Finn Veatch, a 7th grader from Phoenix, has become the fasted funded creator on Kickstarter–a crowd-funding platform–for his innovative card game: Wizard Duel.
What started as an idea in his head, Finn began hand drawing the cards on printer paper during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eventually, he took his drawings to Canva, an online simple design program, and got them printed on high-quality paper. He spent the next year testing out the game—playing it with family and friends, editing for typos, refining the rules, and finally manufacturing the first commercial production in early 2022.
Wizard Duel launched on Kickstarter in late August, and much to Finn’s surprise, the project was fully funded in just five hours, with campaign backers from all over the world, including a game store in Switzerland!
“It was really exciting,” said Finn. “I couldn’t put it through my head. It was very surreal.”
Finn describes Wizard Duel a fast-paced strategy game inspired by magic, involving both players to act simultaneously, similar to rock-paper-scissors. Save or spend? Defend or attack? Each player must anticipate their opponent’s moves and adapt their approach to grow power and win the Wizard Duel.
The game is intended for age 8 and up but Finn has also designed a special variation suitable for younger kids around age 5. He’s also developed an expansion pack of cards to add on to the base game.
This is just the start for Finn, who is working in conjunction with his dad, and said they have four more games currently in development. One day he hopes to own his own game company and continue designing game content.
“It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it,” said Finn. “Games have the power to bring people together and that’s what we want to do.”
To learn more or to purchase Wizard Duel, visit https://wizard-duel.com/
