Masterworks of Horror

Overview

Masterworks of Horror is a player versus player card game that is spread across 3 rounds of play. Each player must try to play cards that take their opponent's page count (health) down while fighting to keep their own as high as possible. Players are able to choose from a variety of cards all based on the literary works of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, or other famous horror authors of old. Each author offers a different strategy of play and players can even combine types to create their own unique combinations.

Core Loop

My Role

As Co-Lead Game Designer, I was responsible for steering creative direction alongside my fellow co-lead. We worked hard not only to make sure our team was aligned with the vision that was set for this project, but also allow for flexibility that change brings when working with time constraints and deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Team leadership and creative direction over a design team of 5
• Interdisciplinary collaboration across art, engineering, production, and other departments
• Creation of workflows and production pipelines
• Authoring and maintaining game documentation

Challenges

Card Readability

One of the biggest design challenges was making cards readable and intuitive at a glance during fast-paced real-time gameplay. The cards went through six major iterations, each refining how information was presented to the player.

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 Iteration 5 Iteration 6

Iteration 1 — Tabletop Prototype

The earliest card design was entirely text-based and used solely for our tabletop testing of the game. This first version lists every stat, keyword, and ability definition on the card itself. While thorough, we quickly realized that this amount of data on what will eventually be a real time card game will be far too overwhelming for a player.

Key Pain Points

• Too much text that overwhelms the player, only playable because the current game is turn based for paper prototyping.
• Mechanics used are complex but not fun.
• Some mechanics we like are becoming arbitrary.

Key Takeaways

• If we want a fun game when we switch to real time, we need to reduce stats.
• Text is very daunting for new players to read, need to find a different way to represent stats.
• Some mechanics are too complex for real time players to grasp, need to find what really matters to our game and discard the rest.

Results

I am so incredibly proud of our team for creating the game in only a year of development. In that time, we were able to do all of the following:

• Have a fully networked and cross platform game with IOS, Android, Mac, and PC
• Have over 100 fully unique full art cards
• Have an up and running steam page
• Successfully undertake several major pivots throughout the process
• Attend the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) and have a booth

GDC Attendance

Our team was able to purchase a booth at the GDC 2026 and promote Masterworks of Horror to many industry professionals. We were also able to gain insight on next steps for possible publishing, tips on marketing our game to potential player audiences, and even direct feedback about our game from titans of the industry.

We received resounding praise from not only from large companies like Unity, Epic Games, and Zynga, but also indie companies like the makers of the hit game "Dredge."

‹ ›