4 Months later

Continuing on from my previous post, I've continued work on my new card game Total Blast. It's a 2-player, duelling, lane-battler strategy game which takes around 30 minutes (providing you know the rules and are familiar with the cards).

It's funny- initially I thought this project might get finished in 6-7 months. Month 7 has just passed! To be fair, since the last update, I got Covid and was out of action for weeks. Then took a few weeks break for Christmas Holidays. Plus I've been dealing with frequent migraines recently. For those that suffer them, you know how completely debilitating they can be. 

Thankfully there were a few months when I got the chance to crack on with the project. Mostly finishing card artworks. And they're looking great! All the Upgrade and Ability card illustrations are now finished for the core part of the game. That is to say, 17 unique illustrations. Many of the cards will be doubled up in-game to allow multiple uses. When I look over at the completed artwork I feel excited for what I've been working on here.

The Rule book is now on version 2.5 and I expect them to continue to refine as more play tests come in. Now that the card art is done, I can get the next prototype printed and tested in order to gather more feedback.

Art Development Overview

Here's a couple of 'Upgrades' examples showing sketches to finished card artwork.

I feel good to have broken the back on the artwork side of things and completed the majority of it. It was always going to be the most time consuming part of the project, with each card illustration typically taking several hours minimum. Now I remember why I'd been so adverse to working on card game art like this in the past! The graphics for the designs is not necessarily final, as I'm thinking of adjusting the card titles and perhaps the text layout.

Overcoming obstacles

Unfortunately it's not all been plain sailing.  For example, one of the card files became corrupt so had to re-create it from scratch. Luckily it wasn't the most complicated of designs, but still took a tedious 4 or 5 hours to recreate. What's going on with Photoshop these days? Frustratingly, I've had this issue 3 times in the last year on various files.

What's next?

1. I'll be designing the Characters in the game next. I've only tested a few of them, so will need more testing to find the right balance. Each will be lending a specific ability to help win the game. They will include: The Thief, Ninja, Mage, Merchant, Spy, King and an Alien!
2. The Rule Book's graphic design with diagrams.
3. Decide how the game will be packaged and then create relevant cover art/box art
4. Then comes my only real concern- how do I get enough eye balls on the project and market it effectively?

Where am I at?

Continuing on from my previous post, I've continued work on my new card game Total Blast.

The rules have been tweaked to the point where they're pretty solid now. I've finished all the Cannon cards and have begun creating Upgrade card illustrations. I feel as though I am trying to put a little bit more into each card illustration I produce. It's taking longer than expected, but I'm very happy with how it's coming along. It's been a while since I was excited to work on a new product.

The project has gone from simply a desire to just create a fun, little game for personal use to wanting it published, distributed and sold in shops. I'm usually very self critical, but I genuinely think I'm developing something of value here. When it comes to most art projects, I'd typically already have a publisher or client lined up with a budget agreed upon and money in the bank before even starting. This time all the work is completely speculative. It means devoting a lot of time to a project which may never see the light of day, despite my efforts. I'll discuss my concerns a little more below, but overall I'm trying to just stay focused on the work at hand.

What is Total Blast?

Here's an Intro from the rule book:

"In the kingdom of Blastonia warring armies settle disputes in head-to-head battles of firepower, strategy and cunning.

Unique, magical cannons are loaded with powerful, mana-infused ammunition. A range of upgrades, special abilities and some luck of the draw is thrown in for good measure.

As army commander, you’re in charge of selecting and loading cannon balls into their corresponding cannons. You aim to carry this out at the right time, reacting to each of your opponent’s opposing cannons. By sourcing supplies for the war effort you can increase your cannon damage score with more balls and upgrades in order to over-power your opponent’s cannons and become victorious."

What do you think? Something you'd be interested in trying out and seeing how it plays?

Art Development Overview

Here's an example showing the very first thumbnail ideas through to the finished cannon card artwork. It's come a long way and is fitting in well with the previous ball card art:

I've now not only completed all the cannon ball artwork, the full set of 7 cannons, but have started completing upgrade and ability card art also. It's looking great.

As with all the artwork I produce, it's never a quick process. Each card takes 4-10 hours to produce. The fact that the artwork takes so long to create is certainly one of the main reasons why I want to see this game published and not just become a hobby project that doesn't ever find an audience.

Although while time-consuming, the illustration process I use has it's benefits. I separately layer each colour so that amendments are relatively painless as opposed to a quicker single layer/canvas digital painting style. [See my book Digital Manga if you're keen to learn how I do it] No only are potential amendments a little easier, but my process allows for potentially creating line art only 'colouring book' designs of each card which might come in handy. And I could allow for simplified 'Print and Play' test versions of the game to be produced which don't have all the glossy bells and whistles of a finished, rendered card art.

Current Concerns

I've managed to find time to continue with art production by cutting down the amount of freelance work I'd usually be doing right now. I have enough content to see it come together and it's beginning to look like a real game. 8 play tests so far have proved I'm on the right track. The closer I get to the finish line, the more I want it to succeed.

Thankfully I've already got the ideal skill set for this type of product. I'm capable of tackling pretty much every aspect of board game development (concept, design, art, graphics, web design, logistics and admin. I could even produce an animated video trailer with, animation. sound and, effects without any assistance if I need to). And the satisfaction of tackling everything myself is fantastic.

However I'm discovering that I might be biting off more than I can chew. I don't feel like any aspect of the work is beyond my capabilities, but logistically speaking tackling a multi-facetted project like this takes a lot of time. It seems more often than not, a team of 4-8 contributors are typically involved with small to medium sized table top game projects. Yet there's only one of me.  And so my first concern is:

Do I have the time and resources to convert a game idea into a product and then turn a product into a success?

As I spend my days sitting in front of the computer screen, pushing pixels around and finalizing artwork, I'm often distracted by the realities of what it takes to bring products, especially a board game to market. It's not easy.

The market is seriously competitive, with tens of thousands of table top games already in existence and new games being published on a daily basis.  I'm coming to this venture completely blind and without experience of the niche. While I don't feel my product isn't and won't be good enough to compete, some doubts are beginning to creep in. My second concern is:

Will I be able to get enough relevant eyeballs taking an interest in what I'm producing? 

Like with most product niches, it's true that some games aren't particularly fantastic, yet become fairly successful, while other insanely underrated and unknown gems never get their chance to shine. And so it's evident that marketing and actually raising awareness of the fact that I have a thing, it exists and is good will be the biggest challenge ahead.

What's next?

I've still got months ahead of me to produce artwork for the core game's 'Upgrade' and 'Ability' cards, as well as seven character cards, which I've decided to add into the core game rather than have them as a separate mini-expansion.

The Rule Book is mostly there so far as text goes. I'll then start work on the book's graphic design, adding in diagrams to clearly illustrate how to play.

I'll need to finalize the game's logo and also work on the cover art/box art. For this I'll need to decide on the box dimensions first.

The creation of another planned 40 or so expansion card illustrations will have to come much later.

And along side of that, I'm gradually opening up myself to the business side of things. For example, considering publishers vs self-published via crown funding. In regards to self-publishing, researching manufacturing costs, marketing, distribution and order fulfilment.

Where am I at?

Continuing on from my previous post, I've further refined the rules for my new card game Total Blast. I've created some card art mock ups, and even gone on to finalize a full set of cannon ball cards. I'm making good progress. Although it's going to take some time. I've decided to move more towards illustrative card art as opposed to using basic icons and symbols, as per the first prototype. It's a good call from a visual standpoint and I'm hoping I can even develop a little bit more theme and back-story from the artwork to help give it some more substance.

New Additions

Speaking of adding depth, I've added in extra layers of complexity by introducing sets of optional expansions which can be added to the game to add more variety. These include:

• 'Power Upgrades' which can drastically power up your cannon's damage score.
• 'Power Abilities' which provide a one time use bonus
• Additional set of ball cards to help vary play
• Character Cards, which introduce an A-symmetric starting point giving each player an ability that the other won't have.
• Quest Cards (Or maybe I'll rename them to objective cards?), offering additional victory points for fulfilling certain conditions within the game
• Event Cards which introduce a small shift to the rules for each round.

It's getting exciting! The core game now consists of 101 cards. Adding in additional expansion cards means I'll now need to produce art for an extra 40-60 cards, (depending how many potential extra cards will work). Lots to be getting on with.

Card Development Overview

Here's an example showing sketch to colour mock-up to final card art. I may still tweak the layout, but it's as good as finished. The top portion of the card will remain visible when stacked underneath other cards. This helps calculate the damage score from each cannon at a glance. The bottom portion shows it's description.

Drawing this card helped decide on the theme and direction the game would follow. It'll be a medieval fantasy setting, with waring factions cannon-battling for supremacy. In this kingdom, rival mages and alchemists are summoned to infuse each ball with magical properties, increasing their potency. The balls now take on magical characteristics! I thought giving the balls some spice and character would look a lot cooler than a plain old cannon ball coated in red paint for example.

What Next?

I'm currently producing artwork for all the ball cards, then I'll move on to the Upgrade and Ability cards. Cards such as the "Coins" card and the "Gun Powder" card should be fairly straight forward. Others, not so much. There will be an upgrade card which allows you to add the damage score of your weakest cannon to the cannon it's applied to. I have no idea how to illustrate this!  Maybe I'll have to go a bit abstract with it.

In my last post I mentioned about getting a character art card and cannon card sample done- I'm more or less done with these also, so can post them in due course. Stay tuned.

Board games

Over recent years I've broken away from video gaming and have found myself more regularly playing table top games (TTG). I was always a fan of Scrabble, Boggle and Pictionary and would play lesser-known adventure game 'Talisman' for hours a time as a kid. 4 or 5 years back I discovered Catan, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic. These 3 in particular being known as 'gateway games' to modern board gaming. From there I stumbled into plethora of modern board games such as those listed on sites like BoardgameGeek and the many game campaigns running on Kickstarter.

The global pandemic and lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 made TTG a more regular past-time. With so much our day-to-day lives becoming digitized I can see why the TTG hobby is increasingly growing in popularity. To engage in activities which aren't screen based, allow you to connect face-to-face with other human beings and be a part of the real world is never a bad thing.

It would be fun to make my own game!

I felt inspired to try creating my own game. Nothing massively complicated, but also something with enough depth to want to play more than once or twice before shelving it. I'm not a pro game developer and not expecting this to be a global hit, but do hope to invent a cool little game and have some fun in the process. If I sell it after all is said and done, great! If not, I'll still get a lot out of making it. I can't lose :)

The brief I gave myself:

1. Keep it somewhat simple: E.g: A 2-Player game limits the amount of time needed to play-test at various player counts.
2. A head-to-head game e.g. 7 Wonders Duel as opposed to Co-Op games like Pandemic and Forbidden Island.
3. Must have a small footprint. Too many games these days come with boxes full of playing pieces, miniatures and additional expansion add-ons. There's a limit to the amount of huge box games a person can store in their home.
4. Is it possible to make it with using cards only? While I love tactile playing pieces and minis, a card-only game would likely be easier for a newbie like me to get manufactured.
5. Stick to what you know. Although being a gamer all my life, the world of TTGs is vast. I'll use knowledge of the 60 or 70 TTG I've played to create something original. I want to limit second-guessing if my ideas have already been done elsewhere or over-doing it with market research.

Adding Game Mechanisms

As with Videogames, TTG come in many different shapes, sizes and forms. 'Game mechanics' - a term more typically associated with digital games has found a home within modern TTG. Examples of these include: area majority, card drafting, deck building, take that, worker placement, story telling, push your luck.

Concept 

The first step was be to come up with a concept. After a few conversations with my brother about the prospect of creating a game, I decided to go with a shooting battle game. You'd fire missiles / bombs / cannon balls / projectiles represented by cards laid out in front of you. Your opponent would do the same. Whoever displayed the most powerful cards would be awarded the highest damage score and win the game.

Fleshing out the idea

Rather than shoe-horn in specific game mechanics from the start, we discussed how to create a basic scoring system. We came up with.:

• Players starts with 6 cannon cards (each a different colour) dealt and laid out in front of them in a line. 
• Each coloured canon card, 1 through 6, faces off against each opponent's gun's, 1 through 6.
• Players are then dealt a hand of coloured cannon ball cards.
• Each players take turns laying ball cards in front of the corresponding gun colour in order to increase fire power.
• Players are given 4 rounds of being dealt a hand and laying down coloured ball cards.
• End the game. Score 1 victory point (max of 6) for having higher damage score (more ball cards) in your cannon than the one it faces.

Then I thought of ways to increase your score. Rather than just adding more coloured balls, Upgrade cards were introduced. Some would, for example, multiply the coloured ball damage, while others would allow you to defend against incoming damage. There would be less upgrades than balls and there would be a limit to the amount any 1 cannon could be upgraded by.

Adding another layer

I'd brainstorm several more Upgrade cards as well as Ability cards. These would give options such as randomly removing a card from your opponent's hand or allowing you to take an extra couple of cards for free from the top of the deck.

It was time to add another condition of victory. In order to win you'd need to fire the cannons by obtaining an Ignition source Card and Gun powder Card. These can be collected during one of the 4 rounds of cards being dealt. In addition thought it wise to create a shop. This would be represented by a range of 3 cards+ Ignition and Gunpowder cards which would always be available to 'Buy'. You'd use an obtained Coin card or trade in/discarding any 3 cards from your hand to purchase from the shop. This way each player had no excuse to not at least fire off a cannon during the final phase of the game.

The game now includes mechanics including: a Variable Set up, Card Drafting, Deck Construction, Hand Management, a Trade Market, Take that, Card Layering, A tug-of-war style of back and forth, then the final, exciting showdown! For a simple game with only 6 points needed to win, I'm hoping it has enough elements to make it strategic and challenging, but with enough randomness to give anyone a chance for victory.

The game, 'Total Blast' was ready to play test!

Does it work?

I created a mock-up of the cards in the game just using clip-art and hand written notes. Cards were printed on scrap paper. Not ideal, but did the job.

After 4 play tests with 2 different opponents it worked surprisingly well. Each game took around an hour with extra time spent teaching the rules. Breaks were taken in between to discuss improvements and adjustments. Particularly balancing the cards takes some thought. I want to make sure certain Upgrades are fair and don't cause 'glitches' when used in conjunction with other cards.

The game is fun! I want to play it again. I'm now trying to check in with my brain to make sure I'm not biased because I created it or because friends and family don't want to let me down. I'll continue to play test and ask for honest feedback and go from there. For what it is, I think like I've nailed it 😀

It looks a mess, but makes perfect sense when you play it, trust me 😎 

What Next?

I've begun writing out a final rule book. Something which will continue to be tweaked as further play tests continue. The main thought now is- it needs a professional look. With a card game like this the graphics and artwork could make or break it. Illustration and design is my profession so that'll come in useful! I finally get to commission myself to work on my own project for a change. I'm looking forward to it.

I've not decided on art style, or even theme. Perhaps it will be set in ancient China? In space? On pirate ships? In a medieval fantasy world? And then what will the card art look like- Comic style? Manga? Painterly concept art style? I'm pretty adaptable when it comes to illustration, so that gives me options. Maybe too many options?

I'll start with a few sample cards - 1 for the cannon, 1 ball card, 1 character card and use those as a base to work from for the remaining 98+ cards. Stay tuned.