Everything on the Decklab blog tagged “prototyping”: practical advice on making your own card game.
Most indie designers ask the wrong question when choosing card game software. The right measure isn't the feature count. It's how fast you can get from a concept to a playable test, and back again after every change.
· 5 min read
Fast prototyping isn't cutting corners. It's shortening the distance between a concept and a playable test. Here's a compressed, step-by-step workflow that gets cards on the table in a single session.
· 5 min read
The belief that you need an artist, a writer and a layout designer before your first playtest is backwards. Here's a solo workflow that gets a collectible card game prototype to the table, and proves the idea before you spend on anyone.
· 5 min read
The gap between "I have a cool concept" and a testable card prototype is where most promising games stall. Here's a repeatable process for crossing it, from a one-line idea to a deck on the table.
· 5 min read
Conventional wisdom says refine before you build. It's often wrong. The fastest path to a better game is a rough but playable prototype you can test today, and here's a four-step way to build one.
· 4 min read
AI-assisted prototyping isn't handing off your creativity. Used well, it closes the gap between a rough idea and a testable first draft, and leaves every real decision with you. Here's the practical case, and a five-step workflow.
· 5 min read
Layout, formatting and first drafts no longer have to take days. What really changes when the production work shrinks, what stays exactly as hard as before, and how to set up a workflow that tests in hours.
· 4 min read
The real comparison isn't feature counts. It's which workflow gets you from idea to a testable game with the least friction, and that depends on where your game is today. A fair look at three different tools.
· 5 min read
Most indie designers aren't slowed down by creativity but by workflow friction. Here's how to pick tools when getting from idea to playtest is the priority, and a four-step test to run on any of them.
· 5 min read
Most card games don't stall for lack of ideas. They stall because the workflow is too slow and too manual to keep momentum. Here's what the 2019 process looked like, and what a 2026 one should do instead.
· 5 min read
