Learning about design while designing

Hi Neil, welcome aboard, and congratulations on getting yourgame to this stage. From a very quick look, the game looks fairly complicated, but I've come across more complicated card games!

My first question is, have you actually made a physical prototype and tested it yet? I assume you have, but it is a question that needs asking. :)

The fatigue mechanism, allowing cards to be fatigued for multiple turns looks interesting.

Is there a reason why you have players drawing cards at the *start* of their turn? Drawing at the start of a turn typically slows a game down as each player has to absorb what is on their cards and make decisions based on the new information. If there are no reasons to do otherwise, you are generally best having the draw step at the end of the turn.

I'm a little concerned about the complexity of the set-up, where each player has to select their starting deck (this is actually quite cool, I think!) as well as what advanced cards will be available to them later. This is effectively CCG/LCG type preparation, which is probably best done before the gaming session starts, whereas I think a deckbuilder works better with a simpler setup for purchasable cards. I may be proven wrong on this, though!

I can't really speak to how publishable this game is, but you may have a hard time persuading existing publishers that another fantasy battle card game is what they want. Just a hunch. That said, though, keep going with this: tabletop game design is something that you can get better at with practice, and developing a game to a reasonable level, even if it doesn't get published, is a great way to learn how to make an even better one next time.

It looks like there is some originality here, though, so you never know, maybe it will fit the market!

Good luck.

Rob