Should I Build It Should I Build It
08 Jul 2025
Games

a card game simiulator that lets you upload your own card games

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Freemium

People love using similar products but resist paying. You’ll need to either find who will pay or create additional value that’s worth paying for.

Should You Build It?

Build but think about differentiation and monetization.

Your are here

You're stepping into the 'Freemium' zone with your card game simulator, an area where users enjoy the initial offering but might hesitate to pay. The fact that we found three similar products indicates medium confidence that this is the right category, but it also hints at existing competition. The good news is that similar products have shown medium engagement, with an average of 7 comments per product. To succeed, you'll need to carefully consider what unique value you can offer to convince users to upgrade from the free version. Think about what makes your simulator stand out and how you can monetize effectively.

Recommendations

  1. Given that similar products are seen as clever and elegant, focus on making your card game simulator intuitive and user-friendly. Pay close attention to the user experience, especially regarding uploading and managing custom card games.
  2. Since users of similar products suggested integrating LLM for card descriptions, explore incorporating AI to enhance card creation and streamline the user experience. This can address criticisms related to restrictive card creation systems.
  3. Tackle the issue of missing cost mechanisms. Implement a balanced system that ties card effects to costs, preventing game deadlock as noted in competitor feedback. Also, address parser issues and bugs reported in similar platforms.
  4. Identify which users benefit the most from the free version of your card game simulator. Understand their needs and pain points to create compelling premium features that directly address those needs.
  5. Develop premium features that significantly enhance the card game creation or simulation experience. This could include advanced scripting capabilities, larger card libraries, or priority support.
  6. Explore charging teams or communities rather than individual users. This might involve offering collaborative game design tools or hosting services for larger groups.
  7. Consider offering personalized help or consulting services to users who want assistance in designing complex card games or optimizing their simulations. This can create an additional revenue stream and build stronger relationships with your user base.
  8. Test different pricing approaches with small groups of users to determine the optimal balance between free and premium features. Gather feedback on which features users are most willing to pay for.
  9. Actively monitor user feedback and address any bugs or issues promptly. Maintain a transparent communication channel to keep users informed about updates and improvements to the simulator.

Questions

  1. What specific features or types of card games are most popular among users of existing card game simulators, and how can you cater to those preferences while still offering something unique?
  2. How can you create a sustainable business model that balances the desire for free access with the need to generate revenue to support ongoing development and maintenance of the simulator?
  3. What strategies can you employ to build a strong community around your card game simulator, fostering user engagement and encouraging the sharing of custom-designed card games?

Your are here

You're stepping into the 'Freemium' zone with your card game simulator, an area where users enjoy the initial offering but might hesitate to pay. The fact that we found three similar products indicates medium confidence that this is the right category, but it also hints at existing competition. The good news is that similar products have shown medium engagement, with an average of 7 comments per product. To succeed, you'll need to carefully consider what unique value you can offer to convince users to upgrade from the free version. Think about what makes your simulator stand out and how you can monetize effectively.

Recommendations

  1. Given that similar products are seen as clever and elegant, focus on making your card game simulator intuitive and user-friendly. Pay close attention to the user experience, especially regarding uploading and managing custom card games.
  2. Since users of similar products suggested integrating LLM for card descriptions, explore incorporating AI to enhance card creation and streamline the user experience. This can address criticisms related to restrictive card creation systems.
  3. Tackle the issue of missing cost mechanisms. Implement a balanced system that ties card effects to costs, preventing game deadlock as noted in competitor feedback. Also, address parser issues and bugs reported in similar platforms.
  4. Identify which users benefit the most from the free version of your card game simulator. Understand their needs and pain points to create compelling premium features that directly address those needs.
  5. Develop premium features that significantly enhance the card game creation or simulation experience. This could include advanced scripting capabilities, larger card libraries, or priority support.
  6. Explore charging teams or communities rather than individual users. This might involve offering collaborative game design tools or hosting services for larger groups.
  7. Consider offering personalized help or consulting services to users who want assistance in designing complex card games or optimizing their simulations. This can create an additional revenue stream and build stronger relationships with your user base.
  8. Test different pricing approaches with small groups of users to determine the optimal balance between free and premium features. Gather feedback on which features users are most willing to pay for.
  9. Actively monitor user feedback and address any bugs or issues promptly. Maintain a transparent communication channel to keep users informed about updates and improvements to the simulator.

Questions

  1. What specific features or types of card games are most popular among users of existing card game simulators, and how can you cater to those preferences while still offering something unique?
  2. How can you create a sustainable business model that balances the desire for free access with the need to generate revenue to support ongoing development and maintenance of the simulator?
  3. What strategies can you employ to build a strong community around your card game simulator, fostering user engagement and encouraging the sharing of custom-designed card games?

  • Confidence: Medium
    • Number of similar products: 3
  • Engagement: Medium
    • Average number of comments: 7
  • Net use signal: 14.2%
    • Positive use signal: 18.9%
    • Negative use signal: 4.7%
  • Net buy signal: 0.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

Relevance

Card game where players write their own cards that get parsed into code

09 May 2023 Games

Wordbots is a long-running side project I've been working on on-and-off for the past ~7 years that I finally feel comfortable enough with to share with the HN community.It's an online tactical card game (inspired by games like Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering), where players write their own cards in natural language, that gets parsed down to JavaScript. The English-to-JavaScript translation is handled by a semantic parser operating on a hand-crafted CCG grammar – kind of an “old-school” approach in this age of LLMs but one that performs quite well on the very constrained language of Wordbots cards.The resulting game gets pretty wacky as players can create all sorts of cards, though there are some game formats that try to produce more balanced gameplay as well (e.g. one format in which both players shuffle their decks together, and various draft formats).If you're curious about how it all works, I made a write-up about it here: https://app.wordbots.io/how-it-worksAnd if you want to chat about Wordbots beyond this thread, please don't hesitate to join our discord at https://discord.wordbots.io/ . I'd love to hear any and all feedback.-Alex

Users find the product clever and elegant, with some excited to try the new game. They share game development experiences and suggest unique cards with specific win conditions. Issues raised include card effect restrictions, cost mechanisms, slow loading, missing license file, and bugs. The game is balanced for single-player but has frustrating custom card creation. There's a suggestion to integrate LLM for card descriptions and a parser issue with the word 'praction'. One user had fun with a sandbox-escape game, while another encountered a problem with infinite squirrels and robot copies.

Users criticized the product for lacking a mechanism tying effects to costs, which can lead to game deadlock. The card creation system is seen as restrictive due to a limited dictionary and grammar. Technical issues include a Discord link timeout, activation overlay bugs, slow loading, and a parser bug with the word 'praction'. The system also lacks natural language support and negation, and users noted the absence of a license file. Additionally, there's a lack of knowledge on infinite squirrels, and the board fills up too quickly.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=digging

That's clever and elegant, well done. I'm really interested, especially since it turns out to be more than just a ChatGPT front-end.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Tourniquet

Hi, My son has taken a shine to this after I sent him the link (he's up to 100 cards now...). Online, drafting, and the most important bit - user created content (he'd have been as happy with a traditional editor for the cards rules, but has had fun trying to convince the parser to do his bidding).The Discord link is timing out for me. Hopefully you don't mind a brain dump here.He had one feature request - the ability to restrict the number of Rare/Uncommon cards to be included in a deck built off of a given set (if that makes any sense).Also, we hit a few bugs. One time we had a major state desync - on one player one team was entirely wiped out with a given card play, whereas on the other it had no/limited effect. From that point, the games diverged in their entirety - including the log. It was only because we were sat next to each other we even knew.Some form of hashing of the engine state and comparisons every play could ensure that at least a desync identified (which would hopefully lead to a fix).Another time, the 'End Turn' button was unresponsive for one player, and we instead had to force a draw.He had an issue with a card he created that read "when you draw a card, ...", which was triggering when the opponent drew too.The final thing is more of an irritation, which is the 'Activation' overlay can make it hard to move/attack to the hex immediately to the right.Otherwise, great game and it's obviously a labour of love. Jist hope for a bit more interest and player activity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whynotkeithberg

Incredibly cool! It's not normally my type of game but I am going to try this out for sure.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=htaler

I love the idea, and I'm going to try it out!

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Relevance

Wordbots, an online card game in which players make their own cards

30 Apr 2023 Games

Hi!Wordbots is a long-running side project I've been working on on-and-off for the past ~7 years that I finally feel comfortable enough with to share with the HN community.It's an online tactical card game (inspired by games like Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering), where players write their own cards in natural language, that gets parsed down to JavaScript.The resulting game gets pretty wacky as players can create all sorts of cards, though there are some game formats that try to produce more balanced gameplay as well (e.g. one format in which both players shuffle their decks together, and various draft formats).If you're curious about how it all works, I made a write-up about it here: https://app.wordbots.io/how-it-worksAnd if you want to chat about Wordbots beyond this thread, please don't hesitate to join our discord at https://discord.wordbots.io/ . I'd love to hear any and all feedback.Alex

HearHear records, transcribes, and generates insights from meetings.

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7
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Relevance

Create and print your own card game in minutes

20 Sep 2024 Games

Hey HN!Two years ago i proposed to my GF with a board game I made using stable diffusion. I wrote about it here: https://bogomolnyelad.substack.com/p/board-gameI thought it would be cool to help people do the same, starting with playing cards. Let me know what you think!

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