Anyone experienced in making card games?

[snow_44]

Hello everyone! 

I'm currently illustrating a card game (basically uno but with an excessive amount of extra rules. and mushrooms!) which I'm doing digitally...

Now the problem is, how do I make it real?

I have access to a printer but just the paper itself won't hold up well while playing (and is also very see through)
I looked at some tips online, like using card sleeves, but since the cards have two sides which need to be visible at all times I'm not sure if it would work. And it would also be a lot of card sleeves to buy... 

I'm mostly leaning towards just gluing the printed out cards on some thicker paper right now but I feel like it would get wavy really quickly... And getting them printed professionally isn't an option since I'm just making one or two decks for me and friends (and putting the template on my website for people wanting to torture their friends)

Perhaps someone on this forum has some experience making card games and would be willing to share? 

And, if you'd like to, it would also be cool to find out what kinda game(s) you've made!

 

[Aurpheus]

Heya
 I've never made any card game but being interested in printing my own magic the gathering proxies I almost got into it...
I can only recommend you to find a service online to print em, it's prolly a lil bit more expensive but it's gonna be a better result prolly...
My friend months ago recommended me this site but idk if it's that good :
https://www.makeplayingcards.com
Hope that helps ya ^^

[snow_44]

I can only recommend you to find a service online to print em, it's prolly a lil bit more expensive but it's gonna be a better result prolly...

Ah you're probably right about the quality, but I guess handmade cards have their charm as well 

My friend months ago recommended me this site but idk if it's that good :
https://www.makeplayingcards.com
Hope that helps ya ^^

Oh, thank you! I checked it out and they seem to mostly focus on other kind of cards than what I need (and if I understand their system correctly, don't have the two sided versions I'd need) but thanks a lot for sharing anyway! Perhaps I'll look if there are some local options here that won't cost me 20€ 

But it's definetly a fun site to click through... so many options haha! 

[Aurpheus]

Yeah they do have a lot of choices ^^
I never ordered there tho ngl...
Also sorry I just saw that you asked for more manual ways I guess x3
I do make token cards by hand for some of the trading card games I play but it's not the greatest, I just like to doodle them instead of printing em I guess!

[TheFrugalGamer]

Does your printer use toner or ink? If it uses ink, you'll need to make sure not to use any liquid glue, since it will make the ink spread. If it uses toner, that won't be an issue and you'll have more freedom.

Anyways, if you were going to make them by hand, I'd do it like this.

Pick out a backing paper to use. If you'd like to to look nice, you could use scrapbook paper, but choose something with a small pattern on it otherwise the card backs will be unique and will give away the front of the cards.

Print out your cards, either on regular paper or sticky paper if you want to skip the gluing step (next). Laminate them either with laminating paper or packing tape (it's easier if you do it before cutting them out).

Cut out the cards and glue (or stick) them to the backs you chose. If they're printed with toner, you can use any glue, but if not, use sticky tape or a glue stick. If you can find it, spray adhesive also works really well, but you'd want to spray outside because that stuff gets everywhere.

You can also laminate them after you've glued both sides together if you want the backs protected too, but that's up to you.

Making cards by hand is time-consuming, but not super difficult. I've done it a few times for different things, like print and play games and hand made oracle cards. I also used a round corner punch to make the edges nice and uniform, but of course that's just extra.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

When inventing card games, I usually use existing decks - usually tarot ones. But I've printed WTactics (now arcmage) cards a while ago, and I recently played a self-made-card game from someone else - and he told me something that might be relevant here: To prevent the cards to be see-through, you add a black paper between the front and the back ;).

[snow_44]

Does your printer use toner or ink? If it uses ink, you'll need to make sure not to use any liquid glue, since it will make the ink spread. If it uses toner, that won't be an issue and you'll have more freedom.

It seems to be ink as far as I can tell? Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that!

Pick out a backing paper to use. If you'd like to to look nice, you could use scrapbook paper, but choose something with a small pattern on it otherwise the card backs will be unique and will give away the front of the cards.

Well the backs will be unique anyway since you have to flip them over and play with the backsides at some points in the game  That does sound like a good tip for other games though, I'll remember that!

Print out your cards, either on regular paper or sticky paper if you want to skip the gluing step (next). Laminate them either with laminating paper or packing tape (it's easier if you do it before cutting them out).

Cut out the cards and glue (or stick) them to the backs you chose. If they're printed with toner, you can use any glue, but if not, use sticky tape or a glue stick. If you can find it, spray adhesive also works really well, but you'd want to spray outside because that stuff gets everywhere.

You can also laminate them after you've glued both sides together if you want the backs protected too, but that's up to you.

Oh, laminating them sounds really smart! I guess you'd even be able to use them in the rain or at the beach then, neat. Thanks for the thorough tutorial, I'll definetly follow it 

Making cards by hand is time-consuming, but not super difficult. I've done it a few times for different things, like print and play games and hand made oracle cards. I also used a round corner punch to make the edges nice and uniform, but of course that's just extra.

That sounds nice! I'm thinking of rounding off the edges as well, just feels fancier
I guess if you put enough effort in anything can turn out nice 
Thanks again!

[snow_44]

When inventing card games, I usually use existing decks - usually tarot ones.

Neat! I'm basically doing that as well, Uno Flip decks are just a bit more uncommon to adapt I guess hehe

To prevent the cards to be see-through, you add a black paper between the front and the back ;).

That sounds really smart, I'll definetly do that! Now I just need to find black paper to steal at work ;P

[Rod_Shark]

Unfortunately I don't have any knowledge in printing cards myself. But I've thought about making my own cards for a while now so this topic is also of interest to me! 

Could I ask how you're going about making the cards digitally? Is there a specific size you work at so that they all print at the same size like playing card size? I'm so curious about how you've found the process so far!

[snow_44]

But I've thought about making my own cards for a while now so this topic is also of interest to me! 

Awesome, then we can both learn something here! If you ever decide to make some, I'd love to see how they turn out!

Could I ask how you're going about making the cards digitally? Is there a specific size you work at so that they all print at the same size like playing card size? I'm so curious about how you've found the process so far!

I'm going about making them very unprofessionally, haha. I took my printer's paper size (DinA4) and just sized my canvas so I could print eight cards per page. So I guess they're roughly DinA7? (7,4 x 10,5 cm)

This results in a bit larger than normal cards (I printed some as a test) but they still feel nice to hold and I've added a lot of dead space at the edges so I could make them slimmer if needed (Especially since I'm now laminating them...) 

Overall the process so far is very fun! There are so many little things you can add and then figuring out how to make said things actually look nice is so cool! It has also resulted in a very big mess of folders in my program haha.