u/zmmemon

Hi everyone, I'm Zain! I'm the lead designer and creator of Trials of Maya. This is the first time ToM is coming Gen Con, and we will be hosting play sessions for the whole duration of the con. Can't wait to meet you all!

Play all 4 Days

Trials of Maya is an expandable card-driven combat game. Command asymmetric, unique Champions across various game modes that each reward a different kind of tactical skill. You'll be among the first in the world, to try our combat game system. It's been designed from the systems up, to be extensible, fair and accessible while bringing endless strategic depth. Book your slots now!

Is Trials of Maya for you?

ToM is a love letter to MOBAs, tactics games and card games. If you're a fan of any of these genres, then you'll find ToM to be right up your alley! Whether you're an experienced strategist, or completely new, our combat system will be equally friendly regardless.

Win a free copy of the game, daily!

Simply joining a play session makes you eligible to win a free copy of the game! It's absolutely free to enter, and we're giving away one copy daily, across all 4 days. Being at our booth, in-person during announcement time, increases your odds! (This way, we can justify your walk back)

Requirements

For 2-4 players, you can try our 1v1, Free-for-All and 2v2 modes. Our lead game designers will teach you the system from scratch. You don't need any prior knowledge to get started!

Find the slot that works for you here. We're running all day, throughout all four days. See you at Gen Con!

Hi all,

Sharing my final progress on the Action Cards for 'Trials of Maya', a battle arena ECG. The Action cards are the base units of the game, that you construct decks with for use during play.

Dropping the progress here in case anyone can value from seeing the process. The first one is the final version, and you can swipe to see the prototypes.

Happy to hear all your feedback and any questions. (Reposting this because there were some edits on the cards)

Hi all,

Sharing my final progress on the Action Cards for 'Trials of Maya', a battle arena ECG. The Action cards are the base units of the game, that you construct decks with for use during play.

Dropping the progress here in case anyone can value from seeing the process. The first one is the final version, and you can swipe to see the prototypes.

Happy to hear all your feedback and any questions. (Reposting this because there were some edits on the cards)

Hi all, sharing progress over the years of the Action cards, in Trials of Maya. It's an arena-based expandable card game. The first image shows the newest card design, and you can scroll to see the 2 prototype versions.

The Action Cards afford base actions, as well as extra effects and combo modifiers. You build and optimise your action tableau through the game, by pulling from a deck that you construct and customize before play.

A huge aspect of the design process was to create a bespoke symbol language to efficiently convey at-a-glance information that was also intuitive and minimized mental overhead. The UI itself was heavily simplified but also polished to get it here.

Always curious to hear your thoughts and criticisms. Fire away!

---

This is part of a series of posts, where I'm showcasing each component of the game because I think there are some interesting design decisions in here that might be valuable to share.

Link to Post 1 (The Logo)

Hey everyone, really excited to share final progress on 'Trials of Maya', a combat boardgame I've been working on for over 3 years. I wanted to go all out for the final version of the game slated to launch this year and so it's been months of deep, principled design based off a revamped art direction.

The challenge from the start, was to define the aesthetic of the shifting, looping brutality of the simulation space where Trials of Maya battles take place, while also trying to spearhead an original visual take on the genre blend of science-fantasy. Here especially, I wanted to go beyond classic oldstyle fantasy and hyper-modern sci-fi and synthesize something new. Each main facet of the art direction represents a core theme of the game's lore and mood.

The new art direction:

Crimson Red Smoke (simulation), Iridescent White Shimmer (character powers), Gold (accents and material)

The old art direction:

Indigo Halftones (simulation), Violet-Red (character powers) and Magenta gemstone/blown glass (accents and material)

'Trials' is custom lettering, fused with the existing 'Maya' logo from my sci-fantasy universe.

I'd love to know what you guys think. How does the design and finishing reflect the intended mood and themes? It's also been tricky trying to define the genre of Trials too. After a lot of back and forth, I'm going with 'arena-based expandable card game'

Hey everyone, really excited to share final progress on 'Trials of Maya', a combat boardgame I've been working on for over 3 years. I wanted to go all out for the final version of the game slated to launch this year and so it's been months of deep, principled design based off a revamped art direction.

The challenge from the start, was to define the aesthetic of the shifting, looping brutality of the simulation space where Trials of Maya battles take place, while also trying to spearhead an original visual take on the genre blend of science-fantasy. Here especially, I wanted to go beyond classic oldstyle fantasy and hyper-modern sci-fi and synthesize something new. Each main facet of the art direction represents a core theme of the game's lore and mood.

The new art direction:

Crimson Red Smoke (simulation), Iridescent White Shimmer (character powers), Gold (accents and material)

The old art direction:

Indigo Halftones (simulation), Violet-Red (character powers) and Magenta gemstone (accents and material)

'Trials' is custom lettering, fused with the existing 'Maya' logo from my sci-fantasy universe.

I'd love to know what you guys think! How does the design and finishing reflect our intended mood and themes?