I’m trying to create a trading card game and publish it on Steam. I have already found a name for my game, and the game concept has been written. I’m thinking of buying this kit.
How much experience with Unity and with coding do I need to have, before I can buy it and start making my own game?
It’s just so that I don’t waste my money on purchasing it right now.
Looks like the scripts are already included in the package.
Most assets on the store have very minimal documentation. If you want to avoid wasting money you should skim through the docs and see how thorough of an explanation they provide and how well you think you will be able to understand it.
For example this is the “gameplay tutorial” for that kit but it’s very clearly not a tutorial.
https://www.gamevanillawiki.com/ccg-kit/getting-started/gameplay
It’s “guides” is just a five entry FAQ.
https://www.gamevanillawiki.com/ccg-kit/manual/guides/
Most of the updates have just been to support newer builds of Unity.
https://www.gamevanillawiki.com/ccg-kit/support/version-history/
I don’t have the asset to look through it but I’m of the opinion this isn’t a beginner asset.
Yes, but I want to make my own game. I’m just going to use this kit as a starting point, if that makes sense?
So you just want to use the graphics but not the scripts? Maybe you should look somewhere else because it would be overpriced then. I’m pretty sure you can find good card game assets for a reasonable price, even free, out there and even on Unity assets store. 
And here is a tutorial: https://www.create-learn.us/blog/how-to-make-a-card-game-in-unity/.
I’m not really sure. I might use some of the scripts, but like I said, I want to make my own game with my own cards.
Did you read the full description for the asset? The author outright says that you need to know C# coding and you’d need to manage your own server if you want multiplayer. That’s somewhat of an indication there.
A template like this can save you some work, but if you’re not experienced enough to modify and extend the code base then it could just be a dead-end.
This is a 7 year old code base with 100+ scripts, many of which are likely tightly coupled so you’d probably need a year or two of C# coding under your belt to understand all the concepts and how it’s architected so you can then edit or add to it.
Making something from scratch is easier since you only have to deal with the next task instead of needing to understand a sizeable system you haven’t written yourself.
These all-in-one templates also typically include much more functionality than you need since they are trying to capture a wide audience with different needs. That’s a lot of added complexity for no reason. Wait for a Udemy discount and get one of their Unity card courses instead: https://www.udemy.com/course/unity-card-combat/
Oh, no I read some of the description as well as some of the documentation. But I see that it says that you need to have mastered C# in order to use the kit.
Additionally there is no server-side data persistence.
https://www.gamevanillawiki.com/ccg-kit/support/faq
I’ve been poking around on the Asset Store and YouTube and I think this is a far better kit.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/tcg-engine-online-card-game-253269
It’s documentation is much more helpful and there are videos on setting it up, and it has the aforementioned server-side data persistence as an optional enable if you wish to use it. It’s more valuable for half the price.
https://indiemarc.gitbook.io/tcg-engine/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOKHFvu--V14ZBVnxwzXTzfPt0UquAc-6
Well, I only have a few weeks of experience coding with C#, so I think that I’m going to wait about a year before I buy it, if I buy it?
Why not jump in and try to do something yourself? You’ll get more practical experience this way.
If you rely on assets like this constantly you will never have the experience needed to make any sort of game. Break what you want to do down into smaller tasks and then try and approach them on your own before even thinking about a third-party solution.
Okay, so basically I just make the game from scratch, then design my own cards with blender, and then add them to my game and then publish it on Steam?
Uhh, add a lot of hairpulling in the middle there.
Basically, yes.
Unity does a TON of heavy lifting for you, which saves time. You don’t have to implement engine, resource loading, platform compatibility, scene graphs and so on.
You just need to write scripts. That is lower difficulty than creating the whole engine - even for a card game - from scratch. A lot of work is already done by unity. Which is why I suggested to just try to jump in.
This is not the kind of game for which you’d need to wait a whole year till “you’re ready”. Just jump in and start experimenting.
So, right now I’m watching this tutorial, just to see if I can learn some of the basics of C#. After that, I might check out one of the Unity card courses and then design my own cards with blender.
Is that a better way to do it, instead of buying one of the kits?
Just start doing it. That’s the best way to learn.
By the way, if you later go and buy a kit you’ll have enough experience to better understand why they chose to do this or that. At the very least, wait for a big sale - probably some time in spring.
I remember when I was first learning Unity and C# I bought some RTS kit and it was too much new stuff all at once. I couldn’t really appreciate what I was looking at.
I wouldn’t bother with a generic C# tutorial series. You want one that is made for Unity as it won’t waste time on things that you will never use in a Unity project (eg Console.WriteLine instead of Debug.Log). Here’s one made created by Brackeys.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPV2KyIb3jR4CtEelGPsmPzlvP7ISPYzR
Additionally just in case you meant watch in a literal sense you want to follow along in your own copy of Unity which you will be able to do with this Brackeys series but you won’t be able to do with a non-Unity C# series.