Magic Farm
Roles: Game Design, Balance, Documentation
Tools: Pen & Paper
Magic Farm is a two-player battle card game where players compete to be the most lucrative magic farmer. Taking mechanical and aesthetic inspiration from Magic: the Gathering and Stardew Valley, it is a game of resource management, strategy, and a bit of luck.
It was designed and developed with a partner for a class project focusing on game mechanics and interactions.
Challenges & Solutions
To give context to the design challenges below, you can read up on the game's full rules here.
There were a few immediate glaring problems with the initial design of Magic Farm. The biggest one was game length - the game simply went on for way too long. I wanted to use the changing of seasons as a narrative mechanic that would influence other parts of the game, as well as be a sort of "timer" towards the end. I was able to hold onto this mechanic, but it required a significant rework in order to reduce the average play time to a realistic value.
The second glaring issue was the shopping and selling mechanic. Not mentioned in the rules document, selling resources was a mechanic that I wanted to be in the game, but it ended up being far too powerful and actively discouraged players from doing almost anything else. Shopping also used to feel backwards - players would draw a card from the deck, and then have to pay for its cost when they played it. Making these two changes significantly increased the clarity of the design and the overall quality of the game.
Reflection
There was quite a bit of work that went into this project, and it was one of the few times I actually got the opportunity to look back on a prototype and continue working at it. I got to keep playtesting, balancing the mechanics, add, remove, and change features, and more. It was a good way to learn that iteration often pays off. Despite how much I liked them, it became clear that my initial designs were flawed, and the changes I made in the end improved the game as a whole.
There's actually a lot that I had to say about this particular work, so if you're interested, you can check out the full reflection document here. Overall, it was a fantastic learning experience, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to test out a multitude of different game mechanics in a physical space.