Need help with tcg

So . . . you've invented Pokemon, and you are looking for help making it not be Pokemon?

I get the impression that you don't need advice on mechanics so much as you need to get out and try more games. I would highly recommend "Zoon." Not at all a CCG, but still a good jumpstart for your perception of what a card game can be. Although it is out of print in the U.S., copies are fairly easy to find online at an affordable price.

It's kind of like a card game variant on chess and Stratego but with comical post-apocalyptic animal people. I got a lot of play out of my copies with my nephews and now my son.

Fantasy Flight Games is another great place to start with all of their Living Card Games, be it their Android line, Cthulhu, Bloodbowl, Star Wars, and so on. They do a game called "Colossal Arena," which showed me how something could seem so simple that you'd imagine it to be boring but then in play turn out to be very competitive and engaging. My wife and I also enjoy frequent games of "Arcana," which is a deck-builder, like "Dominion," but with illustrations that I can stand to look at (everyone and their brother will recommend "Dominion" though). The FFG holiday sale should be coming up soon, which is great for stocking up on new games.

Other people will know far more about recent CCG releases than me, but as far as old out-of-print ones go, I recommend checking out "Heresy: Kingdom Come" for the amazing presentation they did of beautiful artwork on tarot-sized cards, and then "Vampire: The Eternal Struggle," which was fairly popular back in its day and worth investigating for the mechanics.

The main thing, as I see it, is to push your boundaries. If you come from a CCG background then try out other forms of game and consider how what you've played could be adapted into a CCG format. There is a good market for innovation, less so knock-offs. You are off to a solid start with your card layouts.

Agreed. Everyone here has a thousand ideas, and they're all potentially great. However, the difference between an idea and a game is staggering. Passion, hard work, time and multiple failures are what it takes to make your idea into a game.

Accepting that almost no idea or mechanic is original anymore (and in doing so, don't be offended when someone points out that your idea sounds like Pokemon, because we are here to help!), that leaves you with 2 options: expand on an existing idea and/or mechanic(s), or set out to create something new. The latter is Mount Everest, while the former is the Empire State Building. Climbing the Empire State Building isn't so difficult given that people before you were nice enough to build stairs and install air conditioning, but it's still a lot of work. Put in the work, and you will find yourself at the top in time.

TCG's are a dime a dozen, and the well-established brands tend to keep their fan-bases. What will your game offer that the existing games don't? Why is your game so appealing that I would leave X game for yours, or add your game to my collection/weekly habits? Typically, the answer is usually the game is backed by a well established and popular IP (Pokemon, Warcraft, Star Wars, etc.). If yours is not, then it has to be REALLY special to draw people in. That's not to say that it can't be done, it's just that the bar is set pretty high.

If your game is awesome when you're done with the countless hours of brainstorming, prototyping, scrapping, revising, blind testing, etc.., then you'll need some awesome art to go with it. Awesome art will draw players in, and awesome gameplay will keep players coming back.

So, here's a challenge for you: Consider removing all thoughts about Creatures, Attack, Defense, Health, etc., and instead focus on your resource: Ecosystem. How might players compete to revive, restore, or control various Ecosystems? If you can come up with a compelling way to do that, I think that would be an interesting game.

Good luck!