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Background designs for card game

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jedite1000
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action test card.jpg
ability test card4.jpg
ability test card3.jpg
ability test card.jpg
Steel Hand.jpg
fireman test 18.jpg
fireman test 17.jpg
fireman test 16.jpg
fireman test 14.jpg
fireman test 15.jpg
fireman test 12.jpg
fireman test 13.jpg
fireman test2.2.jpg
fireman test.jpg
fireman test3.jpg
fireman test11.jpg
fireman test4.jpg
fireman test8.jpg
fireman test9.jpg
fireman test5.jpg
Steel Hand.jpg
Fireman.jpg

How do you guys go about creating backgrounds for your cards, do you have different backgrounds for individual characters? Or one background theme across multiple cards

I am currently trying to come up with a background theme for my card game, 1 for hero side and 1 for villain side, but i am having trouble coming up with a good theme

Here is what i have so far.
You can Ignore the flavor text, im just concentration on the background now

So far none of these look like they belong on a card

Crumpet22
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The one with the yellow

The one with the yellow background really stood out for me! I think the other backgrounds look a little too 'busy'. The Fireman image is quite static so a complex background is always going to look a bit odd. Try and keep the backgrounds simple but dynamic, like the yellow one!

jedite1000
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Thanks for the tip, i added a

Thanks for the tip, i added a new design

The green one

jedite1000
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i like the city so i changed

i like the city so i changed it again

Dralius
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I don't have the art

I don't have the art background to do that level of work. I concentrate on functionality and leave the artwork to the publisher.

questccg
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My advice to you is...

Go with #3 (City with Black Border). BUT... what I would do is setup a LAYER just above the city and make it WHITE with a transparency of about 50% to 75% (whatever looks best).

I think the Black Border will look good and the city won't be as PRONOUNCED.

But you'll still have the city background - just faded a little...

Cheers.

FrankM
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Maybe tinted a bit

questccg wrote:
Go with #3 (City with Black Border). BUT... what I would do is setup a LAYER just above the city and make it WHITE with a transparency of about 50% to 75% (whatever looks best).

I think the Black Border will look good and the city won't be as PRONOUNCED.

But you'll still have the city background - just faded a little...

Cheers.


It might help to tint the masking layer differently for each character, based on his/her primary or secondary color (as in sample #1). Try it as a subtle tinge or a thick blanket of color to see what works best.

Demolitionist75
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Good starting point

If you have to / want to commission artwork I would advice that you stick to a low number of generic backgrounds. Otherwise you will be bleeding money.

Then you should separate some of the posted backgrounds more from the character, cause you got to guide the eye a bit.

The city background looks a bit too cluttered with detail for me. I would choose a more graphic, simpler approach. Few details, subdued or at least not more than two colors.

jedite1000
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What kind of background do

What kind of background do you suggest? do i have the same background for all characters or 2 different backgrounds 1 for heroes and one for villains, or should they all have different backgrounds depending on their element type?

Demolitionist75
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If you can afford it I would

If you can afford it I would try using different backgrounds depending on their element type. That makes it easier for players to distinguish the different elements. And maby you can incorporate the element look into the background.

jedite1000
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What do you think of the

What do you think of the placement of the card's elements? still no background as im struggling with it but yeah this is what i have come up with so far

Demolitionist75
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Placement of various elements

The illustration looks good. But I don't like other elements (name, energy) overlapping it. There should be enough room between each of these.

In the game do you have multiple cards on your hand? Then you should consider putting crucial elements (energy, icon, name,...?) on one side only! Because with multiple cards just one side (left side) peeks out under the other cards.

Also I would delete the word "energy" as I presume that it is written on every card. You have to eliminate unnecessary textual elements. If you need it, try in icon besides the text.

And the border around the quote is squashing the text - maybe try a flat color for the background there even if it is inconsistent to the other borders.

FrankM
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Icon for energy

From what I've seen you don't need an icon for energy, just use the icon for the element and then the energy score.

The placement advice is sound, but I think these particular cards are chosen from a small character deck rather than held in a "hand." Item placement will be much more important for the action cards.

Though maybe I'm misunderstanding the sequence of play and maybe the hero/villain cards go into the hand with action cards.

jedite1000
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Yeah the character cards dont

Yeah the character cards dont go in your hand they are already on the field, the abilities and action cards will go in your hand however

So dont have the word energy?, how energy works is you will need to spend energy to use abilities and it will be on the ability cards, just wondering if people will get confused if there are no words on the ability cards that says energy, how would they know where to spend energy and where it comes from?

I do like it to say energy though, because people will recgonise it better, if i only have an icon or just the number, players would need to look up what it means. Here it is "oh its the heroes energy and i need it to use their abilities" instead of "What does that number mean? is it their health, or attack?"

I resized the bottom just so you can see the character more, and do prefer the comic style character names or just big bold letters?

And now trying out different background textures but they do not blend well with the character image that is what im struggling with the most

After going over them, people seem to like the city version better but with a lighter tinted color

krone9
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personally I'd just have a

personally I'd just have a nice background and a logo like "fireman 3000" or similar

remove the figure and the extra text/quotes

I'd go for the sun rays plus a centralised text logo as the background. then color theme for each subsection of the game eg hero or villain.

Simple is best imho

jedite1000
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ok added some new cards to

ok added some new cards to the post, and added a villain to compare it with the hero, and to see what its like with the backgrounds

Its the best i can do with the placements of the ability cards and whatnot. but can still improve

jedite1000
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Ok scrapped the city idea and

Ok scrapped the city idea and added sunburst backgrounds, and quite happy with how they turned out

jedite1000
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Ok, i updated the character

Ok, i updated the character card to fit with the new mechanics, still wip design

http://i.imgur.com/OFZAI9z.jpg

jedite1000
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Aaaaand updated again

Aaaaand updated again http://i.imgur.com/kcHm42H.jpg

Demolitionist75
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Getting in the right

Getting in the right direction. I dig the new design definitely more than the first ones.

jedite1000
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Well it took awhile but i may

Well it took awhile but i may finally have the ability cards design set

http://i.imgur.com/EMdVFjH.jpg basic
http://i.imgur.com/9Dod0yX.jpg ultimate
http://i.imgur.com/PUIrlEv.jpg action

This way having different icons on the abilities means that any champion will be able to use it, some will benefit from more than others, so instead of having abilities exclusive to speedsters or tanky champions any champion can use it

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