AuthorTopic: Deck of Cards  (Read 3857 times)

Offline SquidGames

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Deck of Cards

on: February 06, 2017, 05:27:07 pm
First of all I want to say hello, I am new to this Community.

I am currently working on a pixel-style deck of cards and want to hear, what you think about it.
The graphics are mostly done, but I will probably make some improvements here and there. And I am still working on the card-back.

What do you think? Is it worth getting printed? Printing is expensive, and I will probably have do some crowd-funding , if I want to do so.


Offline 32

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #1 on: February 07, 2017, 09:54:07 am
These are really cool, love the ace of spades :o

The main issue for me is the layouts of the weapons for the number cards. I think they need to be consistent with one another and also easy to count at a glance. The shurikens are okay but the other ones are all quite confusing for the larger numbers.

The character chards all have pretty jaggy limbs. I wouldn't be afraid to use some anti aliasing on them.

Offline SquidGames

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #2 on: February 07, 2017, 12:41:18 pm
Thank you for the reply 32!

I am not exactly sure, what you mean with being consistent with one another. Do you mean, that for example the daggers should have the same layout, as the arrows? This would be difficult, due to the different shapes of the weapons. I could force it and give them all a similar shape, to fit them in the  same layout, but I guess that would look weird to.
Or do you mean that the layout of one weapon-type should consistently follow a certain pattern? To be honest, I avoided that on purpose, precisely because they are so hard to count, so you can recognize them by the layout. Otherwise the would all look nearly the same.
Do you have a suggestion, how I can improve it here?

Following your suggestion, I tried the thing with the anti aliasing, but I am not sure if I like it or not. Indeed the limbs look less jaggy now, but it also kinda looks to me, like I just scaled down an originally larger image.

Offline 32

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #3 on: February 07, 2017, 01:42:48 pm
The former. It's definitely a challenge but I think as a deck of cards readability should be your top priority. The "weight" of each card should at least be equal so you can tell immediately what the value is. The spears for example take a up a lot less space so I would not at a glance know that the ten of diamonds had the same value as the ten of hearts.

For anti aliasing you should also be looking at these at the intended real work scale. You may well be better off without any anti aliasing but I would at least be looking to smooth out the lines as best as possible.

Offline SquidGames

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #4 on: February 07, 2017, 02:14:34 pm
To be honest, I think readability is not my top priority, it is primary an art project and I would rather have it good looking than being perfectly readable. When I am playing cards I only read the numbers in the corner anyway. I never count the symbols.

I will definitively smooth out the lines as good as I can. And I am still considering if anti aliasing helps.

Offline 32

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #5 on: February 08, 2017, 01:09:38 am
Well that's my point, you don't want to have to count them to figure out the value. On a traditional deck of cards the layout and the proportion of negative and positive space on the card indicates it's value. Obviously you'll always check the corner value but from a design stand point I think that is important.

Offline Pukahuna

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #6 on: February 08, 2017, 01:44:46 am
That's awesome, I loved the concept, but I agree with the displayment of the weapons, some of them looks strange, like the '8' of swords, the swords on this one are much closer than the others. I also don't like when the icons get too close to the edges

Here are some changes I would make:

Dagger: 4 (daggers too close), 5, 6, 9 and 10 (Rotate the top and bottom ones),
Shuriken: 9 and 10 (I didn't like those ones near the borders)
Sword: 8 (I already said)
Arrow: 8 (Arrows too close)

ps: Sorry for my bad english

ig: @pukahuna

Offline SquidGames

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #7 on: February 08, 2017, 04:11:45 am
I edited the said numbers now, but I think I have redo the 5 and 6 of the daggers, I like the consistency, that they were all facing vertically. and also made some little adjustments to some of the characters (also changed some colors, because some contrasts came out to low at a test-print). And I changed the background Color, because the white details of the heart-king and heart joker were barely to see previously. What do you think of the grey Background? I might have to rework the shuriken colors though.



I also made a cardback, what do you think?



ps: I think your English is way better then mine  ;)

Offline surt

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #8 on: February 08, 2017, 07:12:04 am
If you are going to print them you likely don't want the ace images to touch the edges as they will likely be identifiable on the side of the deck.

Offline rocifier

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Re: Deck of Cards

Reply #9 on: February 08, 2017, 07:16:26 am
well im going to be honest and say I personally don't really like this, although it's a cool idea, and I feel like I should like it.

I think the main reason is that the people aren't super readable and wouldn't be readable at all if you got dealt the card upside-down.

A secondary reason would be the inconsistency of style. I feel like the ace cards are way too different to the other cards. I also feel like the weapons are a but dull and hard to see, especially the shurikans. the cultures are too mixed, you have western and eastern but not 50/50. Also the diamonds are more rotated squares than diamonds, and I don't know what the weapon there is at all.

The balance of all the poses is off. Instead of being royal and awesome to be dealt, the royal cards feel weak and miserable, having no faces, expressions, or strength to support even their own bodies (eg. king of clubs). The contrast with the background is not good enough, especially with the character faces. The J on joker is too big. The club is not a very clear symbol. I would use a different glyph for the number 4 for the same reason of readability.

The card back is really cool, but again is not quite fitting the theme, era, or culture. Finally, I think I agree with other comments about the standard positive/negative space of the more standard cards being nearly as readable as the numbers, and this being important when playing.

You asked for a commercial critique!
« Last Edit: February 08, 2017, 07:19:10 am by rocifier »