FUR: Research

    Last week, I introduced FUR, a custom set for Magic: the Gathering. I also said that this week would mark the start of Vision, but that's actually skipping a very important step. So instead, this article will briefly explain the stages of Magic: the Gathering design and present some research that will be important to designing the set itself.

    Magic design is formally broken up into three stages: Vision, Integration, and Refinement. In practice, each of these stages takes roughly four months and is performed by a different team. The Vision stage establishes the mechanical focus of the set, defines the emotional resonance that the set is aiming for, and takes a rough pass at the set. The Integration stage cleans up the rough draft, tweaking mechanics and draft themes as well as filling out the high-rarity cards. The Refinement stage optimizes the set, fine-tunes the flavor, and make any last-minute changes needed to address possible issues. Note that world-building starts about halfway through design, and while the design and creative teams work together throughout the process, the Refinement stage is where specific characters, plot elements, and setting details are introduced. If you want to read more about the stages of design, check MaRo's Nuts &  Bolts article on the topic. (Get used to hearing that.)

    There's also a secret fourth musketeer, and that's exploratory design. Exploratory design happens over the course of three months, has a more relaxed pace, and generally starts well before Vision. Exploratory design is all about creating and testing out potential mechanics for the set. As a one-person team, it can be difficult to distinguish between exploratory and Vision design, so I'm going to draw the line at the point where I start filling in the set skeleton. 

    Before even exploratory design, though, there's something that needs to happen: research. For top-down sets (those that start with flavor, genre, or creative before mechanics), this means we need to study the subject at hand: the furry fandom. Most of the information presented here will be from the International Anthropomorphic Research Project via FurScience.

     The table above presents the popularity of different species of fursonas, with data drawn from three studies between 2011 and 2020. Ignoring Hybrid, Mythical, Other, and redundant categories, that gives us this list:

Rank	Species	Subspecies	Colors
1	Wolf	Coyote, Arctic, Grey, Jackal, Maned	GWB
2	Fox	Red, Arctic, Fennec, kitsune, Grey	RWG
3	Dog	Husky, GSD, Border Collie, Dingo, Dalmation	WGR
4	Cat (Big Cat)	Tiger, Lion, Snow leopard, Cheetah, Panther	GRB
5	Dragon	Unique, Western, Eastern, Furry, water	RU
6	Cat	Tabby, Maine Coon, Calico, Siamese	WB
7	Rodent	Rat, Bat, Mouse, Weasel, Possum	WB
8	Rabbit	Lionhead, Dutch, Dwarf, Lop, Giant	WG
9	Raccoon		BR
10	Reptile	Snake, gator/croc, gecko, chameleon, Komodo	UGR
11	Otter		UG
12	Avian	Owl, Crow, Penguin, Eagle, Bluejay	WUB
13	Bear	Panda, Polar, Brown, Black, Grizzly	GR
14	Horse	Arabian, appaloosa, TN Walking, Clydesdale, Standardbred	WG
15	Aquatic	Shark, Orca, Dolphin, Whale, Octopus	UB
16	Hyena		RB
17	Skunk		BG
18	Dinosaur	Velociraptor, Utahraptor, Deinonychus, T-Rex	RG
19	Deer	White-tail, fallow, red, roe, Reindeer	GW
20	Squirrel	Gray, Fox, Red, Flying, Douglas	GB
21	Ferret		GB
21	Insect		GBW

 

 Note that the colors above are the ones that I think fit the species best in the context of the set, rather than all of the colors that they've appeared in. The colors are also in order of importance rather than the order they would appear on a card. Races like Merfolk, Naga, Minotaurs, etc have been excluded here, because they exist as independent types in Magic and I believe the key to this set is focusing on the animals.

 

The above figure presents findings from five studies between 2011 and 2020. Ignoring the one that I promised not to do, that gives us this:

Rank	Fandom Activities	Colors
1	Art	RUB
2	Community	WG
3	Acceptance	WG
4	Internet Groups	UB
5	Conventions	W
6	Local Meets	GW
7	Writing	UR
8	Making Suits	WRU
9	MUCK/RP	RB
10	Wearing Suits	RW
11	Music	RU
12	Gaming	RB
13	Drama	BR

    Altogether, that gives us a rough idea of what the different colors want to be doing. Here's an overview of everything we've covered so far:

W	U	B	R	G
Wolf	Dragon	Wolf	Fox	Wolf
Fox	Reptile	Big Cat	Dog	Fox
Dog	Otter	Cat	Big Cat	Dog
Cat	Avian	Rodent	Dragon	Big Cat
Mouse	Aquatic	Raccoon	Raccoon	Rabbit
Rabbit		Crow/Owl	Reptile	Reptile
Avian		Aquatic	Bear	Otter
Horse		Hyena	Hyena	Bear
Deer		Skunk	Dinosaur	Horse
Insect		Squirrel		Skunk
		Ferret		Dinosaur
		Insect		Deer
				Squirrel
				Ferret
				Insect
Community	Art	Internet Groups	Art	Community
Acceptance	Internet groups	MUCK/RP	Writing	Acceptance
Conventions	Writing	Gaming	Suit making	Local Meets
Local Meets	Suit making	Drama	MUCK/RP
Suit making	Music	Art	Suit wearing
Suit wearing			Music
			Gaming
			Drama

       And that's all the time we have this week. Next week, we'll be putting this research to work as we begin exploratory design. Until then, check out FurScience if you're interested in learning more about the fandom, or watch MaRo's GDC 2016 talk about 20 years of lessons learned while designing Magic.

 

See you again soon!