I created a new card game.

Why

We seem to rent more and more of our lives these days. Movies, software, phones, even appliances come as subscriptions. It arrives polished, updated, pre-solved. Most times, that's a blessing. I don't actually want to debug my streaming app any more than I want to fix the roof on my tiny New York City apartment. Convenience is the right default for most people, most of the time. But subscriptions quietly remove one thing that ownership tends to grant: the ability to poke at something, to understand it, to change it just because you can.

Most people don’t miss that ability, and that’s reasonable. The whole point of a subscription is to outsource responsibility. But the people who do want to tweak things are often the ones who accidentally push a field forward. Whether it's a bike, a house, or a piece of software, it feels different when you own it (for better and for worse). Responsibility brings vulnerability, but also agency. Once something is yours to open up, you start wondering how it works. You repaint it, rename it, modify it. Agency turns into curiosity, and curiosity often turns into creativity.

That's what intrigues me about the culture of open source. It's not interesting because it's free, but because it creates a space where curiosity is the norm and modification is encouraged. Open source doesn’t make sense for every industry, but where it works, it produces ecosystems that evolve faster and more collaboratively than any subscription model could. Most people will never submit a patch to an encryption library (I know I certainly won't), but the fact that someone can is what gives it strength.

And recently, it struck me that this mindset isn't limited to software. Card games have their own open source culture: rules get tweaked, variants spread, the "best" version of a game emerges from the collective experiments of players, not from a top-down roadmap. That realization led to my latest personal project. I'm attempting to create and release a card game of my own. Something anyone can take, modify, and make their own. It's a tiny contribution to what I think of as "open source fun".

Game Design from Scratch

Pillars and Constraints

Start with three pillars: pace, agency, depth. Then set hard constraints. Standard 52-card deck, 2-6 players, under 2 minutes to teach, rounds under 20 minutes. The core verb is what players do every turn. For OUTPOST that's building and taking actions.

Information and Tension

Hidden hands with a shared discard pile keeps it simple. Pick one tension engine rather than stacking mechanics. OUTPOST uses tempo (act fast vs build strength) and interaction (blocking and stealing).

Win Condition First

Decide how someone wins before writing other rules. Race to 10 points, most points when triggered, first to claim objectives. The win condition determines your economy and every cost or point value flows from there.

Scoring Lanes

Build 2-4 ways to score. Each needs distinct skills, cost patterns, and payoffs. OUTPOST has Outposts (cheap), Trade Routes (medium), Colonies (expensive), and Fleets (bonus). End-game bonuses like Longest Trade Network reward long planning.

Turn Economy

Draw one, then take up to one build and one action. Hand limits force commits instead of hoarding. Add tempo bonuses only if playtesting shows stalls.

Point Calibration

Calculate rarity from deck composition. Set baseline points using rarity and efficiency, playtest, then adjust. When two lanes dominate, boost the third.

Interaction Limits

Require costs for "take that" mechanics so they don't feel cheap. Face cards activate attacks, Shield blocks them. Creates reads instead of resentment.

Playtest Loop

Run 2-3 rounds, time them, track winning lanes and dead turns. Change one thing, iterate. Spot imbalances and fix fast.

OUTPOST: Galactic Expansion (First Draft)

The goal was a Catan-like game, playable by 2-6 players with any regular card deck. It still needs a lot of work...

Players: 2–6 (best at 4)

Deck: Standard 52-card deck

Goal: Be the first to reach 10 points

Theme: Build outposts and colonies, forge trade routes, and assemble fleets. Beware the Space Worm…

Setup

Shuffle the deck. Deal 3 cards to each player.
Place the rest face-down as the Sector Deck; create a face-up Worm Pit discard pile.
Choose a start player.

Turn Structure

On your turn:

Draw 1 from the Sector Deck.
Take up to 1 Build + 1 Action (max one of each; you may also do just one or pass).
Hand limit 6 at end of turn (discard extras to the Worm Pit).

If the deck empties, shuffle the Worm Pit to form a new Sector Deck.

Builds (score points)

Play required cards face-up to your tableau, discard the rest used to pay.

Outpost (1 pt): Pair of any rank (2–A), any suits.
Colony (3 pt): Three ascending ranks with alternating colors (R-B-R or B-R-B).
Trade Route (3 pt base, +1 per extra card): Consecutive ranks in same suit (e.g., 6♠-7♠-8♠-9♠ = 4 pts). One-shot builds in v1.
Fleet (2 pt): K + Q (any suits). Discard after scoring.

End-game bonuses: Largest Fleet +2, Longest Trade Network +2 (ties get nothing).

Actions (face cards, play and discard to use)

J = Spy: Look at up to 2 cards in target's hand.
Q = Shield: Immune to Spy/Raid until your next turn.
K = Raid: Steal 2 random cards from target (fails if Shielded).

(Optional Market action: discard 1 numeric to draw 1. OFF in v1.)

Space Worm Alert! (slap mechanic)

When someone builds a Colony or completes a Fleet, everyone races to slap the center. Last to slap discards 1 random card. False alarm also costs 1 card.

End of Game

First to 10 points wins immediately. If deck runs out before anyone hits 10, finish the round and highest score wins.

Now What?

Calibrating the points matters. I'll converge on the optimal scoring for OUTPOST two ways:

Math: Calculate rarity counts (combinatorics) for each build type. Points should inversely correlate with frequency. Rare builds score more.

Playtest: Run rounds with real people. Is it even playable? Track build totals, time to win, which strategies dominate, and obvious imbalances. Iterate.

Latest Updates

I played a version of the game for the first time with a group of 5 people and... it sucked. BUT, I learned a lot about the elements that do and don't work currently and have started making revisions. I will be back to update this post once a second draft of the ruleset is ready.

Contributing to Open Source (kind of)

Table of Contents

Why