I spoke with the creator of Animal Kingdom! Here are his answers to my questions:
Q: Please describe your trading card game!
A: Animal Kingdom TCG is a city-building card game in which you become the mayor of a fantastical city in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, robots, aliens, and more! Instead of taking on the role of a mighty adventurer, we're flipping the script - you'll be running the city the heroes of the realm use as their base of operations! By expanding your city with weird and wonderful buildings, hiring diligent workers, playing cunning stratagems and more, you'll aim to make your city the most prosperous in all the land.
Q: What inspired you to create your own TCG?
A: A few years ago we were looking for a specific flavour of card game to play with a few friends, but nothing quite ticked all of the boxes. It was a simple concept to begin with: what if the player was the one in charge of running the 'city of adventure' full of quirky shops and questgivers that you so often visit in tabletop RPGs like D&D? We thought it would be fun to see if we could come up with something like that, and a few weeks later we had a super super early prototype of what has now grown to become Animal Kingdom!
Q: What TCGs did you grow up playing as a kid?
A: [Mike] - When Pokemania first swept across the globe I was one of the thousands of kids who was introduced to TCGs through Pokemon. Pretty soon after that I discovered Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic the Gathering, and at local MTG events I even got to learn Legend of the 5 Rings and Marvel VS!
[Dullahan] My dad was an avid card game fan, so he got me started early with Magic. He also introduced me to some lesser known games over time, such as Rifts CCG and The Lord of the Rings TCG. Eventually I branched out to other card games such as Pokémon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Duel Masters. I think playing such a wide variety of card games growing up gave me an appreciation for all kinds of unique game mechanics.
Q: What sets Animal Kingdom apart from other TCGs?
A: Unlike many TCGs, the aim of Animal Kingdom isn't to attack or defeat your opponents, but to build up your own city by earning Renown. One of the main ways this is achieved is through a unique Quest system in which you recruit adventurers to tackle quests ranging from slime wrangling to slaying legendary dragons. Other mayors can challenge you with their own adventurers, creating meaningful opportunities for interaction as mayors butt heads over objectives.
The conceit of each player building up a city gives the game a hugely unique flavour that's reflected through the game mechanics. Perhaps you're hiring blacksmiths and combat instructors to work in weapon shops and barracks, and powering up your adventurers' statistics as a result. Or maybe you're deploying spies into rival cities, employing unscrupulous merchants and building secret bunkers to help you interfere with opponents! Either way, it's easy to feel like you're really running your own efficient and distinctly flavourful fantasy city.
Q: How did you come up with the name Animal Kingdom?
A: It had to be something short and memorable, while also giving a strong impression of the game's tone and themes. The characters are mostly anthropomorphic animals? You're racing to build up your own Kingdom? Animal Kingdom it is then! Once we'd decided on it, nothing else seemed to fit quite as well!
Q: How long have you been working on the game?
A: The very first iteration of what came to be Animal Kingdom is approaching 6 years old at this point, but we only started seriously working to make it something we could release during the Covid lockdowns, thanks to all of the additional time we gained.
Q: What is the illustration/design process like?
A: The setting of Animal Kingdom is very fleshed out, which has a huge impact on the visual design of the game. Dullahan is our creative lead, so they've been busily creating drafts for character designs, locations, faction imagery, and just about anything else that will need illustrating. Once we've contacted an artist and discussed the job with them, contracts are signed, any relevant design materials are then given to artists alongside a text brief, and work begins! Dullahan remains in contact with artists to answer questions, approve drafts and so on, so artists always have the information they need.
Since every piece of art needs to match a card effect that already exists, our briefs have to be relatively detailed whilst still allowing artists as much freedom as possible to inject their own personality and style into the finished piece.
We've always wanted Animal Kingdom to be portrayed through a wide range of artistic styles, so we've spent a lot of time tracking down artists, and we're always on the lookout for more. Because we work with a variety of artists, the process is more expensive and takes a bit longer than having an in-house artist, but we feel this is a worthwhile trade-off for cards that portray the world and characters in distinct and exciting ways!
By the time the full set is illustrated we should have pieces done by a few dozen different artists, so please look forward to a wide variety of awesome artwork!
Q: What are your future plans for Animal Kingdom?
A: The initial release that we'll be taking to Kickstarter will have 4 Starter Decks and over 200 additional cards available in booster packs. The first 2 expansion sets are close to being fully designed, and we expect to have all of the cards finalised for them shortly after the Kickstarter has finished. Print queues and turnaround have a strong effect on schedules, but we're aiming for both of the expansions to see release within a year of the initial set making their way into people's hands!
We have plans for strong local game store support - both for competitive play and casual events - and are in contract with distributors who we hope will help us spread the game even further after Kickstarter.
In addition to all this, we've just started releasing the prologue of our 'Tales From the Animal Kingdom' webnovel series ( https://www.royalroad.com/
Q: Will you be at any upcoming conventions?
A: Being UK-based you sadly won't be seeing us at big events like Gen Con this year, but we are doing the circuit over here. The next place you'll find us demoing is at Confuzzled (https://confuzzled.org.uk/) , but expect to hear announcements about other upcoming conventions as the year moves forward!
Q: Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own TCG?
A: [Mike] If you're devoted to the idea of creating a TCG then be prepared to work much much harder than you expected to, and make sure you can handle the inevitable negative criticism you'll get!
Once you're sure of that, make sure that your game can justify its existence with interesting or unique game mechanics that make it stand out from the crowd, and that you yourself find the game genuinely fun to play. If you're missing either of those things then you're going to have a hard time getting other people to have faith in it.
[Dullahan] Along with Mike's advice, I'd heavily advise people to not overlook the importance of having interesting and coherent lore, and making sure players have some way to read and engage with it. One of the best ways to get people invested in your game is to have characters, locations, and concepts that people can grow to care about, and it adds an extra dimension to why players may care about cards beyond just their stats and effects.
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