What is your 'day job'? Good video.

Do you play in HotSeat or does this work when playing multiplayer? :O!!!

Underrated

"Fanning the magic cards out hides their cost" Me who fans the cards out to see the costs and not the names... "Wait... what?"

I am relieved to see how closely I have unintentionally followed these steps in my process so far. Thanks for your content, I will for sure be looking at more of your stuff going forward.

I'm going to blow your mind .. you can fan your magic cards in the opposite direction and still see the costs.

These advices seem very solid. There's some that bother me though. I am a web developer, so I'm well acquainted with iterations. But shouldn't the key pillars of gameplay be somewhat set in stone? Isn't there a risk you'll be going back-and-forth between all game mechanics that ever existed? Let's say you start with a worker placement game with a set number of turns and victory points, would you change to a deckbuilding game with win conditions amidst your iterations cycle? Also, the video game industry has people working on 'concept art' in very early stage of the game development process. It helps sets the theme and directs the collective imagination for other aspects of the game. Wouldn't involving art this early into the game production helps in the decision making about mechanics and components? Just imagine the Dune Imperium game, how would have they created all the cards effects if the characters and vehicles weren't from a well known science-fiction universe with an extensive documentation and pictured a thousand times? Just a few questions that popped in my mind, thank you for making the video!

Your video starts with a question (can you pick out all the flaws?) but it did not end with an answer. Consider closing all the loops you start, it makes the video feel more satisfying to watch.

Great video! Thanks also for the Tools one. This pushes me further to create my own game. Have a good day Sir

good stuff

So I've used Nandeck which is an awesome spreadsheet based card generator but linking to TTS takes it to a whole new level! (Oh yeah, level 5). Thank you for making this video. I would say "just take my money" but free?! Holy Guacamole Batman! Of course you show me this while I'm at work. Eh. It's Friday.

Biggy mini

“You actually need to do all of these things” -Dave Jeremy The thing are! *Ways to improve at game design* #1 Playtest, iterate, repeat #2 Join play test groups & Seek feedback #3 Design regularly #4 Play a wide variety of games #5 Read game design books & Take online courses -Attend game design conventions -Analyze successful games -Prototype efficiently -Collaborate -Document your designs -Study game theory -Attend game designer meetups -Playtest with different audiences -Submit your games to publishers Lean graphic design- Build a portfolio - Stay informed- Be persistent

As someone who is color blind Phryxian mana drives me crazy in Magic. I literally can't tell which one is which

We have these monarch kits for gel extraction in the lab I work at and the box is so cool and well made so I want to make a board game/card game to go in it haha

I saw this thumbnail and doubted, but while watching this video, my jaws were absolutely dropped. Thank you so much for creating this video and sharing this amazing find for fellow designer!

I've been creating a game around Toastmasters, and to simplify the front-end, chose trading cards as the format. But on Canva, so yes, I have been making changes to each card individually. Is there a way to quickly copy what I have from Canva to Dextrous? Playtesting on TTS makes a lot of sense. Does each person need to own a copy? While the game is centered around meeting roles, a significant component is the Avatars. I have been using photos I took of plastic models I've built, particularly gunpla, for pictures on these cards. I am trying to get an Educational, Non-Commercial Use License so I can use my photos when I got to physical production through a printing service (haven't settled on which yet), but if I can't get one (which department to ask has been confusing, they all say they're not responsible for the right license), I suppose I could turn to AI-generated art as a placeholder, at least. Do you have any advice as to what I should do about the art? This project isn't something I ever plan on selling, it's to be part of the Toastmasters educational program.

8:42 - isn't that icon for the power shard the new Obsidian logo?

I really hate the "replace everything with symbols" design philosophy that has become so commonplace in game design. All it does is commute game memorization. And if you're memorizing cards, placement doesn't really matter. You just know what it does. Why isn't the example text just: +🪨. 🃏⬇️=⚔️1.

can you make a video on how to make the sheets and how to put it in to dextrous?

Guess about #1 pitfall: Not playtesting.

Don't forget to add atleast 200 words on your card for any effect :)

so what your solution to removing items from the plate? it would be helpful if you name your mistake and solution cause i got nothing from this video.

Don't tell me what to do

Im trying to join your discord channel trough the link you provided but it keeps saying the link expired

It's not that "people hate change"... it's that "if something isn't broken, don't fix it". The old Pokémon cards looked fine, nothing wrong with them, while the new ones are a mess, barely readable. People like you should be banned from making games.

The discord links aren't working for me. Tried joining through a community search and that also didn't work. Would love that Google Sheets template. Thanks for the great video either way!

Thank you for this video! I created the cards in Word table and had to print and cut them after each change. I will switch to Dextrous for sure!

DAMMIT I DONT HAVE STEAM OR A COMPUTER

i often hear the mtg thing about hiding the mana cost in the fanned hand, but I'd argue that the name (and art) is more important. there is so much more info about the card hidden in a grip, but players know the cards by name or at least the illustration

"When you hold MTG cards in your hand like a fan, the cost is obscured" Bro, what? You can hold them in a fan the other way around. Are you dumb?

The market research thing is so huge. Ask yourself, "What space does this fill in someone's game shelf?" If you can't answer that question, then neither can they.

you helped me evolve my card designs just by 10min of advice! Great! Really like the simplicity of the "Favor of the Rabbits" at 10:23!

Free P@lestine

interesant

Love this video! i went to look for the spread sheets example but it seems to not be the one you mentioned in the video. Would you beable to go check on the discort again for us?

mUsIc ahhhhh

Yo, your video legit changed my life. Here I was printing and cutting all day. Props!

Please shed some insight on printing cards!

You've been making games for 10 years and never finished one? This sounds crazy to me. Taking your advice would be ludicrous at this point... am I wrong?

I would like to add to the list - Don't design a rule around an edge case. Redesign your game to prevent the edge case from happening in the 1st place.

I think until now and probably another card game appears in the future, my favourite card design is from Cardfight! Vanguard. It's just visually clear to me, but that could just be bias

One thing that should be added is have a border. I'm not talking about magic's green, red, blue, white, black, Im talking about pokemon's silver/yellow. you can have the art take up the whole card but no border (vanguard) is more overwhelming than any amount of text and symbols. it also "cheapens" the art. when you hang a poster on your wall, having or not having a frame complete changes the feel and importance of the art.

раньше было лучше. вот такие вот горедизайнеры портят интерфейсы продуманные настоящими профессионалами.

Thank You Dave Jeltema 🤍🧸🤗🪂

Can Dextrous be used to make a card file that can be physically printed for a finished game for the actual table???

I just wanted to say thank you! I had finally set up my newly purchased Saturn 3 Ultra and essentially did your first set of mistakes! But it was thanks to this video that I was able to avoid making any more! Please keep the content coming! Instant follow

Im waiting for my saturn 4 ultra it will be my first resin printer So in my first week i guarantee you that i will make as many or even more mistakes than you 😅

Unreal. You're a godsend dude.

11:20 I actually really like card games that have their art in a frame on the card like the big 3 Magic, Pokemon, and Yugioh do. It keeps the image clear and unobscured by mechanical aspects of the game shown in text or icons. It means that when I'm looking at the art I'm looking at the art unobstructed and able to appreciate it fully, and when I'm looking for mechanical components I can find them where I know they will be without the colors and shapes of the art behind them distracting my eye and changing the color and shape language of the area around the game mechanic icon or text. I also care about my cards, and when a nick at the edge of a card damages a black or yellow, or white border or whatever, I don't care so much, but if it damages the edge of the card art I'm much more invested and bummed out by it. I can appreciate the odd full card art style from time to time, but I never use those cards, with the exception of simple resource cards such as energies in Pokemon or lands in Magic where there isn't really any other icons or text to worry about obscuring and the image is simple enough that it won't matter so much. I know it would make all card games look exactly the same if they have an art frame, and the art is in the upper half of the card, and the name is above that, and maybe that chokes the market a lot by new games looking "samey" at a glance, but if you make your game have art to the edges, and card information on top of the art, it fatigues me mentally over time in a way that's not necessary, and I won't pick up those cards to play as often as I might have if I wasn't fatigued by just looking at them. The golden rule here should be "Treat your art like any other image on your card. You wouldn't layer icons or make text run across them. Don't layer icons or text over images. Art is paramount." The image is just a bigger icon which is more unique from other icons so it can serve to identify the card at a glance. It should be respected as such. For example, the big green orb your game puts overlapping the base of the card art could have been a green bar that served as a bottom frame with a much smaller circle or diamond part at the middle of the line where your green orb is located. Small enough that it doesn't intrude visually on the image above or the information below, but wide enough as a bar to always be visible no matter where your thumb lands while holding it. Almost the width of the card. I'd actually recommend making this change in your own game's layout in future card sets if it's a persistent game, or later editions if it's a boxed card game. The big colorful circle is fun and whimsical at first glance, but it's also just a massive blank green field on the card that's wasting space and obscuring other elements. If it was white or black you'd see it for the wasted space it is as designed. It kind of feels like I had paint on my thumb when I was playing the game one time and now that smudge won't ever come off. Anyway, I wasn't trying to be too harsh, and I realize this is a lot of criticism in one of 3 comments on a video with 5 golden rules, so I want to end this one saying these observations aren't terrible. We all have our own methods and opinions. Take them or leave them, and don't let yourself dwell on what I've said here for more than it took to read the text unless you feel like you agree with what I said. In which case thanks for reading, and your welcome for helping. This is all coming from a place of kindness and support on my side. Not meaning to be an ass or anything. 😄