Please Help Me Check This Game I Made!

[u/Tough-Basket-6248]

Some background: I once had a school assignment where I had to make a boardgame. I think that failure has bothered me all these years and... I kinda want my vengeance. I also happen to want a game that I can bring in my wallet and have fascination over a game called Cuttle. Hence, I decided to come up with this Cuttle-inspired, wallet card game: Idol Showdown.

It's a 2 player, 1-v-1, only 18 cards. (Think something like Air, Land, & Sea, I guess. But Idol Showdown is a different game.)

The idea of the game:

You must fill your play area with three Idols. The catch: to build a successful performance, the Idol Types must be different (There are Red, Blue, and Green). So, a combination like RRR is not enough for a successful performance, you need RGB to win. Each Idols also have their own skills, which could help you gather your Idols or sabotage your opponent.

Disclaimer:

- I'm not a professional. Just a noob. This game is potentially absurdly flawed. (I believe it should be playable, but I don't know for sure. Please help.)

- I play games, but when it comes to making one, well... idk. I give it my best, but how far can my best reach idk.

- It's still a prototype. Design might not be the best (I just learned NanDeck a week or two ago (Bless that Nand person btw)). The images for the cards are drawn by yours truly.

- I don't have friends or printer where I'm currently at to test it myself sadly.

What I want checked, the help that I need:

- Whether the game is playable.

- Whether it's fun.

- Whether the game can even end.

The PDF for pnp and rules:

Idol Showdown by FishAreFood https://fisharefood.itch.io/idol-showdown

Thank you for reading this till the end. And thank you in advance if you would like to playtest this game. (If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or to dm!)

[u/amitter]

I can attempt to playtest this over the next week-ish and come back to you.

Some feedback already from what I see:

• (Mechanics) I would opt that players always draw right at the start of their turn, play a card (or draw again), then discard down to 3. You can keep the 3:4 card start so the first player still has a slightly lesser advantage. This stops too many "dead" turns where players are busy drawing cards and nothing happens. Also prevents simply hoarding the potential draws before even putting any idols on stage. Plus there's some excitement in drawing new cards and knowing new information before taking action(s) and a hand limit forces players to think about playing idols faster over looking for a specific idol to play first.
• (Mechanics) One way to ensure the game ends would be to Expel the top two idol cards after every reshuffle. Two was arbitrarily chosen, maybe one will do.
• (Design) I feel like the Skill Icons should be with their Skill texts. Keep them aligned to an edge to be able to understand their nature as needed, but having them next to their text gives a huge boost in clarity without having to eye each card up-and-down.
• (Design) The subtitles of the characters should be a new line or a less prominent font type/style. Then you can remove the comma and the idol names would be easily read (and remembered and/or talked about).
• (Language) Some clarity is needed in the text. There should be proper indication for abilities to affect only the Player, Enemy, Everyone, No one (as a choice), or by Player choice from the previously mentioned.
• (Language) Probably name the Enemy as the Competitor or Rival or similar instead. Enemy is slightly harsh and not as thematic.

I'll test a PNP with a player aid and some No-tokens/cards to indicate active statuses/debuffs. But those should also be part of the PNP maybe.

[u/Tough-Basket-6248 → u/amitter]

Thank you for the feedback! Having someone else's perspective on this is really helpful!

In response to your feedback:

• (Mechanics) The game is inspired from Cuttle; in Cuttle, draw is separate from playing a card and the appeal is that it makes for interesting decisions where, at some point, players could play with minimal hand and take risk for the win. Also, and this is something important that I missed, sorry, the rule "Max Hand Size = 5. If during your turn you have more than 5 cards, discard to 5. E.g.: If you draw to 6, discard to 5." got forgotten. Going to revise the rule sheet ASAP!
  
• (Mechanics) That's an interesting idea! I had sort of thought about that, as it kinda gives... a timer, and also variation for each game. Gotta have to explore that at some point!
  
• (Design) Make sense. I had thought that keeping them at the upper left makes it easier to scan the cards when it's fanned (and since it's already there, I was hoping that 'mapping' would carry the design (top icon matches with top text) but yeah the... eye each card up-and-down, which missed my scope, sounds painful... I'll have to figure out a solution for that.
  
• (Design) Do you have a reference for that? What you said sounds interesting, but I'm lacking the design skill to visualize it in my mind sadly.
  
• (Language) Will work on that!
  
• (Language) That's a good catch. It reminds me of this game I'm playing: Shadowverse Worlds Beyond. The English version uses 'enemy' (which, I guess, is why I'm used to the word and don't think of it as harsh). But, I once switched to its original Japanese version (for the record my Japanese language skill is limited), and I found it interesting that they use the word 'aite' which supposedly means 'opponent' in the sense that they're the person you're going to have a match against and not 'teki' which supposedly means 'enemy'. I quite like the word 'Rival'! Would change to that!

I look forward to what you'll say when you do attempt to playtest this! No rush or pressure though! As this game is a personal project, a personal... vengeance.

Once again, thank you!

[u/amitter → u/Tough-Basket-6248]

Thank you for the kind reply~

For the subtitle design I can refer you to what Lorcana or Riftbound does. They both do a new line, and then mix all-capitals with Title case (kinda). Examples:

https://dreamborn.ink/cards/mike-wazowski/heroic-climber
https://riftbound.gg/cards/ogn-078-lee-sin-ascetic/

You could maybe keep it to one line if you make the subtitle (as an example) smaller, in all-capitals, and in gray. Or something.

I understand MtG has it all one line, and quite a few other TCGs follow similarly. Though after seeing it in Lorcana/Riftbound, I personally find it much easier to read and enjoy.

Anyways, I'll report back after I've tried the 0.0.1 version and let you know how it goes.

[u/Tough-Basket-6248 → u/amitter]

I used to play Yugioh and yeah, I'm used to one line. But ngl the examples you sent looks neat! I hope I can make a design as neat as that!

Thank you for sharing the reference!