r/homemadeTCGs

What kind of Meta do you want?

Naturally the cards and systems of a game will influence the meta that forms. What kind of meta are you designing for? Or do you just make cards?

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u/Comprehensive-Pen624 — 13 hours ago

The basic gameplay loop of your TCG

I've only recently started putting together my own TCG after watching the TCG from Scratch series on the ChaosGalaxyTCG YouTube channel. When I was younger I used to love drawing and I collected Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and DragonBall Z cards, and getting back into this has been a lot of fun.

So far I've decided on a setting, theme, archetypes and I've even already drawn some sketches of some of the creatures that I are going to be in the game. What I struggle with is the gameplay. I didn't want it to be too similar to any games that I am already aware of, but in coming up with my own rules I fear that I have made it a bit too convoluted.

The game is a two-player card battler. Each deck is a group of creatures scavenging for resources to survive. Those resources are represented by 20 tokens that are in a communal pool in the middle of the board. In the first couple of turns you focus on getting as many of these tokens as you can, but to win you need all 20, so eventually you will have to attack the other player. To summon some of the stronger creatures you would need to spend some of these tokens and put them back in the communal pool.

The second (hopefully) unique mechanic in this game is stealth. Both players have a stealth meter that goes up when attacking the other player. When the meter reaches a certain point they activate a special card on the opponent's board, which serves as a guardian of the communal pool of tokens within the story of the game. The players have to take care in selecting these guardian cards, as each of them also have drawbacks that might hurt the person that selected them.

Is this too much for a basic gameplay loop? What would you change? Are there any other mechanics I could implement or use to replace what I already have here?

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u/J_Hook89 — 11 hours ago

Some of the cards I made for my TCG (I need feedback)

All the cards are in Spanish, so I will try to translate their titles and descriptions

(The images are for reference when creating the illustrations)

Polymorph:

Target object or creature loses all abilities and becomes a flame creature with 1/1 base power and toughness.

Aztec Warrior:

When Aztec Warrior dies, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.

Devourer of White Oriko:

Onslaught.

When Oriko Devourer enters the battlefield, banish all creatures named Oriko Devourer, except for this card.

Fenrir:

Armor Breaker.

Fenrir can't be blocked by more than one creature.

At the beginning of your upkeep, create a 1/1 yellow wolf token.

Priest of Anubis:

When an opposing creature dies, you gain 1 life.

Ares:

Haste.

Whenever a creature attacks, Ares gets +1/+0 until end of turn.

Chōchin Obake:

This creature cannot attack. (Guardian)

Reanimated Army:

All your undead creatures are placed on the battlefield upon drawing it

("Exanime" it's the elegant way of saying "not dead" in Spanish)

u/Responsible-Dig2049 — 10 hours ago
▲ 0 r/homemadeTCGs+1 crossposts

Spell Chain TCG - Focus Mana Artwork ¦ Kickstarter Now Live

Hello! I hope everyone has had a good week and is doing well.

The artist I've been working with, Ivanwithvodka, has created another fantastic llustration for Spell Chain TCG, Focus Mana. I really like how Ivan was able to capture the concentrating of mana in this artwork, very accurately representing the effect of the card.

The card itself is a very good combo piece, allowing the player to hit very high damage numbers if used with other flat buffs from continuous spells or summons (this way you get more space in the Spell Chain itself). For instance if you have Heat Wave (fire spells deal +1 damage) and Densify Mana (all attack spells deal +1 damage) in the continuous zone, and in the spell chain you play Mana Overload (ALL spells this chain deal double damage) Focus Mana, Focus Mana, Fireball (deal 1 damage), then assuming your opponent does not interfere with any of the combo, your Fireball will deal 16 damage (1+1+1+1x2x2). And this really highlights the nature of Spell Chain, building strategies around comboing spells and interrupting your opponent's combos. You don't want them to do this combo to you.

The bigger the combos you try, the deeper you will have to consider the mechanics of Spell Chain, especially turn order. If you go second, then the last card played is yours. This means that it cannot be interuppted with counter cards as their is no card space preceding it.

If you're interested in more than just the artwork, check out the Spell Chain TCG Kickstarter.

Have a great day everyone.

u/SpellChainTCG — 18 hours ago

Just use your art, not AI. Stop using AI for your images, even in prototypes

All of thses are drawn on my phone with HiPaint for a smaller game on the side. All yhe assets are made there. Its on android. The app was 5 dollars. I use a stylus I get in a pack of 3 for 5 dollars on amazon. Just use your own art or even just sketches. So many people say they have sketches they use as reference for AI, just use those sketches. Stop using Ai

u/Squire-of-Singleton — 1 day ago

Sharing because he's cute and I'm proud of it

Drew this fella the other day and am proud of myself for working away at it. I don't create art professionally and only started doing stuff like this 2-years ago when I began work on the game. I wanted to share because he's cute and makes me happy.

Basic background, he's a yellow turtle with a cat-helmet. He has three brothers. All are fierce little defenders of the elements like Thunder Cat. Fun characters to have in the game.

1-card left to review and the first set - 111-cards - is ready!

u/ObeliskNight — 17 hours ago

[K.O. INC] Prototype Cards Are Here

You can now play the current beta version of K.O. INC on the Steam Workshop. WorkshopLink

An official Discord server has also been opened for ongoing development and playtesting. Players can join test sessions, follow development updates, and access the latest rulebook and card list. DiscordLink

u/OrdoVii — 1 day ago
▲ 51 r/homemadeTCGs+3 crossposts

I made a PV for my digital card game.

I'm making a deckbuilding roguelike where you play as an employee at a trading card game company, releasing card packs and battling dissatisfied players.

I finally finished a proper promotional video for it.

I'm not an expert on making trailers, so I structured it like this:

- First, opening card packs to showcase the artwork.
- Then, introducing the game's core systems.
- Finally, ending with the main attraction: TCG-inspired card battles.

I'd love to hear what you think about the pacing, structure, or anything else that stands out.

Steam page :
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3569850/TCG/?beta=0

u/Shedinja997 — 2 days ago

My first batch of illustrations from my artists

I'm having multiple artists as I plan to have atleast 200 cards in the base set release. 3 of these are from 1 artist. Let me know what you think

u/beeftitan69 — 2 days ago

My Prototypes for Power One I’ve been working on it all on my own.

Again prototypes let me know what you guys think.

u/Kaichi1230 — 2 days ago
▲ 47 r/homemadeTCGs+3 crossposts

Some cleaner cards from EXQUISITE.

I often post more complex cards from my game, so I thought I'd show some simple ones.

For context, the bottom left is attack, bottom right is hit points and Tribe if any. The top right is faction and body part, build cost. Top Left is sacrificial ability, often defensive.

Trophy is Bonus ability for when you connect character art together, as seen here.

The second image is to show how this game can get weird and open up some cool design space.

I'm curious, based on something like this, would you be interested in learning more, knowing this was a TCG? Are there any questions that come to mind?

u/Puzzled-Professor-89 — 3 days ago

How many cards should I make for a card game?

So.. Im creating my first card game and im doing it with just a pencil (even if I'm not very good at drawing. MAYBE I'm mid, idk I'll put a photo of some cards) so it takes time and, when I finished my last card, i asked to myself: how many should I make minimum?? So yeah pls answer xd

u/FinnWolfhardWeLoveU — 3 days ago
▲ 25 r/homemadeTCGs+1 crossposts

Is My New Dinosauria TCG Template Better?

The first image is my new card and the second is the old one. I'm pretty happy with how the new template turned out, but I would like some feedback from the community in terms of what you would rate it 1-10 both in general and in comparison to the old one. I am aware of several issues that I need to fix, such as trimming the texture to avoid the fossils, changing the font for the ability description, and adding a background. Any feedback is appreciated!

u/-Dinosauria_TCG- — 3 days ago
▲ 17 r/homemadeTCGs+4 crossposts

Here Be Monsters TCG - New card game partnered with Team Covenant

Hey, I am a fan of this game and wanted to send this around. From the Team Covenant video:

"Here Be Monsters is a new pirate trading card game that hearkens to the Pokemon TCG side of the big three (yellow borders, spectacular foiling, iconic characters, kid-friendly) while also embodying the "LCG" side of the hobby by offering full playsets of every set (in addition to booster boxes). Somehow it's also a brilliantly strategic game that hits that TCG brain in a big way."

All of the art was done by co-creator Carson using Apple Keynote!

The link to their Kickstarter in below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/herebemonsters/here-be-monsters-expandable-pirate-card-game

youtu.be
u/GatesofDelirium — 3 days ago
▲ 9 r/homemadeTCGs+2 crossposts

What changes should i make to my handmade tcg template

Should i use fineliner pen

Should i include the info that will be on every card on the template, like set name, date, illustrater, stat names etc

What other changes

The border will be the colour of the rarity, so im not doing it for the template

u/Stazy67 — 4 days ago

Are these card designs effectively descriptive? How would you try to play this game with just this information?

The text placement formatting got messed up when I export it for some reason, but only for individual cards. If anyone knows what causes this in dexterous I'd love to know.

The "Part" is a "ARM". Don't feel like re-exporting it bweh.

Edit: I'm not forgetting to credit the artist I'm the artist I just haven't changed it on the card yet... Still finalizing designs! Any kind of feedback would be appreciated, really :)

Love you mwah <3

u/minty_soda — 4 days ago

Pivoting my card game to a PnP Patreon model. Am I making a mistake?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on my card game, Kravestorm, for a while now. I’ve reached a point where I have to decide how to actually get it into people's hands.

Honestly, I’ve realized that trying to go the traditional physical production route (Kickstarter, mass printing, shipping, logistics) is just not realistic for me. I’m a solo dev, and the idea of managing fulfillment and supply chains feels like a way to guarantee burnout and lose focus on the actual game design.

So, I’m seriously considering shifting it into a 100% Print and Play subscription model via Patreon. The plan would be to release the core set (320 cards) at launch, then launch a small expansion (50–70 cards) every Solstice and Equinox (every three months). Patrons would get all the curated files to print it easily either at home, at a copy center or at Make Playing Cards (if they fancy something more professional), and after 3 months the set files would move into the Patreon shop for public availability.

I’m drawn to this because it might keep the game "living" and community focused (and my goal is to always have a "game first", rather than a collectible). Also, patrons would get voting power on design decisions, access to playtesting, etc.

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever tried this specific "Expandable Card Game PnP" Patreon model and if this seems like a promising model idea or rather delusional :D

Appreciate any thoughts or warnings you might have!

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u/JesusVaderScott — 4 days ago

How can i improve the back for my cards besides centering

My tcg is based on sci fi vs fantasy. Aka future vs past, which gives the colours on the back.

Both factions or eras are at the same time, so thats why its called anachron tcg.

u/Stazy67 — 5 days ago