› Deck Engine

Prototype, playtest, measure, rebalance

Every deck plays the same simple game: draw a card, play a card, score its points, and do what it says. The first to the target wins. You pick the cards: their names, points, copies and one effect each, like Steal 2, Skip or Play again. Then bots play your deck 1,500 times. One batch picks cards at random, one plays for points, and one attacks the leader, so each question gets its own test.

This is a game designer's real job, and the simulation underneath is a real data idea. Every answer comes with a range, because a few hundred games can be lucky. Press Run again and the numbers come out the same, because a simulation with the same seed is repeatable. Press New seed and they wiggle inside their ranges. That wiggle is noise. When the deck looks fair, download the print-and-play PDF: the rules, then every card on Avery 5388 sheets. The tips printed in some of our own card games, like Server Farm and Rewind the Robot, come from bot playtests too.

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