I have some basic programming experience and I would like to be able to create a card game similar to something like Fifa ultimate team but with strictly just cards competing against each other. For example, a random stat is chosen and each player chooses a card relative to that stat, higher stat wins. Does anybody have any tips on an engine or how to get this started? Note: this is for my personal use.

If you are not publishing this game maker might be the easiest for you to make this in.

Unity is also a good choice with tons of tutorials and a simple card game like this shouldn't be two hard.

Your game would need to select a stat at the start of a turn then each player would choose a card. Once both players have chosen a card, show the cards then display the winner. then reset back to choosing another stat and rinse and repeat until you have a winner based on a winning condition.

A state machine would be best to use for the turn management..

Most efficient process:

(1) Create your own cards using scissors, paper, and a pen. Use dice to select stats randomly (e.g., 1 is Attack, 2 is Defense, etc.).

(2) Play test.

(3) Improve design.

(4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 until satisfied.

(5) Go into production with an already very strong core design, and your game engine of choice.

(6) Continue play testing and improving your design while you build your video game.

The key here is that you can iterate much faster using paper and pen. You can also buy some blank card sets and write on them. Once you have a strong design, production will be straightforward (mostly).

Edit: Engine does not really matter. Practically any engine will do the job.

Well the beauty of my idea is that it uses real athletes which makes the whole stat choosing easier and I can also just duplicate card templates and change colour schemes based on rarity. The actual mechanic of choosing a winner is as simple as comparing two stat values as DerekL mentioned above. I was just wondering if there was an engine or tool specifically tuned towards more menu driven games rather than 3D intense, graphically heavy games.

Hi,

if you want to learn programming write the game from scratch use frameworks.Better way to learn how to program. I know that engines are fast but you said personal use i bet it''s for studying.

Not only programming but you also improve your math and other nice magic.

With any engine you can create a card game it's just your programming knowledge.

Hope this helps,

HyperV

As to what engine, any will do, as HyperV said above. With your basic needs, Game Maker should do fine, which seems to be a pretty simple 2D Engine with a flat learning curve... if you want to get into more advanced, 3D angines, Unity and Unreal 4 are the best bets as they have the biggest communities and are pretty up to date, though any 3D engine will most probably be overkill for your game idea, and you will face a MUCH steeper learning curve...

There are also specialized Card Game engines... they do little more than show your cards you configured, but what I have seen they seem to be pretty good for creating a card game without much programming... examples: gccg.sourceforge.net, lackeyCCG

Of course, you could program such a game from scratch without too much troubles. You would need to learn a graphical library to use for rendering, and write your own game loop and util functions in the language of your choice, but that would most probably be a very good learning expierience, if you are looking for that.

Well the beauty of my idea is that it uses real athletes which makes the whole stat choosing easier and I can also just duplicate card templates and change colour schemes based on rarity. The actual mechanic of choosing a winner is as simple as comparing two stat values as DerekL mentioned above. I was just wondering if there was an engine or tool specifically tuned towards more menu driven games rather than 3D intense, graphically heavy games.

That immidiatly raised a red flag with me.

Never, ever, EVER use real persons in your game, if you not...

a) have the means and resources to reach out to all of these persons and basically "license" the use of their names and likelyhood for you game.... and that will most probably be VERY expensive, and means all of them might want to have a say how their likelyhood is used and represented in your game.

b) create a parody... google "fair use". But be aware that is still a slippery slope, as abusing "fair use" might result in somebody sueing you.

Of course, if your game will never leave your computer, ignore what I said. But if only you want to use your game in your future portfolio for finding a job, prepare to be asked "Did you get <person X>' consent? Did you pay licensing fees?", and make sure you have a GOOD answer to that.

Nobody in this industry likes people that ignore copyrights and trademarks without a second thought, and using a persons likelyhood without their consent comes close to that.