A deck of cards and unlimited potential

The plan is to get a habit of doing something creative. Let's take a look at the many games that uses playing cards!

"Read everything. Cut them open. Steal their power." -Warren Ellis

Those are words from a comic author about improving your craft. for game designers, this could easily translate into play games ehu! But that doesn't cut it alone, because that's not giving you anything back. The analytic part is what creates improvement, and this is where my new plan comes in.

I bought a deck of cards.

Adam recommends getting a habit of doing something creative at least once a day, to get in the routine. I've always been interested in card games, especially how cards can translate into simple and clean mechanics. So, I'll be looking at card games that uses one deck of regular playing cards. 52 cards and three jokers, what possibilities does it hold? It is time to look at, test and analyse different card games and to find out what makes them tick.

Lots of different games.

There are maaaaany different card games out there. And many of them are really complicated and rules heavy. My initial research (Googling card games) showed me that there are a lot of point grabbing games, often where the main goal is to get pairs of different kinds and then writing down points based on performance. Already, these aren't the games I prefer, but I'll at least take a look at some of them since they are classics. What I'm more interested in is card games with interesting rules and win condition. President and Old Maid is the kinds of game that interest me the most, since they go beyond the simple get points system.

Where do we go from here.

Looking at card games, analyse them and then of course build one myself! That is the goal of this exercise and I hope to learn something that will aid me in my studies.

It's always good to overachieve!