Armchair Dragoons Forums
Other Gaming => Designing and Creating => Topic started by: AllTim on April 08, 2022, 05:17:43 PM
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My day job is a librarian, but my night job is as a graphics designer for wargames. I thought this might be a good spot to show off what I up-coming projects I am currently working on. Right now I am nearly done with the counters, map, and cover art for a game from HFD called "Succeed or Die: The Battles of Rafa and El Arish June 5-6, 1967". If all goes well, it will be released sometime in May.
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Looks cool! :bigthumb:
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Hey! Happy to see another librarian join the Dragoons. :2thumbs:
The map and counters look great. Can you tell us if this will be a 2 player game, or a solitaire game? I know Paul Rohrbaugh designs both, just curious to know what kind of game might be offered up in May. I'm curious, what tools do you use for your work?
Looking forward to whatever else you can share with us in the future.
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That looks cracking :bigthumb: :notworthy:
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Thanks. This will be a two player game. Some of his games use a deck of cards to figure out who goes first and how many of your units to activate in a turn, but with this one you roll a die. In terms of the graphic look, I was inspired (at least for the counters) by the old game Panzerblitz. I always loved those black tank silhouettes. The three numbers on the counters are (left to right) combat, range, movement.
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Excellent, thank you for the info about the game.
Do you use a vector graphics editor, or a raster graphics editor? I've been thinking about learning how to use GIMP and Inkscape. I'm curious what you use to create such great maps and counters.
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I work in Photoshop, so its all pretty much raster based. But fonts are of course vector and Photoshop has a "shapes" tool which also is vector. I make as much use of military vector fonts and shapes as I can.
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I tried out Gimp for a while. Its very powerful and very close to what Photoshop can do. And I have heard good things about Inkscape. But I also found Gimp to be as hard to learn as Photoshop was, and after 10+ years of learning I still feel I am barely scraping the surface of what it can do. Actually a lot of the problem for me was trying to un-learn Photoshop so I could use Gimp. I knew how Photoshop did things and was constantly frustrated when Gimp did it differently! Somebody approaching Gimp with no knowledge at all of Photoshop would probably find it easier to learn.
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Thank you for the info about the graphic tools you use and your experience with them. I've never used Photoshop, so I can approach Gimp without any expectations. Also, since Gimp is open source, that makes it very affordable. :biggrin:
Looking forward to seeing your other projects when you are ready to share them.
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What size are the counters?
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.625 and the map will be two 11x17 sheets for 22x17 total.
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Thanks :bigthumb:
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Another game that is 99% done is a game called "Volters Lead the Way!" by Hermann Luttmann. This is in the same style as his "In Magnificent Style" push-your-luck solitaire games, but with a SciFi setting. I must admit I found doing the graphics for this game quite challenging to make up as it needed original artwork for two sets of counters as well as cards, two maps two player aids and the box cover. This is just a small image from Steam where Hermann has been playtesting the game that will give you and idea of all the parts needed. I probably put way too much time into detailing the counter art, and you can't see it here, but I am hoping it will look great once actually printed out. The game will be on a 22x17 map, with both 1 inch and .625 inch counters and standard sized cards. There are actually two maps- one on Mars and one on the Moon. Watch for this one to come out in the not too distant future from White Dog Games.
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Replying in order to follow this thread.
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His Franco-Prussian game 'At Any Costs' is one of my favourite games of all times. I really like the 'Blind Sword' system.
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It's not for any new game, but I recently found out you can get some old S&T mags complete with game online. Since I have never played it, I downloaded the one that had Winter War. Then before I even read the rules or tried it, I decided to re-do the graphics for the counters. This is what I came up with.
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Nice clear counters :bigthumb:
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Thanks. When printed out the side numbers are hard to read with my tired old eyes, but I couldn't make them larger and still have them fit on the map, unless I redid that too, and that's just one step too far even for me!
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Since the sheets are 10 counters wide, then it tells me that the counters are 1/2". Unfortunately, I find small counters to be a challenge for my poor old eye's these days.
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Yep.
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Nice work! Do you work exclusively for HFD or do you freelance? (Asking for a friend...)
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I work for anybody who can pay (and some who couldnt...cough cough...CSL...cough). I mostly do smaller games as I find regular/larger games to be more challenging and less fun. But I have done some for Compass Games- The Lamps are Going out and Imperial Tide were my graphics. I also did the maps for some Worthington Games- The Malta one that just came out, and In Magnificent Style. The latest game I worked on was for HFD on the Battle of Kontum. That one turned out well.
http://www.hfdgames.com/kontum.html
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I just got the go-ahead to do up the graphics for a new HFD game. So far I have been having fun working on the game cover art.
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:bigthumb:
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As usual with HFD, it will have a map of 22x17 with probably .625 counters (I havent measured the map yet to see how large the hexes will end up being). the number of counters is around 160, about half of which are combat units. It will have a chit pull mechanic, have facing for the units (mostly regiment in size), and combat will be based on a die roll for each player that will have loads of modifiers. The list of modifiers for both defense and offense is the only thing I find a bit fiddly; the rest of the game looks and reads well to me. I will post updates here as I get more of the artwork done.
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I decided to re-draw the counters for the old SPI game Across Suez. These are .625 sized. I also resized the map by 125%. Now I just have to actually print and cut the counters.
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Hmmm... I wanted to make sure all the numbers and text stood out on them, but now I am thinking they are a bit too loud. they may look better with regular rather than a bold font. Oh well, I am not going back and changing all of them now.
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here are two different styles of icons for an upcoming game. Which do you prefer?
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I much prefer the second design.
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Tim, I like #2 better b/c it's easier to distinguish from a distance what they each are
From afar, I wonder if it's too tough to tell the sabers from the rifles when they're all crossed on the same color counter
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I also agree that set #2 is easier to distinguish at a distance.
But both sets have the problem of not enough tanks. ;)
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But both sets have the problem of not enough tanks. ;)
:2thumbs:
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agreed about the tanks, but that's not my call.
I was pretty much going with the second version but just need verification that they were the ones to use. Thanks!
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AllTim, what tools do you use? Do you use a tablet, or just mouse? I have access to Adobe CC since we have a subscription for my wife doing photography, so I should start messing around and figuring out photoshop and illustrator.
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Just a mouse. I did try using one of those usb graphics tablet/pens, but it did not seem to make things any better or easier. No doubt I just didn't learn how to use it properly, since I have heard it can make a big difference. But you know how it is; when you have a deadline you just go with what you know.
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the map for the game is coming along
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Map looks good :bigthumb:
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That’s a great looking map. :bigthumb:
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That’s a great looking map. :bigthumb:
+1
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new cover. I found what I think is a better, more appropriate and more colorful image. Forced it thru a few filters to get it where it is currently.
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Looks like an illustration from 'Battles and Leaders'. ;)
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I'm hoping thats a good thing! :)
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the map for the game is coming along
D you do that in a vector program like Illustrator, or something like Photoshop?
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I work almost exclusively in Photoshop.
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Since I have been doing this for so long, I have acquired a fairly large numbers of add-ons for Photoshop like new brush sets, vector shapes, fonts, and actions. They all combine to make short work of most maps and counters. Making up original artwork, like I had to for the counters in Hermann Luttmann's space games, is what is the most time consuming.
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Sheesh, its been over a year since I posted anything here. Let's see; I'll just list out the projects I have been working on since then, assuming my memory goes back that far...
I made up graphics for a bunch of High Flying Dice Games including "Battle’s Orphan: The Bay of Pigs Invasion" with two maps, "Cockleshell Heroes: Operation Frankton, December 11, 1942", "A Scourge of Stone and Spirit: The Siege of Harfleur, 1415" mini-game, and I am finishing off "Vallée de la mort: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu.
For Blue Panther Games I made up the made the map and other graphics for "the Struggle for New France" and all the graphics for "Road to Independence: The American Revolution 1775-1783". And I just finished up with the new graphics for "Vive L"Empereur!" which is moving from White Dog Games to Blue Panther Games.
I am currently updating the graphics for the scfi game "Volters Lead the Way!" which is moving from White Dog Games to Tiny Battle games.
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The canvas map for Vive L"Empereur! is a beautiful thing. :bigthumb:
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Thanks. The counters gave me fits, and I'm still not that happy with them, but the map came together really well. I thought the original map was amazing in its detail, but seemed to me like too much of a good thing.
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This week I am hoping to finish up the graphics for Vallee de la Mort. Maps are done. counters still need work
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Nice! :bigthumb:
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I sent in the last of the graphics to Paul and just got back the final fixes needed, so hopefully this will be out by the beginning of December. "La Vallee de la Mort" will have three separate maps (three different battles) and 4 counter sheets.
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From the first to the last. Vallee de la Mort covers the battle that led to the creation South Vietnam. Now we have "White Christmas; the fall of Saigon" which covers the end of South Vietnam. Paul sez this will be out in Jan. of the new year.
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Looks great!
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My latest game graphics are for a game on the Battle of Palmetto Ranch for High Flying Dice Games. Its a game of the last battle of the Civil War. It takes place in the far Southeast corner of Texas and had the dubious distinction of creating the last man killed in battle during the American Civil War. Paul has asked me to start making up back covers for his games. Formerly they all were ziplocked with no back cover but now he has started offering boxed games with more standardized front and backs to the boxes.
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counters and back
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Paul already has three more games lined up for graphics upgrading that I can choose from.
1. Operation Icarus: The German Invasion of Iceland (game and custom card set).
2. Operation Source: The British X-Craft raid on the Tirpitz (solitaire play game and custom card set).
3. A Hard Day's Work: The Battle of Droop Mountain (largest American Civil War battle fought in West Virginia, uses the same design as Palmetto Ranch).
What should my next project be? I'm leaning toward Icarus.
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I decided to go with Icarus.
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I like the look of that cover :)
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Map done. Counters started. Cards still to do. I gotta say, I really want to like this game but the rules are a bit of a dogs breakfast. There is a good game in there, but IMO it needs more development.