Our first game, Book of Demons, wasn’t what kids call a real card game. It used cards because they aligned thematically with the pop-up book design, but those weren’t playing cards per se. We used cards to show off skills, items, and spells in a neat, easily accessible arrangement. There was, however, no drawing, discarding or deleting of cards involved. Hellcard is our way of saying, “but what if we made a true CCG and included all those things?”. Disclaimer: throughout this blog post, you will see card frames and designs, along with an early version of the dungeon. Many of those aren’t final designs; they reflect our progress and decision-making process. Even those we consider finished at the moment will probably change before the final release. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/c6e6b6c13abadd63c5281f7179272fcdc4826c56.gif[/img] First of all, we would need to reinvent how cards look and how card art is presented. We also thought it would be awesome if the new art style allowed for cool animations. You could say we knew we needed meteoric changes (ba dum tsss). [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/4144cba64cf17569ac6b9a9f90040035457b9f97.gif[/img] We had to redesign the cards, as the ones we had wouldn’t work in a true deck builder, where cards are aplenty and change often. You need to be able to read them with ease without zooming in, and for that reason, we needed a text box of a decent size. We wanted to preserve as much as we could and only adjust to the new requirements. You might also notice that some elements of the old layout, such as the stars indicating the level of the cards are gone. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/64597d180efb0910da79f5709410b6c8eae1c206.png[/img] Modifying the layout and the necessity of adding a text box has motivated us to have some fun with shapes and coloring. The previous image shows only one of the card looks we are using - different types of cards will vary in shape and color. That adds another layer of readability. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/dd95596a7d2ef4b11dc1034417196cba735e745d.png[/img] We didn’t want the cards to feel flat… so they aren’t! The ribbons of the card frames and other elements stand out just a little bit and cast shadows, to give you that 3D feeling that makes pop-up books really pop-up ;) [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/61deff8e1e75d79d75c94097ebe3d0b63130338b.png[/img] Text isn’t the only thing you pay attention to in a card. Once you familiarize yourself with how a spell or ability works, you start relying on pictures to play faster, remembering the effects. This leads to another crucial decision: we had to make the individual cards easily and immediately recognizable. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/2d95a3c1d1cd5c458701492ec1271cae2a5979ee.png[/img] Card art had to be distinct and clear. We wanted them to be appealing and functional at the same time. Our first ventures into card design may have been a bit over the top, dominating the scene and pulling attention from other elements. That was a problem since keeping track of enemy positioning is quite essential in Hellcard! The cards you can see in this shot didn’t work for us - they were fun to look at, but the flashy colors made everything else seem pale and dull. Since making dungeons more flashy and visually loud to compete with the cards would be... ill-advised, we decided to make cards a bit chiller. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/d49d49fd269370aa8c3612ded71a830a67bd33dd.png[/img] Even toned down, this version of cards still seemed a bit too colorful and flashy for our tastes. We loved the idea of stacked paper art, though, something we might explore further in the future. For now, we settled on the designs you see below: the three sets are for the mage, rogue, and warrior, respectively. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/ba740af7948139d1b76b89f634580d3ed2034c4a.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/d83f6a17742287e5960a35076c6c890bdb980294.png[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/93593f863fca30f1e34fb63e442af7403c6b80a0.png[/img] The graphics are functional, still seem papery, and don’t pull attention from the text (even though with duplicated placeholder text everywhere, there is not much new information to read). We still haven’t reached the end of our card-designing journey, though - expect more changes and polish as we come closer to the release later this year. The meteor we’ve shown somewhere up there is a hint on what we are still planning to do with the cards. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/abddd5a41736a6defb808db0a7875ba0713bf4c9.gif[/img] There are still other things we want to talk about regarding our design - such as interacting with the battlefield and ideas for co-op play. We would love to hear feedback on the designs and direction we are taking, so if you want to share your thoughts, consider joining our discord: [url=https://discord.gg/qD4uWKu][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304302/4b2e60b2e52067b7a0b7e62f9f4cc8129d682f61.png[/img][/url] If you want to receive more updates like that you can also wishlist Hellcard on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201540/Book_of_Demons_HELLCARD/ And as always, stay safe in the paper dungeon, Artur