Maya's Portfolio

This game is now available on Red House Games, after a brilliantly succesful Kickstarter campaign.

Here you can now see the overall concept and design I was working with before I published it!

In 2018, I was awarded an Excellence Scholarship by Edge Hill University. Using the funding given to me, I set to work on a card game I had in mind. The premise was simple, I wanted to:

‘Create a game that didn’t have too many parts. It would be a card game with more than one way to play it.’

But more than that, I wanted it to have beautiful art to accompany it. I was particularly influenced by games like Muse, Dixit and Frenemy Pastry Party, games that had an air of competition about them mixed with stunning artwork and a more friendly and laid-back way of playing.

The first goal was to find an artist with my slightly smaller than average budget. That’s where I found the brilliant artist Tchouki, whose distinct style and art was the exact idea I had in mind.

Once I had all the pieces of the puzzle, it was time to start putting it all together.

The Game

Welcome to the world of Spirits!

Here you’ll find the spirits responsible for making the world around us the way it is. But I’d like to introduce you to the Spirits of Seasons.

These are the Spirits who alter and manipulate the weather to give us the seasons of the year. These spirits always want to be remembered as the best season of the year, by appealing to mortals. However sometimes these spirits can be a little mischievous and competitive. They’ve been known to tamper with their competition! Winter has sometimes brought a snowy flurry into Summer so as to make them look bad in front of the mortals! And Summer – in turn – melted away all of Winter’s carefully made snow just before the Holidays! Needless to say, the spirits can be a little cheeky sometimes.

But there are some things the Spirits can’t control… Natural Disasters. If and when these occur, all of the Spirits need to cooperate because a Natural Disaster can ruin a whole year for the mortals.

So, it’s up to you to make your season the most memorable of the year by using the right weather and event cards and gaining mortal favour!

Components

x 4 Profile Cards
x 12 Wonder Cards
x 6 Major Disaster Cards x Deck of Season Cards.

Silver Linings is a 2 – 4 Player game.
There are three game modes: Cooperative, Competitive and Tag Team.

Rules

The players’ goal is to make their season the most beloved of the year. They do this by accumulating points for their season. Each season can gain a different number of points per card. Each player has their own Season Deck set out in front of them, with the draw deck at the centre.

• The season cards have a different score depending on the season they’re played on.
• Some cards might decrease your overall score, but they will grant you a specific effect. In this case, you may play the card on another player to decrease their overall score, but they will get the effect of the card.
• During your turn, you may only play one card unless told otherwise (by a card effect).
• During your turn, you can play any card on your own deck or you can play it on another player’s deck.
• When a Major Disaster Card is drawn, all players lose points and the effect is immediately activated.
• Each Season has a special ability that can be used once per game. After this ability has been used, the player will flip their profile card to the greyscale side to indicate they have used their ability.
  The game ends after the final card has been drawn from the main deck. (If the final card is a Major Disaster card it does not go into effect). The game may also end early if New Years is played. Optional: You may remove New Years from the game if you want the game to run longer.

Alternative Game Modes:

Competitive: The normal way of playing the game. Only one Major Disaster Card is placed in the deck, chosen by the players or at random (Earthquake, Hurricane or Wildfire). One winner.

Cooperative: Players team up against the Major Disasters. All Disaster cards are placed in the deck (Earthquake, Hurricane or Wildfire). Players want to ensure all seasons succeed and gain the most points to nullify the negative points that the Major Disasters will incur.
Note: When a major disaster card is played, only the player who drew the card will lose those points.

Tag-Team: Two vs two. The game plays competitively but now with teams. Only one Major Disaster Card is placed in the deck, chosen by the players or at random (Earthquake, Hurricane or Wildfire).

There you have it for Silver Linings, a game I’m currently in the process of adjusting and hopefully able to manufacture multiple copies of the game to sell. But either way, I’m proud to say I managed and created a whole game.