You Make The Card 2 - Step 3
Mark Rosewater, R&D senior designer
Friday, February 28, 2003
For the first “You Make the Card,” the public chose to make a creature.
Been there, done that!
This time--by a wide margin--the people have asked to make a non-creature artifact.
|
Creature or Non-Creature?
|
| Non-creature artifact |
9484 |
68.1% |
| Artifact creature |
4439 |
31.9% |
|
Total
|
13923
|
100.0%
|
So, this leads us to the next part of the design phase. But there is a fork in the road. You see, there are two different ways to design Magic cards: by flavor and by function.
Flavor
This is what we refer to as “top down” design. The idea is that we start by figuring out a cool artifact. Then after we know what the artifact is and what it does, we design mechanics to match. Mirari is an example of a “top down” artifact design. The story called for a round mirrored sphere that enhanced the power of anyone who used it. The design team of Odyssey had to then figure out how to translate that ability into a card that would be fun to play.
The upside of this type of design is that it creates cards that drip with flavor. The downside is that it will greatly limit the options for mechanics.
Function
In this model of design, we start by figuring out what the card does in the game. Once the mechanics are set in stone, we then figure out a flavor that makes sense. Cursed Scroll is an example of an artifact where the mechanics came first and was later given flavor by the creative team.
The upside of this type of design is that it gives the designers the most flexibility for mechanics. The downside is that it’s harder to create a cool connection between flavor and mechanics. Also, this was the path chosen in the first “You Make the Card.” Part of the purpose of this promotion is to give all you a chance to witness different types of design. Thus a second downside of this option is that you would be designing the card the same way you did last time.
So, what should it be? Design by flavor or design by function?
Voting begins today and ends midnight Sunday, March 9.
I’m curious to see what you choose.
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