A Card's Journey

Here's the next in the $10 Patron behind the scenes posts. This time, the journey of a card through the process of its creation.

Our baby card first starts as an idea on a spreadsheet. Like this one:

There's two major components to the card ideation process. This first is creating a set of 13 cards that work together to make the new transformation. There's a few effects every card set needs to have like heart generation, shield generation, TF generation and some sort of multiple card draw effect. From there, it's about figuring out what unique effects can be added to make the transformation different. All these cards are built around the central mechanic of the transformation. 

The second major process is creating the names for the cards. Honestly, coming up with 13 names that make thematic sense and fit the cards effects can be harder than designing what the cards do. These names are then assigned to each card providing is theme. This theme then decides what the art, player thoughts, and sidebar gifs will be.

After the whole card set has the design finished and names assigned, the next step is to make the images of the cards.

For this I use a program called Gimp. What image software is used isn't particularly important though, if you want to make your own cards use whatever you're familiar with. The cards are made with a set of standardized icons, so it's a pretty fast process of plugging in whatever assets the cards need. Usually I just use an already made similar card and change the numbers, names and art. 

After the card is made it's time for the final step, actually putting it in the game. For most cards this is a pretty simple process, as the back end stuff of programming what the new transformations effects do ill already be done and all that's needed is a few function calls.

From there, the card needs to be tested for functionality and balance. The card is now in the game, but it stall has to have gifs and thoughts associated with it. This process usually takes longer than the actual card creation process.

There you go, how a card goes from an idea to implemented in the game. This process has been done over 180 times for the current incarnation of TF Card Battle, and by the time .6 is done, there will be more than 200 cards in the game! I hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes, and if you didn't and would like some other sort of content for the $10 tier, let me know.