Island Raiders is my first ever card game creation. I wanted to come up with a card game that had more than one suit on single card. Normally cards have either a heart, diamond, club, or spade as their suit, but I wanted to create a card system with two suits on each card. As it sounds, this was a very difficult task. There was many permutation and combination calculations that went into figuring out how to lay out the suits.
One of the most important parts of creating a new product for anything is Customer Validation. The way I did this was through getting together groups of my friends and play testing this game. I play tested this game with probably over 30 people. They all contributed their opinions and suggestions on how to improve the game.
Eventually I decided to finish taking suggestions and finalize the gameplay. I had some of my close friends help me write up the rules and I started to manufacture the pieces and the boxes. I learned so much about manufacturing and production from this experience. I had the cards manufactured at a print and play company, then I purchased all the material to create the game box and the pieces. It took forever to put everything together, but I was able to put together about 20 games for the first round.
During this time, I also entered into the SaltCon Ion Awards. I put the game into that competition just to see how it would do. Since this was my first game, it didn't do well. I believe I got a 5.2 average score, but with the feedback, I am tweaking the game and trying to make it better.
With anything in life, it's important to not get down on yourself for trying. Putting yourself out there is the most important part. Whether someone likes what you've put out or not usually isn't as important as just doing it. There will always be people that might not like what you have to offer, but it isn't about pleasing everyone. As long as you help one other person out, you are adding value to their life and that's a good thing.
How I can add value to your life? Can I help you take another step toward your dreams and goals? Reach out and let me know what I can do for you!
