How to Create a Card Game in Minutes with Decklab AI (Step-by-Step Tutorial)

This guide takes you from nothing to a first deck in Decklab AI: a new project, the components your game needs, and a first set of cards. It works with or without AI.

You'll need a free account. Sign-in is a link by email or Google, with no password or card.

Step 1: Start a new project

On Home, you have three ways in:

• Start with an idea. Type your idea in the box (who plays, what they do, what makes it fun), optionally a name, and choose Start from this idea.
• Start blank. An empty project, ready to design.
• Start from a kit. A small sample game with cards, tokens and a board, ready to change and print.

For the most control, choose New project. It opens a short wizard, described below.

Step 2: Your idea

Give the game a Game name (or leave it for later), a Genre (or "Not sure yet"), and describe Your game idea. A sentence is enough: "A game about dragon riders competing for ancient relics." You can change every detail later.

Step 3: Players and parts

Set Players and Playtime (minutes), as one number or a range such as 2–4.

Then pick what goes in your game:

• Cards: the heart of your deck
• Counters: resources, damage and points
• Battlefield: a space for the action
• Rulebook: everything players need
• Tuck box: a home for your deck

You can add any of these later with Add component, so pick what you know you need.

Step 4: Starting point

Choose how the project starts:

• Blank: the components you picked, ready to design.
• A starter kit: a working small game with real templates and rows to take apart.
• Start from my idea with AI: AI waits until you ask, then drafts each part for you to review.

Every value, image and rule stays editable, whichever you choose.

Step 5: Review and create

Check the summary and choose Create project. The project opens.

Step 6: Work through Game overview

Game overview is the first tab in the project header. It's five steps, in order:

1. Brief: the pitch, theme, players, play time and genre.
2. Pieces: your resources, keywords and card types.
3. Rules: the turn, setup and how the game ends.
4. Cards: cards for each card type.
5. Rulebook: the rules written out for players.

Fill each step in by hand, or use the AI action in the step's heading to draft it. The heading says what the action costs before you click. Every AI result opens as a proposal: keep what you want, then Apply. Applying saves a snapshot first and counts as one undo. Use Next to move on. Moving on is how you skip a step.

Step 7: Design a card

Open your deck's tab and choose Design. Build one card from text, shapes, images and icons, then connect its parts to your data: open Fields in the panel on the left and drag a column onto the card. Every card in the deck uses this layout. See How to Edit Individual Cards.

Step 8: Fill in your cards

Choose Data. Each row is a card: type into the grid, paste from a spreadsheet, or Import a CSV or Excel file. See How to Import a Card Game.

Step 9: Check, try and print

• Preview shows every card at once.
• The Problems button in the header lists anything wrong, like text that overflows. See How to Validate Your Game.
• Playtest deals your cards so you can try a hand.
• Export makes a print-and-play PDF, PNGs or Tabletop Simulator files. See How to Export Your Game.

Next steps

Want to try the card-from-spreadsheet idea before making a project? The free quick card maker needs no account:

Quick card maker

Make a deck of printable cards from a spreadsheet: pick a starter template, paste or import a CSV, tweak the design, and download a print-and-play PDF or a PNG of each card. Free, in your browser, with no sign-up.