If you have ever played a trading card game for any period of time, you’ll already have a sense of how predatory the industry can be.
In a world where people purchase packs of Pokemon cards en masse in an attempt to find rare cards they can sell to collectors for exorbitantly high prices, those that are wanting nothing more than to play a game they enjoy are being either priced out or burnt out.
However, a new trading card game based in Nova Scotia may be the remedy.
Arcane The Eternal is an independent card game created and developed by Inverness County’s own Theo Feehan-Peters. Through demos and reoccurring game days at card shops throughout Sydney and Halifax, Arcane has been picking up new players province-wide while consistently selling out of stock with every new delivery of starter decks and card booster packs.
In part, it was a way to combat a model of trading card games slowly becoming inaccessible for those without a six-digit salary.
“The way the economy is going, this K-shaped economy, there’s not a whole lot of profit to be made in terms of people who aren’t making $200,000 a year because they’re only barely scraping by,” says Feehan-Peters in an interview with The Coast. “They can’t afford to buy a lot for their hobby.
“But I feel like what those companies are maybe forgetting is that the big fish are built off of the backs of the small fish.”
Yet, that’s only part of the inspiration for Feehan-Peters. Regardless of the economic aspect, Arcane The Eternal started as an idea he had been dreaming of since he was a youth, exploring the natural environment of his home and conceiving of a fantasy world based in what he saw around him.
The first iteration of Arcane started as a table-top role-playing game that Feehan-Peters conceived of when he was a child.
“I just wanted to make a game for me and my friends and my cousins to play,” he says. “It was kind of like a D&D thing. There wasn’t strict rules, but I would describe a room that you enter and then, like, here’s a puzzle to solve, or a guy you have to beat. It kind of evolved from there.”
While the traditional table-top aspect was discarded for a trading card format, Feehan-Peters still sees the DNA of that original conception in the game he’s made. Building your deck is creating a character of sorts. The battle system has been refined into card-based combat.
Following a dream
Feehan-Peters didn’t go to school for economics or business. He wanted to be a game designer.
When he finished school, he was hired by a software developer, an experience he valued. Unfortunately, he was eventually out of work after the company instituted a mass layoff of developers.
Five hours after receiving notice, he learned he won a prize for writing.
Feehan-Peters took it as a sign. He could attempt to build something from his creative work rather than software development.
When the idea for a card game sprung to mind, he took the time to talk to card shop owners and players, getting their thoughts on what an independent, local trading card game might look like and how best to take advantage of the niche it could fill.
When the Canada-United States trade war began, he saw even more potential for Arcane. With most of the card manufacturers based out of the United States, a home-spun original game had promise.
“(At the) end of last year, with the trade war started, I was like, OK, there’s a real opportunity here for a new Canadian card game,” says Feehan-Peters. “We booted it up. It started getting quite a bit of traction.
“Canada depends a lot on America for its creative space. Specifically, the gaming creative space. There’s not many places that make games in Canada. There’s a few, but when you compare it, it’s a massive chunk of America. I think it’s better if we can stand on our own a little more.”
In the beginning, manufacturing took place in Ontario, but following a fall-out with the printer Feehan-Peters began looking for options within his home province.
“I didn’t know this until this year. Nova Scotia is like, the printing capital of Canada,” he says. “We have more printers per capita than any other province.”
Now, the cards are printed with GKW Printing, a Truro-based company.
“Great services, super fair prices, also crazy good quality,” says Feehan-Peters.
The art for the cards is designed by local artists, as well. Feehan-Peters even contributes art to some of the cards. The style differs depending on the artist, giving each card a unique aesthetic.
“There’s two different ways of (designing a card),” he says. “One is, I’m like, OK, I think we need this in a set, either for a flavour or design reason. This deck is missing this. Sure. So I’ll design the card from that. I’ll give that to one of my amazing artists. I’ll just have a vague idea of it and they bring it to life with incredible skill.
“The other way is that I’ll just see a piece of art on an artist’s portfolio and (ask) would you sell that to me? They’re like, absolutely. Then, I’ll design a card based off that.”
For more on how the game works in practice, Feehan-Peters has a video on just how people can play the game themselves. Check it out below.
Lessons learned
Like any game developer, Feehan-Peters has learned more than his fair share of lessons from speaking with others in the field and experiencing the pains of growing a new game from scratch.
“You cannot be in it for the money,” he says. “First of all, you’re not going to have a good time because it’s so much work. Also, like, you are not going to be actually seeing a significant profit until very late in the game. If you start chasing that too early, you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot.”
Feehan-Peters has spent months travelling across Nova Scotia to card stores, personally restocking boosters and starter decks, holding demos, promoting game days and posting content to social media to get more eyes on Arcane.
This is all while he’s managing the logistics of his business. Determining how many cards should be printed per order while taking into consideration the intended rarity of each card. Pitching the game to investors who want to help out a trading card game for the right reasons. Making sure the game itself is balanced while designing new cards to keep player’s engaged.
All in all, it requires passion, which Feehan-Peters has in spades.
“If you’re passionate and you are able to kind of stay, like, nose to the grindstone, regardless of whatever sparks are flying at your face, then you’ll probably see something,” he says.
Arcane The Eternal is frequently stocked with occasional game days at Fact or Fiction Games in Dartmouth and the Deck Box in Halifax. For more on this new trading card game and to follow all of its developments, follow Arcane The Eternal on Instagram.
