Game Salute design update
A sepulchral voice, reverberating through the cave, says, "Cave closing soon. All adventurers exit immediately through main office."
Only four days left in the campaign! We're on the threshold of $10,000 as I write this, with more than 250 backers. Thanks to everyone for backing Colossal Cave: The Board Game. Keep spreading the word in these final days, if you can. And if you're thinking about those $200 and $350 art rewards... might I suggest you go for it? :) Remember, if we hit $12,500, we'll have Colossal Cave USB sticks for all of our Seasoned Adventurers.
It's time for another update from the workshop of Game Salute's Chris Kirkman. We're starting to look at the cards and redesign them along the lines I mentioned on my Designer Diary the other day.
In this concept art (definitely not final), we've removed the header on top of each card. That header, believe it or not, was taking up one-sixth of the card's total area. (I measured.) If we can find a way to encode that information more concisely in the final design, it'll give us more room for art elements — whether it's individual images depicting items and treasures, or simply graphical elements that "reinforce the theme" like the adventurer in the lower left corner of each of these cards. (Now, one thing this particular design loses is a way to see what's in your hand from just the left edge of the card. But that's easy to repair; just imagine the words "Treasure/Item/Action/Reaction" above have been replaced with the name of the card.)
Now that you've seen those fancy cards, I think it's time to go back and show you some more of my plain-Jane prototype cards. Again these are from the ADV550 expansion...
I've been working like crazy the past week to bring Adventure 550 to the browser; I think one more week and I'll have it done. In the meantime, why not play Adventure?
357
Backers
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Funding period
Apr 14, 2012 -
May 20, 2012
- First created · 34 backed
- Has not connected Facebook
- Website: club.cc.cmu
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Rank Amateur: Receive a single Item, Action, or Reaction card autographed with a personal thank-you from the designer.
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Novice Class Adventurer: Receive one copy of "Colossal Cave: The Board Game". (Please add $15 for international shipping.)
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Seasoned Adventurer: Along with your copy of the game, you'll receive five MORE promo cards (not guaranteed to be Kickstarter-exclusive), such as the Red Rod, the Breathtaking View, and Fresh Batteries. Of course you'll also receive the Kickstarter EXCLUSIVE promo card!
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Master Adventurer Class C: Receive two copies of the game, plus five promo cards and a Kickstarter promo card apiece. Also, receive a pre-release copy of the ADV550 expansion, currently in playtesting! (Please add $20 for international shipping.)
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Master Adventurer Class B: Receive three copies of the game, promo cards, and the ADV550 expansion; plus an UNCUT SHEET of 54 of the cards in the game. Ideal for handling those pesky gamers who always want a cheat sheet! (Add $20 for each additional uncut sheet.)
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Master Adventurer Class A: Receive seven copies of the game, seven copies of each promo card including the Kickstarter EXCLUSIVE card, seven copies of the ADV550 expansion, and one of fifteen LIMITED EDITION 8"x10" art prints from the game's artist Katy "Kovah" Grierson, depicting one of the fifteen treasures of Colossal Cave. (Please add $30 for international shipping.)
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Receive everything at the $200 level, except that YOUR limited edition art print will depict ALL FIFTEEN treasures safely deposited in the Well House. All of Adventuredom gives tribute to you, Adventurer Grandmaster!
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Implementor: Receive everything at the $350 level, plus... I don't know. 100 copies of the game? Invitation to an elite playtest session with the designer? Your likeness on the box cover? Limited edition art print of all 25 treasures in the expansion? Suggest something! If it's doable, I'll make it happen.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012
Comments
Creator Michael Sedoti on May 18, 2012
I think the new card style looks great! It was one of those good design ideas that convinced me to back this product.
Creator Jake Parks on May 17, 2012
You should put these new images on the home page, might inspire some additional backers.
Creator Becky on May 17, 2012
Oh my, I'm loving this new box and card art style! Very much evokes a dark and mysterious cave treasure hunting atmosphere.
Creator Jake Parks on May 17, 2012
The box art looks great too, this is coming together nicely. Well done Arthur and Chris.
Creator Arthur O'Dwyer on May 16, 2012
@Joshua: I snuck it in just a little bit ago, it wasn't in the emailed update. :) I like your ideas of logos (or icons) for each card type; I do think that's a good idea.
@Chris: I wasn't going to mention the typo. ;)
Creator Joshua Sauer on May 16, 2012
Nice box art, too. Was that updated recently or did I just miss it the first time I looked at this update?
Creator Chris Kirkman on May 16, 2012
Lamneth - Yep, and I'll never be able to live with myself now.
Creator Joshua Sauer on May 16, 2012
I don't think they NECESSARILY have to put the name of the card type on there. A logo for each might take up less space, if you can come up with ones whose meaning is easily remembered. Maybe a treasure chest for treasure, a lantern and pick for item, a fist for action, and an open hand for reaction?
Just spitballing here, but anything that can free up space and make treasure artwork on the cards more practical is a plus for me. ;-)
Creator Lamneth on May 16, 2012
"STOP! Pay Troll!" card above has a small typo: "at" should be "a"
Creator Arthur O'Dwyer on May 16, 2012
@NYKevin: We wouldn't omit the card type, just move it somewhere else (I've suggested the top right corner).
What really matters, anyway, is that people know for each card "how do I play this card and what does it do". That information is listed on each card already, and the card type is pretty much redundant with it (except that of course it's important to know which items are treasures). Every reaction card already begins with the text "Play out of turn when..." Anyway, the card type will definitely be on there somewhere.
Creator Gregg on May 16, 2012
Chris, like I told you a week or so ago via Twitter, I'm glad you're helping Arthur with this! Weirdly enough, if he couldn't go with full art, I separately thought of the idea of playing up the idea of simulating an old CRT (I suggested to Arthur to have a border that looked like a CRT, and use green or amber on black, in an old PC or Apple II type font).
But as I re-thought about it, I realized that wouldn't mesh well with the art on the board or box. So I'm happy to see you're coming up with art that's inspired by those components. Great work; I'm sure the final thing will be awesome!
Creator NYKevin on May 16, 2012
I'm somewhat concerned that if you omit the type text, it will cause problems for colorbind people... esp. red/green colorblind since they can't tell actions and reactions apart.
Creator Chris Kirkman on May 16, 2012
Thanks, Jake!
Creator Jake Parks on May 16, 2012
Well done, Chris. The cards look great and I think they add quite a bit on the theme side of things. The original cards do have a simplistic charm about them, but its great to see the silhouette of the adventurer with the lamp.
Creator Chris Kirkman on May 16, 2012
Thanks! 16 years in the trenches of the newspaper business has come in handy. :)
Creator Joshua Sauer on May 16, 2012
Cool. Good to know. Also good to know that you are one of those designers that is well aware of how things work on the printing side of things. As you might imagine, that is not universally true, and can cause a lot of headaches once a project hits production (though I admit our Pre-press department gets to handle the lion's share of those headaches before it gets to me).
Creator Chris Kirkman on May 16, 2012
Joshua - Right now the cards have a rich black background to handle the fades and screen presence for RGB display; when the final art is created, I'll be using a 100K/5C mix with gradient trapping around the art to preserve good color blending. I have found that the addition of the Cyan prevents the black from looking too flat to the eye, but doesn't pose a problem with white text for the plates.
Creator Joshua Sauer on May 16, 2012
I figured it would be a problem for small text. I thought the card titles might be big enough to handle it. But if you've tried it out, I trust your judgement.
I also wasn't aware that you were using single-color black. I run a printing press, and usually when we want something to look REALLY black, we use a "rich black" which uses the other colors behind the black. In those circumstances, white type is actually MORE problematic than colored (usually handled by making the type knockout slightly larger in the other colors). Obviously for single color black the issue would be reversed, as you point out.
Creator Chris Kirkman on May 16, 2012
Thanks for the compliments, everyone!
Joshua - One of the first concepts I thought of when playing around with a black background was that old green computer text, but it can be a little hard on the eyes when the text gets smaller. We also have to consider CMYK plates; using white text is much safer on black as it simply punches a hole through the single black plate when compositing rather than adding color information to the other three color plates (thankfully, most digital composites eliminate much of this). This typically prevents "fuzzy" text which, while certainly thematic, could cause spontaneous blindness. Ok, maybe not blindness, but certainly some moments of squinting. ;)
Creator DIB on May 16, 2012
I want both. The new ones look slick and really cool, but the old version has a certain charm.
If you're going toss away your old "plain-Jane" cards, I'll be happy to find a good home for them.
Creator Joshua Sauer on May 16, 2012
I like the new card designs. Replacing the type with the card name on the left is a good idea, especially since the different types are already color coded by the adventurer at the bottom left.
If you are worried about losing the "text-adventure" feel, with the new black backgroud it might be interesting to test having some or all of the text on the card (maybe just the card names, and possibly any actual quotes from the game) in a glowing green font reminiscent of what I saw on my old computer monitor...
Creator Christopher Mayfield on May 16, 2012
I actually like the old designs. They are much more true to the spirit of text based adventure. These Cards I like for other reasons, But it seems like another game. I hate to admit it but I could see these new cards grow on me.
Creator Martin Schmitz Jr on May 16, 2012
totally dig the new card art!
Creator Mercedes (Mandy) on May 16, 2012
I agree, fantastic!!!
Oooh, wish these new cards were up earlier :) I think it'll attract a lot of people with the cool design. I hope you can put them up on BGG also :)
I might have to increase my backing now after seeing these :)
Creator Megan Baumann on May 16, 2012
Love the new card design - much more fitting to the theme. Finding the perfect balance between form and functionality is always a tricky task, but I think naming the cards on the left margin is the right way to go with it - adding an icon can always be a reminder as to the card type (chest/sword/arrow/'stop' hand etc), acting as a visual prompt to the color differentiation, plus allows the possibility of future cards with multiple types.
Creator James Cartwright on May 16, 2012
I think the new updated art on the cards looks awesome!