Decided to order a couple of prototype decks from The Game Crafter. Not bad! Cost me about $40 for two sets, shipped.
(that's 108 cards, 20 crystals, 20 chips, and an unprinted box)
I had my artist do some work last month.. she gave me some crystal images and several card borders. The cards were created in NANDeck, which exported appropriately sized PNGs, which were imported into TGC directly.
My daughter had an appropriately excited reaction when she saw the blue crystals, so that's good.
I pulled out the cards and immediately decided that there were too many. Now the deck is 71 cards (1.5 decks.. not sure if that'll be a cost savings at all vs. 108 cards but probably). It's a win-win.. Variability, which was one of my issues, is reduced, while the materials cost and package weight drop. And with only 1.5 decks, I think I can just have the cards "loose" in the box instead of feeling like I need a vacuum-formed insert to hold stuff. Further drops the cost, and reduces box size, maybe even to as small as 6" x 4" x 1.5".. which would mean that 1000 units would take up only half a pallet... That's not bad either!
Yes, I think about all this when I design stuff.
Comments
Multiples of 18, no?
Maybe you should have 72 cards... It's a multiple of 18 (4 x 18). I'm sure that TGC 18 cards per sheet might be different overseas, but still the rounded number makes more sense than 71, no?
108 was 6x multiplier (6 x 18 = 108)... That's why I thought 72 might be more in-line with your previous content.
Please let me know IF you hear from Wil (on another note)!
Best.
It actually is a rounded
It actually is a rounded number, because the number of cards in a deck made by standard offset printing is 54. One and a half decks is 54+27=81.
I mistyped the 71 :( Sorry.
Anyway, I need to confirm with the manufacturer, but it's certainly possible to print 2 decks on 3 sheets that way.
TGC's printing is 1/3 the size of a "real" sheet, so I'd need 4.5 of theirs, doing it that way, but this isn't a TGC game.
(Why 54? I believe it's a 9x6 layout.. print ninja has a page on all this. That's why a deck of cards you buy in a store has two jokers.. they're free to print so why not?)
Ok I understood but...
You might want to also consider that 54 cards is "18 card x 3 sheets". I'm not sure what a regular print size is overseas... So on TGC 54 cards work too... But not 81. It would be 72 which would be 4 sheets.
But I fully understand your estimations. I would ensure to confirm them with the manufacturer, just to be on the safe side!
I've seen Magic: the Gathering sheet for 300 cards and I have no clue how BIG their sheet size is either... :/
I computed 81 and thought I had made a mistake (0.75 x 108).
However thanks for making the correction from 71 to 81. Makes much more sense now.
Printninja.com
https://printninja.com/printing-resource-center/printing-options/custom-...
I've already revised the deck
I've already revised the deck several times since then.. streamlined some cards, removed all the skeletons entirely since they didn't add much (and it simplifies the storyline a little). Adding a rule that you can discard two cards to gain a mana crystal, to handle the ~5% chance that your opening deal leaves you very poor in magic power.. an escape hatch.
Just want to give out the message that you shouldn't be afraid to revise revise revise your game if you see anything that might be improved.
Gonna go take a sharpie to a few of my prototype cards :)