As we put together the next level prototype for our project, we're trying to make the design of the cards look a little bit nicer. As a quick note: I'm aware that for prototypes, we go for function over style. We've done that to date while we were hammering out all the mechanics. However, we're wanting to start moving into a phase where we are demoing it to strangers and trying to build interest... And let's face it, pretty cards are more interesting.
I've created a placeholder champion card (The game isn't LotR based, just using that as an example everybody recognizes!) with three styles. Each style determines where a set of numbers goes. The cards will be standard sized.
There are three numbers on each card:
1) Cost: How much the champion will cost to purchase. In the game, several are face up and available for purchase, and may sit there several turns. The cost is only used the first time the card is purchased.
2) Damage: The champion will be involved in many battles after purchase. Other players may frequently want to check and see how powerful a player's champion(s) are.
3) Health: Same as damage.
As a quick note: I'm about as non-artistically inclined a person as it gets, so this was really a stretch for me. It's exciting to add Inkscape to the growing list of tools I'm playing with and learning to make this project successful though!
Style 1 - Corners: The numbers are in the corners. They give me back plenty of space, but the problem is that I think the numbers are too small to read for anybody but the player holding the card. I'm worried about losing time as people wander around the table or pass heroes back and forth trying to see what they are.
Style 2 - Side-Bar: I've seen a few games making use of this style recently. This is great because it lets me balloon up the numbers pretty large, and it gives me the entire special text area to include my champion special abilities. With the other two styles, I am limited to about 10-15 words and still be readable. My concern with this: Does it look trashier, or would this be a worthwhile style, knowing that for production release I'll try to hire a Graphic designer to make it look classier.
Style 3 - Icons: So rather than putting a number on top of the icon, I just repeat the icons for Health and Damage. This has the advantage of Style 1, but someone can see the icons from further away rather than trying to read numbers.
I appreciate any feedback I can get. Thoughts?
Thanks for the feedback, and will definitely tone down the colors. I'm hoping to offload all of this to an actual graphic designer later.
To let-off studios:
Totally agree that players will still need to count the icons...But from across a table I can visually see "that looks like a lot of attack" as opposed to "There looks like there's only 1-2 of those." From a planning perspective, I think you can wing it.