How To Make A Card Game In 30 Easy Steps

No Show Conference 2012 - Andrea Shubert

Have you ever played a strategy or trading card game and thought about making one yourself? Andrea Jennifer Shubert will walk you through the process of digitally and physically prototyping a game, from layouts and templates to wording and card art. Then comes the printing, cutting, sleeving, and collating physical cards, and eventually putting together sets for digital playtesting.

In the presentation, Andrea will describe the four stages of her prototyping process, and how to avoid common mistakes in them:

Design -- What game are we making? What lessons can we learn from prior card games?
Pre-production -- What art resources are there? Which apps can we use to quickly make cards?
Production -- What are we printing our cards out on — stickers? Card stock? Paper? How do we make decks for playtest?
Playtest -- In what format do we present the cards? Boosters or decks (for a TCG)? Playmat? Rules? Self-guided or managed?
This presentation is good for anyone who ever wanted to make a card game, and ideal for those trying to bring a card game to market.