Realizing you've designed the same game

[darkdrgon2136]

Hi everyone, its been a while since i've posted here (so long I think my old account was deleted).

I've been developing a card game for the past year now, and i'm just finalizing the rules now. While doing research on other games (read: reading demos/old rule books), i've found out my central game mechanic is really similar to a couple of other ones out there, and its really bummed me out. I don't want to scrap the whole concept, as I think i've made a fun game (my playtesters seem to think so, anyway), but seeing that my central idea has been done before is a bit of a blow. Has anyone else experienced those feelings?

[DavidChaos]

I've experienced this with my game; there are a few similarities to Magic that are pretty hard to live down, namely a card-based resource system in which you spend to play cards.  But there are other subtle differences, and other major differences as well, including the combat and stat system, and the focus of the mechanics (Not to mention having 6 elements instead of 5).

But as for you, my advice is to compare the two games; my game kind of started as more of a medieval variant on Naruto with no element system at all and sort of evolved from there.  But yeah, compare and contrast, see what you can do differently that would fit with your game.  My initial game is going to be much more diverse than I originally thought (originally only had 2 character classes, now I have 8 character classes with at least 2 subclasses each), and a lot different gameplay.  I say find what you're doing the same that you don't have to do the same.

[yudencow]

Every car has 4 wheels and an engine, mate. See fantasy flight games for example. They have a lot of similarities between their card games (other than that distribution system) like that the decks are 50 cards with 3 copies, the player deck card types, some keywords (at least in the effect if not in the name) but they are still unique in the way you win, and the way you conflict with other players.

[Typherion]

Although two card games might be similar, if there is even a single mechanic that is different, then I believe the two games will play very differently. Heck, you can probably create a completely different experience if just the flavour of the game is different.

I think you should just decide what kind of experience your game is trying to create and then let it be the game it wants to be.

[darkdrgon2136]

Looking back at it, I guess its not that similar, and with a bit of tweaking I get something I like even better. Hopefully i'll have my base set done by December (I finished 2 sample decks already for playtests)