Cantoludus

Practice music theory in a strategy card game.

Cantoludus is a deck-building card game about music theory. Players combine Note cards to match face-up Interval and Chord cards, scoring points while practicing music theory fundamentals.

Game Rules and Print-and-Play

Design Process:

Creating Cantoludus was largely an exercise in rapid design and iteration. Once we solidified our basic game idea, we set out to prototype and start playing within a week.

We quickly found that the game had potential, but needed a lot of work. For the next few prototypes, we used Tabletop Simulator to test the game virtually, which made it easy to update cards quickly.

Over time, we worked on:

• Variety (types of cards)
• Game balance
• Catch-up mechanisms (a "banking" mechanic to let players save cards)

Playtests with other people highlighted some pain points, such as decision paralysis from the many permutations of cards that could be combined. This problem in particular would be reduced as a player repeatedly plays the game, so one solution we're considering is to have an optional reference table that a player could use in their first few games.

Project Credits: Maze Labowitz, Jesse Herrnson

Featured image contains a texture designed by Freepik.