Disney Lorcana co-designer aims to make TCG more accessible and less ‘male-dominated’

Ravensburger and Disney have a unique opportunity through the TCG Disney Lorcana to introduce a trading card game to a wide variety of individuals who would normally never play that type of game. 

Disney Lorcana is a new trading card game that has a soft launch in August through local game stores, competing against games like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Pokémon. Co-designer Ryan Miller spoke to Dot Esports about the main goals that went into creating the Disney Lorcana TCG, and directly competing with the big three was never an intention. The goal wasn’t to reinvent the wheel, according to Miller, but instead to create a trading card game for everyone. 

“Our main goals were accessibility, fun, strategic, and inclusive as well,” Miller told Dot Esports. “We feel like trading card games have long been male-dominated and we would like to change that.”

Tapping into a franchise like Disney provided Lorcana devs with an abundance of characters. If princesses are what a player is into, “they can just put their princess in a deck and be fine,” according to Miller, when playing in a casual environment. The same can be said for villains and heroes, along with side characters that have never been in the spotlight.

Making an accessible game doesn’t mean strategy and skill weren’t a focus during the design process, though. Complexity gets a “bad rap,” according to Miller, and is needed for “any game that you want to be around long term.” The Lorcana TCG is packed with complexities through card types like Characters, Items, and Activities. And much like MTG, there are six colors that feature that support a variety of strategic themes. 

“The bones of the game can be fairly simple, the basic rules, but the strategy can come in which card you put in your deck and how you play your cards throughout the game,” Miller said.

Disney Lorcana is a TCG that potentially stands apart from the other digital and tabletop card games by having a multiplayer format that is using the same cards as competitive players. Once learning the basic rules, players can continue to take a casual and fun approach to the TCG or dive deep into the mechanics on a competitive level.  

Related: What is Lore in Dinsey Lorcana and how to get it

Players and collectors can check out everything Disney Lorcana has to offer starting on Aug. 18 at local game stores only. Major retailers have a release date of Sept. 1.