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The Devine Works of Art & Design

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Everyone says that the Art and Design can make or break a game. Jamey Stegmaier wrote a wonderful article here. That’s exactly why I have been working on the artwork since I figured out the theme to my game.

I know everyone says that you should wait to work on the artwork until after your Kickstarter campaign is finished. Well, that may work for game designers that are not also illustrators, which is what I am.

The thing that got me the most excited about working on my game was the prospect of creating the different illustrations and artwork for it. Before you all throw the book at me, remember, I worked very hard on the game mechanics to make it a sound game before I started any artwork on it.

Granted, I know it’s far from perfect or ready. I have a very long way to go; I have no notions of grandeur at this early stage.

Fail quicker, right? That’s been my mantra since I’ve started this journey.

Comments

Nothing to share with us?!

I was maybe hoping your could SHARE an illustration or two. Just to give us a feel for your style of art and what the game may look like too!

Could be "nice"... And I'm sure everyone else would like to have a "look-see" too! LOL

Whenever someone talks about artwork or design, it's only reasonable that an illustration or two go hand-and-hand with the thread, no?

Maybe it's too early to ask for this... Seems like you've just begun. If so well consider posting an update with an image or two at a later time. Or just reply to this thread and link the artwork...

Sincerely.

Given there should be some

Given there should be some synergy between the art style and the gameplay experience, an early consideration of the art seems reasonable to me....even if the development of the game takes you in an unexpected direction and you change your mind later.

Linking images — DIY

So to be able to LINK images, you need a HOST somewhere on the internet.

Next below the "Comment" section, there is "Input format". Click on this and choose "Markdown" (the second choice).

Now you can LINK one or more images. To do so use the following as an example:

< img src="http://www.questccg.com/img_misc/K2 Logo.png" >< /img >

Just remove the spaces and you have:

You could also add an ANCHOR to be able to "click" on the image. To do so do something like this example:

< a href="http://www.questccg.com/img_misc/K2 Logo.png" target="_blank" >< img src="http://www.questccg.com/img_misc/K2 Logo.png" >< /img >< /a >

Just remove the spaces and you have:

This will help if you have online images stored elsewhere (like your own website) instead of HOSTING them on BGDF.

Cheers!

Note: I believe you can only have up to 10gb of FILES (Images or PDFs) on BGDF. With LINKED images, there is 0 space used, they are only linked and this means you can post as many images as you like... But just be aware that wherever they are HOSTED, if that disappears ... so will all your images (Broken links). Just a FYI.

LoveInPaintCreations wrote:I

LoveInPaintCreations wrote:
I know everyone says that you should wait to work on the artwork until after your Kickstarter campaign is finished. Well, that may work for game designers that are not also illustrators, which is what I am.

Yeah, if the art is part of the purpose of making the game, that advice doesn't apply to you :) Most of us here are non-artists, and spending too much time on form over function -- before the function is firmly defined -- is a poor choice.

I agree with everyone else. I

I agree with everyone else. I would love to see what your artwork looks like. Also, you're right. The advice to leave artwork for last doesn't really apply to you if you're the one creating the artwork. The only warning I would give is not to get too attached to your art. If a card or element of your game isn't working, but you stubbornly try to figure out how to make it work, or you create new elements just to reuse the newly discarded art you made, then you're doing it wrong. Your game won't grow if you box it in that way. If you can discard your art like yesterday's hot trash though, then art away! :D

Maybe the rules are a little different for artists?

I know the rule of thumb is to work on game mechanics and making your game as solid as it can be before doing any of the art, but I know the video game industry does this completely opposite most of the time. Usually, they start with concept art and build their games around the art direction. Perhaps this is because they oftentimes have large teams or resources to dedicate to this approach as opposed to board games where a designer is not necessarily the artist etc.

Maybe starting with the art first is okay for an artist designer since they have the ability to quickly change directions, and the loss of the art isn't financially damaging as opposed to the designer that has to outsource the art? I know I did graphic design by trade and do art myself, so my first inclination was to do the art and make the game fit around the art.

Making the game to fit the art has worked for me so far, but yes I have had to throw away art, assets, or go in new directions because of the game mechanics, but for me, this loss isn't that great because I am able to whip up new icons, card faces, and component designs. For a non-artist designer, this cost would be counter intuitive.

Having some art early on lets you sit with things longer, and lets you be critical of its presentation over a longer period of time. This helps with removing the rose-colored glasses of your work and gives you more opportunity to improve things. Much easier to kill your baby if you've allowed it to grow into a cocky teenager. I know for me personally, the card faces for my game have undergone several iterations just for aesthetic reasons, and I may have not seen the need for those changes if it was one of the last things I did for the game. I have seen plenty of Kickstarters that would have done right by themselves by sitting with the presentation of their game longer.

Another argument for doing some of the art first is some things will be static. If your game is called X and its theme is Y, and you know it will always be called X with Y theme, there is no reason you can't do the logo or font treatment for the box etc. That's one less thing to think about at the end of the project, and it gives your playtesters something pretty to look at. Ultimately, having some visual stuff completed in your game, just makes it more fun to play (function still matters), and it will get you more excited to see your world grow over time. Also, as the amount of assets grow, you can use those to build the website, or the Kickstarter page, or the Facebook group etc.

From what I have seen coming out of the community, the bar has been raised substantially, so anything you can do to make the game look and play as polished as possible, you need to do it. So if you start with art, the rest of that dedicated effort needs to be put into the game design, playtesting, and development. Maybe for an artist it doesn't matter what comes first as long as it all gets done?

questccg wrote:I was maybe

questccg wrote:
I was maybe hoping your could SHARE an illustration or two. Just to give us a feel for your style of art and what the game may look like too!

Could be "nice"... And I'm sure everyone else would like to have a "look-see" too! LOL

Whenever someone talks about artwork or design, it's only reasonable that an illustration or two go hand-and-hand with the thread, no?

Maybe it's too early to ask for this... Seems like you've just begun. If so well consider posting an update with an image or two at a later time. Or just reply to this thread and link the artwork...

Sincerely.

Totally understand your frustration! I tried uploading and the images were too big, then I tried to make them smaller and it was still so slightly too big. I was able to put them in my actual blog, but couldn't get it here. Let's right that wrong!

Tim Edwards wrote:Given there

Tim Edwards wrote:
Given there should be some synergy between the art style and the gameplay experience, an early consideration of the art seems reasonable to me....even if the development of the game takes you in an unexpected direction and you change your mind later.

I'm glad I'm not getting a tongue lashing for starting my art early ;)

questccg wrote:
This will help if you have online images stored elsewhere (like your own website) instead of HOSTING them on BGDF.

Cheers!

Thanks for the directions! I was able to finally upload the images just a moment ago.

Jay103 wrote:
Yeah, if the art is part of the purpose of making the game, that advice doesn't apply to you :) Most of us here are non-artists, and spending too much time on form over function -- before the function is firmly defined -- is a poor choice.

That makes perfect sense. I did wait to have a solid base before I delved into the artwork. I really don't want either end to be poor.

Fertessa wrote:
I agree with everyone else. I would love to see what your artwork looks like. Also, you're right. The advice to leave artwork for last doesn't really apply to you if you're the one creating the artwork. The only warning I would give is not to get too attached to your art. If a card or element of your game isn't working, but you stubbornly try to figure out how to make it work, or you create new elements just to reuse the newly discarded art you made, then you're doing it wrong. Your game won't grow if you box it in that way. If you can discard your art like yesterday's hot trash though, then art away! :D

I do agree with you' I don't want to box myself in with my artwork. That being said, I don't think it'll be a problem as I've already had to throw out a few designs because I came up with something better. If I grow too close to my artwork for the game, I would probably just make a painting out of it and sell it in my Etsy shop, heh.

jonathanflike wrote:
Maybe starting with the art first is okay for an artist designer since they have the ability to quickly change directions, and the loss of the art isn't financially damaging as opposed to the designer that has to outsource the art? I know I did graphic design by trade and do art myself, so my first inclination was to do the art and make the game fit around the art.

Now that you mention it, I did get my degree in Animation, so it would make sense that my brain would want to work a little less linear going from A-B, but instead going from A-F-L-B-D, etc. I can see that not working for designers who have to outsource, since it could bring out some expensive mistakes.

jonathanflike wrote:
This helps with removing the rose-colored glasses of your work and gives you more opportunity to improve things. Much easier to kill your baby if you've allowed it to grow into a cocky teenager. I know for me personally, the card faces for my game have undergone several iterations just for aesthetic reasons, and I may have not seen the need for those changes if it was one of the last things I did for the game.

I haven't even started the battle of the actual card layout, as I can't seem to find a format I'm truly happy with. I have a basic layout that is working for early playtesting but I haven't really gone farther with that...yet. I also haven't touched the back of the card designs yet.

jonathanflike wrote:
From what I have seen coming out of the community, the bar has been raised substantially, so anything you can do to make the game look and play as polished as possible, you need to do it. So if you start with art, the rest of that dedicated effort needs to be put into the game design, playtesting, and development. Maybe for an artist it doesn't matter what comes first as long as it all gets done?

Whew, amen to that! I've been seeing some gorgeous games coming out lately. It's making my wallet emptier and emptier... ;) It seems that instead of working in a linear way to get the game done, I'm working more in a pretzel-type shape, as it's a lot of back and forth and moving from one thing to the other. Seems to keep everything fresh and interesting for me.

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