Official Website: mjdj.163.com
TASKS OVERVIEW
- Defined card design workflow for the design team.
- Defined card illustration design workflow, including pre-visualization for the design team.
- Oversaw the design and implementation of multiple gameplay systems.
- Established a wiki site to consolidate design documentations, later adopted company-wide.
- Conducted collaborations with artists and musicians overseas.
- Defined card illustration design workflow, including pre-visualization for the design team.
- Oversaw the design and implementation of multiple gameplay systems.
- Established a wiki site to consolidate design documentations, later adopted company-wide.
- Conducted collaborations with artists and musicians overseas.
ABOUT THE GAME
Realm of Duels is by far the most ambitious commercial project I’ve ever set my hands on. With over $2,000,000 art budget under my direct control, my first concern is — how to make it work without any art? Mark Rosewater once said in his podcast: among the elements that make the card game — Name, Power, Art, the least important is art.
I developed and defined the narrative structure of the game — how we name cards, what perks do we assign to different colors on the color wheel, and how every system in the game serves this goal.
Realm of Duels went through its second open test during November 2016. Watch the trailer here:
TAKING NARRATIVE TO THE TEST
The narrative of this game took a top-down approach. Lead designer designated individual elements that need to appear in the game world. I and my team proceed to fit them into the five color wheels — the game’s core restraint on construct decks.
Without space for flavor text, the only text that conveys flavor is the name itself. The downside of this approach is it may become arbitrary — each designer would have their view on what’s great flavor. We had to put it to the test.
I incorporated the whole team into this first, then
1. Everybody reads the card names and its powers.
2. Everybody tell their own version of understanding of the game world.
3. Everybody receives a single-page handout explains the game world.
4. Everybody rate each card name on a 1 to 5 scale.
2. Everybody tell their own version of understanding of the game world.
3. Everybody receives a single-page handout explains the game world.
4. Everybody rate each card name on a 1 to 5 scale.
Then we took it one step further to dozens of existing TCG players — our core user group.
VISUALIZE
I also have a design blog talking about the visualization process during the design.