Josh Kleber
Epoch
Epoch is a two player battle-style card game that uses two asymmetrical card decks in combination with dice to create a fun experience for all card game lovers.
Intent statement:
The goal for creating Epoch was to create a battle-oriented fantasy/sci-fi card game using asymmetrical decks in tandem with dice rolls to bring forth a combination of strategy and luck.
General Description:
Epoch has two different pre-set card decks: the heroes of time, and the army of darkness. Both decks have 40 cards made up of 20 action cards and 20 character cards. The 20 action cards in each deck are identical, but the 20 characters are each unique to their respective deck.
Each character has their own power level that they use to confront an opponent's character, but instead of that number being set in stone, there are 6 numbers on each character's card.
When engaging in combat the players must roll a dice to determine which of the 6 values their character will have.
The players can use their action cards to change the power of either player's character, and also effect the dice rolls as well.
The dice rolls make the game not as cut and dry as others that follow the same pattern and help balance out the 40 unique characters that are in the game. The ability to manipulate the outcome of the dice makes luck not so prevalent, and makes skill stand out.
Platform: Physical playing cards
Duration: ~4 Months
Role: Game Designer, Artist
The Beginning:
When asked to make an innovative game by myself for my Advanced Seminar in Game Design Class, I decided to pull upon one of my favorite types of games: battle-style card games.
There are many battle-style card games out there and I was determined to make one that retained the core battle card game mechanics that fans of the genre love, while adding unique elements to make the game my own.
Since I was on a limited schedule, I wouldn't have enough time to create a huge pool of cards that players could create their own decks from. One of the key goals for my game was keeping it balanced and I decided pre-set decks would be the best bet for fair gameplay. There are plenty of card games for very serious and intense players, and I wanted to make sure that this was a game that was easy to pick up and play, but not easy to master.
Cards and Die:
In most battle-style card games, there are monsters/heroes/creatures of some sort which have some sort of attack power and defense/health. These are set on the cards and some cards are inherently better than others. In order to help balance out the characters and also add more layers of strategic gamplay, I made one of the main systems in the game the implementation of die. Whenever combat occurs, the players must roll die which determine which of the character's power levels they will battle with. These power levels act as both offensive power and defensive power, and aren't separate like some other games.
This system allowed me to design cards with evenly spread medium numbers, and ones with high and low sporadic numbers. This alone would make the game rely too much on chance, and so I had to implement some sort of support cards to affect the characters during combat. I eventually called these support cards Action Cards and their purpose was to combine the two worlds of luck and strategy.
In most battle-style card games, there are spells or support cards which increase your character's attack. I created cards that allowed the players to increase or decrease a character's power level, but that had been done before and I needed a twist. To get that innovation, I created action cards that allowed the players to alter the actual die rolls instead of just the power levels. This opened a whole new world of possibilities, because not only could you use these cards to set your own character up for their highest power level, but you could also interfere with your opponent's roll and give them a worse number. The problem with the game being too much about luck had changed into a battle of bending luck to each player's will.
Post Mortem:
Working on Epoch was an incredible learning experience on balancing, rapid prototyping and system building. Being surrounded by fellow game designers in my class was invaluable since I was able to rapidly test out my ideas in the first couple weeks of production. I recorded the wins and losses of each deck to make sure that one didn't devastate the other, and if I found that they weren't balanced then I would investigate which card(s) seemed to be the problem.
When I initially created Epoch I had a very minimalistic system for creating the cards. I created each character based off a set pool of numbers and balanced them after testing them repeatedly, but I now know that having a more complex system in play for creating cards is essential to make sure the decks aren't unbalanced.
Surprisingly, one of the problems I encountered during production was that players would build up steam once they began to fill their field up, and it was very hard for a player to make a comeback after losing for the first half of the game. In order to fix this, I implemented a system which granted a player who took damage, the ability to draw an extra card. This way even if a player is losing more life, they will have more cards to make their counter attack with. Implementing this system was the last gear which fell into place to make the game what it is today. Having created Epoch by myself, all of the successes and failures were mine to bare, and I hope I get to share my experience with a new card game soon!