A Board Mind (Designing a game)

In the next few blog posts I plan to go through a board game design. I'll see where it takes me and if it makes it to publication. I'll give you all the steps, my ins and outs, and we'll see how it goes.

Starting an Idea
With most projects I either start with an idea for a theme or a mechanic I want to try. For Sky Ships of Albrexis (working title) I started with a mechanic. 

Before the project started I had an idea for representing a board game version of Pokemon Go. I thought if you were to make a board game out of a video game where you actually move that there had to be movement in the game. So I started working on a mechanic that would simulate this process. 

The mechanic that I came up with is having eight cards in a circle in the center of the table. They would look like a cog with the tops of the cards on the inside of the circle. As I worked on this idea I also, like most designers, worked on other designs. At the start of this project I came up with the idea for Witch Slapped. The parts for that game fell into place faster and the playtesting for it went smoothly. We brought it to other designer friends and tried it at some major cons. It was a success and so became our next Kickstarter (it was successful feel free to check it out). 

So my movement mechanic fell by the wayside like projects do. As I started my next design, which we will call Hero, I got stuck. As I looked back through my notes and google docs I found a sketch of eight cards laid out in the shape of a cog. 

 In looking at the sketch my mind tried to figure out the movement of the players around the cards. How would movement be decided, when would people move, and what would the benefit of moving be? What I cam up with is this. There is a deck of movement cards with arrows pointing the direction the markers will move. Also on the movement cards is how many people move when the card is played. The number of players moved could be 1, 2, or all. If it is one only you move. If two people move it is the current player and one player of the current players choice. Obviously if it is all move everyone moves. Finally the benefit of moving is resources. The resources would be used for something to be determined later. How people choose their movement is that there will be four cards turned face up from the movement deck. The player chooses one of the four cards and replaces one of the cards in the circle of eight. The only rule is that you cannot land on a card you are adding to the circle. Once chosen everyone who can move will do so and then collect the resources shown on the card they land on. 

This was my initial mechanic Idea and the start of a long process.

Bill Sininger
Prolific Games

Sketch a week.

With all the art I've been doing lately, I've tried to apply some skill practice in my idle time.  I don't get much idle time, but since I don't smoke anymore, I've replaced my smoke breaks with doodle breaks.

Here are the first two Sketches a Week.

1.  Oh God, the Moon: First one is from a photo I found on a website.  I tweaked the proportions quite a bit, focused on the eyes and distorted the nose a bit more to get what could be the first seconds of a Werewolf transformation.

2.  Sandman: Fans of Fox's Sleepy Hollow, a show I am suprised to say is actually pretty good, will recognize the Sandman.  As a fan of this genre, and a big fan of SciFi's Face Off I really find this character design compelling and yet simple.  I tried to capture the creepy-factor.

3. Sammy: Not a sketch of the week, but my daughter Sam, 6, who loves to draw herself, has been watching me draw the 'smooky' stuff.  She informed me tonight that I need to get her a picture to use for some homework that is due tomorrow.  Mom didn't want to give up any of the cuteness we have on the walls, so when Sam turned to me and asked if I would draw it, I couldn't refuse.  Funny thing is, she doesn't think it looks like her....  and I thought I was hard on myself.

Artists that I hate so good.

Ok.  Lately I've found my self buried to my useless nipples in work and things that require my time.  When I sit down to draw, it can be very hectic, and I find myself adding to the pressure that already exists.   I step away and go revel, yea, lanquish in the creativity of others.

Under;  ART I HATE SO GOOD, I'll share with you the artists, from who I wish I could leech talent.

The range will be wide and today I start with someone in the middle.

Bosnian-British Comicbook artist...

...Adi Granov. 

Call out the name Adi Granov to comic fans and chances are they will strike the Iron Man “three-point pose” – that iconic striking-the-ground pose (featured in Iron Man Vol 3 #76), which was not only immortalised in polystone by Sideshow Collectibles but is also heavily featured in the Iron Man movies and cartoons

The 36-year-old Bosnian’s breakthrough into mainstream comics came in August 2004 when Joe Quesada (Marvel’s then editor-in-chief) announced his arrival as one of Marvel Comics’ “Young Guns” – a group of artists with the qualities that make “a future superstar penciller”




Why I enjoy his work.


Granov's technique unique and his pieces universally speak to me.  His wardrobes are realistic without feeling pathetic.  Alex Ross often attempts the same thing with spandex, but never quite comes so close to real but heroic like Granov.

Granov has also become the Master of machines in his treatments with Tony Stark's armor.

Realistic forms with smooth and slim anatomy. 

Look at the images belo and compare them to the  metal skin versions of the 80's when Iron Man wasn't the premier Marvel hero, he was everyone's favorite Shellhead.

Check out the Iron nipples...  not really inspiring and it doesn't look all that invincible.
 

 

 

More Great art from Adi Granov

Check out these great links for more artwork and some amazing tutorials.

The Art of Adi Granov

PDF tutorial from Adi Granov

Video Tutorial seminar with Adi Granov

Sketch Theater: Adi Granov

Heroes of Ruin timelapse Sketch: Adi Granov

The Joys of Vellum and Colored Pencils

When I was in college, I had several insturctors tell me that I needed to stop using colored pencils...  That, no one made a living with that medium.

Bull.

I've returned to colored pencils with a fury.  Finding new favorite tools in Prismacolor's Col-Erase.  These pencils are awesome.  Not because you can erase them, though that is nice, but because they blend more like graphite pencils.  Traditional colored pencils are waxy and you really have to build up the layers of color, like you would a crayon...  becasue that's all they really are... fine pointed harder crayons. 

Col-Erase pencils blend and shade so nicely.  I now work with a range of 3 similar colors and a black for lining.  I sacrifice colored fingerprints all over my background for gentle and subtle gradations that give my pieces a depth and vibrancy that graphite can not.

I always felt very comfortable with monochromatic mediums like india ink and even sepia oil pastels.  In fact, I would watch as one of the older non-trad students at Longview Community college would craft gorgeous figure studies with that reddish pasty stuff.  To this day, I have little of the skill she used so effortlessly.  These new pencils help though, and I find that i am generally happy with the outcomes.

My advise to school age illustrators...  don't abandon what you are comfortable with...   But also, don't deny yourself new experiences in mediums...  I know my instructors just wanted me to explore.

Take a look.  I will load more of the originals later. 

This is the Vellum I've been working on.

The King of Clubs.

After I get them to this level...  often using several vellums to allow for alternate poses or errors, I scan the images and convert to gray scale.  these will eventually exist on cards and be made to look like sketches on natural parchment.

Back at it. Again.

Hey there.  It's been quite for long enough...  long enough to kill most blogs, but We're back at it...

I'll be heading to GenCon in a few days to be a part of Tasty Minstrel's launch of Dungeon Roll.  A record holding dice game from Kickstarter.

I was fortunate enough to be an Illustrator for the game and I look forward to meeting the fans and interacting with them as a fellow gamer and budding artist.

Im going to light a fire under my compadres as well, since they are all working on things that inspire more than a passing interest.

Check out Dungeon Roll:

Dungeon Roll Kickstarter

Comming up: A look into developing a world for Games

Coming soon, we will start to delve into the work Chad and I are doing together with Rob and Prolific Games to creative a vibrant world in which to house several card and board games.

Collective - John Coltrane "Blue Train"

We all have music in our collections that we can't live without. Music that reminds us of a certain time or place or albums that we hum along to or know every word. Essentials. Must-haves. Desert island picks. Collective will focus on those albums in my music collection.

First up is "Blue Train" by John Coltrane. I know, i know... i can hear some of you now... "but aren't you into Metal? What are you doing talking about jazz? Isn't that for nerds and dentist offices?" I used to feel the same way. I couldn't stand jazz and made fun of those who like it. "That's not music! That's just noise!" (so says the metal head) Anyway, my buddy Chris is a phenomenal musician and a great keyboard player. When we were in college, he was in all of the jazz /big bands. I, on the other hand, auditioned for the beginner jazz band (not knowing how to read music or even "jam" with other musicians) and failed horribly! That audition still haunts me to this very day. I walked in with my wanna-be Strat while every once else had Gibson 335's or other standard jazz guitars. I plugged into the amp and was ready to impress! The teacher set a lead sheet, probably from the Real Book, in front of me and asked if i was ready. I shrugged and he counted off the band. I froze. I had no clue what I was doing, or what the weird symbols on the page meant! Luckily there was chord notation so i could fake it... kind of. The instructor then said to solo. All i knew was a minor pentatonic so i preceded to "play the box". That's right, i just played the scale up and down, over and over again. Needless to say, i packed up my guitar and walked out. I was almost in tears. Stupid jazz!

Later on Chris gave me a copy of "Blue Train". Yes, this album is jazz, but most of the songs are blues based. Great songs with melodies that get stuck in your head. I've found myself humming the tune to the title track multiple times. I remember watching the movie "Singles" and hearing just a bit of the song in a transition between scenes and thought to myself, "hey, i know that song!". This album changed my perception of jazz from being all high and mighty to something which i could relate. From here i went on to discover Miles, Monk, Bill Evans, Dizzy... the list goes on and on. This album took me out of my comfort zone and opened my mind to the concept that there was other great music out there in other genres. Every time i hear these tunes, they remind me of that fateful day when i attempted to be in jazz band. I laugh and shake my head at the though even now!

If you don't own this album, haven't heard it or just hate jazz, i highly suggest you give it a listen and let me know what you think!