In this guide, I will show you how to design, create, and produce a physical prototype of your own card or educational game. It can be a party game, vocabulary game, educational game, or even just flashcards to study something. The entire SalutCard team follows the steps below, so this guide is fully based on our experience. However, it may not be perfect for everyone, so feel free to contact us at salutcard@proton.me to share your ideas or suggestions for this guide. Who knows — maybe one day we will even publish a book about card game prototyping. So let’s begin — or c’est parti (French for “let’s go”).
Creating your own game can take a lot of time, so the theme should be interesting to you. Also, if it’s your first game, don’t overcomplicate it. For example, reuse mechanics from other games, avoid creating multiple decks, and don’t add extra elements like tokens, figures, or boards unless necessary. Your first game should be as simple as possible so you can actually finish it and go through the entire game creation process.
Also remember that card game design works best through multiple iterations: create a basic version, test it, collect feedback, improve it, collect more feedback, improve it again, and so on. Keep in mind that you will probably change many things during development. This guide is based on that idea — you will most likely redesign parts of your game several times.
The game idea
The first step is to come up with an idea and create a basic list of rules. If you plan to produce the game commercially, think about manufacturing before moving to the next steps. For example, games that only use paper cards are very easy to produce. However, adding wooden or plastic figures, tokens, and other components will complicate production, increase costs, and reduce the number of manufacturers willing to produce small batches such as 100 copies or fewer.
At this stage, you only need a notebook and pen or any text editor like Notion to collect your ideas and describe the basic gameplay and rules. Ideally, you should collect ideas over time to create a truly interesting game. You should also decide what card types and other game elements you will need. Don’t write the full game documentation yet, and don’t create the complete list of cards and values at this point.
Card design ideas
Starting from a blank page can be difficult, so use SalutCard templates or look for inspiration on Pinterest. Don’t create the final design at this stage because it will probably change after your first playtests.
Also keep a few things in mind while designing your cards:
- Think about card dimensions. Smaller cards are usually cheaper to produce and more convenient for players to carry during trips or walks. Games like Hygge and Bandido are great examples of compact card games. Smaller cards also reduce shipping and storage costs.
- If you’re designing a game for personal or educational use and plan to print it at home, make the design ink-efficient. Avoid fully colored backgrounds and consider using textured or colored paper instead.
- If you plan to cut prototype cards yourself, add crop marks to simplify cutting.
- Don’t overload cards with too many visual elements during the first iteration, and don’t spend too much time perfecting the design until you’re sure all the necessary elements are included.
- Create data-driven decks. This means creating a card template, preparing a spreadsheet or list with card values (titles, points, stars, etc.), and automatically generating cards based on that data. We will discuss this later.
Card and deck creation
After collecting your ideas, you can start creating the cards for your game. We use Figma together with the SalutCard plugin to create cards. This allows you to create card templates, manage card data, and automatically export game cards into A3 or A4 PDF files that are easy to print at home or at a local print shop.
Physical prototype
After your deck is ready and exported as a PDF, you can print and cut the cards. Use tools designed for cutting printed A3/A4 sheets into cards, such as a paper cutter like the Vaessen Creative 2207-108. You can also round the corners using a corner cutter from AliExpress or a local craft store.
In our experience, it takes around 60–100 minutes to cut 100 cards manually. At this stage, don’t spend time searching for manufacturers to create a professional prototype for you. Make the prototype yourself, test the game, collect feedback, and only start looking for manufacturers once the gameplay feels polished. Remember that working with third-party manufacturers requires communication time, production time, and shipping time.
Playing and collecting feedback
At this stage, you should try to collect as much feedback as possible, especially if you plan to sell the game. Be prepared to hear criticism, and don’t forget to write everything down. If you don’t document feedback immediately, you will probably forget important details later.
Once you collect enough feedback, repeat the previous steps and continue improving your game.
How SalutCard can help with game creation
SalutCard is a tool that helps you create game cards using templates and a data-driven deck editor. This allows you to easily update card designs, modify values, and export files for printing.
Most importantly, you can test your cards online before printing them.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at salutcard@proton.me.