ROLES
Lead Designer / Game Design / Playtesting / UI/UX / Graphic Design / Artwork
DESCRIPTION
Arakai is a passion project that I started as a young man, inspired by the card games that I grew up with in the 2000s. Over time, it has become my ongoing project of choice, evolving with each lesson learned from other projects that I work on.
Today, Arakai stands as a testament to my continuous improvement, hosting and analyzing a vibrant playtest group that consistently organizes monthly tournaments. As the lead game designer and lead playtester, it is my job to ensure that the game stays fun, engaging, and interactive!
YEARS WORKED
2020 - Present
GENRE
Collectable Card Game (CCG)
PLATFORM/VENUE
Tabletop
WEBSITE
COMING SOON
Game Design and User Analysis
What I did
As the lead game designer, I led discussions and meetings to plan, concept, and design each individual card. Then, I put those ideas to paper and made the cards themselves.
Not only did I make the cards, but I also adjusted them after a potentially unintended interaction is discovered through playtesting. I watched and took notes as playtesters took our ideas and tried them out in ways we perhaps didn't think of!
My jobs as the game designer and user analyst are:
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Design and create abilities and stats for all the cards.
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Watch games between players and take notes on their actions.
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Edit and change cards to rebalance potential unintended interactions.
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Conceptualize potential solutions for problems discovered in the game.
For this example, lets take a look at the flagship monster of the game, "Blade Dragon, NEXUS". While creating cards later down the line, we found an issue regarding card length. Effects were too wordy and intimidating to new players on a first glance. So, we decided to change how we word our cards! The easiest example was changing any term using the phrase "on the field" to "in play". It seems like a small change, but those added up to fix our problem!
UI/UX and Graphic Design
What I did
As the lead UI artist for this game, I was responsible for creating every visual asset for the game, but also ensuring that said assets were easy to read and understand. I ran countless tests via user testing and playtesting to guarantee that anyone can pick up a card or a playmat and IMMEDIATELY understand what each element means what.
The assets I made for the game include but are not limited to:
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Cards
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Playmats
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Rulebooks
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And more!
I even printed them out to test in person with random people I may run into!
Take a closer look at these assets below!
Artwork
What I did
While I worked on the game and its assets, I also wanted to add my artistic vision to the project! After all, it's something I had a clear vivid vision for as a child. There were 2 kinds of artwork I did for the project.
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Artwork for the game and its cards.
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Artwork for the characters in the story.
Below you can see both kinds of artwork! Though I am not the only one who made art for this game, I am still proud to add my own drawings as the creator of the game!
