Dream Quest (and other deck builders)

this is absolutely the reason I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time on this game as opposed to other “deck building” games

and it’s not even so much that they follow the same rules as you do (although they do) as it is the game making it evident that your opponents are doing so, which is incredibly incredibly important to establishing the concept of deck building digitally

a lot of games that have called themselves deck builders don’t really understand that the fantasy around deck building (at least to me) is not just that you are able to add things but that your opponents are adding things at the same time, which frames your decisions in terms that your opponents understand and vice versa. deck building requires a synchronicity of interaction with the board that digital games often neglect - it creates the stakes that are necessary for the deck building mechanics to feel vital instead of feeling like a rhetorical crutch for the rest of the game to hang on (especially considering that “adding to your skills” in digital games is just “leveling up”)

in board games it’s really easy to create this framing because there are physical cards that everyone will be playing with. there’s no real mental work needed on the players’ behalf to understand that yes, I will be putting cards in my deck and you will be putting cards in your deck. but a lot of digital deck building games take this for granted and think by framing actions in terms of “cards” they can get away with it (but they can’t they never can please stop pls)

5 Likes