Cyclemental: The Card Game

Welcome to the world of Cyclemental

Cyclemental is a 2-5 player "take-that" strategy card game where you battle each other with elemental creatures, play powerful hand combos, and cast spells to be the first to gather three Qi and restore the balance of the world. Inspired by the Chinese Wu Xing / Japanese Gogyo elemental cycle, Cyclemental features original characters, hand-drawn with ink and watercolor. The gameplay is fast, chaotic, but with real strategic depth, while still being casual enough for a party to play with friends and family!

Five Elements. One Cycle. Infinite Ways to Win.

The Five Elements of Cyclemental are Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, and Metal. This is based on the Wu Xing philosophy of dynamic transformation of nature and phases. 

• Fire melts Metal and burns Wood
• Wood breaks Earth and absorbs Water
• Water extinguishes Fire and rusts Metal
• Earth dams Water and smothers Fire
• Metal cuts Wood and drains Earth

The nature of the elements also inspire the mechanics and design of the game. 

FIRE is destructive, aggressive, and immediate. The hand combos are therefore about burning or discarding your opponent's cards. For example, IGNITE forces target to give you 2 cards of their choice and INFERNO forces target to give you half of their hand. 

WATER is fluid, revealing, and adaptive. The hand combos are designed to be about revealing and levelling the playing field between players. RIPPLE, for example, allows you to peek at the opponents hand while getting a card. Whereas VORTEX pools everyone's card into one and redistribute it evenly across. 

WOOD is about growth, patience, and accummulation. The hand combos allows you to progressively draw cards, which are extremely beneficial to manage your hand. HARVEST allows you to draw 2 cards, whereas OVERGROWTH raises it to 4 cards. 

EARTH is stubborn, steadfast and defensive. This makes the hand combos like PETRIFY perfect for defending your hand against attack, spells and combos, whereas GRAVITY drags everyone down to the number of cards in your hands to level the playing field. 

METAL is precise, controlling, and resourceful. The hand combos manipulates the deck and discard pile. For example, CALIBRATE enables you to look through the top 3 cards of deck and pick a card, whereas TRANSMUTE revives cards from the discard pile.

How to play

Everyone on the table gets dealt 5 cards and 1 initial Qi card as a starter. On your turn, you can either launch an Attack, perform a Combo, or cast a Spell to try to get a Qi card from the other players. The aim is to be the first player who gets all 3 Qis. It sounds simple, but nothing is safe as situations can be reversed pretty rapidly! Attacks can be countered, Combos can devastate each other, and Spells can turn the table fast. 

Learn how to play in the quick 3 min video here: 

Or, if you prefer to read the rule sheet or field guide, this is the overview of how to play

Even more, you can learn all about combos in this in-depth video walkthrough

What you're getting

There are two types of boxes you can pledge for in this Kickstarter campaign 

STANDARD EDITION

The Standard Edition includes the 80-card deck, printed on high-quality card stock with the tuck box and field guide for the rules. The card deck consists of: 

• 50 Elemental Creature Cards (10 for each element)
• 8 Qi cards (with different backs)
• 22 Spell cards
• Tuck box (standard poker size)
• Rule book / Field guide 

KICKSTARTER EDITION

The Kickstarter Edition includes the base 80-card + 10 special creatures printed with holo effect. It also comes in a rigid box, with packaging especially designed for this first run of Cyclemental. In the 

• 50 Elemental Creature Cards 
• 10 Elemental Creature Cards with holo effect.
• 8 Qi cards (with different backs)
• 22 Spell cards
• PREMIUM rigid box (standard poker size)
• Rule book / Field guide 

THE CARDS

Here are just a sample of the Cyclemental cards across the 5 different elements. 

Rewards tier

You can show your support through the 6 rewards tier available for Cyclemental.

Please note that prices here are listed primarily in AUD with a USD conversion and are separate from shipping / tariffs based on your country. Shipping will be charged separately after the campaign as I will be using Pledge Manager. Designs are illustrative only and not final.

Retail & Stores

Are you a retailer or run a game store / cafe interested in stocking Cyclemental? Please reach out and we'll set up wholesale terms & prices. 

Stretch Goals

Thanks to your incredible support, Cyclemental is funded and now let's see if we could push for Stretch Goals together!

I've redrawn alternate arts to unlock Legendary Full-Art versions of five Cyclemental creatures, one per element. Each one is revealed only once we hit its funding milestone.

Every card we unlock goes to every physical copy of Cyclemental at no extra cost. This includes your main pledge (Standard, Kickstarter Edition, Deluxe, or Collector) and any extra decks added via Add-ons. Only the $5 Supporter tier is excluded, since it's digital-only.

How can you help? Share this Kickstarter campaign with your friends and families! Every stretch goal we hit makes the box a little more special for everyone. Let's see how far we can go before the campaign ends!

Timeline

Here’s my estimated timeline for getting Cyclemental to you. Realistically, rewards should arrive within the first half of 2027. Here’s the breakdown:

• September 2026: Kickstarter campaign runs.
• October 2026: Pledge manager opens. This is when you'll confirm your shipping address, tier, and any add-ons. Once that closes, I'll lock in final files with the manufacturer.
• November 2026 : I'll review a physical pre-production sample before approving anything for mass production, to make sure the print quality matches the hand-painted art you backed.
• December: 2026 Mass production begins.
• January 2027: Production wraps and decks ship out. I'm deliberately aiming to clear the factory before Chinese New Year (early Feb 2027), since factories in China typically slow down or close for several weeks around it. Trying to plan ahead of that instead of around it.
• February - April 2027: Freight, customs, and final packing and shipping to backers worldwide.

Behind the Scene

The Creative Process 

Every creature is hand-drawn with Chinese ink and Watercolor. I designed all 60 creatures from actual imagination, borrowing from the mythology of cultures that shaped me or I find interesting. As a Chinese Indonesian who grew up watching a lot of Japanese anime, I wanted to create a world that is familiar yet also felt unique when combined with my own art style. 

The brush strokes are intentionally rough and irregular, as opposed to the ultra-polished style of the typical TCG, as I really think what makes artworks special is the human touch. I'd rather have honest, imperfect work than perfect AI slop. 

Why I made this

To be honest, having a newborn recently made me feel connected back to my childhood. I found myself thinking about what I loved most as a kid, and how much I missed drawing but never had time for it because of work. So during the quiet hours when he fell asleep, I started thinking about what I could make that wasn't just another random app.

I love art, system design, and designing experiences. That's when I remembered I used to make paper games when I was a kid. So I thought a card game would be the perfect project, something to help me break away from the same thinking patterns of my day job.

Why back now?

Play it First. Backers will be some of the first players in the world to get to play Cyclemental and be the proud owner of the first edition of the game.

Support Small Business Directly. These funds allow me to kickstart the printing, shipping, logistics, and marketing so Cyclemental can be available to the general public. Backing on Kickstarter is the best way to ensure you can get the game as there is no guarantee that Cyclemental will be available in retail.

Support Independent Artist. Self publishing gives me full creative control over every aspect of the game, which means I can continuously keep drawing, designing, and improving the art style without having to compromise.

What your support does

This campaign is about making Cyclemental into a reality, to a wider circle of players globally at a better price point than one-off print-on-demand, and building a small, real community around the game from day one.

Made with love, not AI

Cyclemental has been selected as "PROJECT WE LOVE" by the Kickstarter Staff.