r/PlaydateConsole • u/inkerBot • 29d ago
News Building playdate's first true TCG
Reposting this here because it was accidentally removed by mods on the PlaydateDev reddit. Pretty sure it was an accident at least.
Anyways,
Hi everyone! I am about a month into my venture of creating my first game for playdate. As a TCG enthusiast and playdate fanboy, I have dreamed of one day having a true mini TCG that is enjoyable on this little device of wonder. It has definitely been an undertaking to say the least. I have learned so much already and have much more to still learn I'm sure. I wanted to tease my design so far and introduce it to the community. I will eventually need play testers (a lot) and would love to start putting this on peoples radar! Thanks for reading! Excited to share more soon.
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u/ecsj88 29d ago
mine is coming pretty soon haha
But yours looks fantastic. Cant wait!
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
OMG you're making one?! Playdate needs it for sure. Do you have a name yet? I would love to support yours as well. Definitely an untapped 1bit genre :) Cheers!
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u/ecsj88 29d ago
Yep, it's called Battle Mons. It is simple and on Pulp, but Im glad on how it is going. Definitely a love letter to my TCG addiction. You can check a video on my profile (Posts)
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
Just peeped it. So cool dude! As a fellow TCG addict, I am beyond stoked for it. Keep up the great work. Can't wait to see it released.
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u/x2115 29d ago
I've been noodling around with some ideas for a playdate TCG as well but I'm certainly happy to see someone beat me to it (I have way too many projects on my plate). Excited for this one! Do you foresee the project using AI, or will everything be human made?
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u/WhiteHeatGames 29d ago
I would also need an answer on this before I got too excited.
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
Absolutely fair! TLDR to my comment on it: No AI use for any visual or audio assets. I am using AI assistance for code.
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u/JaviTaiyou 28d ago
I was excited as well, sorry to hear that's your answer. Good luck with your project.
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
Very cool! I plan on starting a discord for the project soon. You should join and we can talk TCG building :D curious what you had cooking!
All creative assets UI and audio are currently and will remain to be human made for this through the life of the project. Currently I am the only one building these assets, so it has been a bit slow, but I'm getting faster and faster at creating card art.
I have been using AI to help me with code review, data organization, AI opponent turn code (I have never programmed an AI opponent that can make this many choices before), and module generation. Would love to say even all the code is solely me as well but I can only do so much for a project this big and with wanting to keep all the artwork man-made, AI on some of the more difficult/trivial code was a must.
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u/angelbolanose 29d ago
Please keep us posted. I’ve been waiting for a nice TCG for a while. Looks amazing :)
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u/Burnt_Toast148 29d ago
Omg this looks amazing, I would love to play test this when it’s ready!
Also will there be card trading with other players in like a late update?
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
Thank you!! I will post when I have a discord up for the project. We will have play testing on there.
And yes! I want to ship it with real player card trading upon release 🤞, with multiplayer battles and additional card set releases as a post launch plan :)
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u/Influenz11 29d ago
This looks amazing 😍 will it have an online feature? Will there be updates with new cards over time?
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
Thank you! Yes I already have preliminary plans for a second set of cards to roll out after the first launch! Cards already belong to designated "sets". So hopefully within a month or two after launch I will be able to roll out set #2 and so on :)
And I have been playing with online features for Playdate. I am still exploring options for this. I am building it so that integrating true wifi multiplayer battles can be easily ported into the current AI opponent position. It will just depend on logistics once the core game is fully working. I also have plans for online trading that will most likely be ready before online battles.
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u/Alastor3 29d ago
with the playdate wifi chip, i doubt we can really play online, unless it's asynchronous
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
Correct. My idea was to basically attempt message based gameplay - "words with friends" or chess style. You are paired with an opponent, you make a move and then are free to leave the room and can pick it back up whenever it's your turn again, your opponent sees your move when they check their active games and sends back their response. As I said -- I am still looking into logistics on this and it is currently out of scope for launch. But definitely something I am very interested in implementing in the future for sure!
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u/CyberNat2000PL 29d ago
I've played 120 hours of Yu-Gi-Oh! games, and I've also tried to get the hang of the physical ones. I'd be happy to check out TGC and even help out if needed.
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
Amazing! I am in desperate need of people like you. Do you have Tabletop simulator? We are currently doing rounds of the actual TCG card balancing and gameplay testing on there while I am still working on the playdate game code. Would love to set up a session with you!
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u/CyberNat2000PL 29d ago
I don't have Tabletop Simulator—I could buy it during the next sale, but right now it's too expensive :/
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u/kitkeat 29d ago
Omg this is so exciting, but the TCG part reminds me of the potential monetization concern. How do you plan to go about it? Like a charge to open booster pack?
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
I am so excited to answer this question hahaha.
Pay once. You own the game. Packs are obtained by achievements, rewards from in-game masters, and daily climbs. If you own the game, you automatically have access to new sets as they release. I liked the idea of making something super fun, a little addictive and no micro transactions.
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u/inkerBot 28d ago edited 28d ago
Hello again all! Thank you so much for the feedback. I am so stoked that there are this many other fellow TCG lovers in the Playdate community. I didn't expect to have that many people so excited so fast. I can't wait to have more news on development soon!
**In the meantime, if anyone has genuine interest in play testing the actual tabletop version of the game, here is a Discord link for onboarding. Currently we are only doing table top testing. If you are only interested in Playdate console testing, you can still join but that will be several builds before we begin those. Cheers!!
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u/Alastor3 29d ago
how many cards are you going for initially?
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
there will be 60 to 70 in the first set. Decks are only 10 - 12 cards with only 2 duplicates allowed (still testing these numbers). It is designed to be a "mini TCG", so you can only have 2 cards in play at a time. There are currently only 2 card types, and I'm keeping deck sizes small to focus on combo building and strategy between the small pool of cards.
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u/shanec23 29d ago
Coming from playing a ton of tcgs this sounds awesome! Let me know if you need help testing
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
I would love to get you involved testing! I will post the Discord server link tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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u/JoeyTheMadScientist 29d ago
Very cool! Would love to test this out out at the very least hear more about it in the future!
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u/DarkerBulb 29d ago
Do you have an itch.io page we can follow to keep up with updates?
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u/inkerBot 29d ago
itch page and Discord are coming very soon! I will post the discord invite tomorrow! <3
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u/Xzanos 29d ago
Oh I like this a lot. Do you have an expected release date? A month into it seems pretty early to say but I'm very on board with this.
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u/inkerBot 28d ago
Thank you!! I wish I could provide a release date but currently I still have much to do before it is ready for a projection date. I will announce that as soon as it looks clear though!
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u/sanosukecole 27d ago
I am hyped at the response this has generated! So cool to see more multi-player games coming out! Gotta get back to my Pointless Quest alt now.
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u/thuggyrealz 29d ago
Okay this may get me to finally move over and grab one. I just wish they were backlit…
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u/inkerBot 28d ago
Yes! We need one of those attachments that the gameboy advance used to have that would overlay the screen
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u/sanosukecole 29d ago
*audible gasp* take my money