I enjoy playing different types of strategy card games, including games by Unstable Games (a studio’s name), such as Casting Shadows, as shown in the featured picture above.
After gaining experience playing card games, I decided to make my own game. I started off by choosing a specific type of game play. I want this card game to mainly revolve around different abilities and dice. For its theme, I chose a historical episode from ancient China, the Three Kingdoms. I wanted this game to include historical figures from this important period of Chinese history, so that the game is not only fun, but can also teach the players a bit about history.
History of the Three Kingdoms
Following the end of the Han dynasty, three kingdoms emerged around 200 AD, known as Wei, Shu, and Wu. Wei was known for their military strength. Wu was known for their navy strength. Shu was known for their historical heritage from Han, and their geographic advantage. The kingdom that later defeated the other two was Wei. During this war, all three kingdoms were strategic and often made alliances with each other. The kings of each kingdom commanded generals some of whom are very well known even today, such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
How I incorporated the historical facts or legends into the game
I designed three kingdoms, each with unique cards to replicate its historical figures with different strengths. There are three types of cards: generals, soldiers, and items. Each general and soldier card has certain health, damage, and special abilities (only for generals). I designed the generals’ abilities, strengths, and weaknesses based on historical facts or legends. For example:
- Zhang Fei was known for his short temper (he is easily irritable in the battlefield), which could sometimes be his benefit but could also make him vulnerable. In my game, Zhang Fei’s special ability is that he is forced to attack in every turn, without costing any action points. This could be useful in saving the player’s action points, but could also put the general in the danger of enemy’s counter attack.
- Huang Zhong was an elderly general known for archery skills and bravery. Although not as physically powerful as Zhang Fei, Huang’s ability allows him to deal damage to multiple enemies without direct contact. I introduced the dice draw to activate his ability, because there is a possibility of missing the target.
- Zhou Yu was known for his wisdom and tactics which led to many victories for kingdom Wu, but he also lacked physical strength, and he was known for being jealous. In the game, I gave Zhou Yu a special ability to heal matching to the damage dealt to the other kingdom. But to include his weakness of being jealous, every time a stronger general appears, Zhou takes damage to his own kingdom.
Keeping fun game play in mind, I tested the game to balance the powers of the kingdoms. For example, I improve or weaken certain pieces by modifying the dice rules.
After coming up with a prototype, I started to design the cards on Figma, a website used by many designers. All images were created using generative AI based on my prompts which reflect my understanding of the figure.
Here I share a card from the game, which I am still in the process of completing.
