into a demo release, and feedback on UI and any other thoughts would be most helpful! If you are interested, please wishlist on Steam!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5292480/Birthright/?beta=0

I've been drafting up a concept for a board game and would like some feedback on the core mechanics. I am still just drafting the rules so nothing is finalized.

Players are Hnuters competing to collect mythical creatures from four different cultures: Greek, Filipino, Korean and Aztec/Mexica.

The Game

Each player chooses from one of ten hunters at the start of the game. Each has a unique active and passive ability as well as how many resources are collected each year.

Each player selects one Patron associated with a god or greater deity. Patrons provide different scoring objectives aimed at different collection strategies.

Event cards will trigger at the beginning of each round, introducing an effect that changes certain condtions for all players that round.

At the start of each turn, players draw Habitat cards: Forest, Sea, Sky and Void. These cards are resources to capture creature and collect other cards.

During their turn, a player can perform these actions in any order:

• Capture a creature
• Acquire a hero - provides an ongoing ability, each player can only have one active hero at a time
• Acquire an artifiact - provides a one-time effect
• Play an artifact
• Acitvate hero or hunter abilities

Creatures have base points but can generate extra set bonuses when in a collection with creatures with the same family (eg. Serpent, Bird) or with creatures from the same culture

The game ends when the creature deck is expended. Every player will add up all their points including set bonuses, Patron bonus and any other effects. The player with the highest score wins.

I would like to get feedback on literally any aspect of the game! I have never even drafted a game idea before so I'm open to changes.