Planning Out Our Game

Before we start to write any code, we have to plan out the basic structure and mechanics of our game. In this tutorial, we will cover some of the areas that we need to look at before we start.

Collectable Card Game Tutorial: The Planning

card types:

• resource cards
• creatures
• spells/actions

winning the game:

• if at any time a player has no more life, they loose the game
• if both players run out of cards, then the game ends on the turn the last card was drawn as a tie

basic screen layout:
we will need a spot for game information, and places to display the play area as well as the players hand.

starting conditions:

• 40 starting life
• 100 card decks ( cant have more than 5 of a card in a deck)
• 10 cards in hand to start

mechanics:

• a player is randomly decided to go first
• players alternate turns until a winner is decided
• if a player runs out of cards, they can not draw any more cards

turn game play:

• 1. draw a card
• 2. play a resource ( 1 a turn)
• 2. cast some spells
• 2. play some creatures
• 3. combat
• 4. discard if we have more then 10 cards in hand

combat:

1. active player decide what creates are attacking
2. defending player decides which of his creates he will place in combat as well
3. active player counts up the total attack of all his creates and decides where to deal that much damage distorted anyway they like
4. the defending player does the same as step 3.
5. counters are placed on the creatures for the damage they received. If they get more counters on them than they have defense, they are placed into the discard pile.
6. if all of the defending players creatures have had enough damage assigned to defeat them and, there is still more damage to be assigned, then that extra damage is assigned to the defending player and subtracted from his life total.

creature stats:

attack

- the amount of damage it does in combat

defense

- the amount of damage it can take before it is defeated

name

- the name of the creature

cost

- the amount of resources it takes to play this creature

spell stats:

name

- the name of the card

cost

- the amount of resources it takes to play this card

effect

- the effects can vary. we can determine the effects of spells later, but some ideas are:

• buff your creates
• kill creates
• draw cards

resource stats:

• amount of resources this card gives before it is depleted
• when a resource card is depleted, it will be placed in the discard pile

other considerations:

• genre
• number of players per game
• single player mode (tutorial mode)
• tournaments
• ante
• how players attain more cards
• ranking system

server side:
all game logic will be server side

client side:
client is just for interacting with the server

database:

• user accounts
• card database

card containers:

• draw pile
• player hand
• discard pile
• play area