In today’s article, I am going to be examining card drafting, and how to design a set to draft well. Normally I try to make my articles applicable to as many different games as possible, but today I am going to try something a bit different. Today I am going to be focusing entirely on…
Read MoreA Re-Source of Pride: Designing Resource Systems in Collectible Games
Last week I started a new series of articles diving deep into various topics dealing with game design. Today’s topic continues this series with a look at designing resource systems. This article will be mostly focused on collectible games, especially trading card games. In this article I will be looking at why to include a…
Read MoreDigging Deep with Power Creep
This Time For Real! A few weeks back, I wrote a pair of articles where I gave my thoughts on the basic game design of Yu-Gi-Oh, which you can find here (part 1 and part 2). I originally wrote those articles with the intention of providing a comprehensive look at the positive and negative aspects…
Read MoreThe Rise of the Golden Age of Tabletop Games
Tabletop games have been around since nearly the dawn of civilization. For thousands of years, people all over the planet have gathered around a board and competed against eachother in games of luck and skill. Even relatively modern games, such as Monopoly, have been around for over 100 years! And yet, despite it’s long history…
Read MoreDeep Dive: Is Yu-Gi-Oh a Bad Game? Part 2
Last week I started talking about the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading card game, in order to figure out why it has grown and changed the way it has. Since it’s creation, Yu-Gi-Oh has steadily become more and more convoluted, difficult to learn, and less user-friendly. In this series, I hoped to uncover why this has happened –…
Read MoreDeep Dive: Is Yu-Gi-Oh A Bad Game? Part 1
For a huge portion of my childhood, Yu-Gi-Oh was my favorite game of all. I played it every day with my friends, spent way too much of my parents money on it, and even went to a couple of tournaments. However, in the past few years I have found it more and more difficult to…
Read MoreOoh Shiny! The Power of Rarity in Collectible Card Games
One of my favorite types of games is the Trading Card Genre. Few feelings can beat the excitement of opening a new random pack and seeing what is inside. True, most of the cards will probably end up in a dusty box under a bed somewhere, but one card can make it all worth it.…
Read MoreGame Design for All Ages
For many, board games were a constant feature of childhood. I remember many of the early board games that I played as a child, from Candyland to Chutes and Ladders. As I got older, however, I outgrew those childish games and moved on to new challenges – Monopoly, Clue, Risk, and many others. When you…
Read MoreHunting Whales: The Problem with “Free-to-play” Games
Before I begin, I just want to apologize for not posting recently. These last few weeks have been very busy with finals and projects due, so I haven’t had much time to work on the article. This article is also quite long, and required more research than usual. That being said, lets jump into it!…
Read MoreKaijudon’t Go Breaking My Heart
This week I am going to try something a bit different, and talk about the history of the collectible card game Kaijudo. This is one of my personal favorite stories in gaming history, and I hope that you will enjoy it as well. Without further ado, lets get started! The Magic Touch The story of…
Read More