Comment by trevyn
2 years ago
There's a huge genre of computer-only card games now, many of which implement these kind of "card evolution" mechanics.
If you're into this sort of thing, I highly recommend checking out Inscryption, it has some really fun twists on this idea.
A few people have told me I should play that game. Guess I know what I'm doing for the rest of the week :D
You should also try the new free to play game Marvel Snap. It's actually fairly good about not requiring you to pay money yet still offer some good progression and unlocks, and there's a lot of good ideas in there for cards which only really work in a digital way or with a bunch of counters (do some things randomly, or add a bunch of temporary and situational buffs to the cards, etc), while providing super fast games (like 3-5 minutes) with a tight and small deck of cards (a player's deck is only 12 cards), and every single card is unique. And you play on locations that also all have unique abilities.
I'm friends with a bunch of people in the board game industry, as well as being a game designer (with a game signed witha publisher that still hasn't been published yet after like, four years), and everyone thinks Marvel Snap is super fun and well designed (and addictive). It's the only mobile game I've really gotten into (that wasn't just a port of a physical board game) in several years.
Slay the Spire is another one to consider as well. It's a rogue-like game where you fight with cards and build up your deck based on the choices you make in the run. The cards are fairly static (they even made a board game adaptation on Kickstarter very recently), although they can all be upgraded, which makes the cards better. I play that on PC but I know it's out on mobile and Switch as well.
Ah yeah, I played Slay the Spire.
I still maintain that it's lame to implement the concepts tied to physical playing cards in a computer that can simulate anything. It's funny how Slay the Spire is a card game which got popular as a computer game and then later made the transition to a physical card game, bringing us full-circle.