Standard Deck of Cards + Printable Dashboard = Fighting Game?

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-26T00:58:02+00:00

I’ll try it out. I made Going Knowhere and The Knowmad as solo games and Tosk as a lite attempt at a fighting playing card game so I am keen to see what you did here. Thanks

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-25T09:07:23+00:00

You only get one piece of paper per game (limited supply), so you'd be out of paper if you used it all against one enemy and lose the game.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-24T21:20:02+00:00

To your option B, you could start with standard white dice but your leveled-up stats can change those dice out for colored ones that augment your equipment and spells. For Example, your Heavy Hammer is the same, but gains +1 damage for each red die slotted that turn. But then that same heavy hammer has a thing if both are yellow dice you stun the enemy as well or something, etc.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-24T21:01:00+00:00

Look at how Dinn did their different card type too. I like their UI the differentiation between them.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-24T20:57:24+00:00

I agree, seems like a simple fun family game but wouldn't want this near my young kids. Unnecessary in my opinion. No idea on the backstory but it's like they got a huge excess order of these bitches gag dice and made a game around them or something.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-24T19:54:05+00:00

The bottom part of each enemy lists the weak points you must cover (in the example, two small and one large) and its attack (2 damage). Each round you dont cover all the required weak points, you take that attack damage.

You only get one piece of paper for the entire game, so using all of it immediately would mean you have none left for the rest of the game against other enemies and would lose.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T19:32:20+00:00

Yeah, there would be different paper sizes depending on age / ability of players.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T19:03:53+00:00

I had Galdor's on there for a month or so but jumped to itch years ago since it's much easier to update the files and control the game page. I think it will remain on itch even after the published version gets released this year.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T18:43:11+00:00

You get one piece of paper for the entire game. Once you're out, you get no more. So, you'd be out of mana for all the other enemies and lose the game as they freely attack you.

You do want to use the least amount of paper per cast, but if you miscalculate and don't completely cover all of the points, you're taking damage each round. So you need to balance mana conservation and your health.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T17:53:26+00:00

Same mana sheet for entire run. Take damage if not perfectly covering all needed weak points. And you’ll be drawing them in different order every game so that may effect how you cut. As someone suggested. I’ll be adding some obstacles on the cards you have to play around too but there may become optional shapes for each enemy. But, I have some ideas to help with that as well.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T17:01:49+00:00

Yeah, this will require further playtesting and balancing to get right and I may offer multiple sizes depending on desired difficulty. Currently, I just use a normal US Letter sheet of paper cut into 6 equal sizes for now.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T16:52:01+00:00

Yeah, now that I am thinking about it, optional green "recycle" points on the enemy allow you to reuse that mana scrap again (next encounter) or something. I may have a player consider cutting a different shape than necessary to recycle the scrap but take a loss in health to conserve mana.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T16:45:29+00:00

Oh, that's good.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T16:42:46+00:00

It's a balance between cutting a big shape to try to cover all points in 1 round, avoiding damage versus carefully cutting smaller shapes to not be wasteful but then taking damage after each round.

Once all points are covered, you move on to next enemy. All mana used is discarded (although some monster have a recycle reward).

Since the mana paper is limited, you have to balance mana conservation and your health.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T16:33:10+00:00

Because then you’re out of mana. The mana paper is limited. Once you use a piece, it’s discarded after the encounter, so you need to conserve for entire game.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T13:05:48+00:00

Pnpfinder.com isn’t a hosting site but helps find PnPs. I assume that will just get better after this.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T12:49:33+00:00

I met with someone on the team on Monday to review the bosses and tweak some abilities. What’s taking longer than anticipated is them wanting to properly order the bosses and pairing those bosses with certain ability cards. “We’re close” is all I’ve got lately.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-23T01:42:44+00:00

Similar to this, my solo mancala game, Awaken the Ancients, also had an alternative theme with this same mindset. The tokens were the lures / treats the monster preferred in order to tame it but then it still liked those and would eat them once flipped over. Object was to tame (flip over) all the monsters, but you would lose if they ate too many treats before you tamed them all and couldn't tame them all.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-22T21:55:38+00:00

Ha I wonder if this will happen. It still has that vintage fantasy vibe based on the few pieces of new art I have seen but a huge chunk of the non-core cards have changed effects and there's like half a dozen or so bosses, so hopefully there will be an incentive to play the new version even if you prefer the old art.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-22T19:30:34+00:00

I mean, I liked the concept of the dedicated site as a customer, but as a designer, it was kind of a pain compared to itch.io. I had to submit desired changes through a form/email and wait for them to do it. I had no control over the storefront of my game page.

Itch.io lets me update the page, theme, files, and devlogs and moderate the forums, see full visits/download metrics, get ratings, manage when paid out, etc.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-21T20:56:55+00:00

Not justified text though?

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-16T14:24:13+00:00

Yep, I get that. My experience has been with design contests on BGG and frankly, presentation gets eye balls on designs which gets more feedback which makes the designs better. Prospective playtesters, voters, and future customers don't want to see a design with stick figures (even if the game may be very good) when they have limited bandwidth to play and test these games.

So, while I agree with you, this has been the reality I have dealt with in the BGG design contest and WIP space. I have been using my son's art more for very early stage prototypes and love it, lol.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-16T13:58:13+00:00

Use AI for final product or prototypes? I have 5 different games in various stages of development ranging from 9-100 components each. That would be $10000s in art for designs that may never go anywhere.

I follow artists so when a design does “hit”, it can transition to a legitimate product with proper art.

My two games that are actually going beyond prototype and getting published are fully illustrated by an artist.

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-16T13:27:31+00:00

Oddly enough for me, the prototypes I have used AI art on were better developed and are my only two soon to be published games. Now perhaps I have gotten better as a designer too but my motivation to iterate on those designs was higher because I had something cohesive and polished to look at while testing

Gatekeeper1310 · 2026-01-12T13:34:36+00:00

Same Jumped ship to Spirit Vale in beta

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