Your own game

I would but I'm incredibly close to a retail product right now (in negotiations with artists) and I'd rather wait and create video guides/previews when it's ready to distribute. I may even go Kickstarter to pay for the print run. I'll let you all know if I do.

In short, it's a game where you control 4 different elements and cast spells to score points. The spells can benefit you or hinder your opponent but the primary reason to cast them is to gain point for victory.

Also, it's SHARED DECK... since I absolutely hate pay2win card games.

Additionally... the redesign was needed because the cost/power/score of all the cards were seemingly unrelated. Some cards did nothing but scored highly. Some cards cost little but scored no points. Now points are directly related to cost and so is the power of the effect. All multi-element cards were removed and each element has its own signature effect that defines its playstyle.

It's really important to apply KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) to design since we've all been subject to convoluted gameplay systems which frustrate us. Enjoyable gameplay comes from complex interactions, not complex systems. Minecraft is an excellent example of this.

p.s. I didn't intend to hijack this thread to talk about my own projects! xD

Physical card game, since I really enjoy meeting up with my friends in person instead of them saying, "Why don't we just go on Skype?".

Not that I feel it couldn't be a computer game but I just prefer the idea of everyone sitting around a table with a few drinks and playing my game.

I actually visited my brother and his flat-mate the other day and introduced them to my game.
The best feedback is when you try to leave and they go, "Just one more game!". It was nearly midnight when I finally got home.

To tell you the truth, I didn't expect it to get this far. It started as a design exercise to keep my mind busy while doing mundane (read: copy-paste) web programming.

I'd release it tomorrow if I could but unfortunately I was blessed with a complete lack of artistic talent!

My current cards are plain white with colored text, not very exciting.

And before that, they were white cards with names of cards scribbled on them with permanent marker.
You had to have a "reference sheet" to tell you the cost and effect of each card.

Design is fun!

Firstly, I don't think it's possible to write a program that will replace a good writer (or artist, musician, or any other creative person), so hence this experiment is doomed to utter failure!

Emergent behaviour is something I think is interesting. So instead of having very scripted characters as in, say, Half-Life; you have characters that respond to events using a set of simple rules. E.g. "My health is low, I will now go into cover", "I see a hostile, I will call for backup". These types of rules can combine to form patterns that are less predicable and feel lifelike (or sometimes silly!), but are harder to control.

Procedural content means instead of prefabricating areas in full, you write a program which will use a formula to put together assets when an area loads up. For procedural storytelling, (using formulas to put together bits of stories) there's examples like the radiant quest system in Skyrim, but it also showcases a big shortcoming which is that the system is essentially a madlib generator: "Hero, Go to ______ and find me the ______ inside."

So I want to try and combine elements of both of these to have a truly emergent story system. Instead of fill in the blanks plots, I want to model character arcs and goals that are compelled by things like a character's desires, ambitions, skills and needs. There'll probably be some amount of madlibs to kick off plot lines, but I don't want it to be shallow. Essentially what I want to be able to say is "Does the world currently have a precedent for a dramatic betrayal between two brothers? If it does, I'll simply put a goal on one of the brothers to eventually commit an act of betrayal: but after that I would want the emergent behaviour of that character to try and compel the arc...

It's still a very loose concept in my head. I don't want to give the impression that I'm going to 'simulate every single character all the time' as that would be impractical. I want a story engine to be doing all the work for this in the background and only deeply simulating things that are important in the context of a storyline...

I would like if this could be used, either for a god game style sim where you sit back and watch interactions and plots develop (and if you see a character goal you like, maybe you put things in place to assist it!); or as a story progression system for an open ended RPG. e.i. an RPG where you just live in a world and find things to do, and there isn't an ultimate 'end goal' except the one that you determine for yourself...

Oh, absolutely! Like I said, it's a starry eyed pipe dream :-)

That said, What I want is the experimentation, and reading, and study. And if I can get part way towards a workable system, I'll consider it a big win :-)