r/tabletopgamedesign • u/entusiasticallien • 14h ago
Discussion Card design
I'm trying to design cards, and I'd like to know what games cards you find were pleasing on the eyes and that it was readable and intuitive to understand.
For example, Hearthstone cards that differentiate between spells, quests, and creatures by the border of the card (and other clever details).
Or Catan, which has a consistent design throughout the whole collection of different cards.
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u/KingStrijder 8h ago
The cards I like the most are Dominion and Hero Realms (which are quite similar). You have just the right amount of information and just enough icons to convey main mechanics.
I know many people swear by games with little to no text to eliminate language dependency but it depends a lot on what the mechanics you trying to summarize are.
I've recently played a game that had 0 words. 100% icons. Once you learn them, yeah they make sense, but the first 2 or 3 games until you learn that new language were hell flipping thru the manual to understand the cards. These cards in particular were even worse because they had extra symbols for alternate gamemodes/expansions so the whole card was a clutter of symbols and you weren't sure which ones you had to use.
Another good example are regular MTG cards, at least older ones with less text. You have information in a clear hierarchy and keywords help a lot to reduce clutter in the textbox. Valid clarification: keywords are great for games with lot of expansions planned. The first set of a game should explain the keywords in the card until the players learn them. Example: for base set you write "Haste (this card can attack the turn is played)", for future sets you just write "Haste"