Principles

Why yet another card game? These are some of the design goals that went into creating Dimensional Rift.

Positional

This is the main design element of Dimensional Rift, and it is heavily inspired by the (now archaic) "Shifting Shadows" and (later on) Link card in Yu-Gi-Oh!, where cards are played to specific "slots" in the battlefield (unlike MTG/Pokemon). Not only that, but in Dimensional Rift their specific orientation and the arrows drawn in the card determine which zones can be targeted. Most design decisions are direct and indirect consequences of this core premise.

Extra Deck

The second core design premise stolen from Yu-Gi-Oh! is the Extra Deck (called Fables Deck in Dimensional Rift), a separate deck of more powerful, sometimes circumstantial and possibly expensive (to play, not to buy) cards that won't clutter the Main Deck. This allows for the luck of the draw still dictating execution while having fixed game plans as possibilities and no chance of "mana screw" or "flood".

Chains

We are big fans of chains (or the Stack) in TCG games, and Dimensional Rift is designed to encourage the player to chain lots of cards, but without being unfair to the their opponent. So cards cannot ever be played or activated from the hand on the opponent's turn, but can be set face-down in the battlefield, just like in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and be later activated in the opponent's turn to disrupt their plans.

No Generic Counter Spells

To make more interesting chains, instead of generic counter spells or removal, cards will just affect the board and hopefully make other effects miss target, fizzle, or just do the opposite of what the opponent intended. For example, instead of simply "countering" an effect, a player could chain a Sidestep effect or cause the source to be Suppressed in order for targeting to fail.

No Dedicated Resource System

We think having bland resource cards cluttering the Main Deck, such as Pokemon's Energies or MTG's Lands, is a sub-optimal design choice. While there could be separate resource decks, or a "inking" mechanic from Lorcana, Dimensional Rift is balanced around not having centralized resource systems.

That does not mean everything is free, though! Other kinds of resources are used to gatekeep more powerful cards and limit effects (such as sacrificial costs, the mana that is collected on cards, and a myriad of more esoteric options), but they are not in the deck.

Therefore, all cards in a deck will represent intentional choices and will have powers and effects of their own. No chance of mana screw of flood, no dead draws or sad cards that won't get to play because they had to be "inked".

Few Card with Costs on Main Decks

Alongside no primary resource system, in general, most cards in the Main Deck have no cost whatsoever; a player is constrained by their card draw, the zones they've conquered, and how they want to distribute their resources across the game; if the entire hand is used on turn one, that might become a disadvantage later (or not - that is the choice).

Essentially, one should be able to play any card in one's hand each turn, but likely not all of them - and the gameplay choice is to pick which one(s). In MTG's turn one, two and sometimes even more, a player often has absolutely no choice whatsoever as there is only one very obvious optimal play. We hope that Dimensional Rift can eliminate that feeling by giving the player back full control on each turn. While some Main Deck cards can have a (low) cost, the vast majority of the powerful, costly cards are in the Fables Deck and not cluttering the hand.

No "card-specific" Cards

As games like Yu-Gi-Oh! power creep, cards designed with very specific combos in mind start to pop up; to the point that some cards mention other cards by names in their effects. No card in Dimensional Rift will ever mention another card's name; the effects should be generic and can mention certain attributes of cards, in order to match certain themes (though even that is discouraged), as the goal is that there is no pre-defined combos; there is a set of cards with possibly synergizing effects that can (or not) work well together, but on the actual gameplay each effect might be used in different situations.

No Banishment

Banishment, exile, or "removed from play" are just next tiers of graveyards. Without power creep making the graveyard a second hand, effects that target, activate from, interact, or restore cards from the graveyard do not exist in Dimensional Rift. So unlike other TCGs, there is no concept of removing from play (or, god forbid, "banish face down", the 3rd tier of removal in Yu-Gi-Oh!). There is only one level of graveyard - and it is forever.

Card Lifecycle

In fact, every card has a lifecycle. It starts being drawn from the deck to the hand (never searched); it is then played from the hand (or from the Fables Deck) onto the battlefield, potentially face down. Eventually, it is summoned (possibly via flipping), and triggers "When summoned" effects. It stays in the battlefield until it is destroyed (either by damage or direct destruction), triggering its "When destroyed" effects. Then, it goes to the grave, and stays there. Forever. No Monster Reborn.

This kind of restriction places a sanity-check on effects that could allow for broken, infinite loops. A design goal of Dimensional Rift is to have no infinite combos, FTKs or other similar nonsense from fully power-crept games.

Reasonable Effects

No single effects with dozens of lines. Each effect in a card should be relatively easy to understand and explain to the opponent. Complex combos should be made by combining multiple effects in a chain, possibly in novel and unexpected ways.

At the same time, every card has at least one, probably more effects (average of 2-3), aimed at different situations. While increasing the complexity of each card, that makes them more versatile - more likely that there will be some relevant effect for a situation. There are no effect-less creatures that turn the gameplay into an obvious "bigger number better" caveman choice.

No Tutors

No tutors or deck searches. Dimensional Rift is a card game, meaning it must combine skill with luck (which is the hand draw). Each duel should be unique depending on the cards that were draw. Very powerful effects might allow drawing extra cards (or, on a more limited capacity, Research, which is draw 1 then discard 1), but never actually searching the deck. Searching is time consuming, causes analysis paralysis, and is a gateway to power creep, while violating the fundamental contract of a card game. Cards that need to be accessible for one reason or another should just be on the Fables Deck.

No "colors" / Archetype restrictions

While we have not settled yet on deck building rules, and the current cards are sorted by faction based on their themes and shared mechanics, theoretically, with very few exceptions (such as the Transform mechanic), cards should "just work" on any deck. They might not be ideal or fully synergistic, but even shuffling random cards should yield a playable deck. When drafting, there should be no "moot" cards. Just imagine for a second "drafting" a completely random Yu-Gi-Oh! sampling from the entire card pool - that is not the experience Dimensional Rift is about.

No alternative winning conditions

Because of the previous points, one corollary is that there should be no alternative win conditions. There can be only one losing condition, which is reaching 0 HP, causing the opponent to win. That means that all cards can be aligned and balanced towards the same goal. There can be no mill effects, for example, because they are useless unless an entire deck contributes to that win condition. If a single mill card is added to an otherwise damage-focused deck, it would be a moot card (and vice-versa). This goes against the previous principles.

A "non-TCG" TCG

We love the deck building and gameplay aspect of the famous TCGs out there, like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering. However, the real life grind to acquire new, expensive cards, the power creep, ban lists, etc. are things we really dislike. Dimensional Rift brings the deck building aspect within the game, in a concept similar to Magic's "draft" or "constructed" game modes. However, the set of cards is pre-defined and come all together on the same "box".

Note that Dimensional Rift is in a very early beta version, so details regarding deck building, drafting and card distribution are still undecided.