Cards of Heart is a narrative-focused cozy digital card game mixed with a fantasy top-down RPG about a young woman’s daily mental health struggles against her inner Shadows. The game alternates between doing quests for various townspeople and confronting mental health challenges represented by different shadows, each with their own strategies that reflect how they affect people.
Prototyped multiple card systems/formats by evaluating the function of its strength and resources to ensure the best to way convey the mental health metaphors the game aims to share
Conducted weekly playtest to collect and assess user experiences to continuously iterate the system to ensure systems difficulty balance and player enjoyment and learnings, analyzing player metrics to assess changes
Developed multiple ways for players to handle challenging enemies, formulating patterns players can adapt to and creating a feedback loop to empower players
Brainstormed player and enemy strategies to align with mental health metaphor and techniques
Ideated 38 cards to form strategies that reflect player experiences