Why making card games should be your new hobby
What makes a good hobby?
When you think about the sorts of hobbies that people do, they are incredibly varied - running, knitting, breakdancing … the list is endless.
Some of the most rewarding hobbies are when you get to make something you’re proud of, and then share it with others.
For example, you might enjoy baking. The act of baking is in itself fun, but then you get to share the cakes afterwards with your friends and family.
Making games is similar. You get the enjoyment of making the game, and at the end you can play it with other people.
It then becomes a shared experience. You all play the game together, and then collectively try and improve the game.
In an increasingly digital world, actually printing something out and playing it around a kitchen table is a welcome break.
But making a game sounds hard?
It isn’t really, because there are several time-proven templates for effective games which you can use, and then customise.
Here are some examples.
Trivia games
These are actually really fun, because you can tailor the questions to things you and your friends/family like.
The questions could be:
- Random facts about people in the family
- Niche subjects which you care a lot about - horror films, 90s musicians, breeds of dog …
You just need to generate a list of questions of answers. We have example trivia games you can modify here.
Playing cards
In this case, you could just create a standard set of playing cards, but customised with your own designs.
These can then be used to play any of the thousands of games which people have created using a standard set of playing cards.
We have another template for that here.
Statistic games
Most people have played games like Top Trumps, where a card has a bunch of statistics - like strength, speed etc.
These are a great foundation for a simple, custom game. You can get creative with the statistics too - instead of strength and speed, you could use cuteness and hairiness instead.
I made a game along these lines as a wedding present for a cousin. The cards contained a mix of video game characters, dogs, and TV characters. Basically, all the things that the bride and groom enjoyed.
This sort of game is a great way of mashing together lots of different themes - Mario, and Ross from Friends can both be in the same game, they just have different stats.
Getting more adventurous
The examples above are a great starting point, but the sky is the limit.
To print, or not?
Once you have designed your game, there are two options - playing it digitally in apps like Tabletop Simulator, which Card Game Builder makes really easy, or printing it out.
Playing the game digitally is a great way of ironing out the kinks early on, and makes the game very easy to share.
Printing it out though is really worthwhile. Having a physical artefact at the end is great, and something to be proud of. The act of physically crafting the game can be rewarding too - watching it slowly emerge from the printer, and then carefully cutting the cards, and rounding the corners can be a nice relaxing hobby in itself.
Your new favourite hobby?
Making card games has a lot of ingredients for a great hobby:
- Creativity in coming up with the rules, and content
- The enjoyment of physically crafting something
- Making something which can be shared with others
I hope I’ve convinced you to give it a go.