(orig. published Feb. 16, 2024)

Designing a bunch of cards is all good in theory, but it means nothing until people actually shuffle up and play some games with them! Iteration is the most vital step in game design, so the sooner you can get from concept to playable, the better!

For the Unwell Kingdom, this meant I needed to create quick mockups of each card, rather than waiting until they all have art and formatting. I made simple proxies in Microsoft Word that would be easy to edit and cheaply print.

A prototype proxy (left) vs. a card with full art treatment (right)

Since I printed the proxies in black & white, I had to go back with markers to color in mana pips. There’s a fine line between rapid prototyping and player readability, but the less time players need to spend decoding their cards, the better your test results will be. Then, I simply slid the flimsy paper into sleeves in front of real bulk cards I had lying around, so they feel right in players’ hands.

With cards made, the next step to a playable limited set was some way to simulate real packs…

After some research, I decided to commit to buying a set of Cubeamajigs and have been impressed so far! They’re a little fiddly and intimidating for folks the first time they try to open one, but they hold cards (and tiny dice!) perfectly and feel very sturdy for lots of reuse. And while it takes awhile to sort the set by rarities, shuffle, and put them into the packs, there’s really no better substitution when it comes time to play. (Side Note: the stickers weren’t necessary for the fronts of each pack, but they do look real nice and help everything feel more official!)

And with that, this set was ready to begin playtesting! I’ll go more into detail on the lessons learned in each test. So far I’ve held 6 or 7 playtest nights, trying a few different formats, and every time we find SOMETHING that needs tweaking. Stay tuned!