Make a card game in 15 minutes (Dextrous tutorial)

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Links mentioned in video:
Dextrous: www.dextrous.c...
Dextrous KZbin channel: / @dextrousgamedesign
Component studio: component.studio/
Nandeck (Windows only): nandeck.com/
Tabletopia: tabletopia.com/
Tabletop Simulator: www.tabletopsi...
Screentop.gg: screentop.gg/
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:08 - Dextrous Tutorial
11:33 - Tabletopia Tutorial
15:41 - Final thoughts
Theme music outro by / @huddy_t
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[@PamWallsGameDesign]

Heads up! My friend Travis let me know how to drag groups of cards, so you don't have to drag each card one by one: "Thanks for the tutorial, Pam! As for bringing in a whole deck, I think if you put all of the cards into a group in your objects page in the workshop, you'll be able to drag the whole group into your setup at once. I can double check, but I'm pretty sure that's how I've done it for my game." (This comment was made on my Members Only video, but thought I would share here too) I tried this and it works! Thanks Travis!

[@americanbaldguy]

Dang... I've been staring at an excel sheet all morning, this is going to come in handy. Thanks Pam!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@americanbaldguy sure thing! Good luck! 🙌

[@Gab_Free]

Thank you so much for walking through this so clearly, Pam!!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@Gab_Free you are so welcome! Thanks for watching 🙌

[@stevegibbsonline]

Thanks so much for walking us through the card creation process. I'd been considering Dextrous, but your straightforward example gave me the confidence that "even I" could do it!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@stevegibbsonline that’s awesome, Steve! Yes it is super intuitive, they’ve done a great job making it easy to learn. Best of luck! 🙌

[@sheanstanks]

Dextrous is cool for prototypes for sure. I felt limited though with the designs I wanted, so yeah it's pretty good for a prototype though. Super quick

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@sheanstanks yes, it definitely puts the “rapid” in “rapid prototyping”! Thanks for watching 🙌

[@alexgloomandor3956]

What was missing for you design wise?

[@saluk7419]

In tabletopia, if you go to the previous object folder and just drag "simple card game example dextrous" it will put all of the objects in the scene. You don't have to do it one by one :)

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@saluk7419 thank you! Pinning this!

[@chadraw9256]

Came here to say this but I will add that when you use this the cards aren't stacked in a deck. You still have to select all the cards and drag them onto one to form the deck. On top of that, at least for me, it puts the cards in 4 wide rows. So 100 cards would be a 4 x 25 grid which requires you to zoom WAY out to select them all at once.

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@chadraw9256 thanks for this info!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

Travis Buschette let me know that if you make a GROUP of objects, you can then drag that group to the scene. So you don't have to drag ALL objects, you can make a group and just draw the objects you want. I will pin this so others know!

[@teenageapocalypseusa5368]

Awesome- I’ve been researching dextrose for a while- it looks great!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@teenageapocalypseusa5368 yeah it is pretty awesome! Thanks for watching 🙌

[@davejeltema3]

Heck yeah, glad you found this, such a great tool!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@davejeltema3 I loved your video on this topic too, Dave! We gotta keep spreading the word. Thanks for watching 🙌

[@TinyTactician]

I'm so visual focused I always spend way too long making the cards look how I want. Thanks for the tutorial! You're super good at instructions.

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@TinyTactician thanks so much for saying that! I appreciate it 🙏 And I totally get that, it took me a really long time (and I still struggle with it) to not get completely bogged down by the visual details and just see how it plays! Thanks for watching 🙌

[@CruiseMonkeyGames]

It's so awesome when the teacher becomes the student. I don't want to say I told you so (but I did). I'm on version 3.0 of a deck builder with well over 400 cards in 8 categories. There's no way I could do this manually. I'm revamping artwork and checking values in preparation for Strategicon in two weeks. Them Aussies will get my money FO EHV AH!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@CruiseMonkeyGames I got there eventually, Ed 😆 Updating 400 cards manually would be a nightmare, I’m so glad you were already on the dextrous train! Thanks for watching :)

[@christopherpoet458]

May I ask what the general theme of your game is and if it is co-op, pvp, etc? I personally live Deckbuilders in general. I like both Star Wars Versions, The LOTR one, Star Realms (though I find that one a tad unbalanced), and I just recently played a bot battle game that incorporates deck building.

[@lodepublishing]

Thanks! nandeck is another good alternative, but has a steeper learning curve as it's all text file configuration :)

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@lodepublishing yes that is what I’ve heard! 😳

[@lodepublishing]

@@PamWallsGameDesign It's doable, but I think it's more a tool for semi-professional final print stages than for prototypes. It includes some conditional commands, imports data from sheets and you can generate entire decks (front and back) with one click. I like its integration into "The Game Crafter", meaning you can export your cards directly. But yeah, it takes a lot more time to get everything right. I'll try out Dextrous with my next prototype and see how it compares. Thanks! :)

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@ thank you for this info and good luck! 🙌

[@JeremyJohnsonmcmxcAD]

I have been using Nandeck but this is so much easier! Especially to get it playable online.

[@JustinNichols66]

Thanks! Trying it out now.

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

Awesome! Good luck! 🙌

[@ronaldmontgomery4448]

This is amazing. I'm so glad I saw this! Thank you so much!!!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

You're so welcome, Ronald! Best of luck 🙌

[@bewareofattackchef]

I must have been using an older version of this because man i could not for the life of me get my head wrapped around the import/export path. Thanks for sharing this video out there for us old peeps trying to learn new things.

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@bewareofattackchef I’m so glad this was helpful! Thanks for watching and good luck 🙌

[@sloketamang1623]

That's awesome. Perfect timing for me

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

I'm so glad to hear that! Best of luck 🙌

[@mračničovek]

Okay, I'll take a deep breath, and try to make cards for my game. Thank you for this explanation 🙂

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@mračničovek you are so welcome! And good luck! 🙌

[@prufrock1977]

Thanks for sharing, especially the exporting to Tabletopia. Might check this out further.

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

You're so welcome! Best of luck 🙌

[@marknoplanetbgames]

Thanks Pam, I've started using dextrous for creating card games and it's much faster. Hope Viet Nam is treating you well.

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@marknoplanetbgames thanks so much! Yes loving it here so far :) Thanks for watching 🙌

[@snowsamurai]

Good to know this resource exists , I was photoshopping each card lol

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

I feel your pain 😅 This is so much faster!

[@ConstantChaosGames]

great video, thanks!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@ConstantChaosGames thanks so much for watching!

[@rogerfarley3300]

Excellent!

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@rogerfarley3300 thanks Roger!

[@NevTheDeranged]

I just spent 3 days banging together a mockup in TTS. This would have made it... somewhat easier.

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@NevTheDeranged hopefully it will speed up your process for next time! 🙏

[@christopherpoet458]

And here I have been using Canva for designing my stuff. I feel like a caveman discovering fire. I started using Canva because it is just easier to create, import, and align assets to design frames and stuff. This is just... better. 100% better. Can I upload assets for the frame/template of my own and does it save those assets on the site? Or should I just use Canva for the frame template and import a complete design into this?

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

That's awesome, Christopher! 🔥 I'm still learning about Dextrous myself, so I'm not 100% sure, but Gil (creator of Dextrous) is very active on their Discord, so I would ask there. The link to join their Discord is on their KZbin channel: www.youtube.com/@DextrousGameDesign

[@primepebble2464]

ive been using canva but this seems better

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

Yes it's nice how Dextrous is designed specifically for board game design. Definitely try it out and see if it works for you. Thanks for watching!

[@pesto12601]

Why are you living in a hotel room?

[@Adam-ki7jq]

How is all this complicated shit easier or better than some 3x5 index cards

[@MarkWiemer]

If you just need words, index cards are fine. But once you start adding art to the cards, more complex cards, or changing the layout of complex cards, digital is a lot easier to edit. No need to manually handwrite a dozen index cards, just setup the layout. Overall, game design is hard and no tool is perfect, but digital can be very useful as projects become larger and more complicated

[@xChikyx]

this can be done in photoshop, but damn this makes it *way* easier

[@PamWallsGameDesign]

@@xChikyx yes, so much easier! Thanks for watching 🙌