Game Design Gallery

From initial concept to the final print, the game of Grotto Beasts went though many variations and changes to reach the game where it is today. Throughout that process, ideas and concepts from multiple sources were used as inspiration. This page documents the majority of the game design process as is able to share for those interested.

On March 11th, 2021, Community Jake called his board game designer friend J. Evan Raitt to discuss the possibility and practicality of creating a card game based off a 10 minute gag. Evan agreed, then did an internet search for this person named Jerma985 and Evan's algorithms have never been the same since.

Project Requirements

The core requirements of the project were made through a series of meetings held by Jerma985, Hollulu, Community Jake, and Evan, along with invited guests ster and Etalyx. There were many requirements made by Jerma while other requirements were set by Jake based on what was feasible by the team. Evan also provided his own design goals for the game, to allow him to flex his game design muscles. Over the course of development, many of the requirements were either dropped or made less important while others were put forward later in the game.

A Trading Card Game for friends to hang out and enjoy

Initial Concepts

From: Game Design Notes

Grotto Beasts Theme and Story: Grotto Beasts is a lost franchise vaguely remembered from the late 1990’s. It had a terrible TV show that didn’t air most of the first season and the trading cards became worthless. After discovering booster packs of Grotto Beasts in a chest his grandfather had buried in the Nevada desert, the Twitch Streamer Jerma985 purchased the rights to the franchise. After reviewing the many files and details that he now had access to, Jerma decided to bring Grotto Beasts to the public in a way that it originally should have been, so hired some people and told them to get to work. General Plot - Grotto Beasts believe in the power of friendship and working together as a team to defeat the opponents that challenge control over their homes, the grottos. To this end, the card game is designed around Beasts playing off each other as friends and working with each other to defeat enemies. Teams and Team Leaders - During battles, Grotto Beasts don’t just randomly jump into a fight - they work together in Teams, and the strongest among them is considered their Team Leader, like a pack. The Grottos - While the Grotto Beasts are known for being protective of their homes, the lands they find sacred are their Grottos, magical locations carved in the land. It is these locations that Grotto Beasts will fight to protect or obtain. Families and Nomads - Unlike Pokemon’s Types or Magic: The Gathering’s Colors, Grotto Beasts come from many different and unique Families, based off the real-world taxonomic ranking. When building a deck, a player will need to select one Family and utilize only the cards from it. There is also a special group of Beasts that do not have a Family, called Nomads. Like mercenaries, the Nomads will help whomever will take them in. Nomads in the card game can fit into any deck, regardless of the Family chosen. Wishes - Arguably one of the worst parts of the TV show was when the Human Characters would make Wishes. Every episode, these were nothing but a deus ex machina method of resolving the conflicts and getting to the end of each show. But as they were integral to the lore of the show, they are added to the card game as one-time effects.

Game 1, The Team Game

From: Game Design Notes

The concept for this game was built from researching out-of-print trading card games from the late 1990’s to mid 2000’s such as Chaotic, Hecatomb, Digimon Battle Arena, and the original printings of NetRunner and the Horus Heresy Card Game. The idea was to build a light-weight but strategic trading card game that utilized mechanics inspired by these defunct games to elicit nostalgia for a product that hadn’t existed before. Additionally, all alterations to the template were made under the pretense that Grotto Beasts had existed in 1997 and it’s being re-released with updated gameplay, artwork and features. Every change to the template has lore to logically explain the required updates.