Creating a Concept

Creating a concept for a game can be challenging, as with every idea comes more ideas, more mechanics, more options, and sometimes more trouble.
To get through a 3 month start to finish game creation for this GameCrafter challenge I am confining myself to some specific rules:

• Solo game mode only (the rules say it can be a multiplayer game with a solo variant to submit, I don't have time to explore that)
• Cards only ... By restricting the game tools to ONLY have cards I must think "inside the box" of cards, so those way out ideas won't interfere with my focus on the game
• Time Sensitive ... My goal is to make a solo game that takes less than 30 minutes to play start to finish (once you are experienced with the game).  This makes playtesting faster for me, and for willing participants in the game world.
• Simple Design ... I cannot afford to use external art for this game, it needs to be simple icons and art.  I may even go cartoony on this one as it drastically reduces drawing/coloring time and I may be able to figure them out myself...  My large game design NEEDS a professional digital artist, this one does not.

Today I brainstormed some more, and now that I have a core rules concept, card total estimate, and basic combat/card design, it was time to draw on some magic lands to bring the game to its first state of life...

So over the weekend I plan to get all of the cards written out in sharpie on MTG lands (I've got lots to spare!), then playtest several times over the next week and tweak the card values to become something reasonable, but challenging to beat.

Back to the game now, thanks for reading!