'Disney Lorcana' aims to shake up the trading card game space

When Ryan Miller first played "Magic: The Gathering" he was hooked. It wasn't long before the Bakersfield teen was attempting to design his own collectible card games. Early experiments were disastrous.

"Here's this new style of game," says Miller of "Magic," which was first released in 1993. "I've gotta try this."

So he invested in 3-by-5 note cards, cut them in half and began creating his own characters. The goal? A dueling swordplay game. "I was going to do a fighting game. My brother eventually stopped playing. He's like, 'The game will never end, dude.' It was too easy to block attacks. And to me, that felt like we were sword fighting. I'm parrying! But at the end of the day, there was no forward progression. That was my first lesson. This type of game is really hard to design."

There would be others. Miller today is eloquent in describing the intricacies involved in designing a card game such as "Magic." A game design veteran who eventually found his way to "Magic" parent Wizards of the Coast, Miller's path wasn't direct, and included time spent as a prison guard. Today, however, he's overseeing the launch of what has been described as the most anticipated collectible card game to arrive in years, one that already seems poised to takeTrading Card Game" as a pillar of the medium.