Hello
How would you like the art design to be on the board in the game you buy?
See atttached world map, which is the version I work on currently. How to make a map as beautiful as possible in a context of square grids? What colour combinations work on such a map?
In my game, tactical battles are fought as in chess, while there at the same time is an income system and area control mechanism. You could say it’s like playing risk , but instead of dice throwing, tactical battles are resolved by chess-like moves.
(earlier post on my game is here, I’ve been terribly bad at posting progress updates: https://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/new-game-ideas/area-control-gam... ).
In my case, I find Inkscape fairly easy to learn and use, while I struggle much with Gimp. I feel like I can’t overcome the challenge to draw a really beautiful map, whether satellite-like or fantasy like.
In earlier test versions I’ve printed, I used maps I found on the internet as background to the square grid, but now I want to produce something that is 100% my own map. It’s fine making hobby maps at home, but I want to work towards being ready to submit the whole game to a manufacturer to produce some samples, and I really need a more beautiful map.
Many players hate squares, but squares are a necessary ingredient in my game, and my challenge is to integrate the square grid in the artwork of the map, to make the entirety of the map as enjoyable and playable as possible.
If anyone is capable of making really beautiful maps I’m interested to get in touch.
Any thoughts on whatever comes to your mind are appreciated - need not only be about map design!
Aside from the map art challenge, I can say that play testing shows that chess players love this game while non-chess players tend to struggle with analysis paralysis, and are often (not always!) outplayed by experienced chess players in the first few games, but tend to close to gap pretty fast the more games they play. It is estimated that there are at least more than one million active chess players in the world, so perhaps the TAM is ok..
I should clarify that Rooks, bishops and Queens do not have unlimited range as in chess, but have max movement range of 4 squares straight/diagonal. I think this is a neat solution when playing on a board that is 6-10 times larger (in number of squares) than a chess board, and allows strategic fronts to develop.
During play testing I have simplified and modified winning conditions to bring down the game time. Some games are resolved in less than ½ hour while some can end in a trench war and last for 2-3 hours.
Thanks for the advice wob and Jay103 on getting involved with a graphics artist, it makes me more resolved that that is the proper way forward, because I want to keep open the option of self publishing. The game has an inherent war theme in that units kill each other, and therefore it may not go down well with established publishers.
Wob I appreciate much what you say about customised pieces adding more perceived value. In my case it’s an important consideration as standard chess pieces can be procured very cheap, but will not add much, if any, perceived added value compared to some more customised pieces.