Thursday means a new @FloppyKnights design thread!

It's time to talk about word equity!

- How/why do card games keep word counts low?

- How do digital card games take advantage of their digital nature?

- How is this used in Floppy Knights?

#indiedev #gamedev #gamedesign

Concise word use is constantly considered in gamedev. From localization budgets to player retention, the presentation and distribution of information to a player is directly linked to their retention.

Arguably, this is even more important for card games.

In a single-player experience, complicated cards are hard to parse in the deckbuilding and usage phase.

In a multiplayer experience, having to read your opponent a book (or have them know each card explicitly) demands extremely high investment, both in-game and out.

By utilizing the digital aspects of deck-building games, designers are able to cut down on the amount of words per card with two methods: Structure and Terms.

Structure is the organization of words on the card. Digital card games follow the format of (verb) (quantity) (term) (location).

Add (verb) 2 (quantity) CARDTHINGS (term) to your Hand (location).

Terms here are game-specific. What's a Wound? What's a Rock? You'll find out via tooltips and generation, and through time invested you'll know the term enough to not need the tip.

Presenting bite-sized info allows players to smoothly learn new terms (driven by deck personality)

This is not to say that cards can't still have depth and have to be simple. Hearthstone's Ysera is a fantastic example and one of my favorite cards for exactly this reason.

"Dream Card" is one of five different cards that can be randomly added. Hearthstone uses its digital nature to hide all of this math and perform it for you.

An analog Ysera card would have to say something like "roll a d10, on a 1-2, draw Dream. On a 3-4..."

I firmly and passionately believe videogames should do things ONLY videogames can do, otherwise we're underutilizing the medium.

By utilizing structure and terms, digital deck-building and card games get to both hide the math AND create videogame only mechanics.

How many cards get wild in Floppy Knights? You'll have to wishlist the game on Steam and keep a keen eye out to see!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1057800/Floppy_Knights/

#indiedev #gamedev #gamedesign