Updates

We had a great time this year at AnimeNYC.
It was the perfect venue to launch Saturday Wars CCG a new collectible card game that will release in 2025. Fans of the Saturday AM diverse manga series got their first look at the card design and to put it mildly, the excitement around this game was EPIC!

Follow Saturday Wars CCG on Instagram and Facebook. We also invite artists to join us on Discord, where they can learn more about the game and how to submit their artwork. We value the contribution of artists in making our game visually appealing and unique, and we look forward to seeing their creative submissions.

More details about Saturday Wars CCG can be found on www.saturdaywars.com

When it comes to game design, having a plan about what you want to include in your initial design or an expansion is critical.

Here is an example of what we include in our typical design briefs:

1. Creative source content on which the set is based
2. Guidelines for creating artwork – style, templates, colors, and iconography
3. Rarity Distribution and intended pull rates
4. Identity of the most rare/collectible cards from the set
5. Any new locations or tokens that will be added to the game
6. Set concept – the outlines the thematic objective for the set including details like what characters should be focused on, any new concepts to be included in the design. If a new card type is needed, it is identified here.
7. New Mechanics – any new mechanics or rules changes needed to accommodate the set design are captured. Most sets will have at least 1 new objective per side and will add a new mechanic or extend the function of an existing mechanic to drive changes in the deckbuilding strategies.
8. Rules Updates and Errata: most of these are kept up in real time via the online rulebook, but in some cases, this may be included as part of a set design

Once we pass of the brief to the design team, it’s up to them to produce initial concepts for gametext for critical cards connected to game mechanics or balancing power creep. They will next generate a list of card titles based on the IP we are working with and could include things like, character names, devices, weapons, support cards, events or other thematic elements that will make up the set. The first design templates which can be used for creating playtesting cards to test out concepts with the playtest group for the first round of feedback.

This then starts the iterative process that can take months or even years depending on the complexity of the game.

We thought it would be good to describe the process that it takes to bring a game to life. When we speak with aspiring designers or people that have may have an idea for a game or desire to bring an old game back to life, many of them have no clue about how much effort it takes to make this happen.

Game Design

So if you have an idea for a game, working out all the mechanics is a good place to start. In this case one of the best partnerships you can establish. Work for Hire agreements with game designers are common. Even established games will sometimes bring in an outsider to handle an expansion or revision to core game mechanics.

We’ve seen a convergence in many of the collectible games core mechanics over the past year. 2023 is no exception – with several big titles being released. The most important part to remember when working on a new design is to have the core mechanics comfortable for players to learn the game, but also enable it to be expanded. Most successful collectible games release 2 or 3 expansions per year. So make sure your design is extendable, otherwise you may not be able to keep up with the latest gaming trends.

For each of our set designs, we prepare a detailed brief that is used with our game designers to guide some of these decisions.

Artwork

Unless you are planning on doing all the artwork yourself, its good to have a network of artists and graphic designers available to you. We met many of these artists at Gencon this year and there are so many great options in many different styles. If you are working with a licensed IP (which we are with our current project) you also have to consider the style and approval process – which may be extensive.

Manufacturing

Domestic or Import? This is probably one of the most important decisions you will make in your game design. There are advantages and disadvantages to each:

Imports – when working with an overseas manufacturer, you can often save on cost. Labor markets are lower than in domestic manufacturing locations. You often trade off cost for responsiveness, and time to market – as you have to deal with the complexities of overseas logistics and shipping. Many of the top producers with offshore manufacturing resources have North American or European based sales offices and project managers that help you navigate the complexities of working with an overseas operation. One thing to remember is that the QA process will take longer because even proofs and samples will need to be shipped across the ocean.

Domestic – local producers often make it easier to be responsive (speed to market) and address quality challenges. Every game has these issues and for this reason we favor domestic production where possible. Even if it costs a little bit more.

Another option to consider is the level of experience in the pieces of your game that the producers have. Many will promise the world, but you should be aware if they specialize in injection molding (ie minatures), printing (cards and boards), woodworking (game pieces) or assembly. Ask about what games they produce and request references. We are happy to share details about our experience with you.

Promotion

It used to be that most of your distribution agreements would include a portion of the payment dedicated to marketing. This enabled game publishers to focus more on making the games, and let their chosen channels promote it. Sometimes you would provide a store front kit or point-of-purchase marketing materials, but most of the promotions happened in concert with the sellers.

Unfortunately as time has gone on, the responsibility for creating demand for a game is falling back onto the publishers. Opinions on this are mixed, because the control about what is said about the game or brand remains with the publisher, however it means there will be additional costs. You can hire a marketing agency to help with this, but there aren’t many that focus on collectibles or gaming. We have found it’s better to do this in-house. You should plan to spend between 8-15% of your gross revenue on marketing activities.

Distribution

There are many distribution channels for collectible games. Traditional distributors deal with most of the independent gaming stores. Big box retailers usually prefer to cut out the middle man, but it can be difficult to compete for shelf space unless you have an extremely popular title. There are direct to consumer models and fulfillment companies that allow you to sell online. Crowdfunding fulfillment is also available.

If you are interested in partnering with Resurrection Games on a future project, let us know. We are always looking to expand our network!

For our current project we have come across an interesting puzzle to solve. Modernization.

One of the reasons this is such a challenge is because of the history in the game. Players have been continuing to learn and challenge themselves for over 20 years with different strategies. So with modernization, there is a need to respect that history, but also a need to incorporate the things game designers have learned about the way these games are played over that time as well.

Here’s a good example:

Attack/Power/Strength – This is typically a numerical value that indicates the damage that a card can inflict on other cards, or against the life points of the player. Most games are spent by setting up cards to attack, others to defend, with the overflow going against the life points of the player.

In the early days of collectible card games, this was typically represented by a keyword, or sometimes multiple thematic keywords that were treated synonymously for gameplay purposes. The key word would always be in a consistent place in every cards. In modern game design, this has been replaced by an icon (such as two swords crossing) or simply by a large colored number (red for attack, blue for defense).

As a designer, there is a need to balance the simplicity that comes with modernization, against the thematics and specificity of the original design. In the early days, cards contained lots of text to explain how to use them. We’ve seen a lot of designers struggle with this balance when coming up with their cards.

Here is an example we saw at GenCon:

In this case, the designers have some beautiful art. To avoid distracting from that, they have chosen to use text – similar to the early designs we have seen in historical games. Unfortunately to fit this text in the space allotted, the pt size of the font is so small it becomes almost unreadable. Our recommendation for this would be to select some common phrases and put a library of iconography that can help relieve some of the stress this puts on your eyes. They also used keywords where a simplified icon could easily have worked better.

Can you imagine trying to play a game where you need to squint and read every single card as you move forward?

Designing a game is a lot of work. You need to make sure the rules provide strategic opportunities for players, that the mechanics are engaging, think through the pace of each turn and also look at the gameboard, pieces and supporting materials all align with the experience you want players to have.

Bringing back a game that has been out of print for decades also has it’s own challenges. Like how much do you modernize the game? do you codify “house rules” that have been developed over the years. How much do you change the look and feel of the game vs staying true to the history and “charm” of the original.

We recently completed a strategy review for our current project. Here are some of the decisions we made and why we chose them:

1. First we decided to do all new card designs. There are many reasons for this, but one of them was to modernize the use of text and have more (but not too many) icons. This helps with things like translation of the game and also makes the game more collectible by making alternative art and special card treatments easier to realize.
2. We revamped gametext keywords. Over time the taxonomy of keywords that were originally designed can grow tired or convoluted. This can be challenging if certain keywords have been tied to game mechanics, or if game expansions have made too many. You don’t want players to have to read a 200 page book of definitions to play the game.
3. Rules review. Because we are recreating a game based on and out-of-print game, there has to be a balance between new rules and old rules. Managing power creep in card games is especially difficult so you have to think about mechanisms to address card combinations and deckbuilding strategies that overrun the game. You also want to create the joy of discovering a strong combination so players can stretch their strategic creativity. Most of the rules we changed were about balance. That and fixing things that just didn’t seem logical about the original.
4. Make the game better for organized play. Draw tournaments are very popular for these kinds of games. So if you can build the game design from the ground up with this in mind, it will make it easier on players to get into these games. That means designing around mechanics that hurt this style of play. Tokens, fixed cards and toolkit cards are just a few that can be problematic here. So we found a way to solve those issues.

We continue to work towards having a game that the fans will love, and that will invite many new and returning players to the game. Once we have all the agreements worked out with our partners we will be able to make a formal announcement. In the meantime, keep checking back here with us and we will provide updates when we can.

See you at GenCon!

June is an important month for us. Its time for us to prepare for Licensing International’s annual exhibition in Las Vegas Nevada.

Licensing Expo is always a treat because you get to meet people from all industries, current and former owners of IP, entertainment franchises and more. It’s also a great place to network with people and get the inside scoop on what is happening in the industry. It’s also a place where deals can be made.

This year’s line-up is exciting with exhibitors from amazing companies like CAPCOM, the BBC, Disney, Dark Horse Comics, Hasbro, Mattel, Legendary Entertainment and more. There are some great sessions to attend so if you are going to be there, let us know and we will try to connect with you!

As far as current projects go, not much to report. We are still in the early phases, with licensing being at the top of our list as things to sort out before we can make any kind of official announcements. The good news is that our partners are lined up to help make this happen once those pieces fall into place.

One thing we can share is that we have finally compiled our market research report on the health of the collectible card game market, key drivers in what both collectors and players are looking for as well as some better understanding of the underlying factors behind why some games are successful and others are not. The secret isn’t earth shattering, its all about the fans. Fans care deeply and passionately – especially those that are collectors. Many of them aren’t in it to make money – it’s more about preserving a bit of history or feeling like they can participate in the story in some unique way. That is what drives us as well. Every project we consider starts and ends with the fans. In this case – the fans are there, passionate and are craving for more. Hopefully we can play our part in reaching them too.

We just kicked off an exciting new project! It’s too early in development to say too much about it – but let’s just say its BIG. We will be working to bring back a game from the early days of the collectible card game space with huge support from fans that are still playing the game today!

Here’s a little flavor about what happens during these early stages.

It always starts out boring with assessments of the market potential for the game as well as finding out all the legal stuff – who owns the intellectual property, is it available for public use or are licensing deals going to need to be involved. And so on…

Then we get into something a little more fun – tracking down the legacy game pieces, which usually means going to swap meets, searching online or visiting stores with old inventory. We found one of those gems recently and it was like traveling back in time!

Next we do hard core game design reviews – does the gameplay still stand up or does it need modernization? how are the cards designed and do they need updating? what do the fans think? Who can manufacture the components? What do our distribution partners think?

All this and more will be coming as this project takes shape. Stay tuned for more details. For this project, we expect to launch the first pre-sale event before the end of 2023 with a full release in 2024. We hope you enjoy coming on this journey with us.