Hello, I'm geckmen.arts, an independant artist making a party style card game called "Blood Rush." I wanted to showcase my game and its development so far and get some community feedback.
Game rules vvvv
Game Introduction
Welcome to Blood Rush, a fast-paced strategic card game where your path to victory depends on the deals you cut, the choices you make, and your ability to adapt to an ever changing environment. Outwit your opponents, and rush towards victory!
In Blood Rush, players assume the role of different characters, each with a unique set of abilities and supporting strategies. The game is played in turns where players draw cards, play cards, and activate abilities. The central mechanic of the game is the Blood Dial, which influences the use of each character's powerful abilities. The game ends after the Final Feeding phase, and the player with the highest accumulated Value wins!
Card Types
Spells: Instant effects that provide advantages or disruptions. Once resolved, they go to the graveyard.Â
Relics: Cards that remain in play and are controlled by a player. Relics are played face down if your character card is hidden and face up if revealed. They have a range of Values and may provide additional actions, rules, or conditions. All Relics that are hidden have a value of 0 and cannot have their abilities activated.Â
Events: Cards that massively change how the game is played, often altering a core rule or introducing new one. Only one event can be in play at a time. If an event already is in play when another is played, replace the current one and put it into the graveyard
Characters: A unique hidden card given to each player at the beginning of the game. These cards all have a “Blood ability”, which can be used when the Blood Dial’s number equals the number on the card.
How to Play a Turn
Turn Start: Draw a card.
Take up to 2 Actions from the following. At any point before Turn End, you may, if the central blood dial equals your character card’s number, reveal your character card and use your blood ability.Â
(No duplicate actions, unless otherwise stated)
Draw:Â Draw a card
Reveal: Turn a hidden (Face down) relic you control face up.
Expose: Turn a hidden (Face down) an opponent controls face up, [Trap effects], then Draw 1
Play a Card: Play a card from hand. (Remember relics enter hidden or revealed based on your character card.)
Activate: Activate an action ability on a relic or character card.
Blood: Discard any number of cards to increase the Blood Dial by the number of cards discarded.
Turn End: Increase the Blood Dial by 1
Blood Dial
A D12 die (1-12) that is central to gameplay.Â
The Blood Dial increases or decreases based on actions and card effects.
If the Blood Dial would go beyond 12, it resets to 1.
How the Game Ends
Once all character cards in play are revealed (Face up) the game enters Final Feeding. All other players except the current players' turn, get one final turn. If at any point not all character cards are revealed (Face up) the game continues as normal until the Final Feeding conditions are met again.Â
If Final Feeding concludes, the game ends and the player with the most Value wins. Certain game expansions include alternative ways of gaining points. In the instance of a tie. Here are a number of ways of determining the winner of the night.
Exposed: The exposer may discard 1 to gain control of this item. (Exposed - When turned face up by a player other than its controller)
This art piece is part of my larger game project "Blood Rush." Its a fast paced card game where players play as various characters and try to escape the night of the Blood Moon with the most loot.
Cursed Gold is one of the few non-trap cards with a negative value. It trades endgame points for a powerful recurring effect, however there are two ways to circumvent its downside. The first is being The Ghost, they score all negative points as positive at the end of the game. The second is by using the regular "Gold" item. Gold states, "If at game end, you have 3+ gold subtyped item. All gold items are tried as Value 3."
Hey Everyone, don't worry I haven't gone anyway, just had to focus on other art projects for clients. In the meanwhile I've been testing some border ideas for the 3 different card types in Blood Rush.
The past few weeks have just flown by. However I have a lot of work to show for it. The final core cast of Blood Rush is done. Now it's time to tackle all 156 Card arts. Stay tuned for both the Hunter's and Werewolf devlogs.
[DEVLOG] Blood Rush - Character Spotlight – The Human
Welcome back everyone! Been a little while but this time around we're stumbling into the Human!
The Human was designed as the most consistant character in Blood Rush. They represent the everyman caught in a world of monsters. While having no natural abilities, the Human does what humans do best, adapt.
Human (Character Card) - Blood Number 2 / 11
Blood Ability: Reveal this card (can be used on Blood Dial 2 OR 11)
While Revealed: Action – Draw 2 cards, then discard 1
The Human plays on one of Blood Rush's core tension points: when do you reveal yourself? The Human's Blood Ability doesn't do anything, it just reveals you. But that's the point. You choose your moment, and once revealed, you gain access to consistent card filtering every turn.
The dual Blood Numbers (2 and 11) give the Human two windows to reveal, allowing them more flexibitly than any other character. Early reveal at 2 means more turns with your revealed ability active. Late reveal at 11 gives you maximum information before committing, or if in your're taking your turn after a couple other players, still have a chance to reveal without commiting to a cycle of the blood dial.
An early playtest version of the human had the player gain a larger hand size than other characters. However this was scrapped in favor of a far more reasource hoarding and purging system of card design.
That's this very human character spotlight! Thanks for slopping by!
[DEVLOG] Blood Rush - Character Spotlight – The Scarecrow
Welcome back everyone! This time around we're shambling into the Scarecrow.
In a game all about secret characters and mystery, there always needs to be risk to the reward. The Scarecrow was designed as the character you don't want to reveal, less you be "jumpscared" by your findings. Functionally themselves being a trap, the Scarecrow helps enable trap heavy playstyles and has the rare and powerful ability to hide character cards.
Scarecrow (Character Card) - Blood Number 7
Blood Ability: Hide an item or character card, if the item was a trap, gain control fo it.
When Exposed (turned face up by an opponent): You may take one of the following actions against the exposing player.
Steal 2 cards from their hand
Gain control of an item they control
The Scarecrow acts as a boggyman during the game. The threat of exposing the Scarecrow allows for one of the few ways another player can royally screw you over on your turn and not theirs. Trap items act in a similar way, however the Scarecrow's exposed ability is by far the most powerful "trap."
Some early designs had the Scarecrow as the Clown/Jester or a Skeleton. The former being an inspiration from more traditional games like “Werewolf/Mafia”, or even closer, “Town of Salam”. The latter entirely being a design joke on "Skeletons in the closet."
As well, some early playtesting had the Scarecrow have two blood numbers, 2 and 7, however this idea was transferred to the Human, lending to a better identity for both. Numbers wise it made sense to give the character who wants to hide, more chances to rehide themselves, however, two very unique character concepts, 2 blood numbers and a trap character stacked on top of each other, lent to confused players.
That's been this cobbled together spotlight! Thanks for slopping by!
[DEVLOG] Blood Rush - Character Spotlight – The Ghost
Hello everyone! This time we're wisping into the Ghost!
The Ghost was designed as the trading specialist, a character who thrives on redistributing resources and turning liabilities into advantages.
Ghost (Character Card) - Blood Number 4
Blood Ability: Give a revealed relic you control to an opponent, then gain control of a revealed relic they control that is equal or less value.
While Revealed (Passive): All negative value is considered positive for you at the end of the game
The Ghost introduces Value manipulation and the strategic use of negative Value relics. In Blood Rush, some relics have negative values (like traps). Normally these hurt your final score, however paired with the ghost's blood ability, this two allows for very unqiue gameplay feel. While other characters have situational abilities or actions, the Ghost is the only character to have a strategy altering passive.
The Ghost forces players to be more carful with the powerful tools they reveal to the table. They can either keep their tools hidden until needed, avoiding the ghost's targetting, or try and remove any high value (positive or negative) the ghost may have before revealing.
[DEVLOG] Blood Rush - Character Spotlight – The Vampire
Hey everyone, welcome back to another Blood Rush spotlight! This time we're sinking our teeth into the Vampire.
The Vampire was designed as the ultimate control character. I wanted them to feel manipulative and commanding, able to bleed your opponents of their reasources while you stay one step ahead. The Vampire thrives on reading the table and applying pressure at just the right moments.
Vampire (Character Card) - Blood Number 6
Blood Ability: Name a card type (Spell, Relic, or Event). Every opponent may discard a card of that type. For each player who didn't (or couldn't) discard, you draw 1 card.
While Revealed: You may alter the blood dial positively or negatively.
The Vampire's Blood Ability creates a fantastic mind game. Do your opponents give up valuable cards to deny you draws, or do they hold onto them and let you build card advantage? And once you're revealed, you become the table's timekeeper, manipulating the Blood Dial to trigger (or delay) everyone's abilities.
Late game, the Vampire becomes a true puppetmaster, able to control the blood dial with far more precision than other characters, and being the dead center (being number 6 out of 12), allows for aggressive gameplans that rely on their blood ability.
That's this bloodthirsty spotlight. Thanks for slopping by!
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another Blood Rush devlog. Today I'm excited to talk about one of the core spells in the game: Caught Red-Handed.
This card has been a staple since early development, having gone through two major revisions and being one of the cards that decided a lot of the central deck contents. As well, it's one of the only cards that has a unique art copy for every character (ignore above, WIP Art).
Caught Red-Handed (Spell)
Name a Character (Human, Zombie, Ghost, Vampire, Hunter, Scarecrow, Witch, or Werewolf)
If a player IS that character, they must reveal themselves
If the character named is already revealed, steal 1 card from their hand
When I set out to design Blood Rush, hidden identity was always going to be the heart of the game. But hidden information is only exciting if there's tension around it, the threat of exposure, the risk of being found out. That's where Caught Red-Handed comes in.
This spell embodies detective work and psychological warfare. It rewards players who pay attention to behavioural tells:
Is someone constantly dumping cards into the graveyard? Probably the Zombie.
Is someone staying quiet and sandbagging their resources? - Could be the Werewolf.
Are they hoarding negative Value relics? That's suspicious Ghost behaviour.
The dual mode is what makes this spell shine throughout the game. At any point it's an exposure tool—forcing hidden characters into the light and accelerating towards Final Feeding (The end of the game). Or inversely, when identities are known, it allows for targeted hand disruption.
Caught Red-Handed sits in that beautiful design space where it's:
Never dead - Always has a mode that does something useful
Never oppressive - Doesn't lock players out or create feel-bad moments
Information based - Rewards attentive players
The Mind Games
The real magic happens in how Caught Red-Handed creates layered decision-making:
If you're casting it: Do you name the character you THINK someone is, risking a complete whiff? Or do you play it safe and name an already-revealed character for the guaranteed card steal?
If you're the target: When someone names your character and you're forced to reveal, do you have contingency plans? Did you build your strategy around staying hidden, or can you pivot to your revealed abilities?
If you're watching: Suddenly everyone at the table is analysing what character(s) has been called out. Does someone reveal, or did everyone just find out that a certain character is nowhere in sight and now a "safe" number has been discovered on the Blood Dial.(central D12)
Final Thoughts
Caught Red-Handed is one of those cards that makes Blood Rush feel like Blood Rush. It's got tension, decision-making, psychological warfare, and targeted harassment built in.
Plus, there's something deeply satisfying about pointing across the table and saying, "I know what you are."
That's this week's spotlight! Thanks for reading, and remember—everyone has secrets, but not everyone can keep them.
[DEVLOG] Blood Rush - Character Spotlight – The Witch
Hello, back with another Blood Rush spotlight! This week we're divining into the Witch.
The Witch was designed as the information based character. She's able to secertly look at the top of the library and reorder them, as well as look at opponents hands. She thrives with slow acting opponents able to set up plans around her opponents availalbe tools.
Witch (Character Card) - Blood Number 9
Blood Ability: Look at the top cards of the library equal to the number of the players, reorder them any way you like.
While Revealed: Action – Look at target player's hand
While Revealed: Action - Discard 1 Spell card, Draw 2
The Witch set ups snatch and grabs for the best cards from the deck, able to swipe high value relics, or powerful spells ahead of other players.
[DEVLOG] Blood Rush - Character Spotlight – The Zombie
Hey everyone, I'm back with another Blood Rush spotlight! This week we're digging into one of the 8 core characters, the Zombie.
The Zombie was designed as a slow but relentless character. I wanted its mechanics to feel like clawing back from the grave, persistent, resource-hungry, and a little chaotic.
Zombie (Character Card) - Blood Number 3
Blood Ability: Return 3 cards from the graveyard to your hand.
While Revealed: Action – Put cards equal to the current Blood Dial number from the deck into the graveyard.
The Zombie pushes players to gamble with deck management cards and lategame pressure. Do you play a really good spell card if the zombie will be able to weaponize that same card against you later?
That's today's cursed spotlight. Back to shoveling dirt on the next character. Thanks for checking it out!
Hello, welcome back to my gamedev blog for Blood Rush. An indie card game developed by yours truly geckmen.arts. This week I wanted to take about one of the 3 major card types, Relics.
Relics in Blood Rush are the primary way to score points and are the pieces players fight for control over. Relics in addition to points offer a varitey of passive, reactive or Action based utility.
The relic I wanted showcase today is the Blood Vial, one of the core relics since the creation of the game.
Blood Vial
Value 1 (One point at the end of the game)
Action: Blood 1 (Increases the central D12 by 1)
Action: Blood 2 - 5, then destroy this relic.
Exposed: The exposer of this relic may gain control of it. (When a player other than it's controller turns this card face up)
When designing Blood Rush, I always tried to keep in mind a core design princlple, that being, "You can never get ahead without helping someone else, and you can never hinder someone else without hindering yourself." While I've definitly broke this principle a lot, it helped me keep in the mind the amount of set up cards that should be needed in order to be game changing or game winning.
The Blood Vial was one of the first designs I think helped shape a lot of the game around it and how for example you have to throw it away in order to maximize its power. You sacrifice 1 winning point in order to maybe use your character's Blood Ability or use to prevent an opponent from being able to use their ability on their turn.
Thanks for reading - Have a colourful and crazy day!
