Games are fun, and whilst they are also hard work, designing games can be incredibly fun and rewarding as well, as you see your graphical and game design come to life.
It also creates incredible passion in the players who love your game as well, with some games becoming so loved actual petitions are made to turn them into Olympic Events.
However, one bizarre quirk that Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as the other two most popular card games available at the moment have is that they are not just card games, and need dice, counters, coins and sometimes a pen and paper to keep track of the game as it is being played.
When you choose to print flash cards online for the first time to test a new idea or new deck of cards, should you need any other objects to play, or should you make your game so the deck is enough?
Not Just Card Games
To play Magic the Gathering, you need a deck of cards, but you also need a counter that keeps track of your life points as you play through the game and take damage. You also need counters, dice or another way to keep track of individual cards as they get more or less powerful.
The Pokemon card game comes not only with a deck of cards, but also a coin to determine which player gets to go first as well as the effects of certain cards, as well as life counters that track damage, status counters that track effects and a GX counter to track once-per-match special moves.
Yu-Gi-Oh seemingly does not need anything other than a notepad to keep track of life points but certain cards ask the players to roll six-sided dice or flip a coin for its effects, which can be confusing at times since other decks need nothing other than the cards themselves.
Typically, accessories are used to keep track of the effects of cards themselves or a resource the player has, or they are used to add a random element to the game, and so long as the extra pieces are cheap and easy to find, this is not necessarily an issue.
Other games blur the lines a little more, such as the elaborate game of marbles that is Bakugan, but with card games, it is important to try and avoid either turning into a toy set or a board game with a deck of cards included.
Possibly the most extreme example of this was Eye of Judgement, a 2007 card game that required a Playstation 3 games console (retailing at up to £400 at the time), a dedicated camera, stand, playmat and video game, in addition to a deck of cards.
This was because the cards would be read by the video game and lead to special effects that would be impossible in a physical card game but the sheer price proved to be an insurmountable barrier to entry and the game only lasted three years before being discontinued.
Immaculate Game
One concept that has arisen as a result of games like Eye of Judgement is the concept of the “immaculate game”, which is a card game that only needs the cards themselves.
The card effects track themselves and the game’s victory condition is measured with other cards, either by making the deck itself the player’s amount of life or by drawing cards at the start of the game and having these cards be picked up as the game progresses.
This system is possibly best known as the Prize Card system in Pokemon, although it has also been used in games such as Duel Masters and Dragonball Super. Both of these cards use a resource system where any card can be turned into a resource to play cards as well.
The recent Digimon Card Game does something similar by including an energy card with every deck and booster pack, which allows two players to track the game’s only resource not tracked by the cards themselves and their interactions.
Done right, it can be a great way to streamline game rules and get people to play your game without needing to carry extra bits and pieces. Having effects that do not need to be tracked beyond the player’s turn, using card placement and facing can work just as well as tokens and dice for some games.
Done wrong, however, and you end up with games where most of a deck of cards serves only as a life resource.
Accessories are a tool that can benefit some games, and what is best for your homemade game will largely depend on the rules you design for it.
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