To the Gates of Truth – Game design break down 1

Hi! So here is the first post concerning my design thinking and how I tried to approach game design in “To the Gates of Truth”. I will break down different aspects, such as narrative, mechanics, iterations, or the way I organize.

I will name each post in order, for you to know what I will be talking about. I will also get from the most general to the more specific. So:

1 - Card games and synergies

Even if I am not an expert, I really like card games and especially Trading Card Games. Like for tabletops, I love the design of Keyforge (Richard Garfield), Crisis:Tokyo (Ramon Torrente & Sebastian Torrente) offers way too much interesting combos. For videogames, Dicey Dungeons (Terry Cavanagh) mixes card games with roguelike elements and randomness with perfection and, of course, One step from Eden (ThomasMoonKang) is a masterpiece.

Even if you have not played this (but I recommend those games), I will now explain one of the design elements I tried to observe from these games: synergies.

Cards, alone, have specific and elegant effects. They are indeed self-sufficient and can have a utility when played alone. But when combining simple things together, as a player, I always have this feeling of discovering (or even sometimes creating!) a new way to consider those elements.

“The whole is different from the sum of its parts.”

Indeed, the whole combination is different than just adding the two effects of simple cards together. I wanted to have straightforward cards and effects, sometimes in forms of actives (powers) or rule-breaking (unique characters passives or specific passives). And of course, the fact that it is cooperative, and that 3 players can coordinate their actions, reinforce this “combo” feeling (or at least, I wanted to approach this kind of experience).

Summary: I designed cards to have self-sufficient efficiency and are straightforward. Additionally, those effects could always have the potential of being “summed” with others, which create a new “whole”.

Thanks for taking the time to read and see you in part 2 :D