Sovereign Hands: What I've Been Up To

Over the past month, I’ve been posting devlogs to Bluesky about a card game I am working on. So far, I’ve been rather tight-lipped on any info about the game beyond what is visible in the screenshots and videos. Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any to lay it all out.

My Vision

At its core, Sovereign Hands is a single-player narrative card game where every choice you make matters. The game takes place in Tau Mari, a Greco-Roman-inspired fantasy world governed by god-like individuals with complete sovereignty over the realm’s eight cosmic forces. Among these god-folk stands the Harvest Goddess, Queen Priscillia, who also happens to rule over a powerful kingdom. Some may say that’s a good thing. After all, your queen is a goddess. Who on Tau Mari would ever want to mess with you?

But on the other side of this coin are those that believe that the human throne is no place for a god. Perhaps they feel that an all-powerful being could never have mankind’s best interest at heart. Or maybe an immortal ruler causes the kingdom to grow stagnant? Whatever the reason, a rebellion is rising up against this monarch deity, and you’re caught in the middle of it. Would you stand with the Requiem Suns or face off against them on behalf of the Queen?

That’s all I’m willing to share for now. There’s more to the story, but that will come with time.

Playing the Hands You’re Dealt

Up until now, you might have been thinking what any of that has to do with a card game. Well, truth be told, the card game idea came first. I’ve always been fascinated by card games. I have been collecting playing cards since I was a teenager, and Pokémon cards before then. I love playing games like Magic: the Gathering. Something about not knowing what a shuffled deck has in store has always spoken to me. I also love making things. I’m a software engineer by profession and I love what I do. In my mind, it’s only natural that the two paths converge and I would want to make a card game of my own.

Originally, this was designed to be a card-based action RPG. Think Dragon Quest, but instead of choosing attacks from a menu, you fling cards Yu-Gi-Oh style. But as I started to work on this, I found that I was actually more engaged in building the world than I’d expected, and now I’ve got a story to tell. The main idea is still there, where the card game is a fast-paced stand-in for a traditional turn-based battle sequence. But some of the “RPG” elements have been cut to make room for delivering a better narrative.

The cards don’t exist to the inhabitants of Tau Mari; instead, they represent a manifestation of fate and choices. In Sovereign Hands, you are literally playing the hands you’re dealt. Is that fate? Or is free will about making the most out of the circumstances presented to you, no matter how narrow your options are?

Who This is For

At the end of the day, I am building this game because I want it to exist. That’s the attitude I have taken with all of my projects. Besides, if you have made it this far, you’ve probably already decided whether you want to tag along for the ride, and I can’t exactly go about writing a story that explores free will while trying to convince you otherwise.

The Road Ahead

As you can see, I have great ambitions for this project. However, I am just a solo dev. Now, this post is not a call for help. For now, all I am asking for is time. This is not going to be released by the end of the year. Or next year. But if you are willing to wait it out and follow along, come check me out on Bluesky. Let’s see what the cards have in store for us.