CG

COMING SOON

Algomancy

A brand new card game from the mind of Caleb Gannon, Phd.

Overview

Algomancy is a complete card game, meaning you will get every card needed to play the game all at once. No expensive singles, no problems with scarcity, just excellent gameplay at an affordable price.

The game is both a fully balanced and ready to play 8 player game as well as a card pool for a variety of constructed formats. So you can use it as a board game to play with your friends and a source of cards to battle it out in customizable constructed decks.

Gameplay

Algomancy uses a new simultaneous style of gameplay where players take their turns at the same time and sync up at checkpoints during the turn structure. The purpose for simultaneous turns was to eliminate the problems with play/draw disparities and speed up the gameplay so you can get right to the action instead of having to wait for 3-7 other players to take a turn before you get to do something.

It is designed to work for 2-8 players, with a major focus on team gameplay (although free for all is possible as well).

While there are a variety of ways to play Algomancy, the main one involves a real-time draft as a source of cards for the game. This means there are no decks and no shuffling.

Because there is no play/draw disparity and the resource system is deterministic, Algomancy maximizes player agency. This means that every game should feel like you were in control of whether you win or lose. However, because the cards are drafted from randomly sorted packs with singleton cards and a massive card pool, there will still be plenty of variance to make every single game feel fresh and unique.

The rough turn outline is as follows:

• Draft
  • Players use picks to take cards from packs.
• Preparation
  • Players trade cards in hand to collect and play resources, as well as some specific “hasty” spells
• Attack
  • Players attack, allowing them to enter the regions of other players
• Defend
  • Players defend against their attackers
• Damage
• After Combat
• Regroup
  • Stats and damage reset, all units are returned to their home regions
• Main
  • Most of the cards are played here in preparation for the next combat. There is no interaction in this step

That’s it! The game was designed to be simple to explain but complex to master. The turn structure is optimized to maximize player interaction, so the entire game should feel like you are in the action battling it out with your friends.

The rules of the game can be found here, which I will update with any major changes. (Last updated 10/21/22.)

I’ll be posting development logs below, to update on progress with the game. So check back often to keep up to date!

Design Previews

There are five factions in the game: Fire, Water, Earth, Metal and Wood/Plant, each with their own unique characteristics.

The themes for the first set are: Ghosts, Electric, Ice Monsters, Lovecraftian Sea Gods, Crystal, Rock, Scrap Robots, AI, Fungus and Flowers.

The art for the game is entirely AI generated by Caleb, giving it a gorgeous, dreamlike feel. To showcase the art, the cards will be created in a full-art style. The current working design layout is shown below (This layout is nowhere near final, but the card design will probably be something like this. The fonts/textbox and icon designs will likely be re-done and improved.).

Follow the Development

If you are interested in this game, you can sign up to follow its progress below. I will only send relevant emails, such as invitations for playtesting, polls to determine the future of the game and updates on availability and release.