Starting Physical Prototypes and Clearances
Several updates in this post as I've grabbed a little time to spare here and there to add new cards and wanted to start creating some physical version of the game to start play-testing.
But first...
Clearances for products
I have always wanted to use real products, personalities and events in the game and this has meant getting legal clearance to do so, or at least attempting to. So far, this has been met with success and the following products have been cleared: - Commodore and Amiga (Which makes me happy) - Osborne computers
More to follow, I'm wondering the best approach to contacting personalities, any ideas welcome.
Physical Prototypes
I am slowly (at about the speed of a snail) drawing towards having physical prototypes for play-testing, an important and nervous step on the path of designing a game.
I read somewhere that using old playing cards and sticking paper printouts of the cards was a great way to create re-usable card components. Off I went to find some cheap playing cards.
I have a PDF preview of all the current cards in the game thanks to the Drupal Views and the Print module, so it was easy to create a sheet I could print.
The first problem was that the print sizes I had set up (6.8cm x 9.3cm) wasn't the same size as the playing cards (5.7cm x 9cm), something i hadn't even thought about. Thanks to the flexible CSS based layout of the cards it wasn't too hard to change the sizes and reprint.
Next was cutting up the cards.
Finally, is glueing the paper printouts to the cards.
This looked great, then it occurred to me that at this stage in the prototype stage, maybe this was unnecessary. I ended up removing the paper from the card before the glue dried. Maybe in a couple of revisions I will stick them back, though I guess new versions can be layered on top of each other.
Anyway, it's nice to have a small stack of cards in front of me, it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. Next up will be creating the boards.
This post is available with images on the game's official blog
Comments
No need to glue, just put
No need to glue, just put them i card protector sleeves. :)
Congrats on the first prototype and permissions you got.
What kind of personalities
What kind of personalities are you talking about? What approach to use depends on the sort of person.
Also, just to double check, by "cleared," do you mean that you have a physical copy of an agreement with Cloanto, Hyperion, or whoever holds the rights these days, to use "Commodore" and "Amiga" in a tabletop game? Does this specifically authorize use of the name, associated symbols, and product likeness? Commodore USA, for example, thought they had obtained rights to Amiga, but then ended up slapped with a suit from Hyperion, as it is sometimes possible for more than one party to believe they hold rights to old marks that have changed hands a few times.
Yes, card sleeves
I second pelle's suggestion. Card sleeves are really cheap, and you can just slide pieces of paper into them. That makes it really easy to change your cards as needed.
Another option with playing cards is to make a table with all of your text and an associated card. So the 4 of clubs is card Y, and the 6 of diamonds is card X.
Good luck with the legal stuff!
Sorry, only just saw all
Sorry, only just saw all these comments!
I agree on the card sleeves, it was just easier and cheaper to find these cards and I was on a spurt of enthusiasm.
The personalities I haven't thought about how I am going to approach yet, but I'm talking people like Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates and then some more obscure people.
I think some will be easy to approach and keen, others wont be, which is why I'm thinking about the best way to approach them.
Regarding the clearances I do have, I have written (emails) agreements from current copyright holders that we can use (acknowledged) trademarks. I think the main reason is we're not competing or causing confusion in the slightest.
However, with legal issues, I come from an Open Source background, and so I am taking a fairly 'laissez faire' attitude towards legalities, having a legal disclaimer available and keeping my fingers crossed.
Time will tell :/
DIY Card Prototyping
My standard way of creating prototype decks was:
Print 9-up card faces on an inkjet printer (standard ink quality) or laser (if only b/w needed). Cut them with a guillotine paper cutter. Then put them in clear sleeves with a similar-sized playing card to keep it more stiff. It is easy to replace cards while playtesting.
Use cheap decks of playing cards from the Dollar store for the backs. You can get 2 decks for a dollar at the Dollar stores. If the image on the back is not crucial and doesn't need to be exactly the same on all cards, you can use cards from old Trivial Pursuit games. Or you can find old games with the same back design on all cards. I buy Trivial Pursuit games at thrift stores for about $1.50 each, which gives me:
1,000 cards (2.5" x 3.5" standard size)
2 nice rigid set-up boxes for storing my prototypes
1 top-of-the-line quad-fold board for other prototyping
Can't beat all that material that for $1.50. You would pay more than that for just a new blank board from game supply companies.