A realization...

I was playing cards with a few friends this evening (Shadowfist, a wonderfully balanced and complex CCG, much better than the Dr. Who CCG I have) when it hit me: from what I've learned in the last few months, I have the necessary skills to make an online version of this game. I don't have the time, mind you, but I know enough otherwise to make the game work.

This is kind of a shock. I had thought it would take much, much longer to acquire a powerful skillset that would actually let me create an electronic version of the Dr. Who CCG (simpler rules, older promise to myself). But if I were to create the database of cards, each with their particular rules on them, probably using a program like db4o, then I could query and modify that database from a PHP webpage. I could use Javascript for any client-side action I needed, and maybe Flash for some of the graphics handling (that's the only part I haven't learn much of yet; maybe if I get it for Christmas...). People could then log on, play against each other, and build decks as they liked. I'd need a server capable of handling the (admittedly slight) volume of traffic, and permission of the copyright holders to make the game publicly available.

I might not ever find the time to do this project, but its amazing to me that I actually could.