Using Data Analysis to Determine if Cards in my Card Game Empyre are too Complex

In the late stages of this game’s design, I decided to gather some data to determine the answer to the following questions:

  • How easy is it for a new player to understand an Empyre card on average, compared to other card games?

  • How many unique effects does an Empyre card have on average, compared to other card games?

  • Among the different card sets in Empyre, which are more complex than others, and how do they compare to the complexity of other games overall?

Measuring Complexity - Definitions

I used the following metrics to measure complexity:

  • Complexity Element: Each complexity element is a thing about a card the player has to learn and understand. For the purposes of this data, I am assuming that the players understand the basic combat mechanics of the game, so a complexity element would be an additional feature compared to a ‘Vanilla’ creature from the games (only stats and cost.)

  • Unique Features: Effects that are unique to this specific card; not counting effects, keywords and unique stats that are shared between multiple cards.

Complexity Elements represent how ‘impenetrable’ a card is, or how much time or attention players require to understand what it is and how to use it. Unique Features measure how complex a card is to utilize by intermediate players. Cards with unique features may have more strategic considerations involved in play.

Examples of cards with 0 Complexity Elements: Cards which have basic stats, but no other special qualities.

Choosing Game Comparisons

I decided to choose these data-sets to examine, for the following reasons:

  • Empyre: To evaluate the complexity of cards in my game.

  • Magic the Gathering - 2021 Core Set: Since the cards in Empyre are to act as a ‘core set’ for the game, I decided to evaluate the core set of other games, as these would be the cards most readily available to new players. Magic the Gathering is the oldest and most popular TCG, and most closely matches our target audience.

  • Hearthstone Current Core Set: Hearthstone is also a widely popular TCG, and known to be on the lower end of complexity. I figured it might be a good comparison for the lower end of complexity, and also see if the reputation matches the data.

  • Three Yu-gi-oh - Modern Decklists: Yu-gi-oh is another popular game, known for its complexity and fast-paced gameplay. Since modern yu-gi-oh doesn’t have a core set, and is instead divided into booster packs and archetypes, I decided to sample the cards from three different modern decklists, using internet research to approximate a ‘Beginner’ deck, ‘Intermediate’ deck and ‘Advanced’ deck.

    • Beginner: Blue-eyes Synchro.

    • Intermediate: Swordsoul

    • Advanced: Ishizu Tearlaments

  • One Piece TCG - Romance Dawn Booster: This data set was mostly important because of its recent release date of 2022. The Romance Dawn booster was the first booster pack aside from the structure deck cards, and acts as an initial core set for the game.

Method of Data Collection

To collect the data each effect was read and interpreted in the following manner:

  • Discrete effects - Complexity element and unique feature: Card effects were evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Effects with multiple related steps were counted as a single complexity element and unique effect. However, even simple effects that represent a discrete and different action were counted as different for the purposes of this data.

  • Effect Qualifiers - Not counted: Effect qualifiers, such as One Piece’s Once per Turn, Empyre’s Triggers, and Magic’s Tap requirements were counted as part of the effect they are attached to, and are not considered to be an additional complexity element.

  • Keywords and special stats or qualities - Complexity element, not Unique feature: Each special quality or common effect, such as Magic: The Gathering’s keywords, One Piece’s DON!! requirements or Counter+ stats, or repeated archetypal effects in Empyre and Yugioh are counted as a complexity element, but not a unique feature.

What counts as a Discrete effect?
Despite being much more complicated, this effect of Nibiru, the Primal Being is counted as one discrete complexity element. Whereas Chaos Strike’s simpler effects of ‘Give your hero +2 Attack this turn’ and ‘Draw a card’ are also both counted as one complexity element.

  • Using the Mode: Using the Mode of the data will show us the complexity of the card that the player is most likely to encounter.

  • Using the Average: Using the Average of the data will show us a more granular number that will help us compare the complexity of the larger data set overall.

Data Analysis Approach

Data Synthesis

How easy is it for a new player to understand an Empyre card on average, compared to other card games?

  • Cards in Empyre are on average more complex than those in other card games, aside from Modern Yugioh.

  • However, the most frequent cards seen by players in Empyre are of a similar complexity to the cards in Modern Yugioh.

How many Unique effects does a card in Empyre have on average, compared to other card games?

  • The number of unique effects per card in Empyre is at almost exactly the same level as cards in Magic the Gathering - with no variation between the Average and Mode.

Among the different card sets in Empyre, which are more complex than others, and how do they compare to the complexity of other games overall?

Some sets were on the lower end of the complexity spectrum, even lower than some other less complicated games overall. However the unique features remained pretty consistent, with many of them having a similar level to each other and other card games. This suggests that once players understand the game and it’s common effects and elements more, its complexity is comparable to other games in the genre.

The Modes of the Set data were slightly different than the averages. This suggested that some sets, while mostly simple, had a few outlier cards which were more complex which brought up the average.

Overall, the Mode is more useful, because it represents the most common card a player will be interacting with in any particular set.

The unique feature modes were almost completely consistent, showing most sets in Empyre are on a similar level to other card games, aside from Modern Yugioh.