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Saturday, October 31, 2026

The most beginner friendly tools to make a card game

Disclaimer: I make Card-a-mon, a tool for designing card games, so I am not neutral. Luckily you can check everything what is written below.

Disclaimer 2: Article is written mainly by me (without any AI help). Research parts generated by AI (below) and are marked as generated by AI.

Here is how I came with idea for this article. Users want comparison with other tools to get the feeling what Card-a-mon offers. Nowadays with AI development / vibe coding number of tools available is surprisingly high (even for me) and quality of them is not that bad actually too. I have put Card-a-mon’s development to the side for some time and what I found when I have returned after some time amazed me. Still I don’t think it is worth to make detailed comparisons with all the tools. I can make comparison with oldest one (nanDECK) and the most recommended one (Dextrous), but I guess I might be missing some good ones this way.

So my idea here is to find the best tool for a beginner game designer. Again I’m biased one as I have vision what a beginner needs. In my opinion it is following in one sentence: smooth frictionless and cheap (preferably free) way to experiment creating many games and print them at home or somewhere professionally.

Here is what I have done: first I have asked AI (Claude) to find as many as possible tools that can be used to create card games. I am aware of some of them (even ones that are released very very recently), so my threshold for finding tools was “until I see all the tools I am aware of”. I still might have missed some - so let me know if something else must be added to comparison. Still list of tools is really extensive. Use this list to find tools you have not seen yourself and experiment with them.

Next step: I have listed the requirements for the beginner’s tool. Something what can be measured/compared objectively. There are things that are hard to measure, like how it actually feels to create a new game using one or another system. It might be possible that in some cases experience is much more pleasant, but this requires to do surveys of users.

So here are my requirements for tools that are good for beginners

  • On your computer. IMHO, an option to do everything on your computer, tablet or phone gives more freedom to experiment as you are limited only by your system. Many tools (including Card-a-mon) can’t give unlimited space in the cloud for free users and that’s purely financial. I think only publishers can give unlimited space and again there are nuances (I know, I have worked for one, but not card games publisher).

  • In the cloud. Still it is nice to have your project in the cloud in some situations, like working on multiple devices. E.g. if you want to work on your project from the computer at home and from the phone while you are in the train to university / job.

  • Free plan. I think that’s a requirement for beginner and market reality. That’s it.

  • Easy to learn. Tool should be easy to learn and use. AI gave 1 point only for tools that have recent positive user comments on Reddit. I gave Card-a-mon a half point here because AI have found comment on ease of use from 2019 only ( “mindblown by how easy, straightforward and effective this is”). I have changed UI/UX a lot recently, so I will wait for public praise before giving one point to my product (I have only private ones).

  • Platforms. It should be possible to use software on as many as possible different platforms. Requirement to have Windows machine is no-no here.

  • WYSIWYG. I think this is requirement for beginners too. Scripting / programming is not a good option.

  • Not only cards. It is nice to create more than only cards: tokens, boards, rulebooks are parts of game too.

  • Print-and-play PDF. A PDF you can print at home and cut.

  • Print-shop images. Possibility to generate card images for The Game Crafter or a similar service.

  • No lock-in. IMHO, there should be no vendor lock-in. It should be possible to get/export all your data (BTW, EU users can get it by law). Bonus point if data format should be documented. I think this is enough to move your data to different system with help of modern AI.

Professional game designers need much more features: they might need CSV import and export, icon libraries, scripting capabilities, TTS support, playtesting capabilities, advanced colours support for printing and etc. This is why I think vendor lock-in is important because as beginner you might find that the tool you started to use is not a good fit for you after all.

Comparison (AI generated part)

✅ is 1 point, ◐ is half a point and ❌ is none, so 10 points at most. What the free plan holds back counts only in the free plan column, and a tool gets the other points for what it can do on any plan. If I could not find something, it counts as ❌. Ties are in alphabetical order.

The table

NOTE: Table does not fit in the view. You can scroll it to see all the columns.

Tool Points On your computer In the cloud Free plan Easy to learn Platforms WYSIWYG Not only cards Print-and-play PDF Print-shop images No lock-in Price
Card-a-mon 9.5 ✅ in the browser or a folder, no account ✅ 100 MB ✅ every feature ◐ ✅ browser, phone too ✅ ✅ boards, mats, booklets, tokens ✅ ✅ and sends to The Game Crafter ✅ zip with a documented project file Free
Cardstock Studio 8 ◐ on paid plans ✅ 200 MB ◐ 2 projects, fewer exports ◐ ✅ browser ✅ ✅ boxes, rules, tokens ✅ ✅ for The Game Crafter ◐ card data to Google Sheets Free; paid from $3.60 a month
Dextrous 8 ❌ ✅ 100 MB ◐ 2 projects, 10 layouts ✅ ✅ browser ✅ ✅ boards, tokens, a basic rulebook ✅ ✅ ◐ card data can live in your Google Sheet Free; paid from $6 a month
nanDECK 7 ✅ ❌ ✅ all free ❌ a script ◐ Windows, also on Steam; Mac and Linux through Wine ◐ a visual editor writes simple scripts ✅ boards, tokens ✅ ✅ ✅ plain-text script, documented Free
Chitmunk 6.5 ❌ ◐ on paid plans ❌ no free plan ◐ ✅ browser ✅ ✅ boards, booklets, dials ✅ ✅ and uploads to The Game Crafter ◐ project file and Google Sheets $24.99 a year or $2.99 a month, 7-day trial
Component.Studio 6.5 ❌ ◐ on paid plans ❌ no free plan ◐ ✅ browser ✅ ✅ tiles, chits ✅ ✅ and uploads to The Game Crafter ◐ card data stays in your spreadsheet $9.99 a month, 3-day trial
Prototable 6.5 ❌ ✅ ◐ 1 game, 2 players, watermarked print ◐ ✅ browser ✅ ✅ boards, tokens, dice ✅ ❌ ◐ whole game download on paid plans Free; $59 a year
ShuffleKit 6.5 ❌ ✅ ❌ 1 project, 120 cards, no export ◐ ✅ browser ✅ ✅ boards, dice, boxes ✅ ✅ ❌ Free; export from $4 a month
Spadewick 6.5 ✅ ❌ ✅ all free ◐ ❌ Windows ✅ ◐ rules pages, tokens on its table ✅ ◐ PNG sheets and a print PDF ✅ open source Free
Tabletop Creator 6.5 ✅ ❌ ◐ 120 components, 10 variables ◐ ◐ Windows, Mac ✅ ✅ boards, tokens ✅ ◐ advanced export is in Pro ◐ project files, not documented Free; Pro $59 once
Decklab AI 6 ❌ ◐ on paid plans ❌ no free plan ◐ ✅ browser ✅ ◐ rulebook ✅ ✅ ◐ cards as XLS $9 a month, 7-day trial
Dekkr 6 ✅ ❌ ❌ no free plan ◐ ◐ Windows, Mac ✅ ◐ round, hex and square shapes ✅ ✅ presets for print shops ◐ deck files and CSV, not documented $59.99 once
Dustin’s Designer Den 6 ❌ ✅ 100 MB ❌ 2 projects, no PDF or export ◐ ✅ browser ✅ ✅ boards, tokens ✅ ❌ ◐ CSV export in Pro Free; Pro $7.50 a month
Deck Print 5 ✅ in the browser, nothing uploaded ❌ ◐ 2 sheets a PDF, a footer line ✅ fill in the cards ✅ browser ◐ no layout editor ❌ ✅ ❌ PDF only ❌ Free; Pro €4.99 once
Multideck 5 ✅ ❌ ❌ no free plan ◐ ❌ Mac ✅ ◐ any card size ✅ ✅ ❌ $24.99 once

Prices and plans are as the tools’ own pages showed them on 31 October 2026.

What AI looked at, but left out (AI generated part)

If I have missed a tool, or got a fact wrong, write to me and I will fix it.