Mr Manfranjansen Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Hello all, I'm a bit nervous to do this, but I guess I'll risk it. I have a post in the introduction forum that explains how I got into Paint.NET and why I needed to use something simple, but powerful. Long story short, I was so interested in the planet and space tutorials that I started making planets and spacescapes. Then I got inspired to create a board game with my daughter and I've been using Paint.NET for all the artwork. So...without further ado...here's a prototype card I came up with: This is 100% PDN except for the hand and the orb. I grabbed that from Google Images, along with the six-sided die (d6 in gamer speak). I simply added the d6 as a new layer and then messed with the transparency a bit to make it look like it was floating inside the orb. The title of the card "Hand of Fate" was done using the buttons plugin, but the button has a cool effect that makes it look shiny. There's a band of color at the top of the button and at the bottom. The band at the top interfered with the text, so I removed it to clarify the text. I thought it turned out fine. It looks great when printed on photopaper with the highest quality. I tried using buttons for the lower left number and the lower right number, but they made the card look too busy, so I removed them and just dropped the numbers there. The number on the bottom left is used to indicate how many times you can use the card. I've decided to remove it because I think it'll be too cumbersome to keep track of card usage during the game. It'll be a source for arguments, so I'm making all cards usable only once (for now...I still need to playtest). The number on the right is a simple explanation of what the card does so the player doesn't have to read the description every single time they pick up the card. This next image is the game board: This took me a long time to make and I won't bore all of you with the details. The planets looked a lot better when they were bigger, but this is fine for prototyping. When printed, this image is 24" x 24". I'm not sure what I'll do with the asteroid field. For some reason, I thought I should keep all the asteroids in each hex, but that makes things look a bit...unnatural..."forced", I guess. I think I might change that and make a big asteroid with some smaller ones floating around it in the same yellow highlighted space. For prototyping, I'll keep things as they are. My printer also told me I should consider...dang...I forgot the term...is it "bleed"? I need to allow some extra space around the image so the printer can cut it properly. Whew! Okay...I hope I did this properly. I'm going to post it now and then attempt to get my own images to see if they worked. -Mr.Man- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dug Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Hi,welcome to the forum.You seem to have a handle on what your doing and what you want to do.Good start to your gallery.I don't know much about printers but I am sure someone in the forum will be able to help.Keep up the good work,you and your daughter. Quote MY GALLERYD.A.TheRawAtom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Manfranjansen Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 Hi,welcome to the forum.You seem to have a handle on what your doing and what you want to do.Good start to your gallery.I don't know much about printers but I am sure someone in the forum will be able to help.Keep up the good work,you and your daughter. Thanks, Dug! I'm going to post where I'm stuck in the General area later today as soon as I can get my head around the specifics of what I'm trying to do. I'm having trouble coming up with the correct terminology, but I think if I illustrate it with enough examples, people will be able to help me. -Mr. Man- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadJik Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 I like the card. It reflects the ambiance of the board. Just the color of the d6 is too near to the color of the halo. Perhaps test with a green dice... For the board, of course it is depending on the rules of the game but I could say the start bases (planets) aren't equal! Blue & White have 4 exit paths and 5 hexa cells when green & red have 5 exit paths and 6 hexa cells... Usualy hexa boards are used for 2,3 or 6 players... How many cards are you going to create? This is a huge work and a nice project to do! I'm looking forward to see how it's going on... Quote My DeviantArt | My Pictorium | My Plugins | Donate via Paypal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HELEN Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Lovely ideas. I like how your images are turning out. Quote Don't spit into the well, you might drink from it later. -----Yiddish ProverbGlossy Galaxy Ball---How to Make FoliageMy Gallery PDN Fans--My DA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Manfranjansen Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 (edited) This is very encouraging. Thanks Helen and Madjik! Madjik: I LOVE the idea of trying a green die! I have to confess that I'm slightly color blind, so what I see and what you see are probably a bit different. This is very helpful to me. My colorblindness is rather mild, though. I can see primary colors just fine. Subtle differences in pastels and other combined colors give me some trouble. The best way to see what I'm talking about is to Google "color blind test". Take a look at the second entry, "Take the Ishihara Colorvision test". The first slide is a "16" with grey dots all around it. I can see that just fine. I see absolutely nothing on the second slide. It just looks like a bunch of pretty dots to me. On some of the slides I can barely make out what I was supposed to see AFTER I see the answer, but without that as a guide they all look like dots. Hmmm...actually...now that I look at it again, I don't think the "16" is surrounded by grey dots...perhaps blue-green? Sometimes I need to see the color I THINK it is, next to that actual color to realize I'm incorrect about what color I'm looking at! Madjik? Would you please explain about the exit paths? I tried to be careful with the hexes to be sure that all planets are the same distance from the asteroid field (each start planet is 2 hexes away). There are seven, empty hexes around each planet. If I overlooked something I'd be VERY interested to see where I went wrong. I wanted to create a LOT of cards. Since each card is only going to be used once, I wanted to create at least 40 cards...better with 60. I wanted each card to be different, but I might not be able to come up with 40 - 60 unique cards. Just for grins, I might only create 20 cards and make 2 of each. Then, as I playtest, I'll take suggestions from the other players and create on an "as I go" basis. Sometimes new ideas will jump out at me as we're playing, so I might be able to swing all the unique cards eventually. -Mr. Man- Edited May 8, 2011 by Mr Manfranjansen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadJik Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 This isn't really a Paint.net discussion, but that could be interesting to keep it available on this forum! What do the admins say about it? Could we go on here or should we continue via PM? Hard to hear about your vision trouble... Your task is more complicate. This is the board with the area per color: You could see left and right have 5 cells but only 4 ready to take off (spotted cells). Top and bottom have one cell more. I suggest to place the areas in the corners: or use a checker board: Again this is my first idea without knowing the rules of the game. BTW I would be pleased to help you to do some cards... Quote My DeviantArt | My Pictorium | My Plugins | Donate via Paypal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowman Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 This is very nice, I am sure it will be a fun game Tips for printing: And your project should be with these setting for best printing quality: I know it is a huge file size in Pixels, and you PC may not handle it, you can reduce the DPI (Resolution) to 200 pix/inch or less, but the print shops prefer DPI of 300 and up, you need to ask them first if they accept that. These lare for USA, I am not sure if they are the same in other countries, because they deal with centimeter Quote My GalleryMy YouTube Channel "PDN Tutorials" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Manfranjansen Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 Wonderful! This is great, thanks! Yellowman: I really appreciate your diagram of how bleed works. That helps a lot and when I get ready to print again, I'll be sure to consult your diagram to be sure I get it right. Madjik: Your drawings are excellent! Thanks for illustrating what's going on. I remember going through that same thought process now! (back when I first designed the board). I should've mentioned to you that the planets and everything on the planet-side of each colored border is considered one space. So...if you go back to the board you drew, count the hexes just to the outside of the numbered hexes you showed me. There are seven empty hexes around each planetary space, so everything is okay. I thought about putting the planets in the corners as you suggested, but that makes the approach to the planets limited to only two sides. I wanted more approaches to the planets because I thought it opened up more strategic options for the players. Also...since these are planets, theoretically you should be able to approach from all sides and all angels in three dimensions. The least I could do on this board is open up everything around the planets (which I'll do when I get more playtesting done...this will work for now). Your offer to help with the cards is...well I don't have the words to express how much I appreciate it! I will definitely ask for some help once I've thought up what the cards are going to do! You're right about this not technically being a PDN discussion, so I'll stop here to avoid clogging the Pictorium with an incorrect topic. -Mr. Man- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Manfranjansen Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 Okay, Madjik. I can't decide if this looks better or not. Here's the card again, but with a green d6. What do you think? -Mr. Man- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadJik Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I can't choose right now I'm balanced between the both. The red dice is a bit bigger and more to the right than the green one. My decision could be helped when I'll see few other cards... Quote My DeviantArt | My Pictorium | My Plugins | Donate via Paypal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Manfranjansen Posted May 11, 2011 Author Share Posted May 11, 2011 I can't choose right now I'm balanced between the both. The red dice is a bit bigger and more to the right than the green one. My decision could be helped when I'll see few other cards... I can easily make the d6 bigger and move it, but that's not important right now. I think I've decided that I like the green one. I noticed when I was looking at the red one that I did some weird tweaking to the d6 before I even dropped it into the orb. The red one might look better if I keep it in it's "normal" state and just drop it in. -Mr.Man- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heat Stroke Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Great job on your game so far! I look forward to seeing more! Quote  Wait! No matter where you go, there you are! We're all wise guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisco97 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Good job on it so far! I really hope you keep this going on here, as I would like to see it's progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Manfranjansen Posted May 19, 2011 Author Share Posted May 19, 2011 Wow! Thanks for the encouragement! I'm currently working on the ship cards (please see post called "having trouble creating a "cutaway" in the general section for more information). With Madjik's help (and some help from Ventor...although I still haven't tried his technique) I believe I'll have another prototype soon. In general, I wanted just the outline of a ship, but I wanted to give it a 3D look around the edges as if the top of the ship was cut off and you could see the inside. I'm working on a floor right now...can't seem to get it the way I want, but I'm close. Also, I got a tip from a friend at work that suggested I use the line/curve tool to trace around the edges first. He said that would give it a really clear, tight line so that when I create the 3D effect it'll look a lot cleaner. -Mr. Man- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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