Sci-fi card game - questions

I've been designing a sci-fi ccg and playtesting with index cards. It'll be like hearthstone or magic but with grid/movement. I was going to print the game, but I'm looking into how complicated it will be to do a vg with unity.

My questions are:
How long would this take an experienced coder? I'm a beginner with Unity/C# and I'm worried this is outside the scope for a reasonable timeline.

What's a good database solution for a game like this?

I found a TCG kit https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/18184 but I'm worried that it'll be so different from my game and have its own way of doing things that I'll waste time understanding it and not be able to use it. This game will be pretty different from what's out there. Is that a valid concern?

 

Define "reasonable timeline."

 

A year to 18 months

 

Then yes I think it's entirely doable.

 

Something like Mage Wars or Summoner Wars? That could be cool.

You could have a prototype up and running in a couple of weeks to a month. Ony's estimates are probably reliable for a full project.

Understanding how other people code card games could give you a decent base for your own. I would suggest if you are in this for real that purchasing the frame work and pulling it apart could save months off of your development time. Before you go do this I would suggest creating a couple of very small games to get a feel for the editor and systems. An absolute beginner can knock up a flappy bird clone in a day.

 

Thanks that's encouraging!

If I wanted the game to interact with central db, all decks, collections stored there, cards stored there, what would be the best db solution?