Smash TCG?

[Organous]

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum to place this, but I wanted the community's feedback. I've been working on and off again with making a card game for Smash Bros (whether it'd be collectible or not, I'm not sure). I've got the system pretty well down, but it's the card-making itself which I'm stuck on. It's not a matter of difficulty, I've just been too lazy to do it. Here's the thing: I'd definitely pursue it if I felt that the community would buy into this, because let's face it, who's going to turn down the opportunity to create a new game everyone loves while making money?
So, I ask you guys, if a good card game existed of this, would you be willing to buy it and play it? I've been told that the UFS card game (Universal Fighting System, think Capcom and SNK) has been seeking the license for Smash Bros., but with how vastly different this is, I know UFS could never do it justice. In any case, UFS seems to be enjoying a reasonable amount of success along the same lines as Dragon Ball Z did for its card game (I play/played both), so if people will play a card game of a video fighter, maybe this could work, too.
This is not an unrealistic idea. One of my former co-workers has connections with card game-makers in California (he didn't tell me the company, sorry) and when I told him of my idea, he said flat-out that something this deep is certainly considerable to make. You guys look like the largest collection of smashers on the web, so you're the best place to check for interest.

Here's a little insight on how the game plays. I've played UFS, DBZ, and Yu Yu Hakusho (among many others), and while they're all fighters, they're still turn-based. My game would be totally simultaneous, shared turns and actions. Played face-down simultaneously, speed ratings would determine the priority of cards, but of course there'll be ways to get sluggish stuff moving, too. KOs are determined by rolling a die at the appropriate time governed by strength of the attack, damage, weight of the character, and whatever other effects apply. The cards in your hand would be used as a resource, including for your shield, and there will definitely be a high price for shielding too much. Of course it won't be totally like the video game (tried that once, and that one might as well be a bad board game), but any TCG requires a bit of imagination. I'd still try to incorporate as much as I can. Depending on the collectibility, whether it'd be a TCG or standalone, I'd have to exclude some things at first and draw upon their own licenses to get more variety.

Alright, I'm already too wordy so I'll just end it here. Does this sound like something you guys would be up for, or does this sound like a project doomed to fail?

 

[Ageman20XX]

Wouldn't the first thing you should be looking into be licensing? I'm pretty sure that if you plan to make any money at all off these things you're going to have to get some kind of go-ahead from Nintendo and pay some hefty licensing fees. Nintendo doesn't just lend it's IPs out for free. How you looked into that at all? It's not as easy or as cheap as you may think.

-Age

 

[Organous]

I know it'd be expensive to get the licenses. That's why I wouldn't be starting up a company or anything to do it. I'd be seeking an existing company to do it, and they'd be the ones worrying about the cost for licensing.

 

[Roller]

Sounds like a cool idea.

 

[Genghis Krahn]

Yeah, I've always been into creating my own TCGs. As a kid I made a few of my own as well.

Are you an artist yourself? Or would you be looking for people to help out with the artwork, and card designs? I'd be interested.

Even though it'd be extremely difficult for something to officially develop out of this, It'd be fun to do up some designs just for the hell of it, for others to enjoy.

 

[Llumys]

I'd play it.

 

[Phantomwake]

So I would suggest making proxys of a lot of the cards and taking them to a local card shop where people often play card games or D&D etc... then teach some people how to play and then ask them how they liked it.
listen to what they did and did not like and decide what they did not like that can be fixed or needs to be how it is to balance the game.
basically go out and test the game as long as you are not trying to make money off of it yet you shouldn't need licensing and I would love to help you in any way I can feel free to PM me.

 

[Pi]

I don't really like the idea.

I don't think you'd hook a lot of the smash bros. community, and the card community probably doesn't go for things based on games they don't play, so you're looking at a audience of card and smash players only.

I don't think a lot of smashers are going to be playing smash bros TCG when they could be playing the real thing.

 

[---]

Sounds like a good idea, but it might change how people look at smash. For example, remember what happened to Pokemon, we don't want smash to end up the same way.

 

[GreatClayMonkey]

believe it or not but theres a thread for this already but since its dead what ever. I don't really ike the idea of over commercializing smash like ever other god **** game/movie/TV show/anime/book/menu

 

[Genghis Krahn]

Well, I think the reality of it is, if anything does get made by members of this forum, it will just be for fun.

I think some people would enjoy the concept. If you don't, that's cool. You can ignore it.

On the same note; over-commercializing would only happen if this got picked up by a big company somehow. The chances of that are low to the extreme.

And if the near-impossible does happen, and it were to get huge because of this very thread, you'll just wish you had thought of it first, haha.

PS: THEY SHOULD MAKE A SMASH BROS. MOVIE!!! (I'm kidding.)

 

[DOCTORSTUPID]

SUMMARIZE IT IM LAZY

 

[SiegKnight]

dude. a smash bros movie. if its cg esque ala advent children? hell yeah.

 

[Golem the Stern Father]

SUMMARIZE IT IM LAZY

Feel free to troll here, not on Smashboards.

 

[Spire]

Strange... I've been designing a Super Smash Bros. card game -- and I've actually been making the cards themselves. They aren't perfect, but I've put quite a bit of work into the design. As for the mechanics of the game, I've yet to come up with much, but coincidentally, your rules seem to fall into some alignment with my own half-baked rules. Perhaps this should not be a commercial project, but a collaborative Smash community project. I would gladly work with you to make a card game based on the Smash Bros universe.

Hoorah! 100th post!

 

[C@sH Mooney]

I would love that idea.

If Nintendo did it, god. That would be the best thing ever.

 

[Papapaint]

http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=135097

 

[Crazy Cloud]

I think it would be cliche (in a good way) if Nintendo were to produce a SSB TCG. They started out making card games, then returned to it over a century(right?) later.

 

[Koga]

And as far as artwork goes, You could make it yourself Via In game snapshots. That would be awsome

 

[Doyouspeakgreek]

mr challis, do you speak greek??

 

[antimatter]

i'd prefer a game with the trophies instead of cards.

 

[cena_wolf]

Honestly, Fantasy Flight should just get the rights to Brawl and add them as a universe in UFS. I love UFS to heck, and it'd be a great addition to the franchise.

 

[The Executive]

DO WANT.

A Smash TCG would be amazing.

 

[Morrigan]

I don't think a lot of smashers are going to be playing smash bros TCG when they could be playing the real thing.

Pokemon, does it ring a bell?

 

[rove]

I personally dont like the idea.
Mainly because I'm now 15 and I left all that pokemon and Yu-gi-oh stuff back in elementry school.
But if this game where aimed at kids that would be ok.
But think about it, its like making a TCG for Tekken, or Mortal Kombat.
I mean Mario on a trading card?
It would be like when Pokemon first came out, everybody wanted the all mightly Charzard Card (which I still have in good condition waiting to be sold)
And their aren't enough characters to actually be a card collecting thing.

 

[smashbro29]

seems better than pokemon and yu-gi-oh combined sugn me up

 

[Genghis Krahn]

Strange... I've been designing a Super Smash Bros. card game -- and I've actually been making the cards themselves. They aren't perfect, but I've put quite a bit of work into the design. As for the mechanics of the game, I've yet to come up with much, but coincidentally, your rules seem to fall into some alignment with my own half-baked rules. Perhaps this should not be a commercial project, but a collaborative Smash community project. I would gladly work with you to make a card game based on the Smash Bros universe.

Hoorah! 100th post!

I'd be interested to see the design you've come up with. You should post it up somewhere. If I get around to coming up with something, I'll post it up as well.

And as far as artwork goes, You could make it yourself Via In game snapshots. That would be awsome

Yeah, that'd be a quick way to get snapshots of various items, etc. Or a way to make proxy cards. So that's a good thought. However I think it would be a lot more stylish to have original illustrations.

 

[Ageman20XX]

While I still think it's not going to go anywhere, and it can't go anywhere, I'll amuse the idea. I've actually made two different (MegaMan-themed) card games in my history, both of which are on full display on my website.

MegaMan EXE TCG (very old)

MegaMan Powered Up TCG (not new, but recent)

You guys should check out the designs, I worked hard on 'em and did 90% of the artwork myself! That being said, I'm showing you because I want you to see how much work it takes - I did all those cards 100% by myself but canceled the project after it was made clear that Capcom would seriously sue me if I tried to continue. That being said, you can't just get someone else to make the card game - there's far more involved than you think.

The only way this would survive is if it was entirely free and people were expected to print them off themselves. That being said, I think if the game is actually FUN it might go somewhere, but the cards need to make sense, they need to be appealing, and they need to look good. No one wants to play a game with cards made in MS Paint.

Otherwise, good luck, and if you need/want any pointers on artwork, card design, game design, or anything else, don't be afraid to hit me up. In fact, I think the BEST thing that could come out of this card game is if it was a community effort. But with the way people interact with each other on these forums, that will never happen...

-Age

 

[C@sH Mooney]

holy ****

you made mega man exe? I swear I've seen and played that a long time ago.

 

[Organous]

It's interesting to see that some people have already tried their own designs at this. The level of response at this point would be enough to convince me it's not worth working on, but if some others have already tried actually making the game, well that changes things a bit. I have a long work weekend ahead of me, but once I've got that all behind me, sure, I'll get with some of you guys to get your takes on it. Come to think of it, if you have documents made up, you're free to email me your creations.

To those saying "why play cards when you can play the real thing," I can simply point to UFS and Pokemon. People still play those even though they're based on already available video games. If the card game has its own element that the video game cannot offer, people will play it.

As for making it real or free, well, let's just wait for it to be finished before deciding that.

 

[Spire]

While I still think it's not going to go anywhere, and it can't go anywhere, I'll amuse the idea. I've actually made two different (MegaMan-themed) card games in my history, both of which are on full display on my website.

MegaMan EXE TCG (very old)

MegaMan Powered Up TCG (not new, but recent)

You guys should check out the designs, I worked hard on 'em and did 90% of the artwork myself! That being said, I'm showing you because I want you to see how much work it takes - I did all those cards 100% by myself but canceled the project after it was made clear that Capcom would seriously sue me if I tried to continue. That being said, you can't just get someone else to make the card game - there's far more involved than you think.

The only way this would survive is if it was entirely free and people were expected to print them off themselves. That being said, I think if the game is actually FUN it might go somewhere, but the cards need to make sense, they need to be appealing, and they need to look good. No one wants to play a game with cards made in MS Paint.

Otherwise, good luck, and if you need/want any pointers on artwork, card design, game design, or anything else, don't be afraid to hit me up. In fact, I think the BEST thing that could come out of this card game is if it was a community effort. But with the way people interact with each other on these forums, that will never happen...

-Age

I have to say, those Mega Man cards are incredible - extremely professional. I am artistically inspired, to say the least.

Now, moving on to the Smash Bros. card game. I work in Photoshop, and have been doing so for years (so no MS Paint worries). I have not come up with a system for how the game plays, but I have been working on the beta designs for the cards (and have incorporated a space for the statistics). I'll post an example of one of the cards at the end of this post. As for the "style" of the gameplay, I think that the game should play fairly quickly - just as Smash Bros actually does. This should not be too much of a strategy-based game, like Magic the Gathering, Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon, etc, etc. The design of the cards should correlate with the speed so that the player can easily read what is necessary for playing and well, just play! Matches should be able to be played anywhere, and in the course of a short amount of time. Which brings up another point - the types of cards, the total number of cards, and how many cards to place in a deck.

To elaborate on that last bit, I think for types of cards, we avoid "technique" cards. Those would only make the match last far longer. Now, should a deck revolve around one character, or multiple characters? To stay true to the Smash Bros. games, each card game should have a maximum of four characters on the field at once (which means 2-4 people can play). This is not to say that you cannot put more than two characters in your deck, but you can only have two out at a time, and the only way to replace one is if one on the stage loses all of their lives. I'll elaborate more on this as the vision becomes clearer to me.

Now, for what characters to have. Yes, we must include every character in Brawl (and perhaps the omitted from Melee also). This includes all playable characters, assist trophies, bosses, and perhaps even enemies. Bosses should be rendered as playable characters, but are must have some drawbacks. For instance, you may only place one boss in your deck, and a boss takes up the entire field. Yes, they will be more powerful in general than most characters, but they have to be balanced out. Also, perhaps we could come up with some new characters. I've already started work on a number of characters.

As AlmightyPancake stated in his thread, each player must choose which stage they wish to play on (must have the card of the stage in their respective decks) and flip a coin, play rock, paper, scissors, or do something to decide what stage to play on. I feel that this rule should be mandatory so the two (or more) players do not just "agree" with a stage that someone else has - because that could result in total satisfaction, which may allude to how someone wants to play. This way it's a half-random style of selecting a stage. I think that the stages definitely need to have statistics themselves that directly correspond with the statistics of each character, assist trophy, etc. so that they may play a prominent role in the game. For instance, "Bridge of Eldin" may have a hazard level of 5/12 (no stage would be a 12) so a 12-sided dice may be required (or you could roll a six-sided dice twice, or flip a coin six times). After both players have taken x amount of turns (the stage card would specify how many), each rolls the dice and if they get above 5 nothing happens, but if they get 5 or below, they take x amount of damage (specifies on the card).

Now, to talk about damage. Should we add % damage, or subtract from an set amount of HP? The only thing that I am concerned with if we use HP (or any unit of Stamina) that different players would have different amounts, and would definitely seesaw the balance factor. So, perhaps different attacks should do different amounts of damage (Mario's fireball does x1.0, Falcon Punch does x2.0, and Warlock Punch does x2.5).I think that damage should only be inflicted in, x 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 increments. Different attacks and item cards should do different multiples of damage. Ouch, just realized -- THE PERCENTAGES. Okay, I guess we have a foundation of percentage multipliers, but now we need the actual percentages. Ideas?

Of course this will be a free card game and people would have to print them out on their own. Perhaps we could come up with a system for how to print them out, what paper to use, etc, etc. so people can at least have similar looking cards.

Now, to finally disagree with you -- I think some of the members of this community (like you, myself, and Organous) are entirely capable of collaborating and actually working together. So, as I promised, here is a beta version of the card style depicting Mario:

 

[Genghis Krahn]

I think in regards to the HP issue; If we incorporate Weight into the stats, that could be the HP System.

If a character has taken damage surpassing their weight, a KO is now possible, or more likely.

Of course it needs to be developed, but it's a rough idea.

 

[Rhubarbo]

Already been done: www.freewebs.com/rhubarbo