-
Hi All,
I have just started up a development blog for the game I am working on, a science fiction themed deck building game currently called Forefront.
http://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1231
Hope you all enjoy the blog as I go through the process of attempting to self publish this thing 
Julian Fox
Some teaser images for you to take a look at...
-
Sam Mercer
United Kingdom
Southampton
Hampshire
-
Wow julian, love the artwork man.
Very "Eve" like, very chilled out - slow burning and quite spacey - I would keep to that art style if I were you, I think it makes a very strong statement. I would try and stay away from laser beams and explosions and battlecruisers and what not.
card layout is lovely as well man, are these placeholder images or are you an artist or have you commissioned them?
Heading to read the blog
good luck with it man!
-
-
Thanks for the comments Sam, I'll put up some of what I started out with on the blog as a comparison from an artwork perspective.
The attached images are my final layout as the graphic designer and the ship artwork was commissioned from a guy called Hatem Zayed (will plug him on the blog also when he gives me a website to link to . The location artwork is licensed from a guy I found on deviant art called Josef Barton.
I'm really happy with how the artwork turned out and I really like the style, the ships are still a work in progress so I'll take on board the comments about lasers etc. I wanted a clean aesthetic so I can't see it going too far down that route.
So short answer: layout is mine, ships are Hatem Zayed, locations are Josef Barton.
Thanks! It's been a wild ride so far!
-
-
I've playtested various iterations of the game.
When Julian first told me the idea my response was along the lines of "seriously?? another deck building game? aren't there enough already?". But I sat down and played a few games anyway. And the game was awesome. What really impressed me was the way that it did not feel like any of the other deck building games I had played before (a lot! Dominion, Thunderstone, Nightfall, Ascencion, Eaten by Zombies, Eminent Domain, Heroes of Graxia, Tanto Cuore, Quarriors (I think of it as deck building with dice) and more I can;t think of at the moment). It really has a very unique feel. And it was incredibly fun. With a decent amount of strategic decision making.
I strongly recommend this game when it comes out. It easily made my top 5 games of 2011 And came second on my most played list - after Race for the Galaxy. The art work I have seen looks awesome. To my surprise (I was ready for it to be ordinary at best) this game is a real winner.
-
-
Haha Kman
Quote: To my surprise (I was ready for it to be ordinary at best) this game is a real winner.
Thank you for that great vote of confidence. It's nice to know you expected ordinary from me 
Artwork is still under development and I'm gunning for a release around July. Still reading through a lot of the wonderful information available here on BGG and trying to figure out a good Kickstarter strategy. I tell you what, self publishing is a lot of hard work but also a lot of fun!
-
Sam Mercer
United Kingdom
Southampton
Hampshire
-
SO
Either Kman is a very well placed shill *wearing a moustachio and plastic glasses*
"No your honour, I have never seen this man before ..."
OR
This is a good game ... and I need to own this game...
From Julians nice attitude I believe it's the second one and this is in fact a great game. As such Julian, I have bgg mailed you my debit card long card number and I expect delivery of the game within 3 weeks - no rush. Thank you so much for your anticipated customer service. *waits gingerly by letter box*
-
Matt Riddle
United States
Michigan
-
Sounds neat and I love the art.
-
-
Ironically with Kman's post the first thing I thought was "wow I wonder how much I'm paying that shill!"
-
Scott Westgard
United States
Illinois
-
Very nice artwork indeed!
The only concern I really see is that every card has the "Artwork by, and Copyright" bar featured too strongly at the bottom of the card. As proud of the artwork as you may be, that information could be printed VERY small, below all the card content box. The text inside the upper right box is even smaller than the Copyright information. Players will find the Artist/copyright info if they closely examine the card, but that lower bar feels like it is necessary text to the game.
-
-
Fair point Scott. I'll have a play around with the layout and see what I can do with it.
-
Ernie Barrett
United States
Warren
Ohio
-
What does the text inside the top right box say? So small I cant read it. Otherwise, looks very nice.
-
-
Hi Ernie,
It just says attack on the left side and defense on the right side. It isn't really required text it was just put there to fill in a gap because it looked a bit weird without it. The curving lines on the top corner meant I couldn't get the defense squares to look right, hence filler text.
Here is a mock up of the Starfighter based on feedback so far. What do people think? The copyright has been de-emphasised and the text at the top made clearer.
-
-
I like. The important bits are much clearer.
-
Scott Westgard
United States
Illinois
-
Much better, I was thinking the Artwork by and copyright could go below the box...but the text size is better. ATK/DEF is somewhat an awkward abbreviation to put in the box. Perhaps a universal background color for all the icons that apply to Attack (red?) and a different color for Defence (blue? green?) could be put behind the symbols, and the text eliminated?
Even in the card text, where it says "gains an additional 1 attack", there could be a symbol in there too - "gains 1 additional  when..."
-
Andrew Tullsen
United States
Tigard
Oregon
Custom Prototypes, Game Parts, Print & Play Games, Short Runs, POD
-
+1 I'm really liking both the artwork and graphic design.
-
Nicholas Vitek
United States
Houston
Texas
-
Please don't use Red / Green. Think of the colorblind and use symbols or letters as well.
ATK and DEF are well used abbreviations.
-
-
I agree about ATK and DEF being awkward. As I said they aren't really required. I've had a go at just dumping them altogether I think that the orange/yellow circle and the blue square probably denote the attack and defense well enough so I'll leave the background grey as is. I have moved the copyright down even further which has the added bonus of more space for card text (there is one particularly wordy card that this might help.
As I was changing this I realised that some of the older ships (read the ones where the artwork is mostly finished) actually use an older template of the card layout. The most noticeable change is the way the attack and defense icons look, flatter, which works better in print.
-
Andrew Tullsen
United States
Tigard
Oregon
Custom Prototypes, Game Parts, Print & Play Games, Short Runs, POD
-
ATK and DEF where you had them before would serve as nice reminders, even if you do have the icons.
-
Ernie Barrett
United States
Warren
Ohio
-
I really like the look of the latest revision. Being nit picky, I would move the att/def icons down a smidge as they are overlapping the border.
Great job on the blog as well. I look forward to seeing more and following the progress.
-
-
Yeah I see what you mean, a very slight overlap. I've been trying to make the symbols as prominent as possible so it has ended up a bit of a tight squeeze up there. I'll have a play around with it and see if I can make a bit more space, potentially by extending the title bar size.
In the mean time here is the last revision with the ATK and DEF abbreviations back in.
-
-
I had a close look at the PSD files in regards to the overlap. It actually doesn't happen on the raw PSD so I had a play around with the resizing method used when I port it out to PNG and it seems to be something to do with the bi-cubic method. The card below is using a different method and it seems to come out fine!
I'd like to thank everyone so far for the great comments and ideas. I especially like using the attack and defense symbols in the card text, I have no idea why that didn't occur to me in the first place
Here's another card that hasn't had its artwork recoloured yet but you can see what the new suggestions have added to the look and feel of it.
-
-
Hi all,
I have put up an example of how the start of a 2 player game of Forefront might play out on the Forefront development blog. Still working hard on making the full rules read right
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/7997/2-player-example-...
-
-
Version 0.1 of the rules is now available on the Forefront development blog. Any feedback you might have is greatly appreciated. This is the first time the rules have been this formalized, I hope they are clear.
-
-
Version 0.2 of the rules now up. Thanks for the feedback so far guys
Also added a preview for the Sylax starter cards. Enjoy!
-
-
Looks interesting! Following this one.
-
|
|
