Answering an email about CCG design

[Trevor]

I got an email asking advice of card template design.

Hi, others, as well as myself, try to create a card game with marketibilty and longevity.
I found you CCG design article awesome, and I wanted to ask:

Why in Magic, Yugioh and you modern CCG design you put there all have their stats at the bottom right corner? Though unseen when held.
I understand the importance of symbols, but which should be put at the top left corner, seen while in your hand, and which should be elsewhere? and where?
I noticed Magic calls it world a multiverse, I wanted to call mine the same. If similarities between games occur, when it is a "clone" and when it remains original? (e.g. all the GTA clones, yet many FPS games are nearly the same but rarely called copies even when it is cleraly the same like killzone and gears of war).
So what are the basic elemnts of a card game?
What do you need to do to publish and market well your game? On top of mentaining its popularity and innovation?
How frequently sets should come out, and how many cards should they have?
How is different sets (core, expansion, etc.) and the use of promos came to your advantage? And how many cards should each and how frequently released?
What make card games rise and fall and to escape anonymity?
What should be the card size and the templates?
I though of making a 10X10 tile arena (resemblence to chess), how do I make sure the playmat isn't too big?
If the card game is done online or transformed to a computer game, how should be the interface?
Is the Afterlife and godhood a good theme, and how can i make it better?

The page he refers to is http://lackeyccg.com/ccgdesign.html

I have 2 example card templates:



The first one is similar to magic, the 2nd tries to incorporate many elements of a modern card design. In the case of the 2nd card, I put the attack and defense stats on the bottom right because the card type and subtype lines started on the left and extended to the right as they needed. You need to consider what cards will look like when they are in your hand, but that isn't so important that you need to consider only that. When designing card templates, I usually find that the placement of 1 or 2 elements greatly affects where everything else needs to go. In my Lady Kitarra sample card, I wanted to have the text field able to be omitted with cards with no special rules text. This meant I would have to put card parts that all types had at either the top or the bottom. I thought the name and cost of the card should be at the top, so that meant I had to put the other things at the bottom, since I didn't want to crowd everything on the top of the card. The card type needed to go to the left of the subtype, and since the type is always on a card, but the length of the subtype (or its omission) varies from card to card, I wanted to put it in a place where it would have some slack as far as how much space it could be granted. Since the attack and defense stats were now on the bottom right, this means I didn't want to put the collector number right next to them, because that's too many numbers together and it can be confusing to have numbers jumbled together. And I wanted to have the set symbol next to the collector number, and the company info also needed to be away from the major stats, so that also determined their location.

Multiverse is not a term unique to magic. Nor are flavor terms line "planes" or mechanics terms like "tapping", but in the context of a CCG one could argue that you are crossing into claimed territory. How much similarity is too much is always being debated, and even lawyers will not agree. If you plan on marketing your CCG, you might want to stay on the safe side. In addition, choosing unique terms for your CCG will make others unable to copy you. It is difficult to defend your copyright if you choose a name like "card duelers", but if you choose a name like "mythcronomicon" then anyone else who attempts to copy you is clearly stepping on your toes.

Wizards of the Coast has technically claimed a number of patents regarding CCGs, but many are so vague that their claims are not enforceable. If you don't want to get sued by any particular CCG publisher, make sure your CCG doesn't copy what makes their CCG unique. For example, many CCGs use a decking mechanic as a possible win condition. In fact, I think most CCGs do. That's the kind of thing it is ok to copy. But if your CCG draws something like mana from something like lands, and there are colors similar to magic's colorwheel, you are ripping off magic. There are no hard and fast rules, but you should err of the side of caution. A major point along these lines is, if your CCG is too similar to an existing CCG, especially one as well supported/funded as magic, your CCG will likely fail because it will likely seem worse in comparison.

How often you release sets is greatly dependent on who is playing your game. You need to balance inundating people with new cards versus starving people for something new. I like the design philosophy of magic where there is a core set with basic features, and supplementary sets that add twists. The core set is a way for you to reshape what is core to your CCG. The supplementary sets are ways to make gameplay more interesting.

I don't think using tiled arenas are a good design for a CCG. It makes it too much like a board game. Having multiple zones is ok, like a "your territory", "contested territory" and an "opponent's territory". But when a card needs to be in a specific place it makes people have to keep track of more things. Its nice to have the freedom to move around cards for showing things like who is blocking who. Also, if one card has many cards attached to it, moving it around can be a pain. Magic frequently taps cards, so in most cases cards don't have attached cards. Decipher's lord of the rings uses a lot of attached cards for companion characters (swords, armor, conditions) as well as multiple counters (wounds and burden counters). Because of this, LOTR doesn't tap cards as part of its mechanics.
Remember that a core of good CCG design is simplicity. Always strive for designing mechanics that are simple to learn, simple to keep track of, simple to use, and yet provide a lot of interesting gameplay.

The afterlife and godhood are fine ideas for a CCG's flavor, but I would suggest to find a more clear niche. Maybe your CCG would be based around 1 rich culture. For example, you could have a CCG based on norse mythology. Or you could have a CCG which pits one culture against different cultures, like norse VS equiption VS greeks VS hebrews VS asian mythology. That's possibly the most important thing you need to design. You need a lot of things to make a CCG work, and a good theme is definitely one of the required elements.