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Hello from OtterLabs

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Tue, 05/29/2018 - 10:10
Otterlabs
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Joined: 05/14/2018

Hi everyone!

My name is Emily and I'm here under my new company's name, OtterLabs. I'm a Midwesterner turned NYC-er, and a gaming newbie currently working on my first project - a card game that has nothing to do with otters. It does involve other animals, mostly the kind that live in urban areas and hassle city dwellers like me.

I'm still in prototype/development mode and looking forward to sharing more updates soon.

Since I'm the writer/game developer and have zero graphic design or art skills whatsoever, I also wanted to put out there that I would love to touch base with any graphic designers who can help with card game design, soup to nuts (basically everything including logo, card, rules and box design). Also if there are any awesome character designers out there, I'm in need of someone who can draw cartoon-style animals, and lots of them. I'm willing to pay for help with both.

I'm looking forward to becoming part of this community, feel free to shoot me a note if you're interested, or just to say hello!

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Tue, 05/29/2018 - 10:46
#1
MAR
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Joined: 04/23/2017
Hi

Hi Emily, welcome to the forum! Unfortunately, I am not a graphic designer, but I can put you in touch with the guy that we used to do our logos if your interested. If so, just send me a message. Thanks and hope your project goes well!

-Austin

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Tue, 05/29/2018 - 11:48
#2
Paul Ott
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Joined: 01/22/2018
Hey and welcome.This guy did

Hey and welcome.

This guy did some great cartoony art for me at a very reasonable price.

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Tue, 05/29/2018 - 19:52
#3
twoeyedcyclops
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Joined: 02/05/2018
graphic design and art

Hi, if I could just offer a piece of advice, unless you've already done a good amount of playtests and the playtesters are genuinely loving your game, I would be very hesitant to spend money on the graphic design and artwork. First because basic, functional graphic design and artwork that you do yourself is fine for the prototype and playtesting phase. Second because unless your game is very far along, to the point of being almost finished, it will probably change rapidly during playtesting, so there's a good chance the artwork will have to be redone, almost certainly multiple times, and the cost for doing that could really add up.

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Tue, 05/29/2018 - 20:38
#4
questccg
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Joined: 04/16/2011
I agree BUT...

twoeyedcyclops wrote:
Hi, if I could just offer a piece of advice, unless you've already done a good amount of playtests and the playtesters are genuinely loving your game, I would be very hesitant to spend money on the graphic design and artwork...

There are a FEW things that you may want to consider FIRST:

  • If you have chosen the NAME of your game and you've check BGG to make certain there are no conflicts, not to mention a Domain Search too... Well then you can ask a Graphics Designer to design a LOGO based on your input.

  • If you are dealing with CARDS, you may want to ask a Graphic Designer to design the LAYOUTS for your cards. If you have several different types of cards, well more work for said Graphic Designer. Again this is given your input too.

  • Again if you have CARDS, you may want to ask a Graphic Designer to design the CARDBACKS (reverse side) for your cards. If you have several different types of cards, you may need several cardbacks too.

  • If you know the TYPE of characters you will be having in your game, well you can ask an Artist to maybe draw a few of them for any Crowdfunding effort or simply to keep YOU motivated to push forward with the design.

I find that IF I have something relevant to the project to SHOW, that's worth something because you can see progress even if you are at a very early stage of the design. So character illustrations are not necessarily FINAL art for cards, it could be simply be for your own satisfaction in knowing you have found the RIGHT "Artist" for your game/project.

So it's never too early to examine certain aspects of a game... But generally speaking I agree not to spend too much until your game is well oiled and "streamlined" to being the most "compact" version that is still filled with FUN and entertainment.

Cheers!

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Wed, 05/30/2018 - 11:32
#5
Jay103
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Joined: 01/23/2018
Otterlabs wrote:Also if there

Otterlabs wrote:
Also if there are any awesome character designers out there, I'm in need of someone who can draw cartoon-style animals, and lots of them. I'm willing to pay for help with both.

Welcome!

There are definitely a lot of good artists around. I agree with everyone else here that you don't want to move on the art too early, but there may be some things you know will be relevant no matter what (like testing out an artist on a few animals)

I'd guess you're looking at something on the order of $50 to have an animal drawn professionally, if you're looking to get a budget estimate. If you look at:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/727578181/heroes-and-treasure-rpg-b...

those guys all cost me at least $50 or so :) If I'd needed more revisions it would've gone up from there. The logo was more (even starting from my own concept), and the giant boss goblin near the bottom was notably more..

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Wed, 05/30/2018 - 12:02
#6
Jay103
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Joined: 01/23/2018
Oh, also check out NANDeck

Oh, also check out NANDeck (and there are a few others like it) for laying out cards, tokens, and stuff like that, plus I recommend GIMP as a free PhotoShop alternative.

I can't do actual art with them, but I can move around other people's art and save myself a lot of money :)

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Sat, 06/02/2018 - 22:40
#7
animepauly
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Joined: 05/06/2016
Hi Emily! Welcome! I would

Hi Emily! Welcome! I would also like to throw in Scribus for layout of all your artwork for printing and for any promotional materials like business cards, brochures, inserts, etc... There is also a python script that allows you to put variables on a card layout, link those variables to a spreadsheet, and automatically create tons of cards. I have used it for prototyping in the past. It's somewhat clunky but gets the job done. It's called Scribus generator and is pretty sweet. Check it out here: https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus_Generator

Good luck in all that you do! Reach out to me if you have any questions.

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Tue, 06/05/2018 - 08:20
#8
Otterlabs
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Joined: 05/14/2018
Thank you all so much for the

Thank you all so much for the pointers, I really appreciate it!!

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