On June 11, John Fiorillo, Executive Vice President of Stone Blade Entertainment (SBE), made a surprise guest appearance on top player S1AL’s debut stream. Over the next twenty minutes John gave insight into the card design process, some challenges of the work, and along with S1AL, took viewers through the first few stages of designing a card for Set 3.

John Fiorillo’s Live Card Design with S1AL (Download – right click, save as…)

John is no stranger to community interaction (Meet the Team post | Reddit AMA) and I’m certainly looking forward to hearing more from him on card design in the future.

John Fiorillo Quotes

“In Set 3, there are going to be some opposite faction Allied cards.”

“[Structures] are still floating around, that will eventually be a thing. They’re not coming any time in the near future, because the UI needs some updating.”

“There is some kind of metasculpty-type card in [Set 3] already.”

“Anything’s possible in the world of Solis” (n.b. he pronounced it like solace)

“Abraxas already is good, man!”

“Don’t worry – I don’t have a lot of awesome yetis in the new set.”

“Very few cards go through development and don’t change.”

Design Steps (During the Stream)

1) Choose a faction: Tempys (Allied Alloyin)

2) Choose a type: Creature

3) Suggest ideas and dismiss things that current can’t be done

4) Highlight strong ideas: Mobility, on-hit, something to do with draws/leveling/Metasculpt

5) Choose one idea: Technosmith effect on hit

6) Put the idea into the official design file for “Set 3.0”: Tempys creature, Mobility, Allied Alloyin: On-hit, Technosmith effect

Ideas from Viewers Discussed by John and S1AL

– Creature that plays a spell

– Spell that makes a creature

– Mobility card that Metasculpts the card it moves in front of

– Creature that puts a spell into your hand from outside of your deck

– When this deals battle damage to a player it gets X armor (John likes this)

– A card that sacrificed life to do something powerful (Not a fit with factions)

– Activate: The next level on-level spell you play is free

– Lightning Spark with Allied Alloyin Metasculpt effect (John likes this)

– Allied effect is draw a card when it hits a player (John likes this)

Other Design Notes

– Frequently John’s designs are not currently possible

– Every set has more design space to work with because the new card tech can interact with the existing tech

– John is happy with the current metagame diversity (as of June 11)

– A lot of art is commissioned already and suggestions are welcome but the available art can affect what’s possible

– Name suggestions are welcome

– Rarity is decided after the card is designed: Commons have the simplest designs, Rares are for complicated designs showing up less often, Heroics are ‘hand-hold’ style, Legends are super-creative

– Suggested and not currently doable: Scry and copy a previously played spell. Have something trigger when you draw the card. MoE that plays an on-level spell but doesn’t level it.

Have Your Say

While all this impromptu awesomeness was happening, Foxhull set up a forum post to capture the various suggestions (for names, creature type, etc.) that viewers and other community members might have. You can visit solforgegame.com/forum/general-discussion/community-design-a-card-on-s1als-stream-with-john-fiorillo-right-now to share your thoughts and see what others had to say on the matter.

Update: The card was released in Set 3, Secrets of Solis, as Oratek Warhammer…