A digital deck-building RPG where tiny sets of cards defeat massive foes.
Dylan Nelkin + Pathon Sivarapornsakul
Class: Thesis I - 2019-2020
Instructor: Frank Lantz Mitu Khandaker Bennett Foddy
Zenith Junction is a digitaldeck-building card game in which players use tiny sets of
cards to defeat massive foes. Zenith Junction blends elements of digital and tabletop
deck-building games, and also utilizes partition game mechanics.
Zenith Junction takes place in a world of trains and magic, intended to highlight the
complicated aesthetic connections between industrialization, nature, and the
supernatural. Zenith Junction pays homage to steampunk anime and the American
labor movement of the early 20th century.
Zenith Junction is meant to explore designing a deck builder where every tiny edge
counts, and synergy is the most important metric of a card’s worth. Often in deck
builders you can make one or two sub-optimal choices, but if every card in a hand can
make or break an encounter, microstrategy can matter more than long-term planning.
This is intended to combine the thrill and uncertainty of limited-set card games with the
strategy of engine-building. Zenith Junction also approaches making card games from
an action-oriented angle, creating an experience that’s still exciting, still contains a
feeling of visceral action and dramatic sense of scale, despite what may seem to be
complicated decisions
