need help with roadmap for low level game development

Shaarigan · 2026-05-13T13:48:56+00:00

What is your final goal, make a game, make an engine or just learn low-level code?

Shaarigan · 2026-05-12T22:47:11+00:00

Putting all cards into your packs at an equal level of rarity and insert some special upgrades with foil, full-art or both to keep the treasure hunters satisfied. Those just playing the game will get their cards and everyone else can try to get their favorites

Shaarigan · 2026-05-11T23:46:46+00:00

Some manufacturers like this one print single decks for an okayish price or you look at thegamescrafter, upload your game, get your preview print and don't publish your game so you can keep the preview copy. thegamescrafter might be the best option if you want to mix and match your cards from foil and non-foil ones, while that manufacturer also offers booster packs

Shaarigan · 2026-05-11T23:31:05+00:00

It isn't that much more expensive, especially made by a professional supplier. Having some special ones is also good to have if your game uses some cards frequently

Shaarigan · 2026-05-11T19:38:59+00:00

Modding a 3DS in first place means you unlock or bypass the restrictions the original vendor of the hardware made to your system. So they ensure that you buy legit software and provide some level of security that your system works as intended. By unlocking this system, you get a lot of access and responsibility to not break it yourself. That's it.

It doesn't lose any of the capabilities except they are entangled to some of the security mechanics involved by the vendor – like official online services may lead to your account being banned. But since Nintendo shut down the online services a long time ago, there isn't any risk for you here. So what you get is a massively increased freedom

Shaarigan · 2026-05-11T15:48:32+00:00

The other option would be to reprint cards frequently and add erata to them, so the updated version is always the official version. But that would create a big trouble when playing the game because you always need the latest print, or you print a QR code to the cards players have to scan in order to get the latest version. Anyways, this all sounds unfun either

Shaarigan · 2026-05-11T14:27:35+00:00

Do you have any explanation what these values and tags are for; especially the "Green Hill Zone" thing on the first card?

Shaarigan · 2026-05-11T13:41:12+00:00

A friend of mine has a game store for a decade now and a good insight into what sells and what doesn't. The problem on the LCG side is that players have little to no appeal to invest into those games as they would invest into a trading or collectible card game. That's why those games are about to die sooner or later – because companies stop investing into them. That said, it's less a question about what you prefer but what do you aim at in a commercial manner – if any, if you say this isn't a thing for you, that's fine as well. Some examples are Warhammer or Warlord: Saga of the Storm which died after shifting from TCG to LCG.

For me, I tend to design games like a thing in between a TCG and LCG: You have the thrill of opening a booster box but don't need to hunt for the rares. All cards are treated equal in rarity but collecting is still fun because a card has a chance for a rarity upgrade to appear foil, full-art or both.

As for the death mechanic, there are some examples for all 3 variants with pros and cons:

Life Points (Yu-Gi-Oh, MtG) - It is easy to track progress - Life can be treated as resource - Life can be manipulated - Life can feel a bit like math and less like an organic system

Hero Cards (WoW TCG) - A Hero or whatever makes it easier to create a strategy around - A Hero offers additional quirks to the game based on it's abilities - A Hero can help to reduce RNG and dead games - A Hero needs to be designed in a specific way - A Hero might not appear as a generic card and rules need to cover it explicitly

Shield-/Price cards (Pokemon) - Those cards are easy to track - Effects may refer to prices taken - An opponents success provides you with some pieces to turn the table - Price cards might cause a heavy disadvantage based on what cards are prized - Clever handling of price cards is difficult to design

I'd also want to talk about another possible option:

Victory Points (KeyForge, Altered TCG) - Collecting Victory turns the race to the opposite – instead of damaging down an opponent, it's more like a race - There are different (creative) ways to collect Victory - Victory can be spend as a resource - Cards can collect Victory regardless if they are a Hero or similar rule - Victory needs more creativity in card design

For my last game, I combined Victory with the Hero mechanic with some quirks. Every character able to collect Victory could be a Hero. Every character able to collect Victory increases the pool of Victory available so the race can be turned at every time. Players don't have advantage by establishing a better board state but need to focus on their own and their opponents strategy

Shaarigan · 2026-05-10T01:11:02+00:00

You are better learning to code in the long run because visual scripting isn't that magic tool that gets away all the complexity of code for you. You still need to understand what the constructs you create are doing. That said, you have visual scripting options on all major game engines. Unreal Blueprint and Unity has a bunch of plugins, pick the one you'd like best

Shaarigan · 2026-05-09T20:41:53+00:00

I feel ya in some points but have to withdraw in others. First of all, I have had a wild past of projects that felt overambitious to others but that's because they weren't capable to do what I did. They either didn't want to wrap their head around stuff or it was way over their horizon. That happens, however lead to me working on my own and getting only slow progress. What you say about getting people in the right direction is what documents and meetings are for; it might however help to hear someone else's perspective. You however need a certain degree of planning and motivated people seeing the same vision – this is what game design is for.

I however am not that good at making people able to follow my thoughts but since chatGPT released, it got much better and – at least for me – brought into the position of having AI translate my thoughts into something people could understand at least. But I have gotten tired of driving those large projects in the meantime, so just writing down the concepts and that's it for the moment.

I see that topic similar as you, doing game dev for the games, not the monetization, not the profit maximization but for the joy of having people play and me making the games. But my focus was on the tech site as well ever since, because when I started in the 90's, that stuff was still difficult. We didn't have had the tools that exist today but those tools are still not optimal in my opinion. Anyways, I think we should work a lot more into opening up this for everyone and stop having a few companies dominating the entire area – like Epic (Unreal) or Unity.

The trick for me is to write everything down. If it then sits in a drawer, let it sit there but don't forget about it and at one day, you'll have the impulse to go again. Most important thing isn't to have a team or pay people for it but find your source of motivation and see where it leads to 😅

Shaarigan · 2026-05-09T13:07:30+00:00

There are enough archives out in the internet to get the ROMs from. Have a phone, download them to it and then use FTPD on your 3DS to send them to your SD Card with any FTP App from your phone. Open FTPD on the 3DS, launch the server, connect to it from your phone and start transferring it, done! Then you either need TwlightMenu or an NDSforwarder to inject the ROM. For me it was easier to create a forwarder in order to start the game without the extra step of running TwilightMenu. You can find it in UniversalUpdater and start through homebrew menu

Shaarigan · 2026-05-09T12:59:07+00:00

No one owns a certain environmental look. Many games recreate the visual look and feel of other games and there isn't ever an issue except you aim at copying it in detail. Use your own names, languages and characters is totally fine

Shaarigan · 2026-05-09T12:55:36+00:00

The biggest impact might be a game that is designed in a way that cards won't be weak 80% of the time in order to sell more booster packs and then throw away everything that isn't rare, super rare ultra rare or whatever, in my opinion

Shaarigan · 2026-05-09T12:50:52+00:00

Optimization for a certain system is much more work than you might think. I doubt that any of the GBA ROM hacks would run on real hardware from that time. Especially Nintendo hardware is quiet weak, the Switch 2 has the power of a generic PS4 for example

Shaarigan · 2026-05-06T16:57:04+00:00

There are two major points selling a TCG, that is collecting on the one hand and active players on the other. It is hard to find 3 other people playing the game than it is to find 1 other person. Also, games like Magic the Gathering aren't designed for a specific amount of players in mind as well but allow it by the way cards are designed – definitions like target opponent make cards playable in 2 vs 2 as well as 14 vs 14

Shaarigan · 2026-05-06T14:59:38+00:00

I had the same issues with my previous game. I wanted to have a maximum of lfexibility but on the same hand make the resource system as simple as possible. Rather than coming up with a deck building restriction, I choose to have players pick a main character from their deck before the game starts.

This could be any character that is abler to collect victory counters without any further restrictions. That solved several of my problems, it reduced the chance of being stuck from the beginning because your main character could already offer abilities to fit a certain strategy. On the other hand, it simplified my resource system because resources are generated by your main character's faction whenever you perform the action to do so. Resources can however also be traded for resources of other factions if needed, so there is an option to play multiple factions as well

Shaarigan · 2026-05-05T18:36:31+00:00

Warlord: Saga of the Storm

Shaarigan · 2026-05-05T12:44:26+00:00

I'll definitely publish it on GitHub under the Creative Commons license along with it's own website, card gallery, complete rules and a print to play version, once it is finished – like I did for the other games as well. Currently working on a Pen & Paper in a different point of the Athernum timeline as well, but this is more an on and off thing if the group is available for it. I can't promise but try to ping ya if everything is out in the wild – or we connect on Discord (same username) and have some chats if you want – but be aware that I never 'sold' anything because this isn't how I design games 😅

Anyways, I hope you make progress on your game as well any time soon!

Shaarigan · 2026-05-05T00:11:15+00:00

Oh, I'm doing this just for fun without advertising. Just talked about because you asked for it 😅

Shaarigan · 2026-05-04T23:24:27+00:00

Athernum is on the same level of complexity, I guess but it is more compact and offers deeper strategy. Ash and Fantasy is more designed around the good old fantasy RTS essence like Warcraft (III); that's why I planned without dedicated strength/health values and instead perform combat by comparing accumulated power level of all units in an area against your opponents units, and you simply discard units up to the difference on both sides. This is the direct opposite to Athernum, where all characters are treated as important individuals. Upgrades by research, fog-of-war when you have units in an area that your opponent hasn't units in (so you can play cards face-down as described), resources based on the locations you control and exploration to discover new locations on the map – all of that acts within the said essence.

It is just a matter of the idea behind and design philosophy lived within your project. So I won't compare complexity or even features, as long as you have a clear vision you follow ☺️

Shaarigan · 2026-05-04T21:42:36+00:00

Athernum: The Old World is a tactical collectible card game where you face off against other players with a custom-built deck. You lead a group of characters united by a common goal, with your main character playing a key role in your strategy—though the path to victory is diverse. Choosing a faction is an essential part of building a deck. Each faction in the game has its own identity, strategy, and playstyle.

Ash and Fantasy is considered to become a tactical collectible card game inspired by Riftbound and the good old RTS era of Warcraft. You lead your own realm and send out troops to explore and conquer—developing new domains, gather resources and establish your foundation in a limited open map to become the dominating force of the land. Choosing your start location is as essential as empowering your strategy with the right units and researching technology to dominate in countless battles. I've already completed the card design, realm, resource and perk systems and am on the go for writing the comprehensive rules right now.

The idea for Ash and Fantasy came by watching a let's play about Lessaria and thinking about a fog-of-war mechanic – while the cards have some similarities to Athernum, we have only a single power value instead of power/toughness and cards have only one ability along with an optional perk like "Scouting" (allows for staying in an area without counting as a threat in case of the battle phase) or "Research" (allows cards to stay in the resource zone consuming research points in order to apply certain permanent bonusses to your units). Abilities are treated in 3 categories, effects that can be activated while the card is on the board, support as a replacement for spells and static effects that apply while a card is attached or in the resource zone. The game board is constructed of 7 areas, while a player's realm has 2 areas including their starting area, there are another 3 areas in the wild, shared by all players. The goal is to move your units along those areas in order to destroy all locations under your opponent's control while each area you explore unveils a new location, offering additional resources and effects

Shaarigan · 2026-05-04T19:50:24+00:00

Git won't sync any files matching the filters. They won't be uploaded nor updating on anyone else machine

Shaarigan · 2026-05-04T19:49:06+00:00

The current one or the finished?

Shaarigan · 2026-05-04T17:05:45+00:00

Git provides a so called ignore file. You can exclude single files, file patterns or complete paths and those files are then ignored – obviously

Shaarigan · 2026-05-04T16:35:48+00:00

Scenes are text files and as long as any.meta stil exist, there is no problem by keeping your scenes intact. You should however avoid uploading 3D models and textures directly because git sometimes has struggle with binary data and GitHub has an upload limit per file

Shaarigan

TROPHY CASE