I didn’t always plan for Starfire Skies to be a card game. Initially, the idea was a firework tycoon game—something inspired by one of my all-time favorite games, Lemonade Tycoon. The idea would be, you’d spend money gathering ingredients for a firework show, invest in better suppliers to lower costs, and design unique fireworks to dazzle an audience. It sounded fun, but as I thought about it more, I realized it might not hold a player’s interest for more than an hour.

As much as I love Lemonade Tycoon, I wanted Starfire Skies to have more depth and strategy—a game you could come back to over and over. That’s when the idea of a deckbuilder took shape.

Deckbuilders are incredibly versatile. You can build almost any kind of concept on top of them. Want to battle monsters in a spire? Play Slay the Spire. Interested in a survival game where you build a village? Try Stacklands. How about a card game with superheroes? Check out Marvel Snap. Deckbuilders are more than just card games—they’re strategic sandboxes that can adapt to almost any theme, even fireworks.

But as a first-time developer, I was left with a big question: How do I make a fun and engaging card game about fireworks?

The Challenges of a Deckbuilder

Creating a deckbuilder involves solving three key challenges for the player:

1. Understanding the cards: What does each card do? Where do they come from, and how can I acquire more?
2. Understanding how to play the cards: Where and how do I play a card?
3. Understanding the strategy to the cards: Why would I choose one card over another?

How do these challenges make the genre engaging though, how does this make a fun game?

1. Understanding the cards:

To make cards easy to grasp, they should exist in clear, familiar zones:

• The Hand: The primary playable area in most deckbuilders.
• The Draw Pile: Where new cards come from.
• The Discard Pile: Where cards go after being played.

Simplicity is key to accessibility. If cards are too complex, players may feel overwhelmed and abandon the game. To simplify card effects, the game’s core goals must also be simple.

Consider Slay the Spire: The primary objectives are straightforward—attack to defeat enemies or defend to survive. These simple goals allow for equally simple card effects, making gameplay intuitive and engaging.

By keeping goals and mechanics clear, you create an experience where players can focus on strategy rather than deciphering complex rules.

2. Understanding how to play the cards

Playing cards should be simple yet engaging, with clear and satisfying visual feedback. The process of playing a card must feel intuitive and rewarding.

For example, in Inscryption, players place cards in one of three lanes—left, middle, or right. This straightforward layout is easy to understand and reduces decision fatigue.

Each card’s cost is clearly shown in the top-right corner. In Inscryption, costs are paid using resources like blood (requiring the sacrifice of a card already in play) or bones (earned when a card is destroyed). This visual clarity ensures that players immediately understand the price of playing each card.

To maintain player engagement, it’s crucial to highlight what will happen before a card is played. This could include clear animations, indicators, or previews that reinforce the action’s outcome. When players can easily grasp both where and how to play cards, the gameplay experience becomes fluid and satisfying.

3. Understanding the strategy to the cards

Solving the first 2 challenges are partly a means to the 3rd, where much of the fun lies, in making choices and deciding which cards to play. But to make those decisions meaningful, there has to be something pushing back against the player. In classic card games like Poker, that pressure comes from your opponents. Everyone starts with an equal chance, and your decisions dictate the outcome. But in a single-player deckbuilder, you need to build that tension into the game itself. Without it, there’s no reason to choose one card over another. For example, if every card in Starfire Skies simply “launches a firework” and makes the audience happy, there’s no strategy—just a button-mashing simulator.

So, I needed to design four things:

1. A simple goal a card helps reach.
2. An interesting and simple way to play cards.
3. A system that pushes back against the player.
4. A reason to play one card over another.

From Brainstorming to Design

Knowing I wanted Starfire Skies to feel like a firework show, I drew inspiration directly from real-life displays. A typical show has two distinct phases:

• The main show: Fireworks launch in a steady rhythm, building anticipation.
• The finale: A breathtaking burst of fireworks all at once.

This gave me an idea for how players could use their cards. Each card could represent a firework, and players would decide whether to use it in the main show (for a steady performance) or save it for the finale (for maximum impact).

But what about the audience? They became the game’s main obstacle. If you don’t meet their expectations, they rate your show poorly. Their demands create the pressure that forces the player to strategize.

Finally, I looked at the fireworks themselves. Each firework could have a unique effect, making it a reason to play one card over another. Some might keep you from losing, while others would help you win the game. 

Keeping it Simple

Even with all these mechanics, simplicity is key. A deckbuilder works best when its core mechanics are easy to grasp, even as the strategy becomes deeper over time. My goal was to create a system that feels intuitive but offers enough complexity to keep players engaged for hours.

In my next post, I’ll dive into how I combined these ideas to create a satisfying gameplay loop for Starfire Skies. Thanks for reading!