When people talk to me about Christmas, the first thing that comes into mind is my Gran arguing with my younger brother about the state of the world when the word ‘Qi’ is allowed on the Scrabble board. Or my Grandpa trying to draw ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ in a game of Pictionary and the concept of ‘no talking’ going completely over his head.
It might be a little geeky, but I love the world of tabletop gaming. It pulls us away from the TV and gets us interacting with each other. There is a game to suit every occasion, every age group and every level of skill and sophistication.
A massive undertaking in patience 🧘♂️
I’m currently a member of the Excite Media Graphic Design team, but I only really got into design professionally a few years ago.
Learning the Adobe Suite can be daunting when you first get stuck into it. When there’s an idea in your head, and you just don’t know how to bring it to life on the screen, it can make you want to tear your hair out. With so many different products for slightly different applications, and all working in a slightly different way — mastering them takes a lot of practice.
When I started my first graphic design job, I figured the best way to wrap my head around everything was to create my own mini design project. I wanted something that would push me to use elements from each of the Adobe products and give me the chance to practice new skills while working on something I’d actually enjoy.
A friend had recently created his own game, and after talking to him about his experience and having had the seed of an idea for a game myself, I thought that would make the perfect project to hone my skills.
Failing to plan is planning to fail 📋
Before diving into the design process, I ran the idea by my family, who I was living with at the time. We’re all regular board and card gamers, so I explained my concept to them. After getting the nod, I started putting pen to paper.
I came up with a concept for a nautical-themed strategy card game, which falls into the same genre as Monopoly Deal, Backpacker, and Exploding Kittens.
In a nutshell – each player is in control of a port. Your aim is to collect and establish your very own shipping armada, smuggling precious cargo out of your docks, under your opponent’s noses and safely home. All the while, you must avoid natural disasters, enemy attacks, and the deadly “Kraken” sea monster being unleashed on your unsuspecting vessels.
My first draft was as simple as bits of torn-up paper with very broad labels placed on them to indicate the type of card. Then, with my family as willing guinea pigs, we played a few rounds to see if it even worked. And it did. Everyone seemed to be getting stuck in – some banter was being thrown, and my Dad was attempting to cheat, which is always a good sign. If he cares that much, it must be an okay game…right?
Back to the drawing board ✏️
Once I knew the game worked, I literally went back to the drawing board and started throwing together some ideas, along with any comments and feedback that had come up in the teaser.
I’m a mind maps kind of guy and an avid list-maker, so I began drafting the deck in fine detail in my notebook. This was a lot more work than I had initially thought.
While not an overly complicated game, there are several different kinds of cards. Getting these cards to balance in a way that made the game flow as smoothly as possible was one of the biggest challenges.
I must have forced my family to play 20 or 30 times, adding and removing cards each time, coming up with cool new ideas, and refining the rules until we finally had something that was working really well.
Getting my hands dirty with the artwork 🎨
After a few weeks of refining the concept, I could finally start the fun bit – making it look good.
I always like to start the design process with some research, trawling the web for inspiration, and sketching my ideas out several times until I have something with good potential. I had decided that the name of my game was going to be “Release the Kraken”. A gnarly looking sea monster was going to be front and centre in my artwork and I’d build up from there.
Coming up with my colour palette was straightforward. Being a nautical theme, greens and blues are the main focus on the card backs. But I wanted the front of the cards to be as vibrant as possible, with each different type of card easily distinguishable from the others. It was important to always picture how a player would see and interact with the cards during gameplay. I based my decisions around this, and not wholly on what would look the nicest.
I like simplicity in design. In Web Design there is a real trend towards this at the moment, and I guess that influenced my decision making on my card game too. I have aimed to keep the cards clean, clear and uncluttered, using basic flat graphics to visually represent each theme, and doing my best to maintain as modern and attractive an end product as possible.
There was lots of trial and error here, and when I look back at some of my first drafts, I wonder what I was thinking. But I guess that shows progress! Even now, I am constantly tweaking the cards and probably will be until the day they finally go to print.
Not always smooth sailing ⛵️
It’s been a bumpy journey in places. As I mentioned earlier, getting my concepts to appear on screen as they had in my head didn’t happen on my first attempt. It took many a Youtube tutorial to bring a lot of my ideas to fruition.
I’m predominantly a digital designer, so the world of print design was all very new to me. Learning how to set up documents for print, figuring out bleeds and colour profiles, and getting to grips with InDesign and Illustrator were all a big challenge, and I’m still learning cool new things every day. Everything I learn in the development of my game indirectly benefits my professional work, and that is something I have definitely noticed.
One of the biggest thorns in my side has been getting my cards to print as they look on screen. This is something I had overlooked, having spent all that time getting them to appear perfect on screen. In print they were much darker, with all the detail being lost in a blur of dull ink, which was a real pain. This is something I’m still fine tuning, but I’ll get there in the end.
The process of testing and refining is a long road 🔄
After graduating from torn up pieces of A4, to Sharpie on a blank deck of playing cards, to laminated card on the work printer, I have recently ordered a professionally printed deck from a specialised game producer in the US.
Where I am at now is testing and refining. I’m getting my game out there in front of as many people as possible, from as many walks of life as possible, and taking on any feedback.
While I know it might be impossible to please everyone, this has been really useful in fine-tuning the game to be as easy to understand as possible, as visually appealing as possible and most importantly as enjoyable as possible. Only ever playing the game myself, or with close friends and family, can mean getting tunnel vision and missing out on important elements that could be really beneficial for the wider audience.
As with any design I do, sharing it with others and taking feedback constructively and positively is essential.
What’s next? 👉
Having come this far, my end goal has now changed. I have achieved a high level of proficiency and continue to advance my skills with the full Adobe Suite, but my design adventure isn’t over. After realising that I have actually come up with something that people enjoy, I would love to take the next steps and see if I can make “Release the Kraken” a real live thing.
Tabletop gaming is really making a comeback at the moment. With the growing popularity of crowdfunding, a Kick Starter campaign seems like the logical next step.
There’s a lot of work to be done, but watch this space, the “Release the Kraken” strategy card game could be coming your way soon!
