Flag Bearer (W.I.P)
Physical Trading Card Game / Tutorial App
Game: Flag Bearer is a trading card game where you try to beat your opponent by attacking their flag bearer while leveling up your own side of the board.
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Genre: TCG, CCG, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
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Platform: Physical
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Engine: The tutorial app is made in Unreal Engine, while the cards themselves and all related art are made in Clip Studio Paint.
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Development Time: The concepting phase of the game took around 9 weeks with playtesting and changing mechanics; another 15 weeks were spent making and updating cards, effects, and mechanics, while 8 weeks were spent so far on designing the tutorial app. 12 weeks have been spent playtesting the effects and mechanics of the game, which then provided feedback that was used to update the cards and mechanics. Development is still ongoing, but so far it has taken 44 weeks in total.
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Team Members: 1 Designer (Me) - 1 Programmer (Me) - 8 Character/Card Artist (Outsource) - 1 UI Artist (Me).
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Origin: After being disappointed in how a different card game approached its balance and mechanics, I decided to do it myself and started developing a card game so that I would have the last say in how and what would be added to it. I also wanted to give less big artists the chance to make a name for themselves, so these artists became the art outsourcers for this game.
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My Responsibilities:
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Prototyping.
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Designing the card boarder and UI/UX.
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Card Effects and Balancing.
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Guiding Card Character Art Outsource.
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Overall gameplay mechanics.
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Leading Meetings.
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Setting up playtests and QA.
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Making and updating cards and mechanics.
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Developing the tutorial app.
I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do, and to start testing it out, I started making proxies for multiple card layout ideas on paper and made multiple decks that could be used to test these ideas.
The idea for the play field was a combination of multiple card games and how their field looks. The base layout stayed the same throughout most testing and update phases, but how these certain areas work gameplay-wise has changed throughout the development cycle.
After a few playtests and feedback sessions, I decided to make the first layout of the cards on the PC while using chess terms and images to give instant recognition to each type of card. After printing out these cards, I made enough for two decks that could be used for playtesting by people outside of my local group of people.
The card proxies I made were using "Buddyfight" cards for stability so that people playtesting the game would be able to shovel and hold the cards in a way that they didn't have to be scared about damaging the proxies. At this stage, I hadn't made a physical layout of the playing field yet, so off-screen, the players would have a laptop with the playing field visible to them on it and cards with the rules on them next to them to refer to if they didn't know something. I wanted to make sure that the game was understandable enough without my interference.
Layout
Version 2
Version 3
Version 4
Version 5
Final Version
At a certain point, I started updating the card boarder design because I had received feedback that the grey and white boarders weren't clear enough when looking at them and that it took a lot of effort to read the text on the cards as well. I started with a layout in Clip Studio Paint where I could turn on and off layers depending on what the card would need for information. Then I started to give it some colors and change these colors and opacities until I got to the final version, where I was happy with the layout and the colors and information were readable enough for players.
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Each card would show the card's level, whether it was used to upgrade or if it was a spell card. If the card had a level, it would also have attack and defense stats, and depending on the type of card, a support stat that could boost the attack or defense of a different card. Any card could also get a last wish effect, which would only trigger if it was checked for damage, and an effect that had separate activation possibilities, like a counter for the opponent's turn or when playing the card onto the field. There were also the name and the attributes, which would be important for deck creation eventually, as I wanted each deck to only focus on one attribute without being able to combine them.
Because I had most of the assets already, I started the tutorial app off with a test level where I could test out prototypes. The first one was a test where a deck that was typed out in a data table was set up on the playing field. Then cards were sent from the top of the deck to the hand and the life deck on the left, which then had the top one revealed face up beside it.
Because the cards and deck were made of data table information, the deck itself was constantly the same every time it was rendered. I made a randomization mechanic that simulates a shuffle in a deck. Meaning that every draw and placement would be consistent, not random, at the moment of confirmation.
Because of the angles of the cards and the overlapping of them, I made a function that most card game sims have where you can hover over a card to get a separate version of it that is easier to read.
The playing of cards is also simulated with button presses. Because the position of a card is important for strategy, I wasn't able to just have one button for the "Play" comment but had to specify in which spot the card would be played. This was the same moment where I made the functionality of drawing a card from the top of the deck.
After playing, the player also needs to be able to attack their opponent. For the playing functionality, I made it so you can select through a button. After pressing the button, the stats of the player card and the opponent card are shown to inform the players who have won.
All Current Cards:
