Game Summary
Power Surgery is a cooperative 2-player card game where players take turns cutting wires to disable rogue robots. The game is played on a 4×4 grid, where players flip, rotate, and swap cards strategically to achieve their goal. The challenge comes from limited actions, dynamic card interactions, and the need to anticipate future moves, leading to emergent gameplay despite a small set of rules and mechanics.
This project showcases my ability to:
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Create eye catching designs that corresponds to the game and card aesthetics
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Design games under tight constraints – balancing simplicity with depth, ensuring quick learning and engaging play.
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Create emergent gameplay – allowing strategic interactions to arise naturally from a small set of rules and mechanics.
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Work iteratively – improving mechanics based on playtesting, feedback, and careful tuning.
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Design modular systems – making a flexible game where new cards can be added or removed without breaking core mechanics.
Design Constraints
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The assignment required us to design a modular, thematic card game that fosters emergent gameplay and can be completed by new players in ~30 minutes.
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Modularity: Each card contributes to gameplay individually, allowing for easy expansions or modifications.
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Player Interaction: Actions like flipping, swapping, and rotating cards create dynamic decision-making.
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Minimal Complexity: The game needed to be strategic but easy to learn, balancing depth with accessibility.
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Thematic Ties: Players act as engineers performing high-stakes “power surgery” to disable rogue robots, reinforcing narrative through mechanics.
Initial Concept
At the beginning, Power Surgery revolved around four distinct decks:
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Toolbox Deck – Offered tools players could use to gain advantages (e.g. extra time).
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Wire Deck – cards players would cut, with events tied to the cut.
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Event Deck – Introduced random effects hidden beneath wire cards.
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Monster Deck – Contained Various types of monsters each had unique requirements players must do in order to defeat them
Gameplay took place on a 4x4 grid, where wire cards were placed face up on top of event cards placed face down.
Players took turns cutting wires within a timer, earning points and potentially triggering a hidden event. Each player also had three toolbox cards they could use strategically to assist during their turn.
The core cooperative mechanic was centered around wire-cutting, but as each wire functioned independently, the game initially lacked emergent strategy and interconnected decision-making.
Major Revision 1
In response to early playtests and balancing concerns, the following changes were made:
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Removed Toolbox and Event Decks – These were trimmed to reduce complexity and streamline gameplay. Event randomness and toolbox reliance were found to detract from strategy.
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Refined Monster Cards - Restricted the monster cards to only have requirements relating to how the wires are cut leading to two types of enemies: stationary and moving.
Playtest Feedback
Multiple rounds of playtesting revealed key pain points:
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Rule Misunderstandings – Some players connected pink and blue wires incorrectly
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Difficulty Spikes – New players were starting against the hardest monsters, creating a steep learning curve.
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Monster Type Confusion – Players struggled to differentiate between “connected” monster (Player has to make the cut connected to the monsters) and “unconnected” Monsters (focused make cuts in patterns or shaped determined by the monster cards).
Major Revision 2
The team introduced a series of changes to improve clarity, accessibility, and depth:
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Standardized Terminology – Streamlined rule language and card text for better onboarding and consistent player understanding.
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New Wire Mechanics
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Added negative wires (disabling certain actions).
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Introduced actions like swapping adjacent wires and replacing wires.
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Iconography Updates – Used symbols like USB icons on monster cards to make effects intuitive.
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Monster Difficulty Ranking – Labeled mobs as Easy, Medium, or Hard to help players choose appropriate challenges.
