Ambush!
Co-created with Masato Lin, Brendan Tighe, and Tongwei Dai
Pottermon
May 2019 - August 2019
Created with Magic Set Editor
Card Game, Game Balancing
Solo Project
Pottermon is an unlicensed Harry-Potter themed take on the Pokemon TCG, with various gameplay modifications for worldbuilding and balancing. The project includes 9 themed decks, each based on a movie or book in the Harry Potter franchise, and nearly 200 unique cards representing creatures, characters, items, and locations from the series.
The goal of the game is to level up your magical creatures to make them more powerful and use them to defeat your opponent's creatures. Players can also take advantage of magical artifacts, useful allies, and special locations to improve their cards or influence the battle.
I like to think of Pottermon as the first game I really developed, with the design process (technically) beginning all the way back in 5th grade, when I starting sketching out the ideas and concepts on index cards with colored pencils. I created a "starter deck" themed around the characters and locations of the first book, and then began hosting 'playtests sessions' by forcing my friends to play the game at lunch while I took notes. Eventually a combination of increased homework, a discovery of Super Smash Bros Brawl, and the lack of an AGILE project timeline caused production on Pottermon to go on a long hiatus, but I never quite forgot the fun times I had developing and playing the game.
Years later, after utilizing the "Magic Set Editor" program to create a few other game projects, I decided to re-visit my old passion project with new tools and a deeper knowledge of game design. I printed the cards out on card-stock, and spent several months playtesting the game, changing card effects and damage values to balance the game into a playable and polished state. While I have no intentions to bring the game to market for obvious legality reasons, Pottermon remains one of my favorite personal projects, and holds a special place in my heart.