(Banner art: Twilight Knight by Vincent Graphic Art)
Attention Cardaire players! I'm sorry to say there is going to be a re-pair for round 3. Please hold tight while we print out the new pairings.
It's your humble Cardaire dev aeiou here! Today I wanted to talk about something fairly important to card games... Cards!
What is it about these little paper rectangles that make them so addictive? I would argue that it starts with the game design behind them. Let's take a deep dive into some new features specific to Cardaire: Eternal Aces that go a long way toward making a more fun card game. I even have some exclusive new card reveals along the way to keep things interesting! Oooo shiny cards oooo read the long boring devlog article to see the cards ooo.
Archetypes
Dragons, warriors, fire souls, dark souls, and more! Fleshed out archetypes were left on the cutting room floor for the first game, and it's something that I really wanted to include. In a card game's early life there often is a primordial soup of "Best" cards, and these form a single dominant "Best" deck in the format. If nothing gates cards from being played together there isn't any reason to not just play the most efficient cards in one slop pile.
This is where archetypes come in. Archetypes reward you for playing in theme with powerful cards. You get to play the cool Dark power card or Beast finisher only if you have enough cards to support them. This leads to fun deckbuilding questions. "Is my deck playing enough Earth cards to make this Earth specific card good?"
On a simpler level they work as signposts for deck building. Cardaire: Eternal Aces is slated to have TWICE the amount of cards as the first game. It can be overwhelming starting from a blank slate. Building an archetype deck gives you a starting place of cards that fit a specific theme.
Peanut Butter and Chocolate
More advanced deck builders even get to mix and match archetypes. This is one of my favorite parts of differentiating card types and attributes. For reference here is the list of types and attributes in the game:
Attribute:
Arcane
Dark
Divine
Fire
Water
Type:
Ballblin
Beast
Demon
Dragon
Elemental
Insect
Machine
Power
Stellar
Undead
Warrior
Maybe a solely Undead deck is better because it is more consistent. Or maybe there is an Undead deck that also leans into Water cards. Or what about a Dark AND Divine deck that drains the opponent while buffing yourself?
Archetype Enforcement
How do we check that the player is properly representing their archetype? There are a few different ways Cardaire handles it.
1: Cards that only affect certain types of cards
This is the most simple type of check. Their ability only ever affects cards of a specific type. This makes them a straightforward gate for archetype enforcement.
2: Cards that consume cards of a specific type
These cards harken back to a simpler era of TCGs. They offer powerful undercosted abilities, but the buy-in cost is needing to be fed cards of a specific type or attribute.
3: Buddy cards
These cards check for another card on the player's field. They have the added challenge of maintaining cards of a specific type on the field.
Ace Cards
The other big feature that ended up on the cutting room floor for the original Cardaire was Ace cards. As early as 2020 I was playtesting a proto version of Cardaire that included Ace cards. Aces gave you unique deck building challenges and provided a thematic tie to the RPG overworld. I knew it would be too large a task to make a follow sprite for every card in the game, but implementing it in some way was still important to me. Ace cards meant players could have one single card that represented their current deck that they could see and interact with in the overworld as they explore.
The Ace slot
The Ace slot effect came after a fair bit of testing. I wanted your ace card to have an effect on every game you played. Originally the solution was to always give players access to their ace card at any time. I plopped it in a zone they could play from whenever needed. This however led to repetitive and boring gameplay. If you ALWAYS know you have a 1, 2, 3 or whatever cost card to play on those turns it warps deckbuilding in an unfun way.
The solution? Your ace gives you access to a unique card slot you always have access to, while the ace itself is shuffled into your deck like normal. This means you can still get that moment of top-decking your ace at the perfect time but you also get a slot you can play and build around.
Tokens Tokens Tokens
I want to talk about my PERSONAL favorite new feature of duels. That feature is token cards. Tokens were something I only stumbled into later in development, and honestly would have made more had they come about sooner.
When designing cards it is very important to have tools that let you make interesting cards without overpowering previous ones. If you print a card that draws 2 cards for 2 energy and another that draws 2 cards for 3 energy it's easy to guess which card gets played. But what about a card that draws 2 lower powered cards for 2 energy?
Now that is interesting! Fishing rod gets you two new cards from your deck right now, but for one less energy you can get two cards that can be cashed in later for 1 energy. This offsets the cost but makes it more expensive at 4 energy total.
Creating a coin token ended up being an interesting mid-level of power. It's worse than drawing a card so it can be costed lower. It also opens up synergies with cards that care about when you play a spell or specifically care about playing a coin.
In Other News
It has been a busy couple of months of dev as the game wraps up. I am now in the testing phase where testers get to play the game start to finish. It's always my favorite thing in the world to see them react to moments and build their own personal deck as they explore.
A late 2026 launch is still the plan, and I am so excited for more people to get to play through the game. If you want a more SPECIFIC launch date tune into the Best Indie Games Fall Showcase over on Clemmy's channel on September 1st! There might just be a new trailer premiering with an official release date.