The creative process of designing and creating a fantasy-style trading card game.

Since early childhood, I have always had a peculiar fascination for Pokemon cards and similar products. I would collect and trade them with great joy.

In my later years, i have since reconnected with this interest, which has lead me down the path of creating my own Trading Card Game, with heavy inspiration from card games like; Pokemon TCG, Magic The Gathering and Duel Masters, to name a few.

The idea -

The process

Using Figma for making layouts, Krita for making digital art and borrowing rules from different card games, I began designing a layout.

The picture illustrates how the layout evolved over time through continuous development and playtesting.

Factions

For my game I wanted different cards with different archetypes and abilities, and so I settled on making 6 “factions” represented by different colours, themes, creatures and lore. Ideas were discussed and fleshed out with friends over time.

Using the digital painting program “Krita”, i designed a crest for each faction and their lore / theme.

Steady progress

My goal early on was designing all game-mechanics and card functionalities, leaving the card art for last. This left me with over 200 individual cards that needed art.

Over 8 - 9 months, painting a few digital images per week in Krita, I have gradually made art for each individual card. Hoping to wrap up in early June 2025.

Some card art;

  • Soulsick

    Soulsick

  • Second Awakening

  • Mega Mosquito

The road forward

Going forward, the plan is to finish up painting, while play-testing the game extensively with friends. Using “TheGameCrafter”, a print-on-demand service, physical copies have already been produced for testing. The long term goal is to self-publish through TheGameCrafter.

Thank you for your interest, we will see where it goes.