The Shuffle Game: Part 1

Part 1: Conceit

Some years ago, I was out with a friend who was know for being obtrusively lazy. Getting him to leave his house was an ordeal, and it was always a good day when he decided to leave his comfort zone and get out. In discussing this fact with him, he always said that's how he was, and it was a weakness. "I mean, it's like I have a card called 'My House' and it basically takes me out of the action," he said in the common parlance of game design that we often engaged in. "And it would be in my deck."

On these words, my mind clicked, and I realized that there was a great idea there. After some time quietly chewing on it, I threw together a prototype, based on a completely forgettable anime "Airmaster." The game essentially took the starting decks of the involved characters, about 20 cards or so, shuffling them together, and then both players drawing from the deck, using the cards to perform attacks, play resources, screw the opponent, etc. The game was clunky, however, using a couple of stand-in mechanics that I'm officially over, including character cards for players (multiple ones, in this case) and accuracy checks, and frankly, the IP is retarded, so it got filed in my Hall of Doomed Ideas.

Recently, however, I keep on thinking on how the idea leads itself so well to the current game market, and is a clever idea, it's just a matter of choosing the setting and mechanics to work around the basic concept. So I'm officially reopening this can of fish, hopefully creating a decent pick-up card game that's highly expandable.

The first step I always take is the conceit: the game's gimmick and premise. Why are you playing this game? Why does the game work as it does? What does it represent? What separates it from everything on the market? Mainly, this step gives you two things: standard gameplay elements, and setting. Both can change further down the line, but it's a good place to start.

The standard gameplay elements have already been answered: it's a card game where you shuffle together two or more set decks to use as a common resource, and players use these cards to win. Win what is the question. What's the scenario? In what situation where you be forced to share your resources with an opponent, and use their own 'attacks' against them?

My first thought is a situation where the pretext is those involved are playing a game, a game where characters constantly change sides and all tactics are really open to anyone involved. Something like dodgeball. Dodgeball doesn’t translate well, the rules far too rigid and simple to translate to cards, so something like paintball might be more appropriate. It still stumbles disturbingly close to rules of dodgeball, being only slightly cooler, and frankly, it’s hard to have interesting characters when they all wear masks.

Following the school games theme, nowhere are the barriers more viscous that high school. A game based around some competition, where you draft the members and techniques of each cliche has its allure. It also, however, feels a little shallow, as there’s only so much harping about high school and the archetypes involved before it starts feeling a little too ‘author on board.’
Mercenaries often switch sides, and provide more options in terms of characters, locations, and weapons, but I would like to dodge the ‘war for the sake of war’ trope that inflicts most games, some unceasing conflict that gets played out time and time again, without any real explanation as to the hows and whys, just a bunch of shooting and cursing and blatant destruction. Which is fine, I guess, but it’s always hard to make it interesting, as there’s only so many motives. Not to mention soldiers are boring, and there are only so many funny hats you can put them in.

Still, a conflict needs to occur, and while I would prefer it not to be a war, a battle would be fine. A skirmish or two, a scuffle for territory, small time, where any side can use whatever sources they can get and hope for the best. Which made me think of street gangs, who pull their resources from the neighborhoods they invade and often are at constant battle, but never to the extreme scales as governments. It’s a good fit for the mechanic, with each deck representing an area (presumably adjacent to the others) and the characters, items, locations, and tactics therein. Each player would be a gang leader, trying to claim control of all regions and push their opponent out.

Of course, the setting wouldn’t be the hard and gritty world of real-life gangs, but a more iconic collaboration, with drastically different residents and abilities. If you’re aware of M:TG’s Ravnica block, similar to the world laid out there, with more of a modern tinge to it, as well as looser allegiances (after all, the world is open to all involved).

That’s all for now. With a general sense of setting and tone in place, it’s down to getting my hands dirty and fooling around with some core mechanics and gameplay issues. Later.