Creating the cards

Other successful card game designs

These were used for inspiration but something unique was created as well. The designs were based on these cards as well as the Super Smash Bros video game. For the sake of simplicity and unique design, shapes were used instead of numbers, and minimal text was used so not to over whelm the player and scare them off with fear of a complicated game.

It was decided to include characters in the physical game because they are the main attraction of the video game. It was decided to represent them as cards because it would not be as cost effective to represent them as anything else, for instance a different suit for each character. It is possible for people to develop the game immersion more them selves by using costumes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8zOQq2N3xA) and building arenas, the game has endless possibilities and can be played anywhere.

It was felt that the physical game would not do the video game enough justice as purely a board or card game so a more physical, hands on play style was developed.

Another way this game could be developed further is by releasing new rules to add complexity or change them completely possibly to use the same artifacts to represent other video games, you can create a lot of different games using Velcro balls as I found in my research. One of the play tests participants suggested it would be a great idea to have a team death match in the park or forest with his friends and they could play stealth Super Smash, his positive and imaginative response to the game was very much appreciated

Learning how to use Photoshop

I took some hints from the business card tutorial and began making my card design based on the sketched I had done prior to this. I knew that the colour scheme should be red and blue and use imagery from the video game and I wanted the cards to look more like a finished artifact rather than just a concept design to try and show that I am capable of creating good final designs as well as concepts.

I was very pleased indeed with the final result of the cards. I spent a long time making them and the process took longer because I had never used Photoshop before. It is very easy to use and seems like a terrific program. I used again and again to edit images. It has similar functions to After Effects such as the blending options which was the aspect I used the most. Obviously Photoshop is more for editing pictures and After Effects video which is why it is very helpful to use both. I did not know about the blending options in After Effects but after learning how they work in Photoshop I used them in After Effects too, to add in images to the video, such as the character HUDs.

Details of how I created the cards can be found in the log book and you can see some of the process in these pictures.

I stuck to just making two cards to show the idea of what they would look like but I didn't think it was worth making more at this stage because it would just really be duplicating work I have already done, I wanted to spend my time on making other completely different things.