Software for game design

For making cards, I am currently using corel draw. Any other vectorial drawing software would do the same thing. I copy paste the card layout and copy the text in the card.

The gimp is good for some kind of images and you can learn it yourself by using it.

Nestalawe

I already made that kind of software once. It was nice and it could change some numbers in images (ex:icons). But it is not a generic software. It was coded specifically for a game. So I have to recode the software for each card game I make. My software was coded with allegro.

I would have loved to send you samples, but I can't find them on my computer.

Making a generic software is possible. If you look at the MTG editor, you see that making a generic editor is possible. Maybe there is one currently available. I know that the MTG editor parameters can be modified, but you cannot add new stats on the cards which are not normally in MTG.

Now I have some limitations with the software an libraries I am using.

- I can't produce PDF sheet like the MTG editor. So I have to make pcx files. Use a batch converter to convert them in PNG. And then use a template made in latex where I enter manually the number of the cards(making a script that generate the latex file is possible).

- I must manage carriage return manually. There is no routine that will set automatically the carriage return and change the height of the text to make sure that the text fits correctly on the card.

- There is no GUI. The database is basically a text file where you enter information separated by a semi-colon. The output is hardcoded. And when I start the program, It shows each card one after another and dump them on the disk. So I would need to use a GUI to make it user fiendly especily for a generic software (gui is a bit more complicated on allegro or any other C++ software than VB for example.)

And no I don't have time for this. I am currently overloaded of work and stuff to do. If I ever need this kind of software, it is possible that I make a program that could eventually becomes a generic software.

Don't expect anything, but yes it is possible to do it.

The most useful thing I could imagine for making cards would be a program that accesses a database (that holds the card info) to place the card info into a layout. I have been using Word and Mail Merging for my cards and I can churn them out, and make changes to them very very easily. Thus if I want to change the layout, or need to alter the information on the cards, I can just alter the layout, and it affects all the cards, saving you a lot of time if you have to change like 100 cards...

But, of course Word is very limited, and there are only so many things you can do to alter the layout. And images still need to be put in manually (I think, i'm not quit a Mail Merge Guru, maybe you can get imags in...). So the next best thing would be to have a glorified version, where you could access a database or spreadsheet of info (stats and images for each card) and then define your layout for each set of cards, and the program would churn them out Mail Merge style.

Does that makes sense?

Anyone out there up for the challenge of putting something together? ;)

Well, I love a challenge. You have my e-mail address. If you want me to give it a go, please send me a more specific wish-list. Who knows, you all might just get an early Christmas present!

Mitch

For Windows at least, I think that Serif PagePlus 10 (or 11) is a great piece of software. It lets you read in information from a database and then lays out the cards per a standard template. The real bonus is that each card has its own layout so that you can go back and tweak them by hand a bit.

PagePlus has a lot of fontagraphic effects too, so that you can make a really sophisticated looking layout. You can link the graphics too, to keep the layout itself small when you save it.

If a card needs a different icon or background based on data, you just have those things computed in an Access database and then have PagePlus display the calculated image. However, any game is easier to layout with a custom dingbat font for the symbols instead of individual graphics.

PagePlus has one limitation I hate -- it cuts text fields off after 255 characters, trimming longer fields. Yuck.

Otherwise it is a great affordable DTP package with lots of PDF and publishing features built into it.

One thing that is a really useful trick for any software package that can merge from a database is being able to control the multiples of a card. This is a neat trick which many people don't seem to know about.

If your database is relational, include a field with each card data entry called "Multiple". Create a table called "Multiples" that has only one field in it called "Multiple". For the data in that table type the following:

1
2
2
3
3
3
4
4
4
4

and so on. One copy of the number times the number itself, so for 25, you type in 25 lines with "25" in it.

Now when you hook up the Multiples table with your card data in a relational query the result set has the card data multiplied an appropriate number of times.

This is great for playtesting, particularly when you do not need to custom tweak the cards, because you can say, "Bill just requested 6 more copies of X and two more copies of Y", and you can trivially print them out.

So, a good relational database, appropriate dingbat fonts, and some kind of DTP software that can dynamically layout text AND graphics based on queries in the databae.

Paint Shop Pro is great for designing icons, backgrounds, etc., but it's totally the wrong way to design hundreds of cards. Design graphics in Paint Shop Pro and then do the layout in a DTP program.

PagePlus sounds like just the thing I need... I've spent the past month or so working on a web-based program (mainly because PHP seemed like the easiest language to code such a thing in!) that would take your data and generate a card image from it that you could print. But it's really clunky, as you have to define a template in text (example line: "IMG 0 fire / 0,0 http://mysite.com/fire_backgd.jpg"), and you have to save your data out as a CSV, then cut & paste your CSV text into a form on the page.

But I'm downloading a demo of PagePlus to cut myself off at the pass! Writing this thing has been torture! Not to mention the quality will be vastly superior. Fingers remain crossed. Having a good way to churn out quality cards will actually be really inspirational, I think I'll take a lot more stuff to prototype stage.

Yep, you got it on the second try!

So it turns out that the most recent version of PagePlus that has a demo is the one "specially made for Win95!" (i.e. the "wow, it's not DOS!?" edition). That's not terribly current, and it's a seriously crappy program.

Is it really worth a $130 risk? Can it import data from excel, or CSVs or anything, or do I actually need Access to use any database features? Or is there a demo somewhere maybe?

I'll keep on googling, but I'd love more information on the programs people use for this task.

Old versions of CorelDraw used to have a merge function that might work fine. It's been several years and many versions since the last time I used this feature, so I don't know if it still exists or what versions include it or not. But I might be a good option, as you'll have plenty of design control (though not as much as Yougurt suggests with Access).

The good news are that some time ago Epson printers came with older CorelDraw versions included, so it might be possible to find someone willing to give you a copy he doesn't use. Even if you decide to buy the latest version, it sells for USD 260 or so, and it's a really powerfull application.

It could most certainly be done with Corel using scripts, but I never used them.It shouldn't be too difficult, as it's VBA scripts. That would give more flexibility, but also means some programming.

Seo

It's got lots of formatting it can apply to text. However, it's not conditional -- if it's in the field it gets X type of format applied to it. This is trivial to take care of, however if you want to simulate conditional formatting. I need conditional formatting for my current prototyping project. Here's how I do it.

Let's say each card has got just one of 3 different types of icons in the upper left corner. All icons have a number overlayed on them. One of the icons, however, needs white text over it, because the icon is dark. The other two needs dark text over them because the icons are light. Let's say Rock is a dark icon and Paper and Scissors are light icons.

In your table called "Card_Data" you store two fields, the number to overlay (call it "Card_Value") and a one-letter abbreviation for the icon (call it "Icon_Type"). You have a separate table called "Icon_Data" that has a column for the icon abbreviation, and another column with the full path. Got that? So that, for example, if a card has an "R" icon type, when you set up the relationship, that card will have an icon path of "C:\icons\rock.jpg", for example.

Your PagePlus dynamic template has a single field and displays whatever icon you pass the path to. So, that's a field that can now, dynamically, have all sorts of background formatting by loading in a different JPG for a given card.

Now, how do you do the text overlay? Back in your database, in the same query that you merge the card data and the icon paths, you set up two calculated fields: 1) "Light_Text", and 2) "Dark_Text". If the card's icon is an "R" for Rock, you need light text, so you copy the "Card_Value" field into "Light_Text" for this query, and you leave "Dark_Text" blank for the card. If the card's icon is "P" or "S", you need dark text, so you leave "Light_Text" blank, and dynamically copy (as part of the query, don't store the data) the "Card_Value" into "Dark_Text".

This may sound complicated, but if you can merge two simple tables and know how to set up a calculation field, you'll set this up in under 10 minutes, maybe under 5.

Now, back in PagePlus you create two different text fields, one to display "Light_Text" and one to display "Dark_Text". Set the text values for those fields appropriately to the text styles you want.

Run your merge. To review, PagePlus has only 3 fields, all aligned with each other. The first is an icon field. The second is a field to display Light_Text if that field isn't blank. The third is a field to display Dark_text if that field isn't blank.

This will take maybe another 5-10 minutes to setup.

From here on out, you can dynamically display Rock, Paper, and Scissors icons on the corner of the card with a color-coordinated text overlay.

These principles will work with most DTP packages that allow database merges of images and values and will simulate dynamic field formatting pretty will with a minimum of mess.

You can similarly dynamically set font size for card text. Let's say you want your card text to be in 10 point if possible, in 8 point if you hit 100 characters, and in 6 point if you hit 200+ characters. You dynamically determine the field length in a query, and then put the value in a corresponding calculated column called "Six_Point", "Eight_Point", or "Ten_Point". In PagePlus you create 3 text display fields exactly overlapping and set each one to display the appropriate font size. This will display 1-99 characters as 10 point text, 100-199 characters as 8 point text, and 200+ characters as 6 point text.

You can dynamically color text in much the same way.

Hope that helps.

If you have questions about these types of techniques, drop me a message.

BTW -- using a merge to a DTP program is MUCH MUCH better than laying out in Access, because otherwise, unless you want to code your arm off, a lot of the layout decisions you make in Access will either be static (meaning you have to change them for all cards if you want to change them for any of them), it will be memory intensive, and/or you'll get stuck with OLE fields to manage some of your card text and images to get the effects you want. Also, you probably won't be able to get Access to easily emulate as many fontographic tricks as PagePlus can.

The methods I've described work on dynamic pages and queries, require minimal data storage space, are flexible, and fast to run once implemented.

I can program Access pretty darn well, but these methods are by far easier ways to get really nice results, and they allow you to custom tweak each card, as needed. Trust me, if you generate enough cards for a complex game, some card, sooner or later, will need to be custom tweaked in a manner that is not trivial in Access or the database software of your choice.

VeritasGames

Your sample is really acceptable.

Does it requires a lot of tweaking or esoteric knowledge to do this or anybody who knows access should come up easily with these results?

Is the output is done as a "report" or as a "form".

In your example, there are multiple copies of the same card, does this mean there is duplicate entries in the database?

Does it requires any VB coding, or it can be done with all other tools or maybe wizard?

Does all versions of access are capable of doing something like this?

Ah! I was using this very trick in Access, as it happens.

I'll try your PagePlus tips, if the demo allows them. [Update: I don't think there IS a demo. They have a free limited edition now instead, but it doesn't do mail merges.]

I'm still a little baffled that conditional stuff that's easy in Word and Excel is so tricky in Access and other packages.

I know this isn't the place for Access questions, but if anyone knows how to change a property of a report element (like a text box or a line) based on the contents of the current record, could you let me know? DTP is promising but I may not have time before my deadline to explore a new software package.

Yogurt

Thanks Mitch!

The On_Format event was what I was looking for. I had been looking for it in the wrong place, not under Detail.

I'm not familiar with grouping in reports, but I'll fiddle around with it and see what I can do.

I'm grateful for the help!

Yogurt

I found my example on my backup disk. Only the first page is generated by my software. In my program, by commenting lines of codes, I made it possible to draw the same content in black and white.

All the cards has been generated with the allegro library. The fonts are TTF exported for allegro. So the character size cannot be dynamicaly changed. The background texture have been generated with GenTex (random texture generator). The text box is a semi translucent white box drawn over the texture. The yellow dot and icons on the top right corner are simply bitmaps drawn on the card.

Enjoy!

http://www.bgdf.com/files/My_Uploads/Larienna/Cardshee.pdf

Serif, I think, will sometimes offer you a money back guarantee for 30 days if you call their sales line and ask them for one. So even if there's not a demo, that's a good secondary option.

The software is nice, and it's relatively inexpensive. I don't have version 11 yet, just version 10. It's biggest limitation on imports is a 255 character limit (which some really long CCG cards can run into occasionally).

It imports a number of different spreadsheet and database format. It's native format is called "Serif Database Format", but it's really just a CSV import format if memory serves. It's most powerful with a relational database behind it because with the right queries you can generate multiples of cards without entering the card data for individual cards multiple times (as I've described elsewhere in this thread).

If you buy any of their products you can often get cheap discount rates on future upgrades.

Hello!

I work here at Rehtmeyer (www.toysngames.com) and the most preferred format for art from our production facilities in China Is Adobe Illustrator CS or In Designs CS. You can get a 30 day free trial of Adobe Illustrator CS2 at their website.

Thanks!

Bill