CCG players learn to easily identify the cards in a game by using each cards unique artwork. It’s not the artwork in itself that’s interesting, as it many times is totally irrelevant for what the card text says. What’s central is the fact that each card has it’s own artwork, and by just seeing the art the player usually knows what’s going to happen, at least the big picture of it, without ever having to re-read the card. Indeed, artwork makes it possible for players to tell what a card does without having to read at all (granted they have read the card and seen it enough times beforehand).

iconic
This process with players memorizing a cards effect by just seeing it’s artwork was dubbed “iconic” by Trevor from LackeyCCG in a topic where we discussed WTactics approach to it’s Event-cards.

resource limitations
WTactics has approx. 120 art pieces. All of these are of creatures, meaning we have the art for many units but no art at all for Event cards. A solution to this is to make the event cards display symbolic graphics. It’s symbolic in the sense that there could be some link between what the card does and what kind of creature it depicts. In the picture to the right you can see a good example of this:

symbolic
The Druid is depicted on 3 different cards, all with their own name, cost and effects. The symbolic meaning of having the druid there is of course the fact that the Druid, as a unit in the game, is not an aggressive warrior. On the contrary, it’s healing, loving and kind. Thus, all three event cards that have the druid on them are of that nature – none of the spells are aggressive, all are caring somehow, etc etc.

problem
If we use the same unit artwork over and over again on different Event cards, then the art can not be used iconic even if it can be used symbolic. Result would be slower gameplay and the need to read cards a lot. For example, imagine we have 10 different Event cards that somehow are connected to the Druid. Whenever a player sees such a card the only thing that differs it from the other 9 is the text – not the artwork. The player can’t identify the card rapidly, which he can properly do in all other CCG:s.

solution
Currently there are only two solutions to this problem (both being temporary until we can replace them with unique art) :

1. Only use each art work only once on the Event cards.
This would work, but has the drawback that we can only have a total of 120 Event cards.

2. Use each work several times, but differentiate it on each card it’s used at.
This is what’s done in the included picture, and at the same time it also makes it easier to see when an Event can be played or not (C = In combat, T = own turn, A = anyones turn). We have red, orange and purple Druids on the only three event cards that will have the Druid on it, as seen in solution 4 on the picture. Yeah, the colours need fine tunining, but the concept seems to be good enough. Or is it?

The result is that by looking on the card art only, the player can use it both iconic and symbolic. If we see a player using a “red druid” then we know what will happen, because there is no other “red druid” in the game.

The limitation of this is that each unit can only be on a total of three differently coloured event cards, but that’s hardly a limitation at all since the units themself are symbolic and can mean anything that can be associated with them. WTactics has so many versatile units that it’s really only up to creativity to set the boundaries for what kind of Event cards can be created or not.

If this solution is used we’ll get a theoretical span of 120 x 3 = 360 Event cards. That, + the 120 unit cards = a game with a total of 480 cards. That’s not bad. At all. Especially for only having unique creature graphics.

1, 2, 3 or 4?
In solution one I only use the differently coloured containers to graphically mark out it’s a different card from the others. While I personally think the cards look great and all, it has a major drawback: The player must view both the coloured container and the artwork, and then combine that info, to derive what card it is. This is iconic, but the icons are two, and they’re even placed on different sides of the card, forcing the eye to move/scan the card. That’s just lousy design which I’d like to avoid.

Solution two is one I like: There we still have the coloured containers (we can see from their colour/letter when the card can be played) and we also have some colour crap behind the artwork. By just looking at the artwork section of the card we can actually start using the artwork as an icon. Mission accomplished. But, and yes, there is always a but – is this really aesthetically appealing? I’m not to sure. I know it has grown on me. First notion is it looks cheap and ill designed. Now I’ve been staring for so long at it I have kind of grown fond of it.

Solution three if probably the one I like the most. It’s the same as solution two but a different graphical approach: Here I’ve coloured the druid itself. Can it be clearer than this? I’m not sure if I like this or the above solution the most. This has it’s own weird appeal. Reminds me of some old-school game I’ve never played and the rpg:s Fallout 1 & 2 for some reason.

Solution four is probably a bad idea for the same reason as solution one is. On top of that, it looks cluttered and makes the text harder to read when you have crap behind it.

Tags: card template