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I guess there's always room for improvement.

A, B, or C?

TL;DR Which do you think is better? ------------------->
http://sta.sh/0ryz885vtov
Here's with the cleric. I don't know if I want to put his glowing hand in there or not.

I haven't blogged in over a year! To catch up, I hit up a lot of cons and unpubs, shilling my Dungeon Brawl game. I got a lot of players from ComicCon and Comikaze, but Gateway had people with great ideas to improve the game which have been implemented. Even now, the game is fine as it is, but I want to try ONE LAST CHANGE before sending it away for a professional copy or kickstarting it. I honestly hope the change crashes and burns so I don't have to change anything and find comfort that it didn't need changing. The problem is, once again, getting enough playtesters to play and to play more than once.

It "only" took 6+ months for my artists to come up with my 5 character concepts, then draw all 5 for the cover art. The sad thing is, I want more art, but the time it takes him to draw, I won't have the time to print a copy of the game with the art.

Why am I so crestfallen when I get someone that, straight up, doesn't like the game or the layout? Probably because they offer no solution to make it better, or when they do, suggest some extreme change which can't be done without creating a new game. Amidst all the praise I've gotten, 1 guy told me that he didn't like it and it was "too random" amongst other things. I actually questioned what I was doing and why was I continuing with this lost cause. After one 0/10 would never play again, all the praise washed away. I literally had to peptalk myself with "what does he know?" and justify all the "randomness" of the game with calculations of percentages of card draw. Then I realized I didn't have to justify anything. It was 1 person out of dozens of dozens who didn't like the game AT ALL. It wasn't for him. YOu can't win 'em all.

Which leads me to this final problem: The card layout. I was happy with what I had and no one complained save one. So now I made 3 new layouts. If anyone would be so kind as to choose your favorite, I would appreciate it. I have a few opinions already from a small pool of friends and fellow game designers but bigger is better.

Comments

Choosing

I prefer option "C." This version has no frame and a larger image overall, and appears more free and dynamic to me. The others seem dominated by the text as opposed to the image, which I imagine you don't want.

...And it can be a bummer to hear that one nay-sayer, eh? Keep your chin up, and stay clear with the purpose of the game. If it's not for him then hey it's not for him. That's part of the market that you may never win over, unfortunately. But you don't need to corner every segment, do you?

Gonna have to go with C ..

I like stats on the left side (personal preference) so I don't care for B.

As for the other two, I feel that C (the far right with no border around the character art) is the cleanest and most dramatic looking of them all. I'm sure that's NOT the one you want to go with and change everything. lol.

Regarding your crestfallen state over a 0/10 would not play again rating from one person .. I feel you. I've had dozens love my game, then that one or two who dislike it just leave me stunned and questioning everything.

At the same time, as much as I will listen to people's solutions, I'd rather hear what they disliked (in detail if possible) and come up with a solution myself. Always listen to comments, thank them for them, and then do what you need to do to improve the game (if it needs it). You are the designer after all. :)

happened to me too...

I have 2 Blind Playtesters who HATED my game too... They were "game neophytes" and said that the game was biased "for people who have played games like this before..." Like you said you can't please EVERYONE.

And I agree with the other 2 comments, "C" is the BEST.

(Please check my comment on the image - to see if you can make a slight improvement...)

Wow. C is a dark horse! I

Wow. C is a dark horse! I offhandedly made it as a throw-away. I would have gone with the landscape of B, thinking it would be the clear winner (which is currently 2nd place among all votes). I don't mind moving stuff around, but the way I made those icons, with B it looks rather clunky.

Quest said to make the scroll transparent. You can see it here: http://sta.sh/21shj5i9xhlo?edit=1 I don't like it too much because it hampers the readability of the card. You can't sacrifice function for art. That's what postcards are for. But what do I know? I was wrong in which card I thought was better.

"C" with 75% looks the best to me...

Not because I suggested it... 75% leaves sufficient Scroll to not affect readability and it allows for more of the character to come through...

The other "2" don't allow for enough visibility for the character (IMO).

But have everyone take a look... Look at the LARGER version (Click on the samples...) I still think it's very functional and still very readable.

Update: Why I like it? It adds some more DEPTH to the overall appearance of the card!

Do you have another Character you can show using the 75% transparency??? It might be good to have another sample - to address the "readability" issue you seem concerned with... I'm just thinking with another character we can see if there really is a concern.

Just a suggestion...

Update 2: You could put a WHITISH "outer glow" on the Text/Writing if you want it to pop-out more (over the background)... Like kinda what you did with the ICONS... That might improve visibility too!

C!

C!

http://sta.sh/0ryz885vtov Her

http://sta.sh/0ryz885vtov

Here's with the cleric. I don't know if I want to put his glowing hand in there or not.

C is best!

I vote for C... and my wife does too.

having the character avatar "out" of a box helps bring them to life and makes them not "trapped" in a box.

It is a good look for the cards.

-Eamon

Edit: I say no to the transparent scroll.

Evil ColSanders

Evil ColSanders wrote:
http://sta.sh/0ryz885vtov

Here's with the cleric. I don't know if I want to put his glowing hand in there or not.

What if you mirror imaged the cleric so he's facing the other way? ie: towards the icons kind of like the other character was?

I Will Never Grow Up Gaming

I Will Never Grow Up Gaming wrote:
What if you mirror imaged the cleric so he's facing the other way? ie: towards the icons kind of like the other character was?

I don't like it because it's like a fighting game. Somehow scars, bows, tattoos strangely move to the other side of the body. With him, why is he wielding a mace in his left hand when the box art shows him holding it in his right? I'll put up some examples in a few minutes.

Evil ColSanders wrote:I Will

Evil ColSanders wrote:
I Will Never Grow Up Gaming wrote:
What if you mirror imaged the cleric so he's facing the other way? ie: towards the icons kind of like the other character was?

I don't like it because it's like a fighting game. Somehow scars, bows, tattoos strangely move to the other side of the body. With him, why is he wielding a mace in his left hand when the box art shows him holding it in his right? I'll put up some examples in a few minutes.

I honestly don't know anyone who actually thinks like that when they sit down with a game to be honest. We all know box art, rule book art, card art, etc differs from one to the other if only in subtle ways. Sometimes it's drastic

"Why does the box art look like a screen grab from an action movie with everyone gathered around in wild action poses defending one another/fighting one another when the cards only have one person in a totally different pose?" .. yeah, never heard that.

I feel that making the image fit the look of the card itself far outweighs small details like a character holding a weapon in one hand on the box vs another hand on a card.

It's actually been a major

It's actually been a major complaint in fighting games. Lots of bigger games are using 3D art rather than 2D to rectify that. Skullgirls actually did 2D and specifically re-drew the opposite side to prevent this even though it cost them more money. I notice things on illustrations a LOT and point them out in video games, deviantart work, board games. I had to fix my own artists mistakes like a body part misshapen or the like. You'd never know if I didn't tell you and you probably wouldn't notice how the Ranger is left-handed in the box art, but right-handed everywhere else. I most definitely wouldn't have the warrior with sword in left hand and shield in right.

With the cleric, I can forgive it though. he could just put his weapon into his off-hand to cast and then switch hands to fight. I haven't had any input on the images I put up yet. The 2 I HAVE asked, liked the card with the regular side more than the reversed/mirrored image. So, if more people agree, then there's no problem.

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