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Roast my card designs!

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ceethreepio
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Vampires: Jonathon Harker
Deep Ones: Submerged Obelisk
Deep Ones: Flood token
Deep Ones: Dagon
Vampires: Wilhelmina Murray
Anthology: Wilhelmina Murray
Text size comparison against other common cards

So, I'm on the 4th or 5th incarnation of card design. I'm quite happy with it, which means that it's now ready for roasting by real people. So I'm asking for feedback / roasting / insults, whatever :)

Note that, these cards will mostly start and stay up faceup on the table, visible to, and available for inspection by all players at any time. They don't need to be held in hand or "fanned" so I don't need stuff in the top left corner.

Thoughts? Don't hold back - I prefer honest feedback.

Nick

terzamossa
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Hi Nick, what kind of

Hi Nick,
what kind of feedback are you looking for exactly? Clarity/Consistency etc?

What you are showing seems fairly clean to me, minor things that pop out to me:

Wilhemina in the vampire version has some blood stains messing up with the text, I would keep text areas clean of disturbing elements.
In the focus action, you mean 3 targets at a time? or in total during the game? how are players supposed to remember how many she attacked if this is the case?

Wilhemina in the human version: in the main text box you have what it seems to be a general description of her personality...but in all other cards this area was specifically used for in-game instructions. I don't know the game, so there might be a reason, just saying :)

The Flood Token card seems to be a reminder card (unlike the others) and seems to almost want to replace a rulebook. How many of this kind of effects are there in the game? If there are many, you may want a longer description in the rulebook and then a single card summarising the main effect of each one of them in a short space, just as a reminder (e.g. Flood tokens: [flood] can only be added adjacently to other [flood]. If [flood]>16 flip to [dark side] and destroy [city]).
If this is the only effect of this kind given to Our Lord Dagon, you may want to just have a player Mat for this dude with a slightly longer description for it, addressing how you choose the adjacent hex (or specifying that any is fine) and so on.

I won't comment on font/art and similar as I am not a graphic designer and anyway I don't think there is a good or bad there, just what works or not with your game (which I cannot know at this stage!)

Hope any of this helps!
Antonio

ilyennevnincs
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Joined: 02/22/2019
Awesome art

I like your art style, it's very unique and impactful.

I found some minor corrections, that you should consider:

  • You shouldn't cover the black border with art, it may be cut off.
  • You should center the bottom text vertically, or at least increase the top margin by a few millimeters.
  • Maybe try to shrink the textbox slightly and increase the height of the image, so 6 lines of text can fit comfortably (like on the Obelisk card). You probably shouldn't have more text on a card.
  • Use same height numbers on the bottom right corner. Maybe smaller font for double digit numbers.
  • Don't put textures under any text.
  • The small text on the botoom of the Jonathon Harker card is slightly larger than the others.

Apart from these, the cards are clean, easy to read and understand.

Good luck with your work!

questccg
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VTES or Jyhad

I'm just mentioning that there is already a VERY (or maybe WAS) popular Vampire Card game: Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (or Jyhad for short).

I had bought a few "booster" packs of this game when it was on the decline. I do that sometimes, buy of booster of "left-over" stock ... Just to see what the hype was all about.

And just recently I read this post on BGG:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1981552/vtes-back-print

It dates back to 2018 ... But the older game was from the 90s... So like a 20 year REVIVAL if you wish...

Maybe check it out ... I know your art is unique. But maybe take a look to give and avoid certain ideas ... Because they are different or the same as this product. I'm not saying anything IS... Just have a look and see what you can learn from this card game ... That might be applicable to your game (it may even give you ideas of your own for your game).

The cards look nice... My only remark is to try to stick away from very "fancy" Fonts which are harder to read. The other note is the stat box on the bottom-right, try to use font sizes that don't overlap with the border. Otherwise I have no other critiques. It's clean and I like some of the overlapping of elements from the illustration to the card.

Keep up the good work. And wishing you all the best with this product.

ceethreepio
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Hi, thanks for your feedback!

Hi, thanks for your feedback!

terzamossa wrote:
what kind of feedback are you looking for exactly? Clarity/Consistency etc?

Yeah, I was being deliberately vague. I guess I'm going for an immediate "gut-feel" - like looking at the card, how do you feel when you see them? Do they look "good" or "average" or "amateurish" - are you struggling to read them, does it scream "work-in-progress" or does it feel "finished".

I've gone through multiple revisions of the style and design and I quite like this one. But I want to see if anyone was vastly opposed to it - Am I missing something? I know full-well that getting too close to something can cause you to miss obvious problems.

terzamossa wrote:
Wilhemina in the vampire version has some blood stains messing up with the text, I would keep text areas clean of disturbing elements.

Yeah, for this style, I think you are right and I need to remove the bloodstain. I'm telling myself, it's there because you can put "blood tokens" on them, but in reality, it's just there cause they are vampires and "creepy". It's cute, but this style is all minimalist....

terzamossa wrote:
Wilhemina in the human version: in the main text box you have what it seems to be a general description of her personality...but in all other cards this area was specifically used for in-game instructions. I don't know the game, so there might be a reason, just saying :)

You're absolutely right. In my game, Humans are a resource, and whilst they don't directly do anything, the "Properties" of a human are interesting to different factions. Dracula, specifically, is interested in "Fascinating" people - those he deems are worthy of transforming into Vampires, whereas Moriarty is interested in "Criminally capable" people as he wants to hire them for his crime empire. The Martians are interested in those people who are "diseased" or "traitorous" - diseased people giving them an additional disease and "traitorous" can be discarded to draw 2 more humans instead (for eating).

Every card except the Human Wilhemina Murray card are "reference" cards. They are placed near the board for everyone to see, with the idea that should anyone encounter a token/meeple on the board, they can look at the associated reference card for that token/meeple to see what it does, if they have forgotten, rather than have to read the manual.

terzamossa wrote:
If this is the only effect of this kind given to Our Lord Dagon, you may want to just have a player Mat for this dude with a slightly longer description for it, addressing how you choose the adjacent hex (or specifying that any is fine) and so on.

Well, the problem is that these Flood tokens affect the general game board so all players are affected by them. Putting the rules on a player's board mean it's more difficult for other players to see the rules without getting up etc.

ceethreepio
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ilyennevnincs wrote:I like

ilyennevnincs wrote:
I like your art style, it's very unique and impactful.

Thanks, that's very kind.

ilyennevnincs wrote:
You shouldn't cover the black border with art, it may be cut off.

I'm actually kind of okay with that. My aim for every picture is to "pop" out of the frame. I'm fond of "breaking the fourth wall" in films, and I quite like the idea that the pictures are leaping out of the page. But having them cut off doesn't bother me. They are so large even the card isn't big enough :)

ilyennevnincs wrote:
Use same height numbers on the bottom right corner. Maybe smaller font for double digit numbers.

Agreed. The font I'm using has lowercase numbers which are annoying. I need use a different font I think for the numbers. And make sure they don't touch the box.

ilyennevnincs wrote:
Don't put textures under any text.

Agreed. I'll lose the bloodstains ... :(

Thanks very much for your feedback!

Juzek
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I zoomed out until it was the

I zoomed out until it was the same size as playing card, and I gotta say, the text size is really small for me. I would recommend to make it 1.5x to 2x bigger.

If you find that the text of a card doesn't fit, perhaps simplify either the text or the effect? (or get a similar effect from a simpler mechanic)

let-off studios
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Feedback

For the keywords (particularly for the W. Murray card), have you considered icons instead of text? I can imagine four circular icons that convey the same information at a glance.

I'm also impressed with the artwork! Echoes of Mignola comic book art. Were I nit-picky, I'd consider a darker background for the Jonathon Harker card, so his face "pops" more.

I also second the suggestion about hard-to-read fonts. For example, I understand you're going for a certain aesthetic with the W. Murray vampire card. However, since it's to be on the table and not up-close to anyone's face, a more legible font for her name may be worth considering.

ceethreepio
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Thank you for your

questccg wrote:
I'm just mentioning that there is already a VERY (or maybe WAS) popular Vampire Card game: Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (or Jyhad for short).

Thank you for your suggestions. I shall take a peek at Vampire: The Eternal Struggle.

Nick

ceethreepio
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Oo, that's concerning ...

Juzek wrote:
I zoomed out until it was the same size as playing card, and I gotta say, the text size is really small for me. I would recommend to make it 1.5x to 2x bigger.

If you find that the text of a card doesn't fit, perhaps simplify either the text or the effect? (or get a similar effect from a simpler mechanic)

Hi, that's a bit concerning for me. I figured the text size was okay. I've added an image (to the original post) comparing my cards with similar sized cards. Can you have a look? How does it look by comparison?

I've also tweaked the Flood token, the dense text one increasing the font size slightly, but I've left the other card (the submerged obelisk) alone.

Thanks,

Nick

ceethreepio
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let-off studios wrote:For the

let-off studios wrote:
For the keywords (particularly for the W. Murray card), have you considered icons instead of text? I can imagine four circular icons that convey the same information at a glance.

Yes, I considered it. An icon has one advantage and one disadvantage that I can see. The main advantage is "language-independence" which is really nice. The disadvantage is the "cognitive-load" - I've added something that the user needs to know or look up in a manual to discover its meaning. Given the hellish number of rules in this game overall I'm reluctant to add additional look ups.

let-off studios wrote:
I'm also impressed with the artwork! Echoes of Mignola comic book art.

Thanks, I'm aiming along similar lines. I'm also working with an extremely reduced colour palette in the hopes of making this more colour-blind-friendly.

let-off studios wrote:
Were I nit-picky, I'd consider a darker background for the Jonathon Harker card, so his face "pops" more.

Agreed. I may replace his face entirely.

let-off studios wrote:
I also second the suggestion about hard-to-read fonts. For example, I understand you're going for a certain aesthetic with the W. Murray vampire card. However, since it's to be on the table and not up-close to anyone's face, a more legible font for her name may be worth considering.

I'm going to assume you actually mean the Wilhemina Murray *human* card since that's the one with the fancy font for her name. And yes, you'd be right. It is a bit fancy.

I'm kinda on the fence here. The style rules I've setup mean each Faction has a particular font and set of colours. The font is used both for the Faction name (at the bottom each card) and the card's title.

Which is all well and good, but the Humans are independent of any faction. They are just people, so I've sort of "aligned" them with the name of the game (currently, Anthology) and given them a neutral grey colour. So really, following my rules, their name should be in the "Anthology" font, at the bottom of the Wilhemina's card.

But ... as I've been generating Human card properties (using some software I wrote) I've been kinda struck by how much character is implied by the few properties they been given. A few things like ... Baker, Smart, Ex-military, Paranoid, Alcoholic, and you've got a little almost story in your hand. And so, as a little person, I was thinking he should have a proper "signature", where his name is. So I've found a few handwriting fonts ...

I fear this is one of my "Darlings" - nice ideas I need to chuck out of the game. But seeing as you never really need to look for a specific Human card by their name, then, is it a problem if their name is tricky to read?....

Nick

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