A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry, card throwing, and card houses; cards may also be collected. Some patterns of Tarot playing card are also used for divination, although bespoke cards for this use are more common. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel, later released in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International is a Game Boy Advance game based on the popular Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game and TV series that has the player set during the Battle City arc, dueling popular characters from the anime and manga. The main objective of the game is to build a strong deck from cards won after duels from the main cast from the English second season anime.
Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, published by Wizards of the Coast. It was released on June 15, 2011. The game is a follow up to the highly popular Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers, which was released in 2009. An expansion for the game, called Ascend into Darkness, was released on September 14, 2011. The sequel, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, was released in 2012.
Cards Against Humanity is a party game in which players complete fill-in-the-blank statements using words or phrases typically deemed as offensive, risqué or politically incorrect printed on playing cards. It has been compared to the 1999 card game Apples to Apples and originated from a Kickstarter campaign in 2011. Its title refers to the phrase "crimes against humanity", reflecting its politically incorrect content.
Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a thematic cooperative board game designed by Kevin Lanzing with the help of firefighters. released in November 2011. The objective is for players to work together to rescue people and animals from a burning building before it collapses. Since the initial release of the game several expansions have been published, which add additional scenarios for players experience. These include fires in a high rise building, a two-story house, and a submarine.
Sentinels of the Multiverse is a cooperative card game published by Greater Than Games and released at Gen Con 2011. Players control a team of comic book-style heroes battling a villain. Each player controls one or more heroes, while a villain and environment deck each run themselves. A given game includes 3 to 5 heroes, 1 villain and 1 environment, which can be mixed and matched to create a number of different scenarios. The core game comes with 10 heroes, 4 villains, and 4 environments.
Exploding Kittens is a card game designed by Elan Lee, Matthew Inman from the comics site The Oatmeal, and Shane Small. Originally proposed as a Kickstarter project seeking US$10,000 in crowdfunding, it exceeded the goal in eight minutes and on January 27, 2015, seven days after opening, it passed 103,000 backers setting the record for the most backers in Kickstarter history. At completion on February 19, 2015, it had US$8,782,571 in pledges by 219,382 backers. The campaign ended as the fourth most funded campaign on the crowdfunding site. The first play test of Exploding Kittens was recorded on YouTube by Smosh Games, who had the first deck. The backers started receiving delivery in late July 2015; all backers received the game by September 2015.Exploding Kittens is described as a “strategic card game about cats and destruction”.
Star Realms is a card-based deck building science-fiction tabletop game, designed by Rob Dougherty and Darwin Kastle and published in 2014 by White Wizard Games. The game started out as a Kickstarter campaign in 2013. The goal of Star Realms is to destroy your opponent or opponents by purchasing cards using "trade" points and using these cards to attack your opponent's "authority" using your "combat" points. The game takes place in a distant future where different races compete to gain resources, trade and outmaneuver each other in a race to become ruler of the galaxy.
Hand of Fate is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Australian studio Defiant Development for Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, released via early access on 7 July 2014, and then in the full release on 17 February 2015. A PlayStation Vita version was announced but ultimately cancelled due to development issues.
Epic Card Game is a strategy card game created by White Wizard Games, the creators of Star Realms. It was released in 2015 after a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. It is a sort of reboot of an old collectible card game with the same name (EPIC) edited in 2009 by the developer Darwin Kastle and the lead designer Robert Dougherty.
Secret Hitler is a hidden identity party game developed by Goat, Wolf, & Cabbage LLC, manufactured by Breaking Games and distributed by Blackbox. The board game was designed by Max Temkin, Mike Boxleiter and Tommy Maranges, with artwork created by Mackenzie Schubert, and first released on August 25, 2016. In Secret Hitler, players assume the roles of liberals and fascists in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic, with one player becoming Hitler. To win the game, both parties are set to competitively enact liberal and fascist policies, respectively, or complete a secondary objective directly involving Hitler.
Kingdom Death: Monster is a cooperative board game created by Adam Poots and released in 2015.
Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a living card game produced by Fantasy Flight Games. It is a cooperative game set in the universe of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game which is itself based on the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and other cosmic horror writers. The title refers to Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham, MA which is mentioned in many Mythos stories.
Bears vs Babies is a card game created by Elan Lee and Matthew Inman, who also created Exploding Kittens. Inman is also the founder of the website The Oatmeal.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links is a free-to-play, digital collectible card game developed by Konami for the iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows platforms, based on Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. After an initial beta period, the game was first released in Japan on November 17, 2016, and then released to the rest of the world on January 11, 2017. The Windows version was released worldwide via Steam on November 17, 2017.
Faeria is a digital collectible card and turn-based strategy game that takes place on a dynamic playing board set in a fantasy universe. The game was developed and published by the independent Belgian game studio Abrakam, and released for desktop platforms in 2017 and for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in August 2020, and is set to release for PlayStation 4 in November 2020. The game was well-received by critics, holding a score of 80/100 on reviews aggregation website Metacritic.
Hearthstone is a digital collectible card game released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2014, available for Microsoft Windows and macOS PCs and iOS and Android smartphones. The game is free-to-play, with players gaining in-game currency and card packs via winning matches and completing quests, while real-world money can be spent to acquire additional card packs and cosmetic items. The game has been critically well-received and financially successful, estimated to earn nearly US$40 million per month as of August 2017. As of November 2018, Blizzard has reported more than 100 million Hearthstone players. Blizzard has continued to expand the game with the addition of multiple expansions, adventures and game modes.
Eternal is a free-to-play online collectible card video game developed and published by Dire Wolf Digital. Eternal is available for iOS, Android, Xbox One, PCs using Steam and Nintendo Switch. The game features cross-platform play, allowing players to use any of the supported platforms to compete against each other. The game takes place in a Weird West fantasy setting. The game was in Steam early access in November 2016 and then had its official wide release in November 2018 that included support for the Xbox One. Eternal was released for the Switch on October 8, 2019.
Hero Realms is a card-based deck building fantasy tabletop game, designed by Rob Dougherty and Darwin Kastle and published in 2016 by White Wizard Games. The game started out as a Kickstarter campaign in 2016. The goal of Hero Realms is to destroy your opponent or opponents by purchasing cards using "Gold" and using these cards to attack your opponent's "health" and their champions using your "combat" points or other powerful effects.
The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls is a card game designed by Edmund McMillen, with additional designs by Danielle McMillen and Tyler Glaiel. Based on the indie video game The Binding of Isaac, players control one of several characters - Isaac, Judas, Maggy, or Cain - as they defeat bosses to collect Lost Souls. Each character has abilities that impact either them or other players, and players may work cooperatively to defeat bosses and enemies. The first player to acquire four souls wins. A Kickstarter campaign launched on June 27, 2018, and broke its funding goal of $50,000 within the first 1.5 hours.
