(Log Part 1.)
First things first, I have to decide the scope and basic mechanics of the game. There's obviously the units, the meat of the game... then there's utility cards. Lots of different games have different approaches to this, and due to the timeframe, I want to keep them quite minimal. Individual "spell cards", I think might work better leave them as side-effects of units, ensuring the unit upgrade system is the core mechanic. However if I think there are certain spells that might enhance the experience, I will put them on the backburner, to determine which are best to add later in the development process.
Then there's the issue of limiting actions through a mana/energy system. I think this would vary by what kind of cards you use, so I'd like to integrate it into the deck rather than making the values baseline, (ie. energy cards) which would theoretically allow more individual variation in decks and inject more luck into the equation(fun!). I could also try a no-mana system that gives a hard limit of card summons per turn, but it sounded less fun. So, I will include basic expendable mana cards for the time being...
Each type of dragon (7 types total) has some unique characteristics which I'll use to design their cards, and those types should have utility that mesh well with other same-type units, though hopefully not to the extent that you must inevitably stick with a single type in your deck.
One of the various "lore things" I have thought about is the speed of unit types - this is often irrelevant or hard to represent in a turn-based card game, but I had quite a few ideas for play incorporating it, so I'm thinking of a two-row gameplay style, where freshly played cards need to spend a turn cooking in the back before they can come forward (unless they are exceptionally speedy dragons). The player's HP should also be located in the back, their enemy will have to "reach" the player's HP representation before being able to attack them. Alternatively, the player HP could be in the middle to tone down on this board control-type mechanic. I'm having a hard time choosing between modes, so I think I'm going to test both.
[On the second idea(right), the white line means "Do Not Cross"! Note: there's currently no upper limit of cards per row, that just depends on the size of your table. I just placed 3 each for ease of reading.]
Now I have a play area, I need to stat some cards. I have some designs in mind but for now I just wanna slap some numbers on. So, template time!
[Type/emblem = what kind of dragon is this? Tier #: determines cost. (I hope to keep this really simple with each tier no. being the same cost as its number.) Other categories, I hope, are self-explanatory.]
I have a feeling I might scrap movement as a mechanic, but for now... i'll see how it goes. Next I'm adding a base set to the game! I'll detail some of my flavour ideas next log.