Card Defenders
- Four person project
- Isometric tower-defense card game
- Made in Unity
- ~8.5 months in development (2020-21)
- Role: Lead designer
- Contributions: Gameplay design and documentation
Overview
Card Defenders was my capstone project, made with a group of three other students.
The core concept is a combination of tower defense gameplay with card game mechanics, including deck building and random card draw.
My role as lead designer had me primarily working on design, documentation, and playtesting, though many design ideas were collaboratively conceived of by the group.
I made most of the decisions around the enemy and card designs, and I'm quite satisfied with the ways they interplay with each other. The choice of what to include in your deck is not abritrary, and the behaviors of each enemy push you to re-evaluate your approach and think about how you're using all of the mechanics at your disposal. Our goal was to scratch both the tower defense and card game itch for players, and the I'm glad that the strategery involved here succeeds in doing so.
I made most of the decisions around the enemy and card designs, and I'm quite satisfied with the ways they interplay with each other. The choice of what to include in your deck is not abritrary, and the behaviors of each enemy push you to re-evaluate your approach and think about how you're using all of the mechanics at your disposal. Our goal was to scratch both the tower defense and card game itch for players, and the I'm glad that the strategery involved here succeeds in doing so.
Lessons Learned
Be bold! You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!
At the beginning of our capstone, my team knew we wanted to make a game, but we weren't sure what would be considered appropriate for the class. We initially planned on making an educational game focused around graphing functions, assuming we had to justify our game project with some alternative utility. At the last second, though, we had the realization - if we're here to make a game, we should at least shoot for a concept we're actually passionate about. So, we decided to give it a try, and proposed Card Defenders as our capstone project.
(I did still like the educational game idea we had, though. Maybe I'll be able to revisit it some day!)
At the beginning of our capstone, my team knew we wanted to make a game, but we weren't sure what would be considered appropriate for the class. We initially planned on making an educational game focused around graphing functions, assuming we had to justify our game project with some alternative utility. At the last second, though, we had the realization - if we're here to make a game, we should at least shoot for a concept we're actually passionate about. So, we decided to give it a try, and proposed Card Defenders as our capstone project.
(I did still like the educational game idea we had, though. Maybe I'll be able to revisit it some day!)