How I designed the 84-card database in Orchard Deck with four orthogonal stats so a card can be rare but weak or common but fast, making every card a tradeoff.
When you play a star out of his natural role, World 11 docks him. Here is how I turned the fuzzy sense that a winger is wasted at fullback into a rating system.
How I designed the campaign auto-battler in Orchard Deck. Eight combat keywords, six tribal synergies, a readable line of five cards, and replays that beat live control.
Both of my games keep their content and balance in JSON files, not GDScript. Here is why pushing formations, ratings, economy, and difficulty into data made them faster to tune and safer to change.
How a slot-machine tech tree became the progression backbone of Orchard Deck. Three reels grow to five, jackpots arrive, and the odds visibly bend your way.
How the museum in Orchard Deck turns cards you donate into permanent production multipliers, and why a one-time sacrifice feels heavier than a repeatable cost.
Same-nation and same-decade bonuses make World 11 a real draft. Here is how chemistry sets up the tug of war between the obvious star and the player who fits.
Orchard Deck is a cozy collectathon with no purchases and no dark patterns. Here is how I paced an idle game with overlapping clocks so there is always one small thing worth doing, without ever nagging the player.
Ten arcade minigames inside Orchard Deck without turning it into a grind. Entry fees, payouts, once-per-day rewards, and level gating that keeps them optional.
How I built breeding in Orchard Deck, where fusing two cards consumes both parents for a rarer child, and why the destructive cost is the point.
A deterministic, seeded simulation gave my draft game a daily challenge and shareable challenge links for free, with no backend at all. Here is how a single integer unlocks both.
World 11 is a football game with no passing, shooting, or defending. You draft a team and watch the result. Here is why a game about betting instead of playing is so addictive, and how the draft loop works.
Orchard Deck has six interlocking systems where every output feeds another input. Here is how I designed slots, orchard, museum, lab, breeding, and campaign to feel deep.
Orchard Deck is built around a slot machine, but there are no purchases and one in-game currency. Here is how I designed the odds to reward players without exploiting them.