In a future solar system at war, players wage epic space battles against each other.
Future Invaders is a card game for two or more players.
The physical space between players is a battlefield, on which cards are placed.
Players take turns deploying ships and structures on their side of the battlefield.
Each turn, ships attack the player they are facing. The goal is to be the last player to survive.
Deployed cards generate resources, which allow players to deploy more powerful ships and structures.
Not all cards require a physical presence on the battlefield: some actions have a one-time effect.
Four different factions can be played. A fifth neutral faction can be mixed with the main factions.
Action-packed game sessions with an emphasis on fun and replayability.
Simple rules
The rules of Future Invaders are purposefully few and simple compared to most other collectible card games. The core gameplay loop might be easy to learn, but it includes enough tactical depth to make it hard to master.
Constant choices
All cards are designed to offer players choices to think about. This ensures games are not too linear, and incentivizes players to ponder their options instead of merely following an optimal path.
Interactivity and reactivity
Every mechanic in the game can be dealt with if you have the appropriate response in your deck. This incentivizes reactive deck-building, pushing players to modify their decks between games to handle the problems posed by their opponents' decks.
Fun with friends
Although the game's core balancing is done with competitive duels in mind, it is also designed to make games with more than two players as fun and interactive as possible.
Unique factions
Each of the four factions has a unique design identity and gameplay flavor. This allows for a variety of different matchups, and keeps the game fresh in the long term.
Faction mixing
Players can mix multiple factions in their deck, which opens up deeper deck-building options. The fifth neutral faction acts as glue, filling the design holes of the main factions and helping with faction mixing.
Draft friendly
The game is designed with battles between standard pre-built decks in mind, but also includes some cards designed to make card drafting more balanced and exciting.
Always evolving
Lots of design spaces have been left unexplored on purpose. This allows each future core set to introduce a major new feature, ensuring that the game stays perpetually fresh.
An entry point for complex card games.
Future Invader's core target audience is midcore players: they are already familiar with board games and card games, already aware of the existence of complex card games, but have a hard time getting into them. Future Invaders delivers the same complexity and depth as those games, without the brutal learning curve.
Future Invader's secondary audience is casual players: not familiar with a variety of board games or card games in general, but still play every once in a while. They might get dragged by their friends into playing Future Invaders, and will enjoy it as long as the rules and card designs stay simple enough.
Future Invader's tertiary audience is disenfranchised hardcore players: used to complex card games, with a competitive spirit in mind, they are disenfranchised by the state of other card games they play. Future Invaders delivers the same promises in terms of game design as their favorite card games did ten or twenty years ago.
With those audiences in mind, Future Invaders is designed and balanced around its learning curve. The game is easy to get into compared to most similar games, limits its design spaces to remain accessible to casual players, but still includes complex interactions which makes the game competitive for those who want it to be.
Unique yet familiar, with a wide appeal.
Quick to learn, hard to master
Future Invaders is both an entry point and a final destination for players trying to get into complex card games. Despite having fewer rules than the average card game, it still has a lot of tactical depth.
Little space and equipment required
30 cards and a few dice are enough to play with friends. Design restrictions ensure that there will never be extra tokens, counters, special cards, or any other material required to play. A game of Future Invaders doesn't take much space: although no playmat is required, initial playtesting was carried on a 60x35cm playmat, ensuring that it remained compact enough to be played on a small busy table in a café.
Strict design restrictions
Some aspects of other complex card games lead to "unfun" situations, such as being forced to discard cards from your hand, being on the wrong end of a turn one combo, or losing a game due to being starved of resources. Future Invaders includes some strict design restrictions, forbidding certain mechanics and interactions in order to ensure that even losing can be a fun experience.
Underused sci-fi setting
The collectible card game market is overflowing with games set in fantasy or cartoon settings, and with franchised games. Although science fiction usually sells less than other genres, there is a wide open space waiting for a non-franchised sci-fi card game to occupy it. Playtesting showed a real desire for this game's setting and lore to be expanded, as it resembles no other actor currently on the card game market.
Playtested to universal acclaim
Before being pitched to editors, Future Invaders went through months of extensive playtesting. The game has been redesigned, updated, iterated on, balanced until all types of playtesters enjoyed the experience. Not only has the game been tested with players brand new to board games and card games, but it also has nods to all the main archetypes of card game players (including Spikes, Jimmies, and Johnnies), ensuring even experienced players enjoy deck-building and drafting sessions.
Years of future content planned
Currently, only the first core set is being worked on and playtested. Two more core sets with new game-changing mechanics are already designed and ready to be playtested and balanced in the future, along with hundreds of card designs for extra content in the form of booster sets, which would complement the existing first core set.
Future Invaders has its own vocabulary
From this point onwards, this game design document will only use vocabulary specific to Future Invaders.
For example, instead of mentioning "card decks", there will only be mentions of "arsenals".
Core concepts:
Card types:
Gameplay:
Factions:
To be eventually replaced by a proper rules booklet
Helper cards ease players into learning the game's rules
Some visual examples should help paint a clearer picture of the rules
This advanced glossary should help clarify and summarize the rules
Action: One of four possible card types. Has a one-time use effect, then is placed at the bottom of its owner's arsenal. Can be used at any time, even during other players' turns. You may recycle cards in your scrap pile to help pay the price of an action. Actions take over priority: they pause the game, and must be resolved before the game can resume. You may not play actions in response to other actions or reactions, you must wait for them to be resolved before you can play your own action. If two actions are played at the same time, the player with priority plays their action first.
Arsenal: A player's deck of cards. Players shuffle their arsenals at the start of each game, and keep them next to themselves throughout the game, with the cards facing down, hidden from sight. Each player's arsenal must contain at least 30 cards, and no more than two copies of any card, or no more than one copy of any rare card (pinnacle or supreme). If you must draw a card, but there are no more cards left in your arsenal, you lose the game.
Attack: Each deployed ship must attack once during each of its owner's turns. When a ship attacks, it deals as much damage as it has weapons to whatever it is facing on the grid (either an enemy ship, an enemy structure, or an enemy base). Attacked ships, structures, and bases, do not retaliate, they simply take the damage.
Base: A player's health pool. Each player's base starts the game at 30 durability. Bases cannot be repaired above 30 durability. When a base's durability drops to zero, it is destroyed, and its owner is eliminated from the game. Once only one base remains standing, its owner wins the game.
Combat: When all your deployed ships must attack in front of them. Combat happens once per turn. On the first turn of a new game, there is no combat, except for the last player to play their turn.
Cost: Most cards have a resource cost, specified in the top left. It indicates how many resources must be spent in order to use or deploy that card. Each faction only accepts its own resource, except for Neutral resource costs which can be paid using resources from any faction. Some cards have no resource cost, they can be used or deployed for free.
Choose: The player must select the target of an effect.
Deploy: Pay the cost of a ship or a structure, then place it on your side of the game grid. The effects listed in the descriptions of ships and structures only work while they are deployed.
Destroy: Eliminate a deployed ship or structure, sending it into its owner's scrap pile. When a deployed ship or structure's durability reaches zero, it is destroyed.
Draw: Place the top card of your arsenal in your hand.
Durability: The health pool of a ship, structure, or base. Ships and structures are deployed with the amount of durability specified on the bottom right of their cards. Durability losses must be tracked using dice or counters. Once a ship, structure, or base's durability drops to zero or below, it is destroyed. Ship and structure durability cannot be repaired above the amount specified on the card.
Effect: Anything caused by a card's description.
Faction: Card families sharing a common resource type, design identity, and visual identity. There are four main factions (Terran, Invader, Organic, Pirate), along with a fifth Neutral faction.
Fails: When an effect fails, it is denied, and does not happen. Resources spent on the effect are permanently lost. If a ship or a structure fails to deploy, it is not destroyed or scrapped, but instead goes straight to the bottom of your arsenal. Resources you spent on deploying them are permanently lost.
Format: Ways to play the game. The default format is prepared games, in which arsenals are assembled in advance. A common alternate format is architect, in which all players draft cards from the same common pool of cards, then play with their selection of cards.
Grid: The game area on which ships and structures are deployed. Each player has a 4x2 grid in front of them. The back row has room for four structures, the front row has room for four ships. In 1v1 matches, both players' grids face each other. In matches with more than 2 players, each player's grid is split in the middle in two 2x2 halves, with the left half facing the half-grid of the player closest to their left, and the right half facing the half-grid of the player closest to their right. These half-grids are moved around as players are eliminated from the game, until only two players remain and their grids fuse back into 4x2 grids facing each other.
Hand: The cards you draw throughout the game are placed in your hand. Cards in your hand should ideally be kept hidden from your opponents' eyes. The cards in your hand are the only ones you may use or deploy. There is no maximum hand size.
Income: The amount of resources generated by a deployed ship or structure at the start of each of your turns. Specified on the top right of ship and structure cards. Cards with no income value generate no resources.
Pay: Spend resources as a cost for an effect.
Pinnacle: One of two card rarities. Pinnacle cards are the most powerful cards in the game, but they have an expensive cost and always come with a drawback. You may only have one copy of any unique pinnacle card in your arsenal.
Player: Anyone participating in a game of Future Invaders. There is no upper limit to the number of players who can take part in a game.
Priority: When two or more players want to play actions or reactions at the same time, priority is used to determine in which order these actions or reactions are played. Priority is first given to the next player in turn order, then goes around the table until it reaches the player who last played their turn, and finally the player whose turn is currently ongoing goes last.
Rarity: Some cards are rare, which is shown by the presence of the word RENOWNED or PINNACLE at the bottom of the card. Your arsenal may not have more than two copies of any unique card, unless it's rare, in which case you may only have one copy of any unique rare card in your arsenal.
Reaction: One of four possible card types. Has a one-time use effect, then is placed at the bottom of its owner arsenal. They can only be used in response to specific events, which are specified in the card's description. You may recycle cards in your scrap pile to help pay the price of a reaction. Reactions take over priority: they pause the game, and must be resolved before the game can resume. Chains of reactions can happen, in which case you resolve them one by one, from the last one to be played until you reach the first event which started the chain. If two reactions are played at the same time, the player with priority plays their reaction first.
Recycle: Remove a card from your scrap pile in order to earn as many resources as that card's income value, on the top right of the card. You may recycle a card at any time, even during other players' turns. Cards can be recycled as part of an action or a reaction, in order to help pay its cost. The recycled card is placed on the bottom of your arsenal.
Renowned: One of two card rarities. Renowned cards are more powerful than regular cards, but you may only have one copy of any unique renowned card in your arsenal.
Replace: Deploy a ship or a structure on a grid slot that already has a ship or structure deployed. The ship or structure being replaced is not destroyed, it does not go to your scrap pile, it is sent straight to the bottom of your arsenal.
Resource: Currency required to use or deploy cards. Each faction produces and uses its own unique resource, except for Neutrals who also produce their own resource, but can pay their card costs using resources from any faction. At the start of each of your turns, your resources are reset to zero, then each deployed ship and structure adds their income to your resource pool. You keep this resource pool until the start of your next turn, allowing you to play actions and reactions during your opponents' turns.
Remove: Permanently exclude a card from the game. Once removed, a card is set aside, and cannot be used or interacted with until the game ends. Card removal is rare and expensive.
Reveal: Show a card to all of your opponents.
Scrap pile: A pile of cards facing up, empty at the start of a new game. When one of your ships or structures is destroyed, if it has an income value, it goes into your scrap pile. Otherwise, it goes to the bottom of your arsenal. Cards in your scrap pile can be recycled at any time of your choosing.
Ship: One of four possible card types. Once you pay their cost, ships are deployed on your side of the grid, in the front row. Ships can only be deployed during your turn. They attack once in front of them on each of your turns. When their durability drops to zero or below, ships are destroyed.
Structure: One of four possible card types. Once you pay their cost, structures are deployed on your side of the grid, in the back row. Structures can only be deployed during your turn. Structures do not attack. When their durability drops to zero or below, structures are destroyed.
Target: Some effects ask you to select which card or player they affect. The selected card or player is that effect's target.
Turn: Players take turns playing the game, one at a time.
Type: There are four possible card types: Ship, Structure, Action, and Reaction.
Weapons: A ship's damage value. When a ship attacks, it causes durability losses equal to its weapons.
Aggressive arsenals try to secure a major advantage from the get-go
The early game in Future Invaders is a phase during which all players are trying to gain an advantage. There are plenty of comeback mechanics, but dominating the early game still gives you decent odds of snowballing into a quick victory. There are three ways to earn an early game advantage.
Body advantage happens when you quickly deploy ships in all four of your grid slots, and use them to chip away at your opponent's base and structures early in the game.
Acceleration advantage happens when you have quick access to a lot of resources, and use them to deploy a big threat which your opponent must find a response to, else they risk falling behind or even losing.
Card advantage happens when you have solid answers to your opponents' early game threats, and leverage them to draw extra cards, giving you more options and opportunities to take over the game.
If no player manages to create one of those advantages, the game stabilizes and enters the middle game, during which all players have access to big threats and ways to combat those big threats.
Some problems can also arise in the early game, which can cause a player to fall behind for reasons out of their control. These problems are not fun to experience, and the game should be designed in ways that make experiencing them as rare as possible. There are three such problems.
Resource starvation happens when you don't have enough income to play your cards, or when your income generators get destroyed, leaving you with no options to play any cards.
Card starvation happens when you only draw cheap cards with no strong effect, leaving you with no way to handle your opponent's threats.
Lack of options happens when all the cards you draw have a clear optimal usage, leaving you with the impression that you are playing a linear game and making no choices.
Although these problems can be mitigated through good deck-building skills, beginner players do not understand the underlying principles of good deck-building, and card design must include ways to mitigate these negative experiences and allow for comebacks. One such design is the "Cheap repairs" keyword, which gives a player the option to put a card back on top of their arsenal when it is destroyed, giving them a lifeline when they don't have enough resource-generating cards.
Slow arsenals try to drag the game to its later stages while slowly grinding an advantage
The late game in Future Invaders is reached when the midgame gets stale and no player can gain a major advantage over the others. This can happen by accident, when all arsenals are evenly matched, or can be caused on purpose by slower arsenals, which try to reach the late stages whenever possible.
Players tend to get bored by long stale games, especially in Future Invaders, where an infinite number of turns can be played. This is why card design must include solutions to ensure the late game does not last forever. There are four major ways of achieving this.
Direct damage lets a player bypass ships and structures and directly damage their opponents' bases. As Future Invaders includes ways to repair your base, direct damage options must be kept stronger than repair options.
Infinite combos allow a player to assemble specific cards which combine their effects to generate an infinite amount of resources or damage. Once assembled, if opponents have no way to respond to it, the combo should instantly end the game.
Anti-control cards have strong bodies or effects, and are protected against actions or reactions, allowing them to get through opponents who rely entirely on actions or reactions to control the state of the game.
Board wipes have the power to clear the grid by destroying multiple ships and/or structures at once, allowing you to reset the game back to the midgame and giving you another shot at winning a more dynamic game before reaching the late game once again.
These effects should be sparsely given, but still be present on enough cards that all factions have viable options to avoid stale late game situations. One such design is the Speeder, a free Invader ship with weak weapons that can directly damage enemy bases when it attacks, and can be sent back to the top of your arsenal whenever it is destroyed, forcing opponents to find a way to end the game before you chip their bases down to zero durability.
There are more resources than you might think
Future Invaders has five obvious resources: the ones produced by cards from each of the five factions. These are easy to understand, and simple to balance around. Cheap and weak ships and structures produce resources, which allow you to deploy stronger more expensive ships and structures, until you have enough resources to deploy your strongest and most expensive ships.
However, the game's design has to account for more resources than meets the eye. The following five game elements also act as resources, and have to be kept in mind when designing and balancing cards.
Cards are a resource. The cost of a card is more than just its resource cost, it's also the opportunity cost of not playing another stronger or more useful card instead. While free cards may appear to be overpowered, they are actually weaker than they seem, as the card itself is part of its cost. Sure, your Laser Shot might be causing a ship to lose 6 durability once for free, but you could have been deploying a ship with 6 weapons instead.
Bases are a resource. At times, it might be worth it to let an opponent damage your base while you choose to deploy no defenses and draw a second card. While novice players will be scared of letting their base's durability fall, more experienced players will understand that it is one of their resources. Thus, each faction must have access to strong early game aggression, otherwise they run the risk of letting their opponents wait too many turns, draw too many cards, and earn too much of a card advantage.
The scrap pile is a resource. This one is more obvious, as the scrap pile can literally be used to generate resources. It is however important to remember that the scrap pile is one of the game's main comeback mechanics: if you lose your presence on the grid, you can still recycle your destroyed ships and structures to get back into the game. As such, cards interacting with the scrap pile have a harsher cost than it seems. When you remove cards from your scrap pile as an extra cost to a card, you are also removing some of your opportunities to come back into the game if you start losing.
Future sight is a resource. Any card that lets you peer into or manipulate the future should be treated as a resource. Knowing or changing the next card you or an opponent draws might seem like a small advantage, but if you can do it often enough, you can gain complete control over the game. These effects should be used sparsely, and factored into the cost of the cards.
Arsenal thinning is a resource. The least obvious resource of all, thinning your arsenal is extremely important in a game where arsenals can be as small as 30 cards. Any card which allows you to draw another card has the secondary effect of increasing the odds of reaching the stronger cards included in your arsenal. This must be accounted for when designing cards, otherwise players would end up building unstoppable arsenals made of lots of cheap ways to draw cards, a couple big threats, and nothing else.
There might be more hidden resources, which will reveal themselves during playtesting. All resources should be accounted for when designing and balancing cards, as underestimating the importance of one of these resources can lead to major balance issues. People will always find unintended ways to exploit exploits all resources, the only way to mitigate future exploits is to provide solutions to them ahead of time.
Each faction has its own flavor and its own gameplay style
The four main factions of Future Invaders each represent a different way of playing the game. Their design follows guidelines ensuring that all their cards synergize towards achieving specific goals.
The fifth Neutral faction is not meant to be played on its own, but rather provides extra options when mixed with the four main factions. They are used to plug cross-faction design holes.
TERRANS
Aggressive: The core Terran playstyle is offering a series of problems to their opponents, while having few defensive options of their own.
Direct damage: The main Terran tool is chipping at the durability of their opponents' bases, even when ships and structures are in the way.
Structure denial: The secondary Terran tool is getting rid of opponents' structures in order to slow them down and derail their game plan.
Income denial: The tertiary Terran tool is slowing down their opponents' resource buildup, in hopes of destroying their base before they can enter the late game.
INVADERS
Slow: The core Invader playstyle is dragging the game to its later stages, by finding answers to the problems their opponents throw at them.
Control: The main Invader tool is deciding the pace of the game through the use of staggering and denial tools, while their resilient ships occupy the grid.
Power plays: The secondary Invader tool is having access to late game cards which are more powerful but also more expensive than those of other factions, thus creating hard to solve problems to their opponents.
Unstallable: The tertiary Invader tool is having multiple ways to turn a stale game into a slow grind towards a victory.
ORGANICS
Swarming: The core Organic playstyle is to fill the grid faster than their opponents, and maintain their numbers advantage throughout the game.
Acceleration: The main Organic tool are sources of fast income, allowing them to transition into the midgame faster than their opponents, though this is compensated by having a weak late game.
Card advantage: The secondary Organic tool is the ability to draw a lot of cards, giving them better odds of finding solutions to the problems they face.
Disposability: The tertiary Organic tool is having no issue sacrificing their cards as an extra cost to using more powerful cards.
PIRATES
Adaptability: The core Pirate playstyle is to have strong options at every stage of the game, making them jacks of all trades but masters of none.
Denial: The main Pirate tool is finding ways to derail their opponents' game plans before they can achieve them.
Scrapping: The secondary Pirate tool is having options to interact with cards in their scrap pile, at a heavy cost.
Neutral synergy: The tertiary Pirate tool is having partially Neutral costs, making them the only faction with a two-way synergy when they include Neutral cards in their arsenal.
NEUTRALS
Overpriced flexibility: The core Neutral playstyle is offering extremely useful and flexible cards, but more expensive than their counterparts in other factions.
Mirror denial: The main Neutral tool is offering solutions to deal with other Neutral cards, adding a risk factor to including too many Neutral cards in one's arsenal.
Income fixing: The secondary Neutral tool is making faction mixing within an arsenal easier by offering ways to convert between the resources of each faction.
Repairs: The tertiary Neutral tool is providing ways to extend the lifespan of deployed ships and structures.
More players should mean more fun
Allowing a game to be played by any number of players creates some complex design challenges. While a game between two players will be quick and dynamic, a game between five players will almost always last long and delve deep into the late game. All factions must have answers to the issues specific to games with many players, the most important of which are listed below.
Alliances and betrayals are a key part of multiplayer games, and must be taken into account. In a game where your ships are forced to attack every single turn, forming an alliance without sacrificing your ability to produce resources can be a complicated endeavour. This can be mitigated by purposefully giving every faction a few underpowered resource-generating cards.
Ignored players are a major issue: while some players wage scrappy battles against each other, they tend to always ignore some of the other players, letting them peacefully reach the late game and take over the entire game. Factions with a weak late game must have solutions specific to runaway players in multiplayer games.
Wide effects are cards targeting every ship, every structure, or every base at once. Having to count durability losses on dozens of cards at once can be a major bore for players, and thus cards with wide effects should be designed to be more advantageous in duels.
Board wipes are cards which destroy every ship and/or every structure. They become much stronger in multiplayer games, and must come at a high cost and with efficient ways to deny them.
Extensive multiplayer playtesting revealed that balancing the game for any number of players is complex, but not impossible. As a specific target has to be picked, the current design goal is to make multiplayer games optimally fun and balanced when four players are involved.
Seemingly standard sci-fi with some subverted expectations
INVADERS
Invaders arrived in the Solar System.
In traditional human fashion, we shot first and asked questions later.
Turns out, it was a big mistake.
Not only because the Invaders easily defeated us, thanks to their much more advanced technology.
But also because once we managed to establish contact, they told us they were refugees, having spent all their resources to reach our Solar System, warning us of a much bigger danger that was coming for us.
ORGANICS
And come for us it did.
We called them Organics.
Enormous biological beings made of what looked like Earth's vegetation, able to travel long distances in space without the need for spaceships.
We first spotted them coming for us while the Invaders were still trying their best to help us rebuild from the disastrous war we had attempted to wage against them.
Political chaos ensued.
PIRATES
As soon as it became clear that war had become inevitable and wealth would need to be seized, the richest humans, along with top brass from the biggest armies, fled the planet.
They stole our best weapons, ships, along with many of our resources, which they used to build bases and space stations in the asteroid belt.
They declared themselves a faction separate from Earth.
We call them Pirates.
TERRANS
When the Organics finally arrived, we were prepared, with the Invaders backing us up from their new homes on Mars.
The Earth had united under one single flag and assembled a mighty armada.
We called ourselves Terrans.
Trying to avoid repeating our earlier mistake, we opened contact with the Organics. Although hard to communicate with, we eventually managed to make it clear we had peaceful intentions.
Somehow, they reciprocated.
CHAOS
For a short moment, it felt like war was avoidable.
Unaware of this truce, this is when the Pirates decided to attack.
While blasting the Organics with nuclear warheads, they came for planet Earth, trying to reclaim the homeworld from which they had cowardly fled years prior.
The entire Solar System descended into chaos.
WAR
For many years, Terrans, Pirates, Invaders, and Organics fought to a standstill, with no clear winner.
As of right now, these four factions seem to be endlessly splintering, forming alliances, betraying each other.
The more ruthless want to conquer planets and bases, while some would rather try to achieve peace, and others proclaim themselves Neutrals while profiting from the war.
Will we ever know peace again?
Or can this only end in destruction?
To be determined by more artistically talented people
At this stage, the game uses AI-generated art as a placeholder. While it is a useful way to prototype visual identities, it should be changed to proper art as soon as possible. Below are the visual identities of each faction.
Terrans use the color orange, a nod to the iconic design of old NASA space suits. They are humans. They live on planet Earth. Their spaceships are low-tech but efficient, preferring to focus on designing brutal weapons rather than sleek spaceships.
Invaders use the color brown, a nod to the book covers of the golden age of science fiction. They are aliens from outer space, whose precise appearance cannot be seen, as they appear to be emitting light. They live on planet Mars. Their spaceships are sleek and futuristic, initially meant for peaceful outer space travel but later retrofitted with weapons.
Organics use the color green. They are oversized plant-like and animal-like creatures, with no explanation given as to why some of them specifically resemble Earth's flora and fauna. They live on the moons of the gaseous outer planets and have the ability to travel through space without needing spaceships.
Pirates use the color gray, like scrap metal. They are humans. They live on space stations scattered throughout the Kuiper asteroid belt. Their spaceships are scrappy creations made from recycling parts of other ships and assembling them together hastily.
Neutrals use the color purple, a nod to the cyberpunk color palette. Most of them are humans, but not all. As they are a mesh of unrelated small splinter factions, their ships have no specific visual identity, but rather borrow from a mixture of the other four.
Simple and minimalistic, with full usage of the card's space
The cards' designs are simple and minimalistic, using black text on a white background with no edge margins. As the game is still a prototype, this is subject to change.
The upper half of the card is used to determine the card's identity: its name, faction, type, cost, and resources. Below this data, a piece of art completes the upper half.
The lower half of the card is mostly reserved for its effect text, followed on the bottom by the card's stats: weapons, durability, and rarity, along with a small copyright text at the bottom.
This does not account for the two following elements, which might need to be added to the cards: the artist's name, and the card's edition (currently only the core set exists).
Improvements also need to be made to the resource and income displays, as the space available to display these values on more expensive cards might be too small.
Below are examples of a few Cards in their current prototype design.
Faction mixing is underexplored so far
The core set only contains cards exclusive to each of the five factions.
Future sets will explore both the lore and design implications of hybrids between factions.
Hybridized cards will not be a 50/50 mix of two different factions, but rather imbalanced mixes with a major and a minor part. For example, a hybrid ship could cost 2 Terran and 1 Pirate resources, and include both a strong Terran keyword and a weak Pirate keyword.
The following names have already been reserved for cross-faction hybrids.
Infinite design spaces waiting to be explored
The key to a card game's longevity is regular releases of new sets, which explore new game design ideas and shake up the metagame. With this in mind, the initial core set of Future Invaders purposefully avoids some design spaces, leaving room for them to be explored in future sets.
Other than hybridizations, here are a few simple ideas that could be at the core of a new set in the future.
Add-on cards: A new fifth card type. Deployed on the battlefield, for a cost, add-on cards are physically slid behind ships and structures and alter their stats or give them extra effects.
Combo pieces: Cards with more conditional effects, such as "whenever X happens then do Y". Such cards allow players to look for combinations of cards that become exponentially stronger when paired together.
New keywords: Each faction has been given two unique keywords, each new major set should introduce at least one new keyword per faction.
For obvious reasons, giving away too many future ideas would be a bad game design decision, as it is better to keep some surprises in store. There are many other possible ways to expand Future Invaders, to be revealed in future releases.
Card games have massive transmedia potential
Both the world and game design of Future Invaders leave plenty of room to being further explored in media other than card games.
The game's lore is minimalistic and extremely open-ended. Interactions between factions are undefined, the lines between factions are shaky, with alliances and betrayals allowing for cross-faction bases and arsenals aswell as hybridizations.
A conflict with shifting lines is fertile ground for political intrigue. While this does not translate particularly well to being explored as a card game, it means that if the game reaches a large enough audience, its popularity could be leveraged to turn it into a cross-media franchise.
As for the game's design, all systems, rules, and cards have been crafted so that interactions are quick to resolve. The goal is not only to make the game fast to play, but also to allow for smooth ports in the digital realm: a card battling video game using the Future Invaders ruleset would be fairly simple to implement.
Consistency in game design keeps a game relevant in the long run
Any time a new card is designed, it should follow the same design pillars as the other cards designed before it. Although some cards do not respect every single one of the game's design pillars, they should only be broken for very good reasons.
Below are the five pillars of Future Invaders design, from most to least important.
1. FUN
Cards must be fun to use. Fun applies to both players, cards must also be fun when used against you. Cheap cards must feel tactical. Expensive cards must feel powerful. A fun but useless card is better than a useful but unfun card.
2. CHOICES
Cards must give you choices in how you use them. If a new card feels like it pushes players to use it in a linear way, then add a minor choice to it. The added complexity will be worth it if it makes players feel they are in control of their actions.
3. INTERACTIONS
Offer players ways to interact with other players and with the game's state. There should be ways to interact with every card. If a new card introduces a hard to solve problem to the game, then more new cards should be created to allow accessible answers to this problem.
4. SIMPLICITY
More complexity tends to mean more choices and more fun, but this complexity doesn't mean card designs should be complex. A simple and short card that creates lots of options and implications is almost always a much better design than a long and complicated card.
5. POWER CHECK
New cards should not make older cards obsolete, power creep makes long-term players unhappy. In some cases, power creep can happen by accident. When it happens, it should be handled by creating new cards specifically designed to keep the power crept card in check.
A limited design space helps prevent complexity creep
Along with its design pillars, Future Invaders also has design restrictions in place. Some specific concepts that are used in other card games will not be explored in Future Invaders, in order to avoid "anti-fun" situations and keep complexity creep in check.
Below are the game's main design restrictions.
No randomness
No throwing dice. No flipping coins. It takes control away from players and can feel unfair.
No extra physical material
Cards and durability trackers are all you should need to play a game. This means "tokens", "counters", "copy this card", and permanent stat alterations are not allowed, as they would require extra material to physically represent.
No borrowing cards
Your cards stay on your side of the grid, enemy cards stay on their side of the grid. It avoids accidentally (or deliberately) stealing cards once games are over. This means no "mind control" effects and no cards that deploy on the enemy side of the grid.
No tutoring
Tutoring is allowing a player to search for a specific card in their arsenal. Allowing it would restrict the design of combo pieces, as it would make them easier to find and thus much stronger.
No targetted discard
Being forced to discard a specific card from your hand is not fun.
No dismissing removal
Removing cards from the grid should matter. Once a card has been destroyed, it should be hard and costly to bring it back into the game. Once a card has been removed from the game, there should be no way to interact with it, it is gone forever.
No alternate win conditions
Alternate win conditions are fun, but if someone figures out an unintended way to exploit them, they can completely warp the game. As a safety measure, it is better to stray away from them. Alternate losing conditions, however, are good and should be used as a drawback to the most powerful effects.
The tastier the game, the more players will want to play it
Players should not feel like they are using random cards with mathematical effects, but rather feel like they are actually taking part in an epic space battle, ordering nuclear strikes on each other, deploying gigantic battleships the size of moons, harnessing the power of the sun to fuel their armada and destroy their opponents.
This feeling can only be conveyed by ensuring every card has a unique "flavor". The card's name, art, stats, and effects should all synergize in a way that paints a picture of what is actually happening on the game's imaginary battlefield.
Below are examples of flavorful cards, each for a different unique reason.
Orbital Cannon has physical flavor: the player feels like they deployed an actual heavy cannon on the board, which shoots in a line in front of it once per turn.
Outbid has interactive flavor: the player feels like they used their wealth to buy a mole in their opponent's base, and gets to deny an element of their arsenal in the process.
Reality Warp has power fantasy flavor: the player feels like they pushed the boundaries of physical reality so far that it expended a lot of resources while damaging their own material, but the risk is worth it when it lets them alter the game's world.
Competitive players will want interesting deck-building challenges
It's hard to figure out how a card game's arsenal building will turn out before the game is released to the general public. Cards dedicated to fixing balance issues and improving holes in arsenal building will be one of the main focus of releases past the initial core set.
Nonetheless, card and set design must include some thoughts related to arsenal building, both at entry and competitive level.
Firstly, the game's design must account for "must pick" cards. Anything related to resource acceleration in the early game, all late game strong cards, and any actions or reactions which prevent or remove those two types of cards will likely be at the core of arsenal building. All factions should have viable cards fitting those archetypes, and viable answers to them.
Secondly, as the minimum size of arsenals in the game is quite small (30 cards), and as looking for specific cards in your arsenal is impossible, arsenal thinning cards might become particularly powerful. Any card offering the opportunity to replace itself by drawing a card might become a core part of stronger arsenals, which is why they should be kept rare and have a heavy resource cost.
Thirdly, the core set offers poor faction mixing opportunities. It is likely that midcore players will try to build mixed faction arsenals… to mixed results. Competitive players, however, are likely to stick to one faction and splash some Neutral cards. To avoid making the game's core set boring for them until further releases improve faction mixing opportunities, each faction should have a few viable options to make them worth lightly splashing into high end arsenals, and Neutrals should offer some interesting options to all factions.
Only time can reveal how players will opt to assemble their Future Invaders arsenals. Hopefully, the main design issues have been sensed ahead of time, and prevented.
Card game rulesets tend to expand faster than the universe's boundaries
As new and unexpected interactions are discovered by playtesters, new rules will inevitably need to be created to solve these edge cases. So far, despite extensive playtesting, no such edge cases have been discovered: the game's core rules cover everything.
Some situations are ambiguous, and might necessitate a specific ruling in order to clarify the game's inner workings. Some examples of ambiguous situations being solved by applying the game's rules are listed below.
All those examples are based on real life situations which happened during playtesting. Playtesters could not figure out the ruling by themselves, which means a rule book covering such edge cases might need to be created before the game can be played competitively.
Card effects contradicting the game's rules
Situation: I destroy my opponent's base by dropping its durability to zero. They react to their base being destroyed by using the Neutral reaction Mutually Assured Destruction, which reads "React to your base's durability falling to zero or below. You do not lose the game from your base being destroyed". Why would a card contradict the game's rules like that? Have I won the game or not?
Ruling: Card effects can override the rules. If a card's effect says something happens, then it does happen, even if it goes against the game's rules. Your opponent does not lose the game. However, the effect of the card they played continues: "If you have not won the game by the end of your next turn, you lose the game". Your opponent is about to lose. Survive one turn, and victory is yours!
Poor communication causing a misunderstanding
Situation: An opponent tracks their resources using dice. They play a mono-Terran arsenal, and have one die in front of them, showing "1", implying they have 1 Terran resource left. Confidently, knowing the cheapest reaction to my card costs 2 Terran resources, I play a card. They say they had forgotten to update their resource tracking, and react to my card by using a Terran reaction which costs 2 Terran resources. Are they allowed to use it?
Ruling: The opponent should have communicated better. In the spirit of fair play, it is their responsibility to be clear about their board state. Even if they do have the necessary resources, at best they failed to communicate it, at worst they tried to trick you. Both situations would be their fault, therefore they are not allowed to play their reaction.
Forgetting to do something until it is too late
Situation: A player forgot they have a ship with the following effect: "at the beginning of each of your turns, this ship regenerates 2 durability". Later on, still during their turn, they remember their ship could regenerate durability. No combat happened yet. Is it too late to regenerate the ship?
Ruling: It is a player's responsibility to be aware of their own card's effects. This one is all about fair play. If all opponents agree to let the player regenerate the ship they forgot about, then they can do it. If at least one opponent says it's too late, then it is too late, and the ship is not regenerated this turn.
Resolving an action before it can be responded to
Situation: Another player plays an action. They start resolving the action. You have a reaction which causes the action to fail. What happens now?
Ruling: It is the other player's fault for not asking whether anyone had a reaction before beginning the resolution of their action. The action fails, and any event that was done as part of resolving the action must be undone.
Rewinding time to pause the game and play an action
Situation: A player finishes combat, then states out loud that their turn is over. The next player says "before your turn ends, I choose to use my remaining resources on an action". Is the second player allowed to do that, even though the first player clearly stated their turn was over?
Ruling: No, the second player cannot do that, action cards pause the game in its current state, they cannot be used to react to events (such as a turn ending). However, the second player could achieve the same effect by saying "at the start of my turn, before resetting my resources, I choose to use last turn's remaining resources on an action".
Change of opponent during multiplayer combat
Situation: In a game with more than two players, I start combat by attacking the opponent to my left, and destroying their base. That opponent is eliminated from the game. Deployed ships and structures are moved around, so that I now face a new player to my left. My other deployed ship to my left has not attacked yet. Can it attack my new opponent?
Ruling: All your ships must attack on each of your turns, even if your opponents change mid-combat. After your first ship eliminates an opponent from the game, your other ship does get to attack your next opponent. Let's hope they saw it coming!
Touching an opponent's cards without their consent
Situation: A player uses an action that includes the Deny keyword, which reads: "look at the card on top of an opponent of your choosing's arsenal, you may put it on the bottom of their arsenal". They reach for an opponent's arsenal. The opponent doesn't like it when someone else touches their cards. Is the opponent forced to let the player touch their cards?
Ruling: If the opponent doesn't want the player to touch their cards, then they should respect their opponent's denial of consent and keep their hands off. That opponent must resolve the action by showing the player the top card of their arsenal (without looking at it), asking them whether they want the card to go on top or bottom of their arsenal, and placing it there.
Being wary of marked cards or suspicious shuffling
Situation: Either a player is suspicious that their opponent has made some of their cards visually distinct from the rest of their arsenal, allowing them to predict what they will draw, or a player is suspicious that their opponent is using shuffling tricks to control which cards will be on top of their arsenal at the start of a game.
Ruling: These two situations are obviously violations of the fair play rule. In a friendly setting, this should be settled in a friendly manner. In a competitive setting, a neutral third party should be called to settle this situation. If a player is caught cheating, they should be disqualified.
Additional costs on a denied card
Situation: A player uses an action. This action's effect states that it requires destroying one of their own ships, else the action fails. Another player uses a reaction which causes the action to fail. Must the additional cost be paid and a ship be sacrificed even though the action failed?
Ruling: When an action fails, its resource cost has to be paid, but any other effects listed in the card's description are not triggered. No extra costs need to be paid.
A replacement fails to deploy
Situation: A player is replacing one of their ships with another ship. Their opponent reacts to the deployment using the neutral action Crash, which states: "React to a ship being deployed [...] The ship fails to deploy". What happens to the ship being replaced?
Ruling: The new ship is destroyed before it can replace the old ship. Nothing happens to the ship being replaced, it stays in play.
Destruction effect on a ship that fails to deploy
Situation: A player deploys the Neutral ship Mobile Base, which includes the scary effect "When this ship is replaced or destroyed, you lose the game". Their opponent reacts to the deployment using the Pirate action Sabotage, which reads: "React to a ship being deployed - The ship fails to deploy". Has the player lost the game?
Ruling: A ship which fails to deploy is sent back under its owner's arsenal. It is not deployed, and it is not destroyed. Its destruction effect does not trigger. The player does not lose the game.
Effects triggered by an action card with multiple effects in a row
Situation: A player uses the Organic action Wild Charge, which has the following effect: "Choose and destroy one of your Organic ships - Another ship of your choosing loses 8 durability". They choose and destroy their own Mind, which has the following text: "When this ship is destroyed, draw a card". They target and destroy an enemy crippler, which has the following text: "If this ship is destroyed by an opponent, deny the opponent which destroyed it (look at the card on top of your opponent's arsenal, you may put it on the bottom of their arsenal)". In which order do the drawing and denial happen?
Ruling: The text on the action card is processed in the order it is written. First, the Mind is destroyed, and the player draws a card. Then, the Crippler is destroyed, and the player's opponent denies them.
Using an effect before combat damage is applied
Situation: The Invader ship Energy Collector has the following effect: "Each time you spend one Invader resource, this ship gains 1 durability". During combat, an opponent's ship attacks and destroys my Energy Collector. Can I play an action in order to spend Invader resources, thus repairing my Energy Collector's durability and saving it from being destroyed in combat?
Ruling: Actions pause the game in its current state. If you play the action right as your opponent is about to attack your ship, then yes, you can try to save your Energy Collector by raising its durability. If you play the action after your opponent has already informed you of the durability losses on your Energy Collector, then it is too late, your ship has already been destroyed.
Drawing the game by destroying both bases simultaneously
Situation: The Organic ship Living Asteroid has the following effect: "Action: pay 5 organic resources, then all enemy structures, all enemy bases, and your base lose 8 durability each, then destroy this ship". If I am playing a 1v1 game, both players' bases are at 8 durability or below, and I use this ship's action, does the game end a draw?
Ruling: The game is paused until the action is fully resolved. Once the game resumes, both players' bases are at 0 durability or below, and are destroyed. The game ends in a draw.
Being saved from losing the game by a card's effect
Situation: My base has 1 durability left. I control the Organic structure Flesh Mender, which has the following effect: "Each time one of your ships or structures is destroyed, your base regains 2 durability". I am attacked by the ship Missile Cruiser, which has the following effect "when this ship causes a ship or structure to lose durability, it also reduces the durability of the structure or base behind it by 2". The attack destroys one of my ships and causes my base to lose 2 durability. Do I lose the game, or does my Flesh Mender save me?
Ruling: Future Invaders does not use "state-based" logic. Effects are processed one by one. The Missile Cruiser causes your base's durability to fall to -1, and the rules are clear: any time your base's durability falls to 0 or below, you lose the game. The Flesh Mender does not save you from this fate.
An unscrappable card being sent to a scrap pile
Situation: I play the Neutral action Crash, which reads "Send a ship from your hand to your scrap pile or this reaction fails to work". The ship I want to send to my scrap pile is a Rocketship, which provides no income, and therefore cannot be scrapped. Can I do that?
Ruling: The Rocketship is a valid choice to Crash into another ship, as the card does not explicitly say the scrapped ship must be scrappable. As the Rocketship can't stay in your scrap pile, you place it under your arsenal instead.
An action or reaction helping pay the cost of a reaction
Situation: My opponent plays an action, and I would like to react to it. Alas, I do not have the necessary resources to play any of my reaction cards. However, I do have the reaction Swap Resources in hand, which reads "React to scrapping a card from your own scrap pile. Change the type of each resource generated by scrapping the card to another". If I scrapped a card and changed the type of resource it generates when scrapped, I could afford to react to my opponent's action… can I do that?
Ruling: I'm afraid not. The only way to react to an action is with a reaction directly reacting to that action. You could scrap some cards to generate resources for a reaction, but you cannot use Swap Resources to react to your cards being scrapped, as this would generate a parallel chain of reactions. Only one chain reaction can happen at once.
Destroying one of my ships before it destroys itself
Situation: I play the Pirate ship Scrapper, which reads "When you deploy this ship, choose another of your ships and destroy it or this ship fails to deploy". To fullfill this effect, I would like to destroy my deployed Stolen Cruiser, as it is about to be removed from play anyway due to having the following effect "If you deploy another ship, send this ship back to the bottom of your arsenal". Is it a possibility?
Ruling: Yes, you can do that. Effects are resolved in order, one by one. First, the Scrapper is deployed, and you resolve its effect, by destroying your Stolen Cruiser. Once it is done, any other effects are processed, which would have included the Stolen Cruiser destroying itself if you had not chosen to destroy it.
The order in which cards are sent back to the bottom of one's arsenal
Situation: I play an action. To help pay for its cost, I recycle three cards in my scrap pile. As an extra cost to the action, I must place one of my deployed ships under my arsenal. In which order are the cards placed under my arsenal? Does the order matter?
Ruling: Yes, the order in which cards are placed under your arsenal does matter. Effects must be processed one by one. You first place the three recycled cards under your arsenal, in any order of your choosing. You then pay the action's extra cost by placing one of your deployed ships under your arsenal. Lastly, you finish resolving the action's effects, then place the action card under your arsenal.
Changing the target of an action which changes the rules of the game
Situation: A player uses the Invader action Scrap Payloads, which has the following effect: "Until the end of the current turn, scrapping a card from your scrap pile causes a structure or a base of your choosing to lose 2 durability". They scrap ten cards from their scrap pile, and target one of my structures for a brutal twenty durability loss. I have the Invader reaction Swap Places in my hand, and play it. This reaction reads: "React to an action targetting a ship or a structure - Change one of the action's targets, the new target must be of the same type and belong to the same player as the initial one". Can I save my structure from destruction by redirecting the durability loss?
Ruling: Scrap Payloads changes the rules of the game until the end of the current turn. It does not directly have a target, and therefore Swap Places cannot be used to change the target. As for the individual bursts of 2 durability losses, the card is worded in a way that does not state these are actions, and therefore they cannot be reacted to using Swap Places. Your structure is destroyed.
Changing the target of an action with two interwoven targets
Situation: A player uses the Pirate action Targetted Charge, which has the following effect: "Destroy one of your ships - Choose a ship with less maximum durability than your destroyed ship's maximum durability, and destroy that ship". I react to it using the Invader reaction Swap Places, which has the following effect: "React to an action targetting a ship or a structure - Change one of the action's targets, the new target must be of the same type and belong to the same player as the initial one". Can I change the target of the first part of the action, and force the player to destroy a different ship?
Ruling: Destroying a ship sets up the condition for the second part of the action. Changing the first target also causes the condition for selecting the second target to change. Swap Places can only change one of the action's targets, and cannot alter the conditions on the action. Therefore, it is only possible to change the ship being destroyed if it does not invalidate the second part of the action: the new ship being destroyed must have the same or higher maximum durability as the player's initial choice.
A ship using an action instead of attacking when they are not allowed to attack
Situation: A player deploys the Neutral ship Mobile Base. This card has a keyword on it: "Slow (does not attack on the turn it is deployed)". On the card is also the following effect: "Action: Use this action only on your turn, once per turn, before attacking, pay [6 neutral resources] then this ship does not attack this turn and an enemy base of your choosing loses 8 durability". Can the player use this action on the turn the Mobile Base was deployed?
Ruling: The action does not state as a condition that the Mobile Base must be able to attack. It can be used on the turn the Mobile Base is deployed, or on any other turn during which the Mobile Base is unable to attack, as long as the player can afford its resource cost.
Discarding cards as part of a failed action
Situation: I have a Trading Station, which reads: "Action: Use this action only on your turn, no more than once per turn, put a card from your hand on the bottom of your arsenal, then choose any resource and add it to your current turn's available resources". I activated this action, placed a card on the bottom of my arsenal, then an opponent played a reaction which caused my action to fail. Do I get my card back?
Ruling: Yes. Sending the card to the bottom of your arsenal is not part of the action's cost, but rather part of its effect. The entire action's effect fails, therefore you get to keep your card. Place it back in your hand.
Seeing is believing
Playtesters sent me a few videos of their games. I selected three of them, and recorded audio commentary. Each video showcases a different aspect of the game, at various skill levels.
Reading the rules cards and the reminder cards might improve your experience.
Beginner level three way game
Playtesters on their second ever game ever of Future Invaders use standard pre-assembled Terran, Organic, and Pirate arsenals. This showcases how only one game is enough to understand most of the game's rules, even the intricate ones, and demonstrates how games between more than two players are played.
Thin Pirates vs Control Sac Invaders
Two experienced playtesters showcase what the late game looks like when a control oriented arsenal can reach its desired game state. It demonstrates how to prepare for, assemble, and use a "win condition".
Hyperaccelerated Organics vs Control Invaders
Two experienced playtesters showcase what it looks like when a fast and swarmy arsenal takes on a control player. It demonstrates how Future Invader's extra card draw option can act as counterplay against an arsenal trying to slow down the game.
No game is designed alone
Future Invaders was inspired by multiple generations of card games before it. Mechanics and concepts from dozens of other games inspired the rules and initial card designs. A big thanks goes to all the game designers who paved the way by working on those games, and a handshake goes out to all future game designers who will borrow ideas and inspiration from Future Invaders.
Thanks to all the playtesters who helped on the long journey from idea to prototype to complete core set. Specific thanks in particular go out to Florian for helping me figure out how to make the game multiplayer, and to Quentin for listening to my rants and helping me fix holes in the game's rules.
Thanks to all the people who inspired me in my private life and gave me the motivation to keep going through failures and dead ends. You know who you are. Know that you are loved.
© Éric Bisceglia / Future Invaders 2024
Future Invaders, its lore, its universe, its game design, and its cards have all been designed by Éric Bisceglia.
This game design document has been initially published and archived by search engines in April of 2024. It acts as proof of intellectual property ownership of all the concepts and designs behind Future Invaders.
If you are an editor trying to license or publish Future Invaders, contact me through LinkedIn.