GDD

Game Title: Stack the Stream

Genre: Card-based Strategy / Livestream Simulation

Platform: PC / Mobile

Target Audience: Players who enjoy deck-building, strategy, and simulation games with a light-hearted, humorous tone.

1. Game Overview

Stack the Stream is a card-based strategy game set in a humorous bacgkround where a wizard come from another world must livestream to earn enough tips to return home. The wizard, trapped in a modern world, has to use her magic to boost her livestream performance and earn tips through careful card play, with each stream being a only-one-turn event. Players need to optimize their deck, manage their energy, and increase both their viewers and vibe to earn as much money as possible.

2. Core Gameplay Mechanics

2.1 Card Mechanics

Cards represent actions that the wizard takes during the livestream, and each card can affect Viewers, Vibe, or Tips.

• Viewers: The number of people watching the stream.

• Vibe: The excitement and energy of the stream, influencing how much Tips are generated.

• Tips: The in-game currency you earn, determined by Viewers × Vibe.

Cards have a color and a draw value.

• Color: If play card with same color in sequence, you can get boost increased and increase the viewers. This is kind of like the topic the streamer is talking.

• Draw Value: The number of cards you draw from the deck when you play this card.

2.2 Energy System & Deck Management

Energy is tied directly to your deck. Each card has an Energy cost, and the total energy is equal to the number of remaining cards in your deck at the start of a stream.

• Energy is consumed each time you play a card.

• The number of cards you draw is equal to the card’s draw value, which can range from 0 to 3 cards.

Example:
At the start of a stream, if your deck has 20 cards, you have 20 Energy. If you play a card with a draw value of 2, it costs 2 Energy and draws 2 additional cards from the deck.

• You must manage your Energy carefully throughout the stream, as depleting it too early means you’ll be left with fewer cards to play later in the stream.

2.3 Color Chain & Boost System

A unique feature of Stack the Stream is the Color Chain Mechanic.

• Boost increases when you play cards of the same color consecutively.

• Each time you play a card of the same color as the previous one, your Boost increases by a certain amount (e.g., +1 Boost for each consecutive same-colored card).

• Each Boost increases Viewers and can multiply your earned Tips.

Example:
Playing Red → Red → Red results in a growing Boost:
Boost = 3, which is added to Viewers and multiplied by Vibe.

• If you play a different colored card, the Boost resets to 0.

Example:
Red → Red → Blue results in Boost = 0 for the Blue card.

2.4 Tips and Reward System

• Tips are earned by multiplying Viewers by Vibe.

  • Example: If you have 1000 Viewers and a Vibe of 2.0, your earned Tips would be 1000 × 2.0 = 2000 Tips.

• Earned Tips from each stream are used to buy new cards or modify your deck between streams.

  • More Tips = More Money to buy better or more powerful cards for your next stream.

  • You can discard weak cards or purchase powerful cards to improve your deck and better handle future streams.

2.5 Stream Progression

Each stream is a one-turn event, where the goal is to earn as much Tips as possible:

• Start a stream by drawing your starting hand.

• Play all your cards in one go. Once you’ve played all cards - or you run out of your hand, your stream ends.

• The Tips you earned will be added to your bonus pool for the next stream.

3. Between Streams

After each stream, you can spend your earned Tips to buy new cards, there are several synergies 

1. • Boost: increase boost and use that to increase viewers and vibe. 
   • Exchange: exchange or increase vibe by decrease viewers and make the final value large 
   • Discard: get benefit when discard card return: get benefit when add card to deck 
   • LotsCards: make your deck huge and get benefit 
   • Final: increase viewers and vibe and at last get tips lots of times to get high final result. 
   • Buff: add buff(increase value of viewers or vibe) a lot and get benefit.

     We didn't implement all of them but we tried to implement some cards in each..

4. Visual Style and Art Direction

4.1 Art Style

• 2D Hand-drawn style with a whimsical, magical atmosphere.

• The world of the wizard is a mix of fantasy and modern elements, highlighting the absurdity of the wizard’s situation (e.g., using a magic wand to interact with a livestreaming setup).

• We didn't get time to polish the art

4.2 UI/UX

• Live Stream View:

  • Display Viewers, Vibe, and Tips at the top of the screen, clearly showing progress during the stream.

• Card Display:

  • Cards are visually categorized by color, with effects highlighted when they increase Boost.

5. Conclusion

Stack the Stream combines the fun and strategy of card-based gameplay with the dynamic excitement of livestreaming. The game challenges players to optimize their deck, manage energy, and build up Viewers and Vibe to earn tips, all while experiencing the life of a magical streamer in a modern world.