Board Game Illustration

Print and Play Board Game links

Exile Print and Play Components PDF
*Print double sided short edge*

Exile Print and Play Rulebook PDF

AND ITS DONE! Finally got the PDF Files. Now to print the rulebook...

Board Game card initial template

GA227 Board Game Illustration WIP

Work in progress for our board game project in Game design. Was very interesting using color this time around!

FEWS

Visual Libraries

I intended this post to be a file dump of my practice pieces done on my free time but I just realized something pretty important. My visual library is currently extremely limited. What ends up happening is a situation where I have a base idea then I get stuck on details for the rest of the piece because I do not know what the design aesthetic actually is. To be fair most of the time I start something I have enough for a rough but I never become satisfied with what happens a few minutes later. I think I'm going to end up dedicating an hour a day purely on gathering references and just burn that into my mind over time. NEED MORE PRACTICE!

And here is a practice piece because why not... I need to learn how to render...

GA227: Thumbnails

Thumbnail comps of the box cover for the board game!

GA227: Board Game Prototyping Questions

Exit questions after 7 play test sessions so far.

• Are the rules clear enough by itself?
• Is it easy to understand the movement system?
• Which action card deck do people tend to draw from?
• Are the players forgetting certain rules whilst playing?
• Are the players still interested after playing for a period of time?
• How often do the players pass?
• How often do the players use action cards?
• Are the players using the Hinder or Help deck more often?
• How many turns does it take before the players can play through smoothly without referring to the rule book?
• Is the game too fast?
• How was engaging was the interactions with the other players?

Digital Painting Study

I would normally not post any of my works but this time around I think I made some progress in terms of digital painting so here it is! A rough value study of Ruan Jia's piece! + extra color dodge layer since I wanted to check how that works. Then again its a rough study so no detail and proportions are off (Need to learn how to render and control values first!)

Original concept by Ruan Jia

GA227: Theme and Concept

Concept:

"The path you choose will be your redemption"

My work in progress title and theme is "Exile". My main reason for choosing this is to go with an illustration style for landscapes. Game mechanics wise it would be a destination based game with cards. The concept of the game is based off cards that will determine how the players will move and have it affect another game system such as hit points or so (undetermined). The whole thing is to have players traverse through different landscapes and "create their own journey". Then again it is mainly so I can do landscapes.

The setting of the game will be something that is timeless in a sense because I will focus more on natural landscapes which does not depict specific time period. The locations would include things such as mountains, seaside, desert, ruins, caves, etc... It may include some fantasy based environments such as very high rock structures. The general feel for it would be like a sight-seeing journey.

The art style that I am going for are basic game environment concept/ illustration pieces that usually means extreme long shots. The time limit will determine how refined the actual illustrations will be hence I could only say that it will at least be value comps.

Examples:

Shaddy Safady Stylized Gallery

The color palette will be limited to mainly de-saturated colors along with one main primary color depending on the context of the illustration. For example, a forest based illustration will then have green mainly (just like the examples above).

Game Mashup

Main Objective: Capture Nuclear bomb for 3 turns to kill everyone

Rules: Players Play as a ruler commanding their army to go capture a Nuclear Bomb. They all start on separate parts of the board with 10 pieces representing their army. In order to capture the nuclear bomb they must get 5 of their pieces representing their army to the territory where the bomb is.  

Moving: In order to move you roll your single die and whatever the die lands on depicts the amount of spaces, or territories, a single piece of your army can move. The amount of movements is not restricted to one piece but can be shared with other pieces. So, if you rolled a 6, you can move on piece 4 spaces and another piece 2.

Gaining or losing cash: At the beginning of every single one of your turns you are required to draw a monopoly card, and whatever the card indicates, is the amount of money you gain or lose.

Killing other Players: You can kill other players by having more pieces when moving into the same territory as your opponent, but you are only left with the difference of pieces after that movement. So if you have 6 pieces and your opponent has 4 when moving into the same territory, you win this battle in that territory but are left with only 2 pieces.

Spawning more pieces: You can grow your army by buying more pieces, but the downfall is it is done through a faulty teleportation device. So you pay 300 dollars for each piece you want, and then you draw a card. Whatever territory the card indicates is where you newly bought army will spawn.

Game Ending: The game ends when a player has control of the nuclear bomb for 3 turns. The only way someone can capture the bomb from another player is by killing them, by having more players and landing in the same territory

GA227: Brainstorming Ideas

20 Quick Ideas!:

• Minority:
• Instead of players with this most point winning the round, etc… person with the least points wins instead
• Bidding:
• Allows players to bid against each other for … Balanced with 2 different point systems.
• Refresh:
• Players play new hands every turn to .../ discards
• Smuggle:
• Player tries to smuggle … pass the other players for points whilst they try to take … for themselves (misdirection)
• Vote Poll:
• Players have to vote for other players to ...
• Black and White:
• Theme, two completely opposite ends
• Virus:
• Infected players and normal. Infected could be cured by infecting the normals.
• Modular playing field:
• Player creates their own playing field using … to ...
• Asymmetrical:
• A single player with more power versus a group of players with limited resources
• Collusion:
• Teaming up with other players (not necessary but an incentive)
• Bet:
• Betting system, winner takes all
• Race:
• First player to … wins
• Mines:
• Players traverse over … and avoid being eliminated
• Trading:
• Players are forced to trade … every turn with another
• Maze:
• Players try to exit a maze with X exits (players block each other and exits unknown)
• Multiplier:
• Use a die to roll for X Multiplier to ...
• Swap:
• Players are able to substitute another player to complete ...
• Team Shuffle:
• Players compete with each other to form teams and play again as a group
• Last man standing/ Survive:
• All players lose points each turn and last man standing wins
• Bribe:
• Players are able to buy other players and use them after ...

Shadow of Mordor “Making Of”

This is definitely an interesting game in the sense that it caused quite a ruckus when it was first announced but was pretty well received after release. The reason why this game pulled so much attention was because it strongly resembles Assassin's Creed's gameplay. The climbing, the running animation, etc... It was definitely really weird to see how a pretty big franchise like Lord of the Rings would use assets from another big franchise (Assassin's Creed). I do not know the details but this definitely threw off a lot of people too. There was also some controversy with a ex-Ubisoft employee and that caused some confusion.

The biggest difference between the two in terms of gameplay is that Shadow Of Mordor focuses a lot more on its combat system along with a hierarchy system.  So far the game has been really really well received. Apart from that the game definitely looks like a step up from the previous Assassin's Creed and fells much more refreshing (minus the animations that throw me off personally due to the similarities). Monolith Studios worked hard on it and it definitely deserves to be given a chance at least!

But it still brings up the question? How did they get away with this?