…just wouldn’t be as fun.  If I said design “isn’t all fun and games” I would be lying to you.  Lead designing a trading card game set is one of the most enjoyable experiences as a Game Designer in this industry.  You are able to put a vision down to paper and see that vision play out on the game table in front of you.  You are also able to have some more fun during the Design/Development process.  Let me give an example.

Each set does not start out with final names and flavor.  Those are usually added after the art is done and the gameplay has been relatively locked down (the exception is the unique characters, equipment, and abilities from the MMO). This affords the lead design the freedom to make little jokes and come up with some goofy playtest names. I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I have a goofy sense of humor.

Hardiness is the Orc racial keyword for Blood of Gladiators that further expands on the block theme of an ally racial keyword for each race. We had to have a unique identifier for each of the common/uncommon Hardiness allies.  This was needed because during development discussions and file reviews, everyone needed a way to speak about these cards and not have confusion as to which specific card was being talked about.  So card names like Hardiness Orc #1 don’t really work to solve this dilemma. 

Yep, you guessed it.  The Hardiness suite of allies were all named after “famous” people with the last name Hardy.  Here is another example of one of the “Hardy Boys”.

This ally changed pretty drastically during development.  His direction had to change to fill a development gap that was created by moving other allies around. He has better staying power now, as long as you have another ally in your party that you don’t particularly care about.  The more you play with Hardiness, the more you will see how hard it is to get these guys off the board with straight damage.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

The Draenei ally’s playtest names came from the idea that their keyword lent itself to have other heroes/allies in their party look up to them. These Draenei inspired them to do more damage and gave them the confidence to overcome all obstacles… Ok, you can stop laughing now. :)

All of the Inspiring Presence Draenei allies are inspiration historical figures of the United States.

The Blood Elves also had a similar naming scheme, but that keyword changed a couple times until it settled on Arcane Torrent.  The old naming scheme doesn’t make much sense with Arcane Torrent.

So there you have it.  It might just what you thought it was in R&D…all fun and games!