Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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I was on the train yesterday and suddenly thought that I would like to design a 2 player card game using a single deck of cards. So I started to think about it and here's what I came up with. I'm not sure it's a good game but I did find it interesting to see what I could come up with in less than 48 hours. Lots of playtesting ahead with my wife on this, I think. Hope it will be fun.
I present to you, Dyna Miner!
An explosive card game for 2 players
Playing Time: 15 - 30 minutes
Complexity: Low
Gameplay elements: hidden information, memory,set collection, luck
27th March 2012 - UPDATE:
Game rules now updated to version 1.4. Several significant tweaks have been made to game setup and a few other rules.
Rules v1.4:
http://www.box.com/s/0d3c95108bbb103dd492
Low Ink Basic Game Cards (.doc file)
http://www.box.com/s/2vc9nu182jr2ec3p7rip
Artscow Decks
I've just received the Artscow prototype decks. They came out pretty well, so if you want to order them they are here:
Mineral Deck
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/card/mineral-deck-msbe3l1m8vc...
Dynamite Deck (plus extra playtesting cards for balancing)
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/card/dynamite-deck-htsk43pamj...
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Braaaiiiinnnnssss
United States
Wisconsin
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players
Do you have plans to make the files available? I'd be interesting in playtesting this.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players
Sure, I will make some graphics this weekend and post them. My initial play set was hand made with blank playing cards and pen. Oh, and I failed to make the game 1 deck - it's more like 2. However, if you build the game you probably will just have to add or take away a few cards of each type for balance. I think the points values seem ok so the work to be done is in balancing the player actions.
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players
Let us know when there are prototype cards!
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players
See the top post for a link to the updated v1.1 rules and a couple of sample image cards. I am terrible at graphic design so the cards are only ever going to look 'functional'.
I have to do 12 main images and then do recolours and add in the different points from the dynamite card values. Really hope to finish this weekend. It would be super awesome to have gotten this game together from idea to playable in just 5 days!
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players
I have completed all of the cards required for the Mineral Deck and the Dynamite Deck. The only thing I have still to do is create more Specialist and Contract cards. I see both of these being optional add ins to the game. You don't have to use them if you prefer a simpler game.
See:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/user/84656/mjrobertson
Files are PNG.
Next step is to load all this up to Artscow, order a copy and see how it comes out.
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Braaaiiiinnnnssss
United States
Wisconsin
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
mjrobertson wrote: I have completed all of the cards required for the Mineral Deck and the Dynamite Deck. The only thing I have still to do is create more Specialist and Contract cards. I see both of these being optional add ins to the game. You don't have to use them if you prefer a simpler game. See: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/user/84656/mjrobertsonFiles are PNG. Next step is to load all this up to Artscow, order a copy and see how it comes out.
When you create the decks at Artscow, could you share them here?
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
I will try to finalise the Artscow decks tomorrow. Need to check how to publish them publically. There are 2 decks:
Mineral Deck - 54 cards
6 x gold (6 points) - 11% of deck
6 x silver (4 points) - 11% of deck
12 x copper (1 point) - 22% of deck
4 x fossil (3 points and negates junk ore) 7.5% of deck
5 x ghosts (5 points) - 9% of deck
5 x gas (3 points) - 9% of deck
4 x emerald (doubles the points in a set) 7.5% of deck
12 x junk ore (3 each of -1, -2, -3, -4) = 22% of deck
If there are 4 decks of 9 cards in the initial setup this means that 66% of the deck will be exposed to the player. The other 34% needs to be drawn in to the game.
Dynamite Deck
4 x strength 0 dynamite
6 x strength 1 dynamite
7 x strength 2 dynamite
5 x strength 3 dynamite
3 x strength 4 dynamite
9 x specialist cards
9 x contract cards
I am not sure it is necessary to have so many dynamite cards as if the deck is empty it gets reshuffled.
This leaves space for 11 more cards, which will be used to balance playtesting only. I think I will add in a couple of gold, silver, copper, 2 more junk cards, and an extra gas, ghost, and emerald. That should give some room for tweaking.
Please note that I can't guarantee that the cards will print well from Artscow - seems complicated to make them fit, and neither can I guarantee that this game is good, or even not broken! Still, if you want to playtest if, go ahead  It's free PnP and anyone can do whatever they like with it.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
Mineral Deck is here:
Link removed until layout verified
Hard to tell if that is how it will print out. Guess I will have to give it a go and see.
Can someone please check this and see if they see any mistakes?
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Isaac Shalev
United States
Stamford
Connecticut
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
Dunnno about mistakes, but this is a really easy deck to put together using NANDeck, and you can then print it out at home. How much are you going to pay Artscow to make and print this for you?
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
ender7 wrote: Dunnno about mistakes, but this is a really easy deck to put together using NANDeck, and you can then print it out at home. How much are you going to pay Artscow to make and print this for you?
Thanks for the link. Looks like a useful program. I'm actually interested to see the Artscow output which is one of the reasons why I'm going for it. I don't want to print loads of cards on paper, make backs for them then sleeve them, although it could well be a little cheaper doing that.
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Isaac Shalev
United States
Stamford
Connecticut
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
For early prototypes, I use old business cards that I sleeve so they're easier to shuffle and handle.
For more advanced prototypes that have art and so forth, my method is to use card sleeves, regular playing cards, and regular paper. Print your cards on regular paper, then cut them. Into each sleeve put a regular playing card, then one of your cut cards.
For final prototypes, I go to a print shop and print double-sided color on pre-scored card sheets. Cheaper than Artscow, and I'm v happy with the quality.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
ender7 wrote: For early prototypes, I use old business cards that I sleeve so they're easier to shuffle and handle.
For more advanced prototypes that have art and so forth, my method is to use card sleeves, regular playing cards, and regular paper. Print your cards on regular paper, then cut them. Into each sleeve put a regular playing card, then one of your cut cards.
For final prototypes, I go to a print shop and print double-sided color on pre-scored card sheets. Cheaper than Artscow, and I'm v happy with the quality.
I will likely use your method for any other games that I design. This game is a very simple one, really only designed for playing with my wife and to allow me to try very rapid design and prototyping of a 2 player card game. I've learned a lot in only a few days about designing, writing rules, building cards and graphics, so overall this mini project has been a success.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
Have been thinking deeply about some of the rules today and can see some potential bottlenecks, depending on your play style. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I see that it's possible to 'brute force' your way through play by constantly blasting the mine, but you will then fill your hand and be limited on both emptying or changing your hand. This will be interesting to test out.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
Rules v1.12 now up. These are the final rules for playtesting and are now frozen for playtesting purposes. No further changes will be made unless via playtesting feedback.
Download them at:
http://www.box.com/s/t6ng1t50ddlbs36rsnuh
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
Artscow have just shipped the prototype decks. Hope to have them by the weekend.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - an explosive card game for 2 players (card prototypes now up)
Rules v1.2 are up now. Following some playtesting I have deleted the Buy Dynamite action and integrated it into the player turn instead.
Rules V1.2
http://www.box.com/s/qthpko8392c9rml8xay3
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re:
Rules v1.3 and black and white low ink prototype cards for the basic game are available from the top post to PnP (79 cards - 10 pages to print/assemble). They should hopefully fit in standard card sleeves.
I am not playtesting the Advanced Game until I'm happy with the basic game elements. Let me know if you try it out.
The v1.3 rules have significantly streamlined the number of player actions and general game flow. I'm excited, things are now starting to come together!
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - (Rules v1.3 & low ink PnP/Artscow prototype decks now up)
Just got the Artscow decks in today. They came out more or less how I thought they would. The cards are reasonable quality but I can see that without sleeving they may quickly develop white edges. Not bad for $20.
If you want to order them see the links in the top post. You need both decks. The Dynamite Deck contains extra cards for playtesting/balancing purposes.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - (Rules v1.3 & low ink PnP/Artscow prototype decks now up)
A little bit more playtesting today. My feeling so far is that the game is fun but too challenging. I think you really need a good memory to play well and I certainly don't have a good memory! I can't keep track of the mine shaft cards for more than a turn or two.
A couple of rules that I'm rethinking:
1. Integrating the Extend Mine action into the player turn may not have been a good idea after all. I think it introduces a little bit too much chaos as the mine is constantly being refilled and cards known to the players buried too fast. Need to playtest this more to decide which option I prefer.
(edit: totally deleting the Extend Mine action and introducing a fifth column of 9 cards during setup, thus extending the playfield, is looking like a distinct possibility. Also the remaining Mineral cards won't be used in the game, making each game setup totally different).
2. Taking a pollution token when playing a strength 3 dynamite is probably too punishing. I'm considering changing it to only having to take a pollution token when using a strength 4 dynamite.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - (Rules v1.3 & low ink PnP/Artscow prototype decks now up)
The rules are now just about ready for a v1.4 release. I have made a few significant changes which improve the gameplay experience and balance out some overpowered actions. I would say that 1.4 is likely to be the last major update and that the game has now reached a stable state for play test purposes.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Re: Dyna Miner! - project almost done!
For better or worse, this experimental, rapid game prototyping project is almost done!
I have finally completed rules v1.4 which can be found here:
http://www.box.com/s/0d3c95108bbb103dd492
I'm feeling that I've now got a handle on the shape of the basic game rules and that the advanced rules are very likely completely unnecessary and overcomplicate things for no real benefit. The last change that I see myself making is to delete the references to the advanced rules and release a final v1.41 rule set, which keeps the game at its basic level.
Game setup rules have changed so that 5 columns of cards are dealt during setup. Not all cards are used during the game, so you can't count on drawing certain cards anymore. A few other changes have been made to the way the ghost and gas cards work. They can gain or lose you points depending on how the game plays out.
So, that's the project almost finished. I have a couple of ideas for a mini expansion that uses up the spare cards in the second deck (since I need to print 108 cards regardless). These cards will make the game a bit more variable and you can choose to mix and match the stuff that you prefer.
The game itself is fairly mediocre, a bit too random, probably still has some superfluous / overpowered actions (strength 4 dynamite cards) and lacks meaningful strategy, but nonetheless I've enjoyed developing it and learned a lot about game design. Hopefully this will help me with my other projects.
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Sturv Tafvherd
United States
North Carolina
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mjrobertson wrote:
For What it's Worth:
Artscow: Any 2 personalized decks of playing cards for $11.99 with free international shipping
Artscow periodically has sales like this. Sometimes it works for any card product ... and sometimes it's for a specific card product.
It looks like it doesn't work for this one; but if the images are somehow imported into a product that is part of the sale ... well ... it's a pretty good deal if you're getting a prototype.
At any rate, for playtesting purposes, the cards are simple enough that you can stick with cutouts in sleeves. Just thought I'd bring up the Artscow "sometimes-on-sale" topic.
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Michael Robertson
Scotland
Falkirk
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Whenever they next have a sale I'm going to print a final copy of the game and the mini expansion that I have in mind, just for posterity's sake. It's nice to own a decent, playable copy of the first game that I've ever designed
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Posted Thu Feb 2, 2012 10:24 pm
