Playtesting An Original Card Game
What does it take to playtest an original card game? As The Canis moves from simulation testing to physical prototypes, the next challenge is finding the people willing to play it, break it and tell us what doesn't work.
The past couple of weeks has been an all-out sprint to get the game completed and simulation tested. I’ve started art, though I wish I had a clone I could force to draw for eight hours while I work on everything from socials to funding.
The Canis card game is moving from simulation to physical playtesting. Prototype decks are coming.
Finding your people
Mongrel Logic has always been for people like me. Who can just as easily be found listening to metal as they can opera. Who love science and science fiction, who love words, worlds and fantasy. The more blurred the genre, the better. Intelligent topics but not to the exclusion of “Destination F****d.”
People who love fashion as much as they do cosplay and make-up and the holey sweatshirt they have lived in for the past twenty years. People who care about what is going on in the world, would quite like to, you know... well, you know. But we're also determined to see it fixed.
We don’t really fit in the boxes. We exist across genres, places, cultures.
How do you find playtesters?
Ideally, you find your people.
Well, that strategy is unfolding. In all the areas hinted at above.
What do the playtesters do?
We're selecting a small group to receive a prototype deck and booklet before launch.
Play it. Break it. Tell us what doesn't work.
Selected testers will receive a Mongrel Logic organic cotton T-shirt as thanks.
When is this happening?
Over the coming weeks, as I complete the artwork, I’m selecting a small group of people to playtest the first Canis card game before launch. Register your interest in playtesting if you’d like to be a part of this.
I still need to name the card game. The Canis blank as it stands. Might just be the card game, spade a spade.
Designing The Canis Game
I built the world until it became playable. After months of worldbuilding, card design and simulation testing, The Canis game is approaching its final stage. Now I just have to draw…everything.
Designing The Canis Game
The final stage of building the Mongrel Logic alternate reality streetwear game is approaching.
The comic is written. The card game has been designed, and I’ve just completed simulation testing. I roughly built the deck out of paper, played and…
I lost but there we are.
I will be naming the card game, but right now, The Canis game is close enough.
How did I build the game?
You are not going to like the answer.
Backwards. I spent months upon months since I launched the first T-Shirt designs using my old teenage art; they were characters I had drawn and started developing over 20 years ago, trying to figure out how I was going to tell a story that started there.
I built the world first, played with character ideas and concepts and eventually turned that internal logic into a game. I built a world until it became playable.
Rudimentary Canis Game card deck, used for testing
From 18 Characters down to 4
Over the past week I have trimmed back over forty different concepts, built sequences, and run days of simulation testing. The deck is playable, there are no dead hands, the sequences all work and are well balanced.
My brain has run a marathon.
Sun Eater is coming; it’ll soon be up to you.
Art can start
There is a Kerryn shaped hole in the door.
What comes next?
Sustainable comics and cards. You will finally be able to see The Canis in its true form.
Plus, our newsletter; I am working on making this valuable, different. I know some wonderful people have subscribed, and I will be getting this done soon.
To infinity and be..oh no wait that’s the wrong thing.
Building Worlds
Building an original world isn't always about making progress. Sometimes it's about waiting for the next piece of the puzzle to reveal itself. A founder's journal on comics, creativity and building The Canis one step at a time.
The most frustrating thing about building an alternate reality streetwear game and world is that my brain needs rest in between.
The cognitive load of the past week has been brutal.
Letting the puzzle emerge rather than making the pieces fit is honestly annoying.
I don’t often stare at a blank page for very long, or at least if I do, then there is my first clue, I’m barking up the wrong Tenet.
The Comic
As The Canis underwent its own supernova, and exploded in every direction, I have been trying to work out what goes in the comic.
I already had the story, so how hard could it be right?
A week of hardly anything. Small notes, one hour of progress, and then the end of thought, for the day not just that session. And when I say end, I mean end. Of productivity as well, not just comic book text.
That’s been rough, I don’t like slow. Everything is already slower by its nature, independent brand, solo founder, circular fashion.
It feels personal, when it goes even slower because I’m still going a thousand miles an hour.
But the comic has emerged successfully.
Concept artwork exploring Spineless, one of the Conditions spreading throughout The Canis.
Art is next
This is actually what I was most afraid of but having gone through the comic book tunnel and emerged the other end, with game stronger and story stronger, the art has become what I am most looking forward to. I just wish there were two of me.
Kerryn and Nyrrek
Why am I picturing one with a hunchback?
Printing the comic
I’ll be hiding it online first. Once I have done the work that needs to be done, over the coming months, I will see if people want it. You might have noticed hardly anyone knows we exist yet.
I just need to move house, and then that will be my focus. In the meantime, tell someone you know.
Much bigger than me
I’ve quietly built a behemoth.
Does anyone have any biscuits?