WHAT IS TAVERN BRAWL?

Tavern Brawl was inspired by a random idea I had in my head about the tavern setting. Taverns seemed to have always been in countless movies, shows, or games in one way or another; yet there weren’t any real games set in such a lively area from my recollection. The setting seemed fitting for a party game and the experience I wanted to simulate was a drinking game with your pals. You guys aren’t fighting per se but more so trying to out-drink each other. A party brawl for survival of the fittest. Some may want to team up with each other or some may be lone wolves trying to shift the way the game is playing out themselves.

Mechanical and Asset Breakdown

There are liver tokens and bladder tokens. This would contribute towards your race’s total liver or bladder stat. Once your token count reaches your stat count you will die. You may start with 4 cards then play one on your turn and draw one after playing a card.

There are skill cards, race cards, and event cards, There are also tokens to keep track of bladder count and liver count.

Learning Process

This project hit me with a lot of skills that I had never learned before. Having always been on the mechanical side of design I was given the opportunity to completely make my own card game from the ground up. This involved heavy research into Typography, color theory, and UI. After coming at some direction of all these things I learned the hard way about iterative work. WIREFRAMING SAVES LIVES. I needed to start playtesting despite having a primitive ruleset and no visual assets but the Font, Layout, and color of the cards. Wireframing and prototyping allowed for more playtesting and more flexibility in changes throughout the lifetime of the game’s development.

To make the fantasies of each race work I’d need to make the cards unique, or at least feel unique. This heavily impacted the amount of work I had to do to make enough cards to feel diverse but also have a lot of options for the players. This and the fact that I had no art experience was an immense challenge. I made 78 unique card arts in a pixel style. They turned out okay but took a lot of time I wish I had fleshed out the actual cards rather than the art. 

I learned some valuable time management skills. There is such a thing as too lofty a goal. I wanted art in my game but also unique races. These combined proved to be a monumental task. I also found that putting myself in the player's shoes helped me capture the feelings I wanted. How would I react if I got the card in my hand? How would I feel if I had the card played against me? It isn’t just about what you envision as a designer. It’s about what your end product does in itself. My first iteration of the game was slow and involved a lot of mental math to keep track of your stats. Player feedback sat me down instantly. I had a grand scheme that essentially no one would follow in practice. Playtesting is invaluable. 

What went right in my game was the feel of it. It may not be balanced perfectly but that’s what I used to exploit the feelings I needed. I also tend to enjoy a less balanced game if it doesn’t diminish the experience of the game and is fun, maybe, partially due to that very imbalance. I also loved my art. I was able to do art on my own and I’ve never touched art. I successfully portrayed the feel of the game visually on top of making a fun game. 

I would definitely make the card pool smaller. I was told that the class fantasies were great and that the feel of the cards was right, but, in retrospect, I could’ve done better. The game would be different but would capture the party feel even more. If I were to stick to this exact game, I’d also try to start with a massive card pool for every race. I’d be able to cull the pool and have great ideas instead of editing and adding over time.