5 Golden Rules of Game Cards Graphic Design You MUST OBEY

before after this is a card we made using the five golden rules of game cards graphic design it might not look like much but that's because this is only our second pass at cards to help our prototype just look a little bit nicer art comes much later in the process but until then we're doing the most important thing for our game play testing play testing and play testing some more which is the best time to get feedback on our cards layout I've spent the last 10 years designing games I've designed a lot of cards a lot of which weren't worth saving but here's a card I designed back in 2015 can you pick out all the flaws there actually is a method to designing an aesthetically pleasing card that has all the information your players need while looking nice because that's exactly what you need to do your cards need to be engineered for readability at a glance while containing a ton of information and still look cool as heck so how do you do that in this video I'll show you how to design a card from scratch explaining the reasons behind each decision the best practices and why you must obey these five golden rules and I'm going to do that on the dextrous website because it is free and easy to use but more importantly because it allows you to make sweeping changes to every card in your game at once and that is legitimately a game Cher when making your game more on that later hi my name is Dave jela welcome to tabletop craft let's get started first things first I'm starting with a blank poker size card since that is by far the most popular option but don't worry all the information in this video is still relevant to any card you want to design whether it's horizontal mini tarot it all applies and so the first question to answer is what all goes on a card what information is important for your game it'll probably need a name and an effect and some art but let's make a few more assumptions so you're better equipped to design your own card I'll use our game as an example our cards also have a cost a color two different types A VP value and stats that we might soon change to dice that's 9 to 11 different things to fit on a poker card doesn't sound too bad but when you want the card to look good and the information to be readable from a across the table it starts to become a challenge I'm going to get this blank card set up with all the elements I just mentioned but as I do I want to show you something and then ask you a question I have had this hanging on my wall for a few years now it is a tribute to my three major ccg addictions we have Elementary Middle School and High School my question is have you ever studied the cards from a game ask yourself why the cards are laid out the way they are each of these follows a similar format you'll notice that the titles are above the effect and that the art takes up more space than any other element let's look at a more current example this is a card from farore it is a game that was released at this year's Gen Con you'll notice some similarities but the key difference is in the top right corner let's single out Magic the Gathering its cards are a prime example of breaking the first Golden Rule it is well known for breaking what has become conventional wisdom at this point because its cards were designed before it became conventional wisdom to expl explain this here is a hand of cards that you might typically see when playing most information the most important information to compare among cards at a glance is their cost which is completely hidden when fanned out in your hand when designing your cards consider what might get covered up but cards in the hand aren't the only way that things can get covered up here are a few example cards from our game ignore that one I forgot to tell them the right size of paper whoops we have a mechanic in our game where you can stack cards to repeatedly get their effect by placing this one on top it activates everything in the chain until the new card activates we need to be mindful that the types remain visible because other cards reference them it is important to know how many of which types you have whereas the cost can be covered up because it's only relevant to our game when purchasing the card if we ever considered a mechanic that looked at the cost of a previously purchased card then we could have a problem because this mechanic covers up some of those cards so golden rule number one is to never obscure vital elements don't think you can get away with it because magic does they are the exception to the rule because time and here we are back to our less blank card and we learned that we like the cost over here on the left and we saw that it makes sense to have the name of the card at the top or maybe the middle so long as it's above the effect text and we know that we could maybe hide the VP but I like the idea of using it as a way to gauge how strong or valuable a card is so maybe we don't hide it but what about everything else that leads us to the next Golden Rule here is an example card that follows the second Golden Rule I stole this example from Matt pette sorry if I butchered your name from a blog post of his from 5 years ago I like this card because it is something that I would consider non-standard but still exemplifies Golden Rule Number Two what information is most important to your players when I look at this monster card from Arkham horor the card game the information is presented in a way that flows my eye starts at the top with the name and the three numbers next the Bold text catches my eye and finally the text in the center but then I realize I almost missed the three small icons in the card type underneath that text each of these elements is presented in a specific order from most important to least by its position on the card and the size of the element imagine your card as the main branch of a family tree and then you divide it down into smaller sections or layers the card's name and image should be at the top level because it is the most important information and needs to be immediately noticeable but then you move down the branch and move down the hierarchy placing the less crucial details in order of importance and relevance things like Flavor Tex will end up at the bottom you can also think of this like telling a story the main story line is at the top and if your players want to dig deeper into the card's detail they can explore the sub stories below this way players can quickly grasp the card's main purpose while having the option to delve into more specific information if they want let's go back to my framed example of the Yu-Gi-Oh card this text is way too tiny for most games they get away with it again because time but also because the cards in your deck are something that you specifically understood ahead of time and chose to be in there and then they rest in your hand but just look at all that wasted space this card could look so much nicer magic and Pokemon have tried to iterate over the years but people hate change everell is a great example I've played this game at least a couple of dozen times at this point and until just recently I hadn't noticed these little notches in the wood on each card turns out they represent how many copies of the card are in the game that's pretty cool but very much not something that You' want to put prominently on the card which is why this is basically hidden aidel is a great example of Golden Rule Number Two follow visual hierarchy so that brings us back to our card example we know that the most important or primary elements are typically placed at the top or Forefront making them more prominent and easily accessible while less important or secondary elements are placed in the lower levels or layers so so that's why I've changed some of these to be bigger and others smaller and I've reordered them by importance the next step is to experiment a little bit or a lot of bit here you can see some of our quick and dirty sketches for our potential card layouts from our latest round of iteration and just real quick I want to take a second to ask you to take a moment and press the like button it is my dream to keep providing you the best value I can and you taking the time to press that button helps me grow and for others to find my content thanks for helping my dream come true okay on to rules 3 four and five what makes a card readable I touched upon it with the Yu-Gi-Oh card font size spacing background white space organization all these are important factors but they're all encompassed by the same idea here we have a couple of card examples I've mocked up they both convey the same information one of them is much more readable on the left you can see the space between the border and the text could be a little wider the font on the right is slightly easier to read and the extra spacing between lines helps also having font at eight points is a deal breaker for our game because our card are meant to set on the table between all the players keep it simple and leave room where you can your font matters and consider how far away the card will be read from but the true Golden Rule to follow for readability isn't these things if I take the card on the right the better of the two and apply Golden Rule Number Three to it we get this instead and suddenly it becomes 10 times better this one sounds like a proper rule Golden Rule Number Three if it can be set in fewer words say it in fewer words cards are the most interactive component of a game they are the driving force that make your game work they need to be engineered for readability at a glance while containing a ton of information and still look cool as heck no one wants to read a paragraph nobody got time for that we have eight cards laid out in the middle of our table if each card is filled with text that's practically a book here's an example from our previous version of our game where we went a little too overboard back to our example card we've brainstormed a bit and tried out a handful of different layouts and settled on this one for now we understand that Tech should be said in as few words as possible but we can take this a step further with Golden Rule Number Four what do each of these cards have in common we're still looking at the effect text what do you notice it's something that wasn't in our previous example I've always taken it for granted I've been playing games long enough that it's become a second language at this point something I can read the thing I'm trying to draw your attention to is the iconography on the effect text the symbols in our previous version of our game we had a couple of different ways to put this Golden Rule into practice the first is shown here like the other examples I was just showing you but also the same but different with this card our example from the previous Golden Rule looked like this and we leveled It Up by saying things in few words but we can take it a step further this card reads gain one power shard of any color if the card below this one is green the combat value of this card becomes one it's shorter than before but the phrases gain one power shard and increase your combat value show up across many cards in our game so we put Golden Rule Number Four into effect changing it to look like this your game probably also has recurring phrases or mechanics that pop up across multip cards this rule is very simple and it levels up your design just as much as the previous just make symbols Golden Rule Number Three was if it could be set in fewer words say it in fewer words the next is an extension of that Golden Rule Number Four if it's said repeatedly say it in symbols so here we have what was once a blank card putting everything that we've learned into practice but it's missing one important piece of the puzzle all the way at the top of your visual hierarchy family tree or compelling story was arguably the most important part of every card's design and it's the easiest one to guess but before we jump into the final Golden Rule a couple of honorable mentions silver rules if you will consider colors that work better for those who have color blindness choosing the right background can help a ton when reading text same with the right font and keep the rules on the cards not in the rule book if you find yourself adding rules that relate to a small number of cards find a way to fit it on the cards or ax those cards what makes a card look good what draws your attention the most I love each of these cards for the same reason I wonder if you like them too I think they're pretty they look cool and I want to hold them in my hand a compelling visual design is a big part of what makes your game awesome and that extends to your cards it's weird art doesn't contribute to the playability of your game at all right it's just eye candy and yet it takes up the majority of most cards art is what draws people in it's what caused me to go out of my way to talk to the developers of everell and farore and it's the reason I stopped in my tracks and asked Matt to tell me about his game flock together ironically he has the same artist forever D and farore but art is more than just being fancy or looking good art is the glue that holds all the other elements together it creates a framing effect that draws your eye and reinforces the theme of your card Golden Rule Number Five art is Paramount or more accurately make art the centerpiece without compromising function or design cohesion but I like the phrase art is Paramount better so here's our finished card that started blank it still has a way to go but it's more than enough to move on to the next step if you want feedback on your car design you can join us on the tabletop craft Discord and if you'd like a jump start on your own project I've provided links in the description with templates for the website that I Showcase in this video dextrous I was also going to provide templates for Photoshop and canva but then I would be setting you up to fail if I did that seriously don't design your cards that way I've got something better for you don't waste your time making changes to each card individually don't waste your time and money printing them out each time you make a change you're going to need to play test play test and play test some more and I cover the best method to rapidly prototype and play test your game in this video I said I was serious and I meant it this is a game changer my name is Dave jela I hope you learned something and I'll see you in that video

Channel: Dave Jeltema

Views: 86,055

Keywords: board game design, board games design, beginner board game design, board game design for beginners, tabletop design, guide, tutorial, walkthrough, how to, How to make first game, How to make a board game, Dave, Jeltema, Dave Jeltema, board game, board games, game cards graphic design, card design, card layout board game, card game graphic design, tabletop graphic design, card design language, card design board game, tabletop design language, card design layout

Id: XDd4u2xnRtE

Length: 12min 38sec (758 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 24 2023