Capstone Project - Action cards

 

Mood board-

The look I am hoping to capture for the action cards is emulating the look of cave paintings, although this is very different compared to the other art within my game, I think it still fits thematically and allows me to try out a new technique and make my game more unique at the same time. To copy this style, I put together a mood board of specific images of cave paintings I found interesting so that I could draw inspiration from the colours used and the way figures are constructed to use within my own work.

Action Cards: Group 1 -

I created all 11 unique action cards over the span of a week, to do this, I split them up into groups that I would complete on each day.

"Me Take" -

As this was my first card in this style, it took a few iterations to find something I was happy with. I had a clear idea of what art should be on this card, as it is the "Me Take" card, I thought a hand reaching out and grabbing a resource would be the clearest for players to understand the function of this card.

My first iteration used a cooler toned colour pallete, I didn't think this looked very nice against the warm toned stone background, and the hand position just looked stiff and unnatural.

Altering the pose and choosing a warmer colour pallete, I was much happier with how this looked however I felt something was missing, it didn't stand out like I wanted it to. I experimented with some textured outlines mimicking the cave art however none of these looked quite right.

I eventually figured out the issue was contrast, the colours I had picked were very similar in tone compared to the background, causing the artwork to blend in and look muddy. This was a very easy fix, I just upped the contrast and brightness which really made the artwork pop. When actually drawing the art on these cards I try to keep my lines loose, my shading scratchy, and purposefully draw outside of the lines in some areas to emulate the rough look of cave art. I really love how this turned out, and moving forward I used this piece to colour pick the pallete I will use for the rest of the action cards.

"Me Share" -

This card reuses the flora and fauna tokens I had drawn previously, putting them in the cave painting style but still remaining identifiable to the player. As mentioned before I want the artwork in these cards to not only be nice to look at, but also explain what the card does or the context behind the name of the card. In this case, the action is to swap a resource with another player on the table.

"Delivery" -

The delivery card is supposed to represent a crate filled with resources.

"Sky Rock" -

This one represents a meteor hitting the earth, I added a lot of background texture to this to imply movement and impact.

Action cards group 2 -

Action card group 2 included a lot of human figures, I spent a while figuring out how I wanted to portray the Neanderthals in this style. I found sticking only to the very stickman like figures from the cave art was a little too simple to fit in with the style I had built, to fix this I opted for a slightly more detailed figure but still simple enough to feel similar to the cave painting feel.

"Me think?" -

"Goodnight!" -

This card represents a solar eclipse, as the cavepeople wouldn't know what a solar eclipse is they would simply think that the sun had disappeared and night time had suddenly arrived, causing everyone to lose a day. I really like how I drew the eclipse in this one, its very stylized but I think it still reads well as being an eclipse.

"afternoon nap" -

This card is quite self explanatory, though i do really like how I drew the figure in this one, The overall composition feels very cozy and relaxed, fitting well with the theme of the card.

Action cards group 3 -

"Kind Donation"-

This card is supposed to represent a jar filled with money stones, almost like a donation jar.

"Visit Market"-

For the market card, I utilized a 3D model to quickly block out a market scene, this saved me a lot of time especially when it came to making sure my perspective was correct. I really like this card, i think the simple cloud and banner detail in the background adds a lot to the scene, although simple it feels like there's a lot more to the scene than what is drawn.

"Free meal!" -

This card is supposed to represent the player luring away another player's employee with a "free meal", I didn't want this card to be explicitly showing an employee getting kidnapped as I thought that wouldn't be as funny as the idea of the employee wandering off to a very obvious trap.

Action cards group 4 -

The final group of cards contain two depictions of prehistoric creatures, originally the creepy crawlers card was the hungry fish card, however I couldn't think of what to draw for that one. Functionally it works the same as the old idea, its just the theming that changed.

"Hairy Coming"-

This card represents a herd of wooly mammoths [or what the cavepeople call "hairies"] stampeding a player's land. I chose an action pose for the mammoth, making it appear like a fierce creature to be feared, which is likely how the affected player would feel about this situation.

"Creepy Crawlers" -

As for this card, I drew a Meganeuropsis permiana [also seen in Obie the Fearful's card] flying off with one of the player's resources. I like how this card links with one of the client cards, its a small detail but now Obie has a reason to be fearful.

"Midnight Borrowing"-

For this card I was kind of stumped on what I wanted to draw for it, hence why I think this is the weakest design of all the cards [I'm still happy with it, but not as much as the other action cards I made]. I opted to draw a sack full of stolen goods under the night sky, its a very literal depiction of the purpose of this card but I still think it does the job ok.

Trello -

https://trello.com/invite/b/69306718fdd0476153961582/ATTI61cd14c47a800c2abb0380e613a9fc5e3ABE0DE4/capstone

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/112wXJW27lFJjkPjQHZk7fCMT7VPCanDHE-cVP0tGDUM/edit?usp=sharing

I'm very happy I managed to get all of the action cards done within a week, this drastically cuts down on the amount of work I have left to do after the break and might even allow me to hit my stretch goal of making a manual and box art for the game. My main priority next is to get the 4 player cards complete and consider how I am going to get them printed, I expect this to take around a week to complete, leaving me 4 weeks to create a manual, box art, and get my work manufactured.