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- CAPTIVATE: CARDANO EDITION -
GAME ART & DESIGN
Captivate is the result of two years of focused game art and design. The intent was to create a game that is easy to learn but difficult to master, with features that encourage a fast pace and replayability.
Inspiration for Captivate came from my desire to create a game that could be completed and released by a single person, my passion for Cardano, and to improve on some game mechanics of the Triple Triad card game in Final Fantasy 14, as it could have been so much better.
Final artwork for the game is currently in production. When complete, Captivate will be sent for printing with an estimated release date of early-mid 2024.
GAME DESIGN
The core design of a Captivate card is based on both tarot cards and traditional poker style cards, with 4 suits and numbers ranging from 1-13.
The power dots mechanic found on each side of a Captivate card is balanced both mathematically and by element. This was worked out on paper before being applied to card designs.
For example, The Rat is the weakest card in the game by point value and by power dots on all sides but one. By having 4 power dots on one side, The Rat can flip over even the strongest card in the game (of a matching element) even though it is worth the least amount of points (1).
Initial cards for Captivate playtesting had the core mechanics visually represented, but used placeholder art.
Final artwork featured a concept to completion process:
1) Concept mockup provided
2) Adjustments made
3) Finalized artwork & digital FT card created
PLAYTEST CARD
CONCEPT MOCKUP
FINAL CARD
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay design for Captivate is focused on 4 key elements:
1) STRAGEGY:
Planning when to play your cards is important. Playing as many cards as possible could score you more points, and will allow you to draw more cards faster. However, this will leave your high value cards open to capture by opponents.
2) SKILL:
In Captivate, the highest value card doesn’t always win. The power dots on each side of a card allow for an alternate way to flip cards.
There are 4 “elements” which determine the placement of the power dots. Each element has a different pattern of dot placement, and using your cards most efficiently is a huge advantage.
3) MEMORY:
You’ll need to remember which cards were flipped over to make sure you’re capturing cards with the highest point value.
When cards are flipped over, they aren’t always captured. If you don’t have enough cards left in your hand to capture with, you’ll need to leave any remaining flipped cards for future turns.
4) MULTIPLAYER:
With a single deck of Captivate, you play a game with 2-4 players. If you have a larger gaming group, just add in another deck of Captivate to support team play from 5-8 players.
RULEBOOK
Rules are one of the most important design elements of a game. My goal was to achieve rules that are simple to explain but can still offer complexity with gameplay.
In this case, the rulebook also had to be designed to fit inside a poker style tuckbox and be clear and legible at a small size.
When designing the rulebook for Captivate, I referenced the rulebooks for both Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering as examples of well designed rulebooks for top-tier games that do a great job of simplifying complexity.
TUCK BOX
The tuck box for Captivate needed to give a sense of the game both visually and with a short text summary on the back of the box. Visually I included the 4 elements icons of Captivate, as well as the Cardano logo and galaxy background used for the cards to achieve this.
Functionally, the tuck box needed to hold all cards of the game (including promo cards), and the rulebook. Also included are regulatory logos, UPC code, website link, game time, number of players, player age range, and details about the environmental action achieved by supporting the project.
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