Prototyping Computer Questions

If you just want really basic layouts then SVG-Edit is a web browser based program that I found, it cant do much but its free and you don't need to install anything, the only downside is it look pixel rather than physical dimension based.

Other than that inkscape look pretty good!

As for cards a good way I've found is to buy card sleeve protectors, you can get them from anywhere that sells Magic the gathering. Then just print on paper and slide them in :) Its nice to buy some magic cards and use them as backers if you really want the card stiffness.

Having designed my own card layouts my only advice is decide on the size of your cards and create some simple templates to work off. Just make the design simple and understandable.

For inspiration just look at some other card designs star wars destiny cards have very simple designs to them and work very well.

When I want to squeeze out some cards quickly (I have a 6-month-old child, so my time is limited) I usually create my prototypes in Excel.

Yup, Excel.

I work with it all the time, and can create a master sheet with all of my cards at a glance, and then use formulas to convert that to a rough card outline that I can print and play with. And, if I get a cool idea while at work, I can make up a master sheet in a google calc sheet and access it back home easily.

Boards and such also can be often accomplished easily with excel. It's a great way to get a grid quickly too.

Please note: just because it's made in Excel doesn't mean that it doesn't have aesthetic value - in fact, it allows me to create a minimalist card design with color codes and minimal iconography, forcing me to think through what's important on my cards.

When I'm actually trying to make some art, I use Paint.net. I don't know why I prefer it over GIMP, but I do... I'll make my images to scale with blank poker cards I have from TheGameCrafter (3.4"x2.4", leaving 1/10" margin for error), and I'll glue stick them on and cover them with a penny sleeve.

Recently, my work has been mostly confined to cards (I like making micro games), so take whatever I provide here with that understanding.

Inkscape is great for a free vector illustration program. Paint.net is great for a free image editing (compatible with Photoshop files).

The easiest layout program for prototyping I have ever used is PowerPoint. Most people look at it as a presentation program. It also supports printing at any size paper you specify. Works well for cards, boards, and components. You can set up your grids to support the margins you need when you print and cut the paper for your game.

I use it to lay out games and print on 8.5 x 11, 8.5 x 14, 11 x 17, 12 x 18, and 13 x 19 inkjet paper. You can whip out some nice board game printouts that fit on industry standard chipboard sizes.

+1 for inkscape, however I am having some stability problems with the latest version, 0.92.1. But still, an essential tool.

As to PowerPoint, this is an inspired suggestion! I will definitely give this a go. I am a bit unsure still how the printing would work, though. I would be printing out cards on an letter/A4 paper. Any tricks there?

I will also give a big +1 to excel for quick and dirty and quite nice cards.

And can we please have a kickstarter to develop a better interface for Nandeck? I will throw money at it! I haven't been able to justify the trade off in learning the application vs time spent actually doing the work.

Has anyone tried Card Maker? I just learned about it but haven't given it a go. Looks powerful: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1358768/cardmaker-gallery-what-have...

More info on Card Maker here:
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/2250
https://www.nhmk.com/tools.php

Calvin Keeney from Streamlined Gaming has made some great video tutorials for nanDECK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FAd0gOE3Rw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyjroKL-ij4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_8lpZibBLk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvpSjtzVqvk

Note that in the first you can see the visual editor, an alternate method for designing cards that is more friendly than coding.

I forgot to mention another trick for generating prototype graphics. I discovered this by accident:

So if you know AutoCAD, that skill set can be very useful for protoyping with inkscape. First, get a 2D cad program. I use DraftSight. For practical purposes of prototyping, DraftSight is so similar to AutoCAD that it may as well be the same program...and it's FREE for non-commercial use. (heck, even for commercial use I think it's only $100/yr or $300 to own.)

If you are not familiar with 2D CAD, all you really need to learn are some basic commands and you can be up and running quickly. It's not difficult.

But if you do know CAD, here is the trick: you may draw in your 2D CAD program and import the drawing directly into inkscape. The benefit: drawing in 2D is easier, quicker, and more precise in CAD than inkscape.

When you are done with the CAD drawing, then save it as both .dwg and .dxf files.

And here's the trick: the .dxf file may be opened directly by inkscape.

To open the .dxf file, right click on the .dxf file and use the "open with" option and choose inkscape. Once the drawing is open in inkscape you can modify it, color it, change it's size, change line weights, export a .png, etc. as if it was created in inkscape. I've yet to find a limitation of this method.

This "trick" of working between CAD and inkscape saves me a goodish amount of time and frustration. Hope this helps.

I have limited experience with CAD. Used it in school and a bit at home (my dad always had some old auto cad or something installed that he uses now and then for his hobby projects).

Needed to make some non-game-related drawings last year and settled on FreeCAD that I think is pretty amazing for free software, and also works on different platforms, and has a very sensible API for writing plugins/extensions. Never tried to do anything to export to Inkscape though. It seems very focused on making drawings for physical components, rather than just laying out random vectors that will end up looking god as ink-dots on paper? But it has already many different modes for working on different types of projects, and I could easily imagine adding a mode for card-design, but I think only a very low number of people would be interested, because CAD is not the easiest thing to get into, and to be honest a bit of overkill compared to just using something like Inkscape.

https://www.freecadweb.org

Blender is also pretty good and fun to play around with. Not CAD, and not the precision and power of CAD, but it has other uses (if you want to learn fewer applications and have other uses for 3D software). Also something you need many hours to learn how to use (I an not claiming to be an expert at all). More useful for artists making final artwork to use in a game (3D rendered images) than for prototypes.

https://www.blender.org

In Powerpoint, you can specify A4 page size in the Design tab. Then when you output your final design as a jpg or a pdf, it is sized correctly.

I've actually created Powerpoint files that are poker card-sized (such as for Gamecrafter files). You make one card per slide, and then batch save every card as a jpg suitable for uploading to Gamecrafter. Just make sure you size the slides for the printer's specs. There is almost always extra space needed to accommodate bleeds and some cut variances during the print process.