Boardgame CraftBoardgame Craft

Step 2: Build Your Cards

Make a small deck of cards using the Card Deck Editor. The goal here is speed, not beauty — just enough cards to test one turn of your game.

How cards work in Boardgame Craft

Two tools work together to make cards:

  • The Card Deck Editor holds your card data in a spreadsheet. Each row is one card, and each column is one field (like Name, Cost, or Effect).
  • The Template Editor holds your card design — where the title goes, where the art goes, what fonts and colors to use.

Why split data and design? Because you design the look once, and all your cards use it. Add 50 more rows to the spreadsheet and you get 50 more finished cards — no extra design work.

Create a deck

  1. Open Tools in the top navigation and choose Card Deck Editor.
  2. Click the new deck button to open the Create Card Deck dialog.
  3. Enter a Name, then choose how to start: blank for an empty deck, or pick a public starter template to begin with a ready-made structure.
The Card Deck Editor page showing a saved deck card and the New Card Deck button
Card Deck Editor — every deck you make lives here.

Add a few cards

  1. Type directly into the spreadsheet cells. Start with two or three columns — for example Name, Cost, and Effect.
  2. Add a row for each card. Aim for 5–10 cards.
  3. Click Save Card Deck when you're done.
The Card Deck Editor workspace with the deck spreadsheet
The Card Deck Editor — rows are cards, columns are fields.

Already have your cards in a spreadsheet? Use the CSV or Excel import buttons to load them in one go.

Preview the deck on a table

  1. Save the deck, then click Preview in 3D.
  2. The simulator opens with this deck ready for a quick visual check.
  3. To add it to a game later, choose Card Deck under Add Components, select Boardgame Craft Deck, and pick the saved deck.

Give the cards a look (optional for now)

Your deck works fine with plain data for a first playtest. When you want the cards to actually look like cards, open the Template Editor, design a layout, and link its fields to your deck columns. The Template Editor guide covers this in detail.

Next up

Time for the fun part — putting everything on a table and playing it. Continue to Step 3: Play on the Table.