For the last half a year, I’ve been working a project called Card City Critters. And now, it’s ready to revealed. And if you live around Boston, or are willing to make the trek down, you can play it in a week from now at Boston FIG.
Card City Critters is a collaborative design between myself and Max Seidman. It’s an event-only experience that we’re calling a Live Action Uncollectable Card Game. In it, you’ll get a deck, earn cards to improve that deck, and face off against a variety of challenging non-player opponents (me and my friends in funny hats).
Games are fast, frantic and fun! They take 8-10 minutes for experienced players, and use 15 card decks. After each game, you’ll earn booster packs that you can use to upgrade your deck, and improve your chances of winning.
We’ll be running our first public version of the game at the Boston Festival of Indie Games, on December 7th. In it, players will be able to select from one of three starter decks, face off against up to 4 NPC’s with their own wacky play styles, and finally attempt to stop the Magnate, and his Scheme Engine from taking over Card City.
Quick FAQ’s
Where can I play it?
We’ll be debuting the first version of the Card City Critters at Boston Fig on December 7th. Since it’s an event only experience, this will be the first chance for the general public to try it out. Internally, we’re considering this our first public Alpha version of the game!
Do I have to play against other players?
No. While decks in Card City Critters can be played against other players, it’s primarily a PvE experience, with players facing off against non-player characters (NPCs).
How far in development is it?
We’re very proud of our underlying card game engine in Card City Critters, and believe it’s an incredibly fun game. That said, we’ll still likely be changing quite a few things in the game as development advances, and it’s also possible that the whole game gets a new name at some point in the future.
We’re at the point where we think the best way to improve the game is to start running the experience, and learn from watching people play!
Also, as I’ll note below, we’re still working on how to actually make money off it.
Likewise, the art/art style are currently placeholders. Fun placeholders! Hand drawn placeholders! But placeholders nonetheless.
How much will it cost?
At Boston FIG, it’ll be free with admission to the festival. In the future, we expect to charge for the event. Currently, we don’t ever plan to sell cards, decks, or boosters separately from the events—it is an uncollectable card game, after all.
Will I like it?
If you like collectible card games or trading card games you’ll probably have a good time with Card City Critters. While absolutely anyone can play it, it’s probably at it’s best if you’re already a little familiar with the genre. That said, we’ve got versions of the experience for folks at all levels of getting into card games. Roleplaying/LARPING is not required.
Is this a TCG/CCG?
We don’t plan for it to be.
Our plan is to eventually sell entry to events, not sealed product. When you collect cards from previous events, you’ll be able to bring a few cards to future events, but this won’t give you a big mechanical advantage. Instead, it’ll let you bring in 1 or 2 favorite cards. In addition, while we’re very pleased with our underlying card game, we see it mostly as being played in events, not as a standalone or separate game.
There are a bunch of great experiences you can have playing TCG’s and CCG’s, but we’re interested in distilling those down into our game, not competing in the space.
We’re early enough in development that this could change. What exactly we end up selling is still up in the air, but we don’t plan to be competing in the TCG space with the game.
I want to get involved in playtesting/follow project development/learn more. Where can I do that?
The best way to learn about future events is to join our mailing list! If you’re very curious, and would like to learn more, you can also join our Discord here. We’ll be recruiting playtesters from our Discord, and announcing events on the mailing list.
Finally, I’ll be talking about each of the player decks, and a bit of their background over the next week, so keep your eyes on the blog if you’re curious!
