Lurking Below Deck
Collaborators
Nova Hale
Chris Wallitner
Alex Gore
Roles
Visual Designer
Game Developer
Game Developer
Timeline
Development: 6 Months
Design & Iteration: 9 months
Product Launch: Upcoming
Project Overview
Lurking Below Deck started as a silly little idea between three friends, and quickly grew into an actual, real, trying to be produced card game. In developing, designing, and launching this game, I have learned so much about game design, user experience, and work flows. In this case study, I’ll go stage by stage to explain how we created Lurking Below Deck (LBD) from start to finish.
Phase Navigation
Scroll on to read about each phase, or select a phase below to skip to one phase in particular.
Development
The first few iterations of Lurking Below Deck started on bulk plastic-y white cards that we bought on amazon and wrote instructions on with wet-erase markers, that way we could amend details without having to make a whole new card.
Each game during this time took around an hour to play, but that included lots of times between turns where we discussed card meanings, tweaked rules, and made notes.
We kept detailed notes and compiled spreadsheets that explained each card, it’s type, any costs, any benefits or hindrances to the player, and characters and their abilities.
During this time, our main focus was:
- Creating an exciting gameplay loop
- Ironing out core game mechanics
- Balancing character abilities
My contributions to this phase were:
- Documenting prototype gameplay for review and social media
- Prototyping card layout for best information hierarchy
- Designing cards, characters, and other game assets
Design
As the sole artist on this project, I had free reign over the creative direction. My teammates were happy to give me ideas and feedback, but I was able to play around with character designs, colors, ability symbols, and more assets.
I created around 100 asset designs in total for LBD. That includes 10 playable characters and their cards, 4 suits, 4 symbols for the suits, 3-5 images for the different card types in a suit, 30 deck cards, plus 2 key item cards, a monster card, and a lifeboat card.
During this time, our main focus was:
- Having placeholder designs to show players when testing the prototype
- Visualizing a game prototype for Kickstarter and printing purposes
My contributions to this phase were:
- Drawing, formatting and designing around 100 individual assets
- Documenting each stage of artwork for social media and inclusion in a kickstarter-exclusive art book
Characters
For the characters, I started with lots of sketches and thumbnails of what they could look like. The game’s lore is based in a fantasy world, so orcs, elves, and humans were free game.
We also wanted the characters to have a sort of medieval and industrial revolution vibe to them, outfits wise, so I played around with outfits and accessories.
After we got the characters together, I put together character-specific cards, complete with abilities and little lore items.
Lantern Cards
I wanted the symbols to be clearly different from each other at a glance and give the viewer a good idea of the skill the card’s suit represents. So, I went with the generic, most straightforward symbols I could think of. Then, I wanted the colors of each suit to be decently balanced and different enough from each other that they were less likely to be confused.
I’ll be the first to say I probably put way more thought than I needed to into the design of the card images. I draw inspiration from games like Queen by Midnight and Dungeons and Dragons, though, so I wanted to make something I could be proud of. I think the closest I got to that was with the brain cards, or the images that are purple.
Iteration
At this point, we were far enough along that we could begin to test the game with other people, specifically those who hadn’t ever seen the game before. What better way to do this than to post on our socials?
Well, that’s what we did. And we got a lot of interest! One commenter suggested running prototypes through Tabletop Simulator, which is an online simulated environment where you’re able to play board games, card games, and TTRPGS with friends, or even by yourself. We tested the game a lot this way ourselves, and when we were confident in it, we decided to unleash it to the public.
During this time, our main focus was:
- Testing the gameplay loop on players who had never seen the game before
- Rewording and redefining rules so that they made sense to players
- Generating public interest in the game
My contributions to this phase were:
- Publishing videos to social media about the game
- Creating post-game surveys for players to complete via TableTop Simulator
- Reporting survey data to the team
We were absolutely thrilled to see a user by the name of RubbishRaccoon @ our account with a full video of their playthrough! We were less thrilled to find out that they were unable to find the rules we had put in TableTop Simulator’s built in rules tab. Our first test, and we couldn’t see if the rules made sense!
The video wasn’t useless, however. The user had seen some of our other videos where we had included gameplay footage of our own playthroughs, and that gave them an idea of how the game should be laid out. Watching them and their friend play through the game was awesome! Even without a rulebook, they were mostly playing by the rules we had written! That told us our game was intuitive and learnable.
That same user then filled out our survey and gave us some valuable feedback. They really liked the way the game felt and some of the mechanics. Since they had to make up their own rules, they weren’t sure about some elements, but something they stressed was that they really wanted characters to be present in the game. That was exciting, because we had them!
So, we decided to redo the digital version, add characters, and make a rulebook that could sit on the table. We also decided to make a video tutorial on how to play the game, since that seemed to be something people looked for instead of a standard rulebook. Now this project is on hiatus until Spring 2026, while I finish up my bachelor’s degree.
Going Forward
We are planning on launching a kickstarter to fund a limited run for this game, but our timeline has been postponed due to tariff policies and life events.
If reading this case study has intrigued you, and you’d like to play the game for yourself, please check out the Tabletop Simulator version on steam. Or, you can support us by following our Kickstarter page here. Thank you for reading!
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