Jumpstart Neo was my capstone project in my final semester at UTD. The project is a showcase of both my character-driven narrative design, as well as my detail-oriented game design process. The basic premise is that I wrote five short fantasy stories featuring five unique characters, and then I designed and tested playable Magic: the Gathering cards based on these characters. I designed the cards for Jumpstart, an official product created by Wizards of the Coast. I chose this format for its compact design and for being an excellent teaching tool for new players.
Right at the start of the semester, I outlined a development timeline that I could stick through no matter how busy my other classes became. The first step was to analyze the most recent Jumpstart product, Jumpstart 2022. I compiled the data of each existing Jumpstart pack into a spreadsheet for analysis. This first step proved to be crucial, as it provided a healthy framework for my design later on.
The next two months involved writing the five stories and then creating the first batch of cards to go alongside them. For the stories, I tried to write characters that were unique, but still easy to understand. The tone was kept light-hearted, and I used the phrase "low-stakes DnD adventure" to describe the stories.
The design process was much more difficult. I designed over 40 cards for this project, with the goal that each card would be individually memorable. Each card went through multiple iterations, as every play test session taught me more about the cards I had been designing.
Here is a page of white cards from the print sheet. The full print sheet can be found here. I update it whenever cards are changed.
Once play testing was over and cards were finalized, the next task was to document the entire process into a single comprehensive document. This document outlines the project's purpose, design steps, and includes a section for every pack and a paragraph for every card designed for this project.
A full version of this document can be found here.