Forest Flash Cards
Top Trumps-style card game featuring 30 Nottingham Forest players. 3 game modes, card flip animations.
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Turning arguments into a game
Every Forest fan has opinions about who's better. This turns those arguments into a game. Top Trumps but for Nottingham Forest's squad: 30 players, each with real stats across multiple categories. Built from the same obsession that makes every Saturday at the City Ground non-negotiable.
Pick a stat, flip a card
Choose a game mode: Classic (take turns picking stats), Quick Play (fastest finger), or Collection (browse all cards). Each player card has real stats: pace, shooting, passing, defending, physical. Flip animations make the cards feel tactile. Compare your card against the AI opponent.
"Top Trumps were sacred when I was growing up. You'd trade them in the playground, argue about the stats, bend the corners of your best cards. I wanted to recreate that feeling, but for the current Forest squad."
Recreating a childhood format for a modern squad
Top Trumps format, not fantasy football. Fantasy football apps are everywhere. Nobody had made a proper Top Trumps game for a single club's squad. The format is perfect for what fans actually do: argue about who's better. "Gibbs-White has higher passing than Elanga? No chance." That argument is the game. The card format keeps it simple and focused.
30 players, each with stats that matter. I didn't want generic FIFA-style ratings. The stat categories (pace, shooting, passing, defending, physical) are familiar enough to understand instantly, but the values are specific to each player and designed to create interesting matchups. A defender might beat a striker on physical but lose on shooting. The tension comes from choosing which stat to play.
Card flip animations that feel real. The flip animation was a deliberate choice. When you turn a Top Trumps card over, there's a moment of anticipation: what stats will you get? The CSS 3D transform recreates that. It's a small detail, but it's the difference between clicking a button and flipping a card. The physicality matters, even on screen.
Three modes for different moods. Classic mode is the proper game: take turns, pick your best stat, hope your card wins. Quick Play is faster and more chaotic for when you just want to smash through some rounds. Collection mode lets you browse all 30 cards without playing, for the people who just want to look at the stats and argue about them.
Lessons from turning nostalgia into interaction
Physicality in digital products matters more than you'd think. The flip animation changed everything about how the game feels. Before I added it, clicking through cards felt flat. After, it felt like a game. One CSS animation transformed the entire experience. The lesson is that small interactions carry enormous weight. Users don't notice them consciously, but they feel the difference.
Balancing stats is game design. If one player's card wins on every stat, there's no game. If stats are too random, there's no skill. Getting the balance right so that every card has at least one strong stat and one weak stat took a surprising amount of tweaking. It's the same principle as game balancing in any video game, and I have way more respect for game designers now.
Nostalgia is a powerful design brief. Everyone who grew up in the UK had Top Trumps. The format needs zero explanation. That's an enormous advantage: no onboarding, no tutorial, no friction. People see it, understand it, and play it. Building on a format people already know and love means you can focus all your energy on the content and the polish.
"My son saw me building this and asked to play it before it was finished. That's the best user test I've ever had."
Play Top Trumps with 30 Nottingham Forest players.
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