5 Golden Rules of Game Cards Graphic Design You MUST OBEY 

I'll add a golden rule: in addition to giving a name to a card, also provide an ID,. I'm a native Spanish speaker who is also fluent in English. Most of the games I buy are in English but from time I buy something in Spanish. It is not secret that the gaming community that speaks English is much larger than the one that speaks Spanish so if I want to get clarification about a card but only know the Spanish name, it's tough to find someone who can answer the question. Even if I try to translate the test, it's not as simple as asking with the ID of the card. Even if you think you'll never sell a copy in another language it's so simple to do it, it might also be simpler for English speaker to remember an ID rather than a name, and if in the future you end selling copies in another language you are already prepared for this scenario.

This video would've been so much better if you placed your cards on the table instead of waving them into the camera for a second.

Adding another silver rule: When in doubt don't rely on color alone to convey crucial information, if your palette has a few colors match each of them with a distinctive shape and you'll boost readability for anyone with color vision deficiency

You’re on to something with this video: substantive advice, insider game design seasoned perspective, solid editing, zero clickbaityness. Solid.

You have to be careful with symbols. Too many (or poor icons) and you risk creating a whole symbolic language that players have to learn before they can play, making the cards harder to read.

"If it can be said in fewer words, say it in fewer words" Meanwhile Yu-Gi-Oh: You can remove 6 Spell Counters from your field; Special Summon this card from the Pendulum Zone, then count the number of cards you control that can have a Spell Counter, destroy up to that many cards on the field, and if you do, place spell Counters on this card equal to the number of cards destroyed. you can only use this effect of "Endymion, the Mighty Master of Magic" once per turn. Once per turn, when a Spell/Trap Card of effect is activated (Quick Effect): You can return 1 card you control with a Spell Counter to the hand, and if you do, negate the activation, and if you do that, destroy it. Then, you can place the same number of Spell counters on this card that the returned card had. While this card has a Spell Counter, your opponent cannot target it with card effects, also it cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects. When this card with a Spell Counter is destroyed by battle: You can add 1 Normal Spell from your Deck to your hand.

As an illustrator primarily and working on a game with a friend of mine, it made me tear up a little to see "Art is paramount" tacked on at the end. I love seeing appreciation for the visual elements get so much weight, and I love the emphasis of the art as a core game element. *Note: being the principal illustrator for an entire game is murder on the wrists, BUT, tons of fun.* Thank you for your video. I probably have some layouts to revisit haha

I think the example of Magic really is shaped by how you fan the cards in your hand; for example, i have always naturally fanned cards so that the "topmost" card was on the left, so costs were always unobscured. It has never occured to me that some people were arranging their hands so that the topmost card was on the right. I'm also right-handed.

As a long time magic player with an interest in game design I love how MTG is the exception to most of these rules. Goes to show what defining a genre can do for you

Only just now am i realising that right handed magic players have the cost covered up, something i hope never changes, lefties need every win they can get

Art serves a extremely important function: it allows people to mentally chunk the effects of a card to an image. It's much easier to tell apart images than blocks of text, especially with cards in hand. After reading my cards, I can remember what they do at a glance by seeing the artwork. Yu-Gi-Oh especially utilizes this. Then there's the connections between art and effects, if the art is of a magical effect, I expect a spell, it gets me in the right mindset to understand the effect of the card. If the art is a big monster, I expect a big monster stats. I've been working slowly on the art for my game, and the cards with art are 50x easier to play with than the ones without.

On adding symbols to the card, I disagree that they should outright replace text. If you study Magic cards, you’ll see that while they use, for example, the tap symbol when saying “tap the card to do this”, if they mention tapping in the rest of the text they say the word “tap”. They only have a few symbols that they routinely use in the actual ability text: those for mana costs, and even then it’s used sparingly. People know how to read words, but they don’t come to your game knowing what your symbols mean in the context of your game. If you send them to the reference manual too many times to figure out what your symbols mean it’ll be frustrating. You can still use your symbols if you think they’d be useful, but reminder text (again, see mtg) is a good idea so that players stay immersed.

Nice video, very helpful. One thing I would add is that the secondary purpose of the artwork is to make cards easily recognizable from a distance for players who have played the game before.

I'd be very careful with symbols. If the first card I ever read says something like "[symbol I've never seen] 1 of your [another symbol I've never seen]", I'm probably not going to be very interested. If it happens during a game, not only am I going to have to look it up, I won't even know what to Google. Even if I have an experienced player who can help me, is going to be very embarrassing and confusing to ask "what does the little symbol that kinda looks like a question mark mean?" On the other hand, if symbols *reinforce* an idea, then I 100% agree. In your game, I see the big green green in your card. So when the effect asks if the card below is [green gem], I immediately get what it means, even if "green gem" isn't the right term. Keywords are very similar in that regard but: they (should) have reminder text, and at least they're words you can say to ask. Plain symbols replacing entire words or phrases are a problem if they're important.

I’ve never once had a problem reading what my cards cost in my hand while playing MTG. They even tried “fixing” this problem in the Future Sight set and then realized it wasn’t broken to begin with.

I'll interject one counter point: art is the most important, and should take up the most space, because it conveys the most information the fastest. When a card becomes known, and reading it is no longer necessary, the image will immediately alert the player(s) to what the card is. Like Pot of Greed or Black Lotus. The cards are known enough and remembered enough that the image immediately invokes their effects and names.

“Spacing between lines” is “leading.” Typesetters used to insert strips of lead between rows of text

"You can't see the costs of the cards." Proceeds to fan them backwards from every card game since forever...

That was actually really interesting to hear. As a magic player, I had always wondered why they decided to try such a drastic change for FutureSight, but if they were trying to test the waters with a more streamlined layout, that makes so much sense. It has always bothered me that when I'm holding my cards in my hand, I'm either covering the name, or the cost.. So it makes a lot of sense why they tried to change it. I also find it a little amusing to hear Golden Rule #4. Not that Yu-Gi-Oh technically breaks it... but the fact that later cards do become multiple paragraphs is pretty funny.

I had to learn some of these rules the hard way. Designing card layout and legibility is a lot harder than people realize.

The future sight set cards are actually one of my favourite mtg card designs. Not for any particular reason other than they look really cool.

if a phrase is repeated to describe something that's a full sentence, consider coining a key game term for it. It makes the rulebook cleaner. Nobody iterates just cards. It's a back and forth process.

I disagree with the point you make about fanning cards. I fan them in the other direction, with the top card on the left rather than the right, especially when playing Magic. This lets me see all the costs easily. The top right of a card isn't an automatic no-go zone.

I designed a card game a few years ago, and I've always wanted to take it to the next level. I recently got excited about updating it, and this video showed up just in time. Thanks, Dave! Great info

Not a pro like you, but I couldn't disagree more about using symbols instead of text for recurring keywords. Symbols take a ton of memory space to learn since you have to connect them to words in your head anyway, and I get really turned off reading text with too many of them. I feel like MTG does symbols really well: it has 7 recurring symbols (the 5 mana symbols, the colorless mana symbol, and the tap symbol), but all of these fall into categories (mana and tapping). The mana symbols don't take much memory space to tell them apart from each other because they're all the same size and shape, so really you have two symbols- mana symbols and tapping. 2 symbols is a lot easier to memorize than 5 or more, which is something I see in a lot of games nowadays. The symbols in MTG also don't come up when describing interactions between cards. MTG never uses the tap symbol to tell you that a card taps down an opposing creature, only to tell you to tap a card for an effect.

the fact about Everdell blew my mind 😮😮😮

Iconography is nice until you need to read the text out, or tell the other players what the text means. Games with a lot of iconography are a bigger pain in the ass. Terrible having to pause a game to look up a symbol, and harder to look up symbol than a word. Just take a moment to try, and play Aeon Trespass for the first time, and run into symbols that have no reference to them in the glossary, but instead somewhere within the main section of rules. You'll find that keywords work better overall unless you use very few icons.

Great tips! I think Bandai has been knocking it out of the park with their recent card design, especially with Digimon. That game has basically become my gold standard for card design now. They use keywords instead of symbols, but I actually prefer that with a TCG. Card text with symbols are definitely better for board games.

As an aspiring game designer this helps a lot.

Hey Dave, im an indie game dev who has been trying to put together a good card game for a while (turns out it isnt easy as I jad always assumed). This video was incredibly helpful, especially for someone like me who doesnt have the skills to handle the artwork and bas therefore been focused much more on nailing the basic layout of the cards. I wish there was more good quality information available online about the intricacies of designing these games.

DUDE! I am a recent game design graduate with a extreme interest in Board Game Design specifically. Cannot wait to devour all of your videos. This Card break down was incredible and wonderfully thorough! Can't wait to see what I can learn! I would love to see the games you have worked on as well if you have a website!

Really slick video. Lots of great points that verbalize well the thoughts I've had but haven't been able to put into words. Thanks, man!

I feel like cost is one of the most important things to see when looking at my hand and anywhere other than the top right is sub optimal. Modern card design is all very same-y and I feel like it also keeps the games from actually gaining traction in TCG's or LCG's is because they follow similar rules to what you've described as "the golden rule".

OMG; i have been designing games for a year...this is a game changer.

Kicking myself now! So much of this is retrospectively so obvious, shocked i never even considered them before ! Thanks so much

As someone who is designing a homemade card game, that may never see that light of day. I did learn some very useful information, although I'm not sure revamping my game for the 7th time, is all that worth it.

This video is a god send. I have been struggling with my TCG for awhile now.

Great video! I gasped at the first rule. Can't believe I'd never considered it before.

in moderate defense to having names of cards in the top left corner instead of costs, they can act as a really good information shortcut to really experienced players. as an MTG player, if I saw a fanned out hand of cards in a vacuum and see Counterspell in the top left corner of one of them, I've played the game enough to know exactly how much it costs and what it does just by seeing that name alone, in this case two blue mana. If I saw the cost in that position instead, it's certainly the most useful info I could know about the card while it hasn't yet been played, but (ignoring any other potential visual indicators for the sake of this example like seeing part of the art) I might not necessarily know *what* card it might be of that cost, for all I know the deck might be stacked with other cards that also cost two blue mana. however this only applies once you have played a game enough to tell what any card does just by the name or the art, this doesn't apply to new players which you should be probably be formatting the card's interface in service of. Not saying that the golden rule is straight up wrong or anything, just that if you are going to put something else there, I think the card name would be the second best alternative

Very useful advice, keep up the content. Been printing and playtesting my game over the last 3 months but am completely rebuilding it using your methods to playtest online now

I think I'd like to suggest a change to the silver rule about colour blindness: Never have icons that mean different things be the same icon/design but just in a different colour. It is a surefire way to make the game completely unplayable for a portion of people. Take for example in MTG: The different mana symbols practically mean the same thing, but they all have designs that make sure you can tell them apart even if they were to be in just black and white (like people with complete colour blindness would see them, for example). It was the first thing I thought of at 10:15 when you showed the example card. The green and gray crystals at the top of the card (the cost) should be different designs and not just different colours.

These are great rules for anything really. It's like a mini design basics class. Nice work.

This video is pure gold! Well done!

Literally watching this video while designing the cards for my game. Great video!

Excellent information and presentation. Going to check out the rest of your channel. Subscribed! Thanks again. 👍

Nice video! I like how you used cards from popular games to demonstrate the rules by pointing out ways that their design could be improved.

I’ve been implementing rule 4 a ton in my recent iteration of my card game. My cards already have symbols associated with them (🐚 for Monster, 🎲 for Item, 🏠 for Place, 🗡️ for Attack, ❤ for HP, etc.) so instead of an ability saying “search deck for item. Shuffle afterwards” it would say “search deck for 🎲. Shuffle Afterwards”. It’s good to remember to not go overboard though. There was a brief time where I’d summarize everything in symbols like “🔄🤚⬅️” which was suppose to mean “swap hands with player on left”. It was obvious to me but made it confusing for other players.

I've definitely found when playing magic that art is the most important part of card identification The different art makes navigating lots of cards much easier

Excellent quality. Super helpful. I am thankful that I think I did pretty well with all these when I sent my latest prototype update to the printer.

This is very interesting and never thought of some of these. They make sense. This is very good insight and very helpful for me as someone that has been making my own card games for years now and looking to hopefully publish games someday. Thank you! I'll have to keep these rules in my mind.

Should be a watch for every indie tcg creator. So many new games have amazing art that is just kneecapped by the worst design. Design is essential to making a professional looking game and it’s always skipped over.

Distinctive art also acts as a sort of shorthand for experienced players, a highly detailed symbol that identifies the card. Nobody can read a tiny text box upsidedown across the table, and they might not easily be able to read the name, either, but if they see the art and are familiar with it, then they'll recognize the card.

This is really good. Simple and quick but packed with info. Keep this up!

6:21 I wouldn't say that I "hate change" so much as that Gangar card is literal eye cancer. As for the Magic Card, sure there's some minor merit to your Rule 1, but it's *very* minor. As you say later, the cards in your hand are indeed the cards you put into your deck, so you don't need the mana cost visible all the time while you have things tightly fanned. People have object permanence and minor memory capacities. They can see the mana cost (and other info) and then remember it for most cards even when it's obscured. Furthermore, The mana cost being on the left side under the name of Tarmogoyf now causes two problems. First is that it's obscuring the picture, and the picture is the most important thing because - again - people remember the info on their own cards. They just need to recognize which card they have, and that mana cost there is obscuring the image if there are similar 1-F green cards. Two, the beauty of Magic cards is that everything is placed in its own relevant space, so you can find the information you want about the card by looking at a distinct section of it. name, image, mana cost, creature type, power/toughness, effects (and sometimes flavor text). They're partitioned out so everything is clear and the info for one section doesn't distract from info in another section. This puts the mana cost and the name in the same spot, and makes the mana cost unclear because of the curved behavior. This works for something that costs some colorless mana and a single colored mana, but what if it cost 3 forests? 5 forests? Now the mana cost design has to curve around and make the spacing uneven and make counting harder. So your format is either going to suck for some cards, or you're going to only use this format for cards with few colored mana, making a split standard which makes it that much worse to look at cards and evaluate their information at a glance. Because now you need to look in two different locations with two different formats for mana cost. Which is why that Gangar card is such cancer. The image now covers the whole damn thing, being distracting in general and making reading any of the text a nightmare. Well defined borders and information is important. And no, it doesn't have to be "most to least important, top to bottom" like some kind of passage in a book. The important thing is that relevant information is visible, and in its own space so you can instantly fixate on whatever information is most Sorry but, while this video was nicely produced, you're speaking like these design rules are gospel. And that'd be fine if they were fundamental and ironclad but, frankly, they're arbitrary, poorly supported, and often missing what's important. You're not arranging text on a page or trying to tell a whole cards story from the 10% visible in a tightly fanned hand. You want each card, individually, to have its information clear, organized, identifiable, and recognizable. Absolute location doesn't matter as much as being distinct. People's memory takes care of the rest. And because it's so bad, I have to say it a third time. That Gangar card was cancer and you ought to be ashamed for holding that up as some kind of implication that players "just don't know what's good for them."

Love this, thank you!

Just discovered this channel. Great video! I would LOVE to see a video on how to design cardbacks

Thanks for this list! Soooo many games don't do rule number 3 use way more words in their texts than necessary. I suspect they're trying to use more words to try to be less confusing but it always ends up being more confusing! And yesss on using symbols too. I know there's an argument against symbols that says that they make it harder for new players to understand a game because they have to keep looking them up in the rules, but the truth is they only have to look them up in the rules a few times and then they'll remember them and the game will be so much easier to understand.

Wow, this was super interesting! Thanks a lot, I'll be sure to learn some more from you :D

One caveat with the golden rule about symbols is that symbols are an intro barrier to your game in the same way that magic's keywords are. To get around this they have a sub-rule: if you have space to explain the thing, explain the thing. This most commonly occurs with set-specific keywords like Soulbond. What does Soulbond do? Well I can look at my Wingcrafter (which is a common card) and everything I need to know about the keyword is right there. Now when I get a rare or mythic card that JUST has the keyword I already know what it does. So one variation of your card could read: Gain one colourless power shard (colourless power shard symbol). If the card below this one is (green), this card has a combat value (sword) of 1.

Great video! Thank you for the fantastic analysis ;)

Ironically MTG actually solved the first golden Rule with "Future Sight" expansion as all the cards had the Cost on the left border, and then they scrapped it and went back to traditional MTG layout.

It's genious and concise video, thank you. Your videos are as well designed as well-designed board games.

I really liked your videos, I have been making board games for more then 10 years(for fun) but these tips(watched all of your vids.) were really good. got new energy on a game we are design for more the 4 years now. and went back to drawing board a couple of times. But now we making some real progress... Do you need some play testers for you games? I loved your video's keep em coming.

For Yugioh the way the games developed over the years the tiny font is mandatory for example as current topical card reads: | You can target 1 face-up monster on the field or in either GY; place it face-up in its owner's Spell & Trap Zone as a Continuous Spell. During your opponent's turn (Quick Effect): You can target 1 Monster Card treated as a Continuous Spell on the field; Special Summon it to your field. If this card is sent from the hand or field to the GY: You can Special Summon 2 Level 1 FIRE monsters from your GY. You can only use each effect of "Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon" once per turn. | But if the cards didn't explain all their rulings in the text and only said the most important parts (losing the nuance) a revised friendly version would read like: - Place 1 face-up monster on the field or GY, in its owner's Backrow as a Continuous Spell. - During your opponent's turn (Instant): You can Summon monster treated as a continuous spell to your field. - If this card is sent from the hand or field to the GY: You can Summon 2 Level 1 FIRE monsters from your GY. It's still a lot of text and Konami had no Idea how ridiculous the game would get and it's funny that removing texy from mosy modern cards msked then infinitely stronger.

Race for the galaxy is a neat example of 'if it can be said in stmbols, use stmbols'. Very few of rhe cards hace words, its all symbols with a ckear iconography. You might have to refer to the rules a bit at first but after a while you learn tve symbols or can at least deduce roughly based on similar symbols.

I am making a card game myself and this was very helpful. SUB !

Informative. Id like to apply this to TTRPGs like D&D with their walls of text for every spell and monster.

What an incredibly insightful video, I think within the near future that you will go very far in the industry my friend

One thing most cards are missing (which is weird because regular playing cards have that) is an index. In most games you still hold your cards fanned in your hand. You just can't see ANY info. Sometimes the background is different, giving you some information (like a type or something in MtG). But that's it. Hearthstone gets away with it, because they assist with highlighted borders. A card that can be played is green. A card that targets a minion can't be played with no minions on the field, even if the cost is within your current budget. A card that has a special effect gets a yellow border. Often this border appears when an effect occurs like "look, your opponent played a type-X minion. This card has a bonus that just activated". That's a luxury that non-virtual games don't have. IF I have a card in my hand that is strong against the undead, I want to see it at one glance. If a card has a combo effect, I want to see it at one glance, so I can plan my move). Not many games even have this kind of info as an icon (hearthstone does in a limited form with icons for special effects, death cry etc - on the bottom of the card). In many games you need to read the text to get an idea what this card is about. If you translate the text to klingon, a water type with a kombo effect is indistinguishable from a fire type with a permanent buff during certain conditions). That makes it very hard for new players to enter the game and makes strategizing a long process. The more cards you have, the worse it gets.

Amazing video, thank you so much.

"People hate change." It's so true yet so frustrating... i personal like that new magic card border, and the full art on the pokemon card with white and black text is a neat idea.

A little confused with the symbols advice; you replaced green with a green symbol, but I know of a fellow game player who is blue-green colorblind, and you mentioned accommodating colorblindness. I'd recommend doing something MTG has done; giving each color its own shape or design, similar to how MTG and Pokemon each has their own mana/energy symbol. That said, I'd love to learn more about your game!

I'm designing several games. For one of them, I'm trying to replace every single line of text in the dungeon crawling cards with symbols, and even if it's easy to read if you know what the symbols mean, it will probably be overwhelming for the new players and I will probably need to make a full document explaining each card (but it wont be included in the game, just a link to access it). The item cards have the symbols in the text box, and the cost at the top.right corner, but the cost is for buying only (deckbuilder) so it's not needed after it's purchased and in the player's hand. The second game has 11 spaces for icons at the right side of the cards, which are present in all cards regardless of type. The icons on those spaces vary depending on the type, but the general theme of the icons share the same spot. I'm still working on the design, tho, but the idea is fine i think, I just need it to look more professional.

informative and great for general graphic design. However, I have to ask... have you tried fanning the cards in the other direction?

A great video. One thing I could do with advice though is good places to look for art work. What are places to seek help with art work/illustration/imagery? How do you go about finding an artist to help? Or is there software out there that can provide a foundation point?

Something like 2/3 of men have some degree of color-deficiency. Thanks for including us.

would love to see a video on card gameplay design

Great points! I’d like your thoughts on frames of cards and other background information that is sometimes used to convey information.

Another winner! Cheers Dave 🤙🏻

Amazing!!!

I have not play a single game of lorcana yet. But damn I want to pull some of those cards (not even a disney fan). So I 100% agree with rule #5

The art is what tells your game's story - and it isn't just about the aesthetics of the images in isolation, but also their history in terms of production. You should give people substance and multiple layers of investment to get invested in. Without the art and the context it gives, each game, not just card game, becomes a bland exchange of numbers. Think of chess and how each piece's role is also linked to its name - The King, The Queen, Bishop, Knight. Their names and shapes allow us to connect to the fantasy of the game - this is true for literally every single game.

Nice vid, bet the mana-not-visible problem isn't really a problem, you just have to hold the cards differently. It doesn't matter if the mana is on the left or right, if you don't hold the cards correctly you won't see the costs even if they are printed on the left. But yes, I know what you mean, costs should not be printed in the middle.

Funny how the everdell card you used as an example is the only one in my box which has a misprint in that specific data point. (II instead of III)

Rule #1, i fan my cards from left to right (front to back) so I see all of my MTG costs instantly. The rule still applies though

Thanks for the great breakdown and build guide for design. This made me think of an esthetic question? Player space vs. function. Would the symbol be placed on the side or lower on the card for stacking, not save space for the player area? If the function for the stacking is based on symbols on the cards below? Would the below text also be needed or would it be possible to create symbols to show next to colour symbol for easy of read and stack (without having to worry about something like reference card for each player) 🤔

Nicely done informative content

For a moment I thought you were wrong about MtG obscuring the casting costs when you fan the cards out... then I realized I got used to fanning the cards the opposite way exactly because of this problem.

Art is very important not just aesthetically but functionally. Once I am familiar with a card, I rely on the art to recognize it in play. Tell me the name of a card and I won’t know wtf you are referring to, I need the visual cue. Not saying I’m the norm, but I’m sure there are others like me.

Great video man! I would love to see where you go from here!

Nice, I was looking for some D&D Spell Cards and hate them all. By this video I'm triggerd to make my own

I find that observation interesting because I thought about how I play MTG. I fan the cards so that I see the casting cost and most of the art... and generally I know the cards by the art, not the name.

Easy test for color blind people, because there are multiple types. If your card can't be easily played in Grayscale, you need to change something.

I think a huge thing a lot of games make is having too much visual clutter on a card. You dont need two different spheres of different colours to define attack and defense values, information like tribe or the colour of a card does not need to be communicated as a large sigil in the center of the card. Knowing when to use graphics and when to just leave it streamlined is a huge thing for card design. In my experience the most important information is: What kind of card is it When can i use it (instant vs sorcery) What and how much resources does it use What it actually does. And that order is important as it decreses thinking time. Breaks in that rythm also makes the information harder to get right the first time you look glance over it.

Sweet tips bro.

#4 is definitely one of the biggest criticisms I see of Yugioh right now. Although they are long, the effects can be complex, and have a lot of specific limitations on when and how often they can be used. The latter is really what half of the text is. Terms and conditions. Additionally, in Asian language prints, they list out and give each effect a card has by a number, and reference each numbered effect whenever necessary. Also, makes it easy to know where one effect ends, and the other begins. All other languages, you have to read through a block of text, and deduce logically where each one ends, and each one begins. The Asian region is run and overseen by a different branch of Konami compared to the one in the West. So that is likely one reason why this format hasn't been moved over. One thing I actually would like to see get implemented. And keywords discourse I've found to be pretty touchy subject too within the community. Some players seem to loathe the idea because everything isn't spelled out directly to them, and increases the number of things new players need to learn, or something to those lines. When the game alreaady technically has 2 keywords that exist (Excavate and piercing). Adding in a few more to very specific actions that cannot have variations wouldn't be the end of the world. Although keywords in Yugioh in general is hard, since you can have like 6 different variations of a similar thing. Like in MTG, you have hexproof. It does one thing. While in Yugioh, you have cards that have similar abilities, but sometimes only for specific kinds of cards (Like only from Spells or only from monsters). You also have cards that are kind of reverse (Unaffected by anything that doesn't target it). At that point, it is probably easier to just be explicit with it at the cost of some real estate.

Everdell is one of my clearest examples of how card design makes a game practically unplayable for me. The text on the players' cards on the other side of the table is just so tiny, yet so important for me to know. Since I can't see the text, I just don't want to play.

I have another one, that Decipher broke with Star Trek 1st edition. "Never reference lore text in your game text". The card Hirogen Hunt is maybee the worst offender I have ever seen. [Hir] is in this case a way in text to show that on the card there is the Hirogen symbol. Also, once each turn, you may report an Alpha-Hirogen (or any [Hir] card that names in its lore an Alpha-Hirogen you already have in play) for free. When you play a Hirogen, you need to look in its lore text to see if there are any names in it. Then check if you have that character already in play. If it is in play, you need to check if it is an Alpha-Hirogen.

The key to a good Pokemon card is to make the card art large and the card shiny. That way you can barely read the cards. 😂 To be fair, the most difficult to read cards are often alternative versions. One thing not directly mentioned, but that Pokemon does well is make the most important info for your opponent (health) the closest to them.

My favorite cards are from Terraforming Mars, most cards you don't even have to read any text* to understand what it does. *unless the icon description has an asterisk