People didn't try any of them, so you get to see all of them and I wanted to share what they meant to me, too:
Flesh and Blood taught me that there is appetite for a deep challenge that isn't MtG's, and that breakpoints are essential to think about in a back-and-forth-style game.
Massive-Verse/Pocket Paragons Massive-Verse/Pocket Paragon is a reminder that you can do glorious things in a tiny package that simplifies — or removes! — deckbuilding.
Decipher's LotR TCG has pushed me to look at every resource system oh-so-very-closely ever since I saw that one demo in Milan in the winter after it came out.
Oshi Push is interesting — not because it treads necessarily new territory, but because it does top-down design in the anime card game space without breaking a sweat. Of all the vtuber cash grabs, I hope this is the one that survives.
Riftbound is here as a stand-in for every traditional 'game of trades' creature basher, MtG (and Duel Masters and Hearthstone) on down. I mulled whether to bring Gundam TCG for this slot, but this is newer and, though I have reservations, better than much of Bandai UX design.
There are two games total that one of my lovely partners could tolerate playing with me (patience of a saint!!!!!!!), and Altered is one of them. I really respect what they are doing for keeping complexity down and clarity up, and in many ways neither goal gets the respect or thought it deserves.
Keyforge is the poster child for 'you really can make something very different if you shake up the formula in precise and thoughtful ways'. Distribution and the entire arc of the experience, acquisition to play, are… lol, key to what distinguishes any game, and often not fungible.
Grand Archive is mechanically interesting, but what I got from it is a meditation on the nature of appeal, on promise and delivery, on audience and appropriateness, and on how these dynamics drive the 'anime cards' booster attached to the TCG consumption engine.
Transformers TCG is so good on the purely tactile, gut level of just experiencing metaphor through material.
BIG THING GOES BIGGER! HOLY HECK
I wish I had the WotC kind of materials pipeline. Could you imagine what one could do with easy access to precision scoring and multisize setups?
UniVersus is a game whose graphic design chops I've recently come to admire. In an age where tie-in TCGs feel even more shallow when placed beside MtG embracing their model, the care put into the graphical sourcing, presentation, and premium feel is wild for the elder US poster child of this model.
The other game I work on (as a narrative designer) — Netrunner. The most influential thing in figuring out how to decouple my understanding of xCGs from the axiom that they should only exist in a capital/consumption-engine fashion.
And finally, perhaps the most influential of all of these games on WR — .hack//ENEMY, for showing me how veering hard into simplicity can lead to a thoughtful kind of back and forth that preserves so much in the way of interactivity without bloat.
If anyone wants to reboot this stuff, hit me up.
Bonus! The incredibly wonderful, absolutely wild masterpiece of a game that is Inscryption. What a love letter to the entire genre — to the culture of it, the experience of it, every part of it!
One day I will rant and rave about it for longer about it, but here's the Cryptic Crafter IRL two-player version. Love the craft on display here. — ✾ A.
I’m looking on my own but, hey, Tumblr, if you have recs I’d love to hear:
I am looking to hire an artist for a character design commission!
Extra points for designers with lived experience designing Black characters, and for people who love and understand how Touhou, LWA, Madoka and Umineko can influence a style and a vibe.
I’m also open to further work with the same artist for the character, if it works out.
If you think you know someone who’s interested, or could reach them, could you please forward/boost this post?
(If you think you could be good for this, reach to me in DMs, notes or at [email protected] with examples of prior work & I’ll be happy to check ‘em out!)
Thank you to everyone who sent work samples in! I will be looking at all unprocessed submissions today and tomorrow and start contacting selected artists. — A.
I've been working on a bunch of stuff — some of it is going to cons, and some of it is making accessories for the game to sell there, and some of it is making sure it actually makes financial sense to do so…
So I decided to do all three things together by also selling those accessories online for a limited-time drop!
You can get the wives on a playmat or sleeve at the Witches' Revel store… for this week only! At:
https://revel.sale/!
Some of the things you can get (and some terms) after the jump:
You can get these two playmats:
… and four card sleeve designs:
There are (very) limited quantities ready to ship, and further preorders will ship after production (2-6 weeks).
I've been working on a bunch of stuff — some of it is going to cons, and some of it is making accessories for the game to sell there, and some of it is making sure it actually makes financial sense to do so…
So I decided to do all three things together by also selling those accessories online for a limited-time drop!
You can get the wives on a playmat or sleeve at the Witches' Revel store… for this week only! At:
https://revel.sale/!
Some of the things you can get (and some terms) after the jump:
You can get these two playmats:
… and four card sleeve designs:
There are (very) limited quantities ready to ship, and further preorders will ship after production (2-6 weeks).
I've been experimenting with a bunch of ways to get the game around, and selling at cons — not just showing the game, but selling it, having accessories and such!!! — is a big step in that direction!
I'm going to experiment with a table at a local con. I managed to get one at Fan Expo San Francisco (on November 28-30), so see you there if you're around!
The season of dark and powerful witchy-times is absolutely not forgotten… it has been a time of chill and restoration after the launch, and of tending to things that need to rest for the winter.
Even card games need their beauty sleep 🥱🔮
Meanwhile: a certain website is so close to done, it hurts…
redrew the art meme that was going round a few weeks ago because “make it good later” has never been that aspiration to me, it’s even been enough to just not make the thing I really want to make in the past.
make it now. Make it however. Maybe it’ll work out maybe it won’t Make it or it won’t exist.
NOPE! Printed copies are now available for preorder!
Get them at the Witches' Revel Store!!!!!! ›
Get a physical your extendable card game of two girlfriend-nemeses showing each other who is the best at Spells, which is absolutely normal for (these) girls. Preorder now for shipping around next week!
(And pay-what-you-want Print & Play is linked in there too, if that's more your speed!)
NOPE! Printed copies are now available for preorder!
Get them at the Witches' Revel Store!!!!!! ›
Get a physical copy of the extendable card game with two girlfriend-nemeses showing each other who is the best at Spells, which is absolutely normal for (these) girls. Preorder now for shipping around next week!
(And pay-what-you-want Print & Play is linked in there too, if that's more your speed!)
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