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Which Card Layout Do You Prefer?

11 replies [Last post]
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 16:06
danielbishop56
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Joined: 12/29/2013
cards2.png
mock-up-4.png

So I am producing a card game that (for the sake of speed) let us say it has almost identical mechanics as Pokemon Cards.

You are a necromancer, you summon undead minions to fight for you, the minions do not attack and defend (like in Magic the Gathering) instead the minions all use abilities which you have to pay for (like in Pokemon Cards). Every minion will have four abilities which makes things pretty tight.

I have one layout which is a pretty obvious rip off of Magic the Gathering for now just at this very early mock-up stage just to feel out the dimensions. And I have one layout in which the minion illustration is to the right and the abilities are on the left, so that when the player is fanning out their cards they can see the abilities more easily and it gives a different perspective on the minion illustration. Let me know your thoughts on each direction please.

(These do not reflect the final product, I will be putting them in the hands of a professional graphic designer once a direction is picked to completely overhaul them).

Thank you for your time!

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Thu, 07/21/2016 - 18:38
#1
mcobb83
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With the second option, how

With the second option, how much will the image quality be affected? With the MTG 'ripoff' option, at least you can get a good sized picture. the dimensions of the other option seem like it would cramp the picture a bit.

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Thu, 07/21/2016 - 23:32
#2
Garage Gamer
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For me the second option just

For me the second option just doesn't seem right. Have you tried an artwork central design? With the art being in the middle of the card and the text at various points around it.

Sadly it is really hard to do a card design that doesnt feel magic-y

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 01:42
#3
danielbishop56
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Hi GG, can you tell me a

Hi GG, can you tell me a little more about why it doesn't feel right for you please?

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 11:47
#4
harmon89
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thoughts

At the moment I like the first design better. I think if in the second image you took out the white background behind the image and had it more naturally integrated with the rest of the card and not like one solid block of white, it could feel more balanced.

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 12:03
#5
Dravvin
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The first design seems more

The first design seems more intuitive as that's what most cards seem to use that I've seen.

I like the idea of the second one but can see issues with having enough space for text, else it spanning multiple lines or the pictures not all having the right aspect ratios, etc.

Could you just mix up the positioning on the pic to central with text top and bottom or pic at bottom if you want something a bit different?

J

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 13:51
#6
I Will Never Gr...
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The first is more intuitive

The first image is more intuitive and what would be expected to be seen. It also shows off the illustration better (completely separated from the cards info)

The second is a decent concept with the abilities on the left for easy reference, but it would need a lot of work.

The mention earlier of removing the white box around the image is a good place to start as it feels disconnected from the rest of the card. Removing that box would allow the text to flow better as well (you could even have it flow right up to the edges of the image) or at the very least makes the image flow with the rest of the card.

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 18:02
#7
ruy343
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Sideways?

Have you considered rotating the entire card sideways, having a picture at one side or another? Most games are built to have the cards held vertically, but nothing says you can't do it horizontally...

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 18:41
#8
Zag24
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Joined: 03/02/2014
For the layout, I prefer the

For the layout, I prefer the second card, as long as you can make decent looking graphics that are long and thin for almost all the cards.

The big advantage is if I am considering which of three or four cards to play. It is much easier for me to hold them side by side as I look at all three of them.

This is significantly more valuable if the four actions are positionally consistent. That is, if the first one is always an offensive action, the second is always defensive, the third is always a mix of offense and defense, and the fourth is always some special action. If I know I want an offensive action, it is easy for me to line up the cards and look across.

I do agree with some other comments that the narrow column might make for excessive word wrapping. You can alleviate this somewhat by making your image less broken out. That is, make the image with a transparent background and just put it on the card without any border. This can actually buy you a little space for the cards that have a lot of text -- you make the text flow right to the edge of the text space, and the text space and the image space actually overlap a bit. Then you make sure that the image on THOSE cards that are squeezed is a bit more right-adjusted, and purely transparent on the left edge.

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 19:44
#9
questccg
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Take a look at this sample

This is a sample from "Crystal Heroes" a "Video Game" concept that I have been working on.

This shows how you can have FULL CARD artwork and still have areas for stats and other game related information.

Here is the card:

Notice there still is room for STATS in the "white area" even thought MY CARDS already have four (4) stats at the very bottom: "Crystal", "Attack", "Resistance" and lastly "Damage"...

My Special Ability is in the MIDDLE of the card... I'm just showing you that there are OTHER possible layouts...

Cheers.

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Fri, 07/22/2016 - 20:07
#10
questccg
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Here is the layout for "Tradewars - Homeworld"

I know - I like the banners on the Top-Left Hand side...

But the layout is DIFFERENT:

Another format which is maybe closer to your #1 format (what you call MAGIC).

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Mon, 07/25/2016 - 15:14
#11
danielbishop56
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Thank you for all the ideas

Thank you for all the ideas and input people,

I believe I am going with the second option, but removing the image box to make a little better use of space and theme.

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