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Card Linearity

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 16:25
by Desttinghim
I was reading game design articles on the Internet and found this article.

Essentially, it's talking about how cards can either be modular (meaning they will go in any deck) or linear (meaning you have to design a deck around that card). This topic is being discussed with a focus on set design in Magic, but could easily extend here. Any thoughts on it? I think this advice could be useful to keep in mind when designing cards and decks.

Re: Card Linearity

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 17:37
by snowdrop
Nice article - thanks for sharing. =) Writer did some nice research, and I agree with the conclusions....

http://arcmage.org/wiki/index.php?title ... patibility is my take on it when I wrote about some other stuff also. I called it something else, it's the very same thing in relation to our project.

(The reason for why there are over 10 000 "unique" MtG cards is in part that they have failed that very criteria with modularity, on purpose of course and with monetization in mind. )

Re: Card Linearity

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 20:57
by Desttinghim
Ah, I'd forgotten about that part of the General Design Document :D

I think it could be useful to adopt the levels he uses when we classify cards we make. Right now it would only be useful for making sure we don't have too many linear/incompatible cards, but in the future it could be useful for sorting.

I think his observation that you need linear cards to help decks focus is pretty important.

Re: Card Linearity

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 22:17
by snowdrop
I think his observation that you need linear cards to help decks focus is pretty important.
Yeah, agree.... especially his point about the mix of it all. You're correct that sound design should have a system for evaluating this in accordance with the gamedesign goals. I don't see it being an apparent issue until you have a full featured card pool of at least 300 cards though (then it will show clearly, when you have few cards it doesn't show as much even if you can figure it all out already in theory...)

I'd be happy to borrow from you and Nico when/if you figure out a good way to classify, or if you take it as is.