Creating a card game - how hard can it be?

Card games... my family can't get enough of them.  Playing them, finding unique and different ones to buy, making them.... 

SAY WHAT?!?!

Yes, we like to make our own card games.

Have you ever tried to make a card game?  It's not as easy as you think.   When my son, M, was 12, he dared me to make a card game about potatoes.   Well, about "poe-tah-toes" as that's his term for "potatoes".  He's a funny kid.  

I accepted his dare but it became a family event.  My family sat around the table brainstorming:  What would be the object of the game?  What rules would there be?  How would the players interact?  Would all cards be shown or some kept hidden?  What type graphics did we want?  Action cards:  how would they restrict players from reaching their goal or help players reach the goal?  

Ideas and suggestions poured out and I scrambled to get them all on paper.  We let the ideas sit for a day then reviewed them, scrapping some, tweaking others.  Now, it was time for a rough draft.   Via powerpoint, I created a card template and began adding graphics and text.  My family wandered in and out, giving advice on graphics and text wording.   Project saved and rough draft printed.

Finally, it was time to play the game and it stunk.  SAY WHAT?!?!  All that time invested and it stunk?  What was the problem?  Inertia.   The game in its neutral state never ended.  That's not a good thing.  When you play a game, you want it to end.  Please don't confuse that last sentence with "You don't want to play the game."    That is not what I meant.  When we play a game, we want to reach the goal of the game.  That's the purpose of the game, right?  Think of a good game of UNO:  when the game is quick and ends "too soon", most of the time the players will say, "Hey... let's play another round!"   There was fun, the fun ended, they want to re-capture the fun.   Now, think of a bad game of UNO:  drags on and on and on and on.  When it does end, the emotion around the table is "Thank goodness that was over... I thought it was never going again... please don't deal another round."

One key element to a good game is that even in the game's neutral state, players are still making gains toward the goal (or end) of the game.  Our poor homemade game wasn't doing that.  Hubby and I figured out we had too many "Lose everything" cards.  Basically, those cards kept sending players back to square one of the game.  No one was winning.  The game was not ending.  Everyone was thinking, "Please... let this madness stop!"

We didn't scrap the entire game.  It had some really fun elements.  We did enjoy the actual game play until we realized the game wouldn't end.  Our first idea to fix that issue was a simple one:  reduce the number of "Lose everything" cards.    Luckily, that was the perfect solution.  We cut the number of "Lose everything" cards in half and the game flowed beautifully.  We enjoy playing it.  My son's friends and my nephews enjoy playing it.  For such a pale, white topic (potatoes); it's truly an entertaining game.


Since creating our "Poe-tah-toe Game"  (yes, that's what we named it), I've created a few other card games to entertain my students during speech therapy.  All of them are "open-ended", meaning anyone can use the games.  They aren't tailored specifically for "students in speech therapy".  I created them to entertain and all of them have done exactly that.

Thinking about creating your own game?  First read this blog post written by Mark Rosewater (the Head Designer for Magic, The Gathering) for the top 10 things every game needs.   It's full of excellent information.

If you do create a game (whether to use in your classroom or therapy room or with your own family), I'd love to hear about it.  My family and I truly enjoy checking out new games.

Keep on having fun....