Creating a Card Game

In the past couple of months I have recently picked up the hobby of listening to podcasts at work. Originally introduced to the hobby through the Geeks of Steel and Order 66, has rekindled my enjoyment of playing paper and pencil RPGs, board games, and card games. So I've gotten with a game group to play some RPGs, taken a trip out to game stores, and started listening to The Dice Tower podcast. 

While visiting a nearby store, Underhill's Games, to purchase a copy of Settlers of Catan, I stumbled upon a small game called Love Letter hanging on the rack. It looked like a theme I could get my girlfriend into and play some games with her. Not one to make an impulse buy, I held off and promptly started a week of looking up reviews on the game. The game sounded fun and simple, and with only 15 cards, it was in a niche called microgames. With my incredibly unreasonable microphillia, I had to purchase this game. After playing it, I have to report that I love the game. This began a search for other games to add to my now established microgames collection. I purchased a game called Agent Hunter also by AEG. While the game wasn't as fun as Love Letter, the box and card art looks great, I like the theme, and with 20 cards it fits the microgame genre.

Wanting more, I stumbled across the game Coup, a simple game of bluffing. But when it came to purchasing the game, my efforts became fruitless. It appears that the game was only in print for a short run and that there is no place out there to buy it. I found that a new skinned version of it was up on Kickstarter, but with no release date information (and with a dislike of the artwork), I decided it was as good as nonexistent. I gave up looking for it.

One day while filling through some of the Geeks of Steel podcasts, I was listening to an episode when one of the cohost stammered and it sounded like he said "ice, ice" and I mentally put a "baby" after it. I laughed at myself and briefly wondered how cool it would be to have someone make a chopped up version of the Vanilla Ice song made with bits from the GoS. That's when it hit me. People on the internet create stuff like this all the time and we take that for granted. We think that stuff like the Internet Song just generated by a higher being called the internet. But it's not. It's created by someone who had an idea, put effort into it, and produced this piece of "art". So if it can be done with remixes and mash ups, why can't it be done with a card game? And with the age of the internet, finding the resources and production methods have become almost comically easy. 

So, over the past few weeks I have developed a friendship with The Game Crafter and put hours of effort into recreating this game. Being that it was already published, everything I am doing has been under Creative Commons and not for profit. I am working with friends who will be developing artwork for this project later, while I have chosen artwork from online for the time being.

It's been a lot of work, and a lot of fun. And as of Monday, I have sent out for my first prototype set. Over the next few days I will be posting artwork, insight, and photos of the prototype. I will also post reviews, comments, and quotes of people who I will ask for opinions. 

So, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I present: