Project Gamma is a drafting and deck building card game for 2-8 players with a focus on varied, open ended deckbuilding, player agency, and interactive back and forth gameplay. It can be played as either a cube draft or constructed with decks made by players before the game. It will feature 360 cards when finished, although we may make further expansions if people enjoy it.
In games you will play units and attack your opponent to reduce their life to 0 (starting at 20), but within this there is a lot of room for different strategies! The game is played in a dynamic shared round system, and seeks to reduce non-games to a minimum. You will look to leverage hidden information, tempo, and card advantage to overcome your opponent and win the game.
Some unique aspects of the core game mechanics:
- All cards in Project Gamma are actually 2 cards in one, and when you play a card you get to pick which half you are playing. This allows for more options when playing and deckbuilding, as well as for the ability to have more available archetypes in draft.
- The game uses a shared round system, where players take turns taking actions, and the game state moves forward when both players pass. This double pass system is at the core of the game’s structure, and will be rather familiar if you played legends of runeterra or possibly other card games.
- Combat is dynamic, with decisions being made as the phase progresses and players commit units to attacking and blocking. The full rules for combat can be found here.
- The card and resource system: You may pitch cards from your hand to get 1 mana/currency each in order to play your other cards. At the end of the round, each player puts all cards they pitched for mana that round on the top and/or bottom of their deck, then draws that many cards + 2. The game also features claim cards that can be played and used for mana/currency each round, to ensure that you do not lose access to mana/currency as the game goes on and you play out your hand. This system allows for a lot of card selection, hidden and available information between players, and for a discard to pay costs + wheel system that doesn’t reset card advantage each round.
- An idea for constructed is to have a sort of universal draft pool that could rotate regularly, and before matches players draft cards from this pool. Would make for an interesting constantly slightly shifting environment, and bring a bit of deckbuilding to constructed as an alternative to sideboarding. It could also let you gain a bit more information about your opponent before the mulligan. Could also make this exclusive to highlander.
I have been working on Project Gamma with a few others. I will make more information available when the game is ready to be played at least in a beta state. If you would like to help with playtesting, the design of the game mechanics, the cards (we need 360), or visuals (graphic design of the cards, art, both of which being as minimal as possible to be done and printable in mostly black and white), feel free to reach out to me.
The plan is to make the game available to print and play and on tabletop simulator, and go from there!
Also the name won’t stay as project gamma forever, unlike project delta, this is just a work in progress project name.