Hi! my name is Pablo, i am from Argentina, and i have been browsing through this forum for sometime now. Some months ago i decided to make some games for iPhone and here i am, i have just submitted my first game and waiting for approval.

The reason i am writing this is to ask some question about the design of a simple card game. I hope you can give me some help

I have been playing a simple 2 player card game with some friends, which can be played with spanish or poker cards, it is really engaging and i am planning to make it for iphone. My initial idea would be to make it player vs cpu since i don't have the resources to make it multiplayer yet.

The thing is... i am not sure on how to keep the player playing the game, i mean how to make it more complete.

What i am really asking is what "tricks" to use to make more than just a game with and easy-normal-hard mode.

For example, if player wins a match he would earn "cash" which can be spent on unlocking a harder difficulty.

Sorry if i am not being too clear, but from my point of view i wouldn't be playing a card game against the cpu for long which doesn't have a compelling reward.

You could earn cash to spend on upgrades, e.g. new card faces, a highscore board, new splash screens, card-based minigames, etc, etc.

New in-game avatars. Perhaps some special RPG like special abilities that must be purchased?

I don't think you really need any sort of reward system. Just keep track of the stats so they can see their win percentage, etc. People play minesweeper, solitaire, and freecell for hours on end with no real changes or rewards.

Something I don't see often enough is the ability to earn or buy special audio tracks, perhaps even a new set of sound effects in a different genre. If the player wins x amount of games, they can unlock new music/sounds.

you could jump on the achievements band wagon, and if you do something hard or cool, or just plan silly, you get an achievement. And you can reward people by giving the accessories on there player for all the achievements they have.

Quote:People play minesweeper, solitaire, and freecell for hours on end

And I thought I was sad.