Explanation: This is a RPG card game I came up with several years ago, and have modified a little since then for personal reasons. Looking back on it, some of the ideas had merit, I think. So I would like to maybe make this game on my own.

When I first tried to make this game, I was using Unity and couldn't program well, and recruited a team of people. Neither I, or the team I recruited, could make any form of progress. So we quit/fell apart. I think I can do better now though. Will probably make this game in Game Maker, Scirra Construct 2, or Javascript - to be decided.

I know I've been pitching a lot of game ideas lately, and it might make you question whether I'll finish them all. But I'm scrapping the platformer like Sonic, and will probably work on the outer space game and one other.

Storyline:

You are Trent, a 19 year old male warrior.

The Dark Warrior wants to destroy Clay Village, Trent's hometown. But the Dark Warrior needs a person to do it. Trent falls in love with a woman named Melanie. One day, the Dark Warrior is "searching for human souls" and chooses Melanie as his victim to possess. Melanie is infused with Darkma (negative energy) by the Dark Warrior. She will now try to kill the whole town. You love Melanie, but Clay Village contains your family and friends, most of whom don't believe the Dark Warrior or Darkma has come. You must kill Melanie or kill the Dark Warrior to save Clay Village.

Gameplay:

Here's how the card game works. You will draw a card from one of 9 stacks and various thing might happen.

Cards:

Tokens card - Get a certain number of tokens.

Weapons card - Buy a weapon if you have the tokens, or find a weapon.

Armor card - Buy armor if you have the tokens, or find armor.

Love card - Fall deeper in love with Melanie, gain courage level.

Monster card - Encounter a monster.

Boss card - Encounter a boss.

Poison card - Poisons player.

Heal card - Heals player.

Lockpick card - Gain a level at picking locks.

Treasure Chest card - Open a treasure chest if your lock-pick level is high enough.

Magic 1.25x card - Increase magic by 25% while the status enhancement remains.

One-Hit Kill card - Occasionally perform a one-hit kill on foes while the status enhancement remains.

Remove Status Enhancements card - Removes status enhancements.

Liquid Orb card - Get the liquid orb, to become better at water magic.

Charcoal Orb card - Get the charcoal orb, to become better at fire magic.

Pomegranate Orb card - Get the pomegranate orb, to become better at Earth magic.

Electric Orb card - Get the electric orb, to become better at electric magic.

You have the choice of running from some monsters or fighting them to gain exp and levels. If you fight them, you will win or lose the battle based on a percentage that is based on what level you are. So if you are a higher level, you have a better chance of winning because there is a better percentage you'll win. If you die, you have to catch a card with numbers of 1-2 on 1 to be revived.

This game will have 3 endings, depending on how well you do.

Ending 1 (best): You destroy the Dark Warrior, save Clay Village and are free to be in love with Melanie.

Ending 2 (neutral): You kill Melanie and save Clay Village.

Ending 3 (bad): Clay Village gets destroyed.

You must be at a high level (level 100) and have all four orbs to face the Dark Warrior to win to get the best ending. Being at too low a level when you die will mean you will probably face the worst ending. And so on.

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The reason why I want to make this game is I'm tired of the norm. Tired of JRPGs, tired of horror shooters, tired of CRPGs, tired of everything. I want something relatively fresh.

I wish I could just go back to the first time I tried to make this game and not been such an idiot at the time and maybe it would have been made. It wasn't necessarily the ideas that failed it, it was mostly me.

I don't feel this game idea is complete. It's too random and not thorough enough. But you guys tend to be good/great at suggestions, so... tell me what you think.

I'm slightly confused...

Why are there 9 different stacks? Why not just a single stack that gives you a random card from that set of cards? Are there differences between them?

How does combat actually execute? Is it a bit more like the last Paper Mario where your individual skills have to be acquired through the non-combat gameplay, and the skills are consumed upon use? Or is it more that the stuff you get from cards is a boost to your equipment and stats? If so, what makes the cards themselves different from treasure chests? Do the "treasure chests" just let you pick from the stack(s) again?

I assume you plan to have the player level up by experience gained through killing monsters? I get the sense that a lot of your time will be spent balancing the rate at which the player will draw these various cards. You don't want it too easy to where they barely ever get monsters, but you also don't want them constantly encountering monsters before they are lucky enough to come across a "heal" card...

Are tokens essentially money and Weapon/Armor cards effectively "shops" that are randomly encountered? How do you get magic? I don't think that is mentioned...

Are love cards only used as a barrier to unlock the final boss? Or is it more like this nebulous other stat that doesn't actually help them at all in a direct manner, but if they don't have it, they lose the game? Cause it seems like the latter unless you plan to make the player's "love" value have an affect on gameplay outside of the cutscenes (if any) or ending.

@facehead1992:

9 stacks seems to give people a psychological idea of choice. Although I agree, there is no real surface difference that I know of. I might have to just go with one deck.

The stuff you get from cards is a boost to your equipment and stats. Regarding what makes them different from treasure chest is another good question. I guess treasure chests will contain rarer items and items you get for "free".

I plan to have the player level up by experience gained through killing monsters...

Tokens are money and Weapon/Armor cards are "shops" that are randomly encountered. Magic is something a player uses automatically in battles - it is not acquired

but rather, improved.

Love cards boost something about the character during battles to improve them.

If you want the player to have faux choice with a single stack, they could have the choice to discard x cards.

Cards represent options, the only mechanical reason to use cards in a computergame is having the player create their own deck(set of options)

I do not have the feeling this is what the player actually does in this game ?

edit:Another reason could be that the player can hold/save several options in his "hand" after drawing, i guess it could work,

but i (as a player) would expect more interesting choices then "buy armor first or beat boss first?"

Correct me if I am wrong but :

You have the choice of running from some monsters or fighting them to gain exp and levels. If you fight them, you will win or lose the battle based on a percentage that is based on what level you are. So if you are a higher level, you have a better chance of winning because there is a better percentage you'll win. If you die, you have to catch a card with numbers of 1-2 on 1 to be revived.

So the battle results are random (with power/level % modifier) and the revive mechanism is also random ?

If it's true, I don't really think it's a good mechanic and it may be infuriating for players to die to a lower level creature due to bad luck only. What is the penalty of dying ?

Good point SerialKicked. I should make it so that they pretty much conquer low-level foes regardless.

The penalty of dieing is losing the entire game and having to start over, pretty much.

Maybe you shouldn't have such a harsh penalty if the combat is (semi) random. Maybe you could give the player a health bar out of battle that'd decrease when he lose but that he can replenish using cards / token / whatever.

What keep people interested in card games is usually when they have the ability to "manage" or at least have an influence on the outcomes. Having the ability to "store" one or several card(s) (a hand) for later use is the first thing that come to mind, but there's probably other possible systems (i am no expert in card games).

To me it sounds like these cards are functioning less as a set of options you are provided with, and more as a kind of die roll that give you either occasional one-use boosts or permanent stat boosts. So rather than it being that the player is "managing" things, it feels like the actual battles are entirely based around chance (though the chance statistics are affected by the player's current equipment). If I'm right, then I feel like this isn't so much an RPG as it is like a questing sim (if that makes any sense).

Are you able to directly affect the flow of a battle through player action at all? Or is it more like, "Okay, the more I work on this skill, the higher percent chance that my character will succeed against this boss." - where the player doesn't actually do anything during combat.

Agreed, decisions are important. You get what cards you get, but you have a choice of how/when/which cards to play. If you have no choices, it's this game:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Quest