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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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I had another burst of activity on getting The Things! redesigned so I can lay another project to rest.
I finished the Thing Action Deck, The 'Single' Cards (1000 miles, Bad Blood etc), The 5-6 Player End Game Cards and the Fuse Event. I also got a large, portion of the Outpost Deck done I have just a few more deck 1 cards to sort out and then the missing Thing Cards.
After that I just need to do the Token Sheets, I always wanted a set of tokens to represent each character, as it's easier to move them around that way, tokens for the Blair Saucer, tokens for the 1000 miles to the coast (got a great image set for that one) and a card to represent the Recreation Room where the tokens for all characters not assigned to tasks can be kept.
Here's the pictures of some of the completed stuff.
5-6 Player 'Single' cards.
5-6 Player End Game Cards.
No real change here from the original set, except I added The Things expansion symbol onto them.
The Thing Action Cards (Front and Back)
I was going to put images onto these, but I really liked the way they look as is. So that's it for them.
A Sample of the Outpost Player Cards
You'll notice here I've used red text and the same image for all the suspicion cards and the You Are A Thing card. This is an intentional design decision to try and make it harder for accidental glances to give players information. You spot that picture in a players hand and it's not as clear if they are a thing or not.
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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It's been a while (nearly a month) since I finished The Thing. I've had quite a few games with my rendition of it and overall I'm pleased. Although if I had the time and resources I'd redo the decks again in standard card size in order to change the design of of the cards and upload them to Artscow. I've had some great ideas about the graphical redesign.
However, can't look back. Can only press forward, and I'm pleased to say that I'm working on The Things in my spare time. No ETA at this stage, but I do have a couple of examples of where I am at this stage.
I've completed the extra Act 2 Encounter Card:
I've started work on the three extra cards that alter the rules for 5-6 Players. Here's a WIP:
I figured it's interesting to post up a WIP because this one shows the skeleton that the Encounter/Act cards are built on at the bottom and also shows a partially constructed Bad Blood card as well.
I've also done the text for the Outpost 1 Deck, I just need to sort out the images.
The main difficulty I'm having is keeping track of the cards I have designed vs the ones I haven't. I'm having to work from the Artscow page and the player cards are scattered around the page in no particular order. With the previous work I could cut and paste from a text file that contained all the card text, no such shortcut here.
You'll notice that I've put a little thing head icon on the cards, I decided to do this to allow for ease of identification between the main game and the expansion. It doesn't really have any mechanical benefits, but I like the way it turned out.
Things are also slow because I'm working on a design of a semi-cooperative/semi-competitive zombie survival card game at the same time, I've almost finished the black and white roughs and I'm tempted to start a blog about the design of the game. In fact I will do if there is enough interest.
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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The proof is in the pudding, or so they say - Printing out and assembling the cards took a while, but thanks to some FFG Sleeves the game is ready to go!
Here's a look at the bits:
The Task, Blair-Saucer and Tool Shed Cards
I realised that the Blair Saucer has no memory from one turn to the next, so the 3 success boxes are redundant, I like them, but they need to go. I'm also tempted to change the card wording for the acts and cards that put themselves on the Blair-saucer to instead say 'add a token'. But I think instead I'll just supply construction tokens that can be used instead of the cards.
The task cards could have been 30% smaller, I might still shrink them before going to final upload.
Here's the Tool Shed and the Saucer in action.
The Characters:
All printed out and ready to get assimilated.
The Outpost Decks
I made a serious error here and accidentally labelled Outpost deck 2 as Outpost Deck 1. I've fixed it in the design now, but I'm going to have to live with the incorrect back for a while.
The Three Act Decks:
I really like the oversized act cards, the spaces for the successes - which are those white numbered boxes - fit dice perfectly. I've also managed to make the backs for acts 2 and 3 identical, something Mark mentions in the rules that he wasn't able to sort out due to the limitations of his design tool.
The Destruction and Burn/Wait and See Cards:
Last of all, here it is set up and ready to go with dice and temporary tokens!
Now I just need some players!
File Upload to BGG:
For those of you who are waiting for an upload, it'll be a little while yet. There are quite a few typos I need to sort out along with a few layout errors, clarify some wording here or there and the like, plus I need to take a break from the design to get some distance so I can figure out what else needs to be done to finalise things.
Then I have to figure out how to set up the pdf so it can be printed.
I'm hoping to get it closed out and up by the end of next week at the latest, but before then I'm hoping to get a couple of games in.
Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:04 pm
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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As I type this, the first draft of the cards is complete and I've been back to correct the odd layout error - at least the ones I could spot on screen. As a consequence I've taken the plunge and started printing out the cards.
The first 'good news' part is that the cards are exactly the size I was aiming for, they fit inside the FFG 'Euro' sleeves.
The second part of the good news is that the cards look pretty good, at least the ones I've printed out so far do - I'm not even printing them at the highest quality my printer can manage and they're very crisp - a couple of the cards have rather dark backgrounds, but that works in my favour as the text is white or red.
The third scoring point is in original format at least, the cards print off dead center of the page, which means double sided printing is an option (though not for me, as I'm using single sided linen finish for the test printing, decided to take the plunge on the paper quality and trust my design - paid off!)
Of course, one potential issue is colour blindness, I can't check to see if that's a genuine problem, but I have tried to avoid red and green in the design.
I have a set of tokens to design and print out along with a Recreation Room card to keep them in when they're not at a task, but they're not essential to seeing the practicalities of playing with this set.
For those of you looking to see a few images, here are the other deck designs that I ended up settling on:
Act 1 - Deck (part)
The Act/Encounter Cards are larger than ordinary playing cards, there's a lot of text on them and this way it's easy to place tokens on the cards.
Outpost 1 Deck - Front
Outpost 1 Deck - Back
Outpost 3 Deck - Front
Outpost 3 Deck - Back
I really love the look of the Outpost 3 deck and the two newer Outpost Decks came out well enough that I went back and revised the Outpost 2 Deck a little to match up with them.
I've rather enjoyed doing this and being so close to the first finish point of the project is a pleasure. (I won't be able to work on The Things at this point as I don't have the text of the cards.) Soon I'll have to figure out how to turn everything into pdf(s) so I can upload it to BGG.
I've learnt quite a bit, and while the designs I've used are simplistic I've experimented a little and I'm considering doing a more complicated redesign of Utopian Rummy next (in English and German).
Still, need to get this finished first!
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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I've been semi productive over the past day and a bit. But I did have some time to get a few more parts sorted.
I returned to 'The Thing' decks first of all, I wasn't happy with the design I used, I wanted something that tied them all in together a bit better. A little work and I ended up with these designs.
Using The Thing's title logo I think works very well, I'm not sure if I'll splash it across to all of the other deck backs, but I'm happy with it used on The Thing decks and on the next deck.
The End Game Deck:
I've always liked that distance shot of the outpost in The Thing, so I was happy to fit it in, it's not exactly accurate, the end of the film takes place in a far darker and more claustrophobic environment, but short of getting my hands on a blu ray copy of the film and cribbing for screens it's not going to be possible to get something closer. On the other hand it does make the place look bleak and lifeless.
Here I'm not so happy with the images, I like the simplistic layout and the shift in orientation, but I don't have any good screens of the outpost burning or the final 'wait and see' scene. However they are very visually distinct and it's not hard to see what they represent.
Destruction Cards:
I only have the back ready for a peak here.
The problem with the front is finding good quality high resolution pictures of the caterpillar/bulldozer and the helicopter - as a consequence I just have stand in images at the moment. I am also thinking that I should really then place the same images onto the Tasks to tie them together, something I was considering earlier anyway. Perhaps onto the back of the task cards, there's room there.
Finally comes my favourite, the one off cards - Tool Shed, Blair-Saucer and The Thing Attacks.
I had a good think about what to do with the Tool Shed and the Saucer as they both have a mechanic where one or more cards is placed under them. As I had already set the standard for oversized task cards I figured that I could continue it here, this meant that I could also create a space on the cards to store anything played there while also making the cards a bit of a feature themselves.
The tool shed was a bit of a tricky item to create, I didn't have any good images again (bane of my existence!) So I had to keep the picture small, a bit of framing work and
The Thing Attacks card is somewhat "placeholder" I'm not convinced this will be the final design, but I do quite like it - it's a busy text card and keeping it simple helps with the reading. We'll see, it's not bad as it stands, but not really "Thingy".
So that's it at the moment, I have the following decks left to design:
- Encounter Deck - Acts 1, 2 and 3
- Outpost Deck 1 + 3 (with a possible revision on Outpost Deck 2 if I come up with a design that ties them together)
- Cards for The Things (If I do it at this time.) - they would be a separate set of files regardless to allow them to be uploaded to The Things rather than The Thing.
I'm not sure if I'm going to do the cards for 'The Things' at this stage, I'd like to, but I don't have the text for them and seperating them from the scan set uploaded is a little too much effort for me. Maybe someone has a deck of 'The Things' they could lend me for a week or two?
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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I had a spare thirty minutes this morning before heading out to the local games day so I decided to get the Task cards completed.
As these are cards that will sit in play throughout the game and don't need to be randomised I figured I could make them a bit larger. I also wanted to have a very simple design on these, I considered adding pictures but figured that the design worked just fine without them this time.
Here's the current draft, I don't have any revisions planned.
Front
Back
Remaining Task
The spaces on the card underneath the title are for placing success tokens, then the idea is once the task is completed it is to be flipped over for easy reference that it's done and what it now does. Hopefully there's nothing mechanical about the game that will limit that.
I'm going to create success tokens that will fill the spaces for those people who prefer to print them out (rather than using tokens they already have).
The rest of the cards are designed to be sleeved, these ones would be mounted or laminated instead. The larger card size isn't a storage issue for me as I plan to put them into a reasonable size box anyway.
I'm very much open to input on stuff like this, how do people feel about such a stark design? I do rather like the stills used on the other designs I've seen (including Mark's) but I'm a little bit in love with the jigsaw ice backdrop used here and I would have to work hard at the layout to fit in a picture.
Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:34 am
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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This was supposed to be The Thing Deck #1, but at the 90% Competion stage I noticed/remembered that FHN1's low ink version erroneously has Act 3# in place of Act#1. Just as well I caught it before moving to a semi-final version!
This will be my last post for the day, as I move back into design work elsewhere for a little while and mull over what deck(s) to do next.
I'm rather pleased with the look of the Thing Deck, I wanted something darker and more organic looking that had elements in common with the rest of the cards but stood out as a seperate entity. I think I've managed that here.
The blood stain worked in particular, I have a few other brushes I'll be able to use to vary the type of blood on decks 1 + 2 when I do them as well.
The back of the card is a little bland at this stage, I may put a logo, picture or design on it. On the other hand, the simplicity of the design matches the simplicity of the Thing cards themselves.
This last image illustrates one issue I'm having, Mark has designed the game with decks that are in tens, but when you put cards on A4 paper (and the like) a 3x3 layout is required. As a consequence you end up with cards left over that either have to go on a separate sheet or on a 'mixed sheet' containing multiple different designs. The upside down card back is a time saving design for people who want to cut it out and then fold rather than cut - unfortunately it doesn't work as well on the 3x3 grid.
Mark - make your decks divisable by nine not ten in the future, it's easier to PNP!  
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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I must admit, I have a somewhat haphazard way of putting things together, logically I should have moved onto Outpost Deck 1, or Act Deck 1 or similar. But instead I decided to do Outpost Deck 2.
This is the deck I'm the least happy with and ironically it's the one which took the longest to put together. Note: I'm looking to vary my style with each deck, keeping certain elements to tie together the Outpost, Thing and Act decks but making each one distinct within itself.
The first draft of Outpost two looks as follows:
Front:
(I'm very happy with the solution I found to red text on a blue background, it also helps mechanically distinguish the 'Play Immediately' cards from the rest.)
Back:
The front is OK, it's serviceable and it will do until I figure out what it is I feel is missing from the design. But, I found the back rather bland as well as distracting the eye too much and revised it as follows:
It's better, but it's not perfect, I'm thinking I need to stain/rust these cards in some fashion to make them more interesting. But I'll come back to that in the final stages.
(Click on the images to see larger versions).
I am also finding some difficulties in keeping track of what cards are supposed to be in what deck. The simple/ink light version by helps, but it's not 100% accurate, likewise the scans by
Mohit Goel
India
Mumbai
Maharashtra
also help, but they're a little confusing to navigate at times.
My main concern is managing to keep the cards from The Things separate on the print sheets from The Thing, but I'm not sure that's going to be possible. We'll have to see, it's hard work without an actual copy of the game to crib from. 
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fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
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I rather like Mark Chaplin's card games. I find Aliens: This Time It's War to be an enjoyable two player game with solid tactical and strategic play. Plus it's a pretty quick game to play that (acid) drips with the theme of the film.
His follow up 'film treatment' game The Thing and it's expansion The Things is another great game, but seeing how it won 'best print and play 2011' here on BGG I guess that's not really news to anyone.
One thing that has hampered my ability to play is gaining access to the cards. My lovely wife is a little sensitive to card design, she refuses to play Glory to Rome a lot of the time because the card art does not appeal and I had a similar problem with getting Aliens onto the table. I'm not complaining, I see her point, especially as where The Thing's cards are concerned the file upload isn't the best quality.
So I played a little with the text only version and I rather liked what I saw, especially when The Things was added in. However as a PNPer I didn't want to get the Artscow decks and as a consequence I decided to work on a redesign that would appeal as an alternative.
The first thing I went to work on were the Character cards. There are 15 characters in total, plus backs, so it's one of the shortest sections to complete. It would also be a chance for me to dust off my graphic design skills in preparation for another project while also seeing what I could manage with a few simple textures.
I had a few objectives, I wanted a cold, decaying, metallic look to the player cards and an organic, dirty look to the Thing player's cards. There's fortunately not a lot of information on Mark's designs, he's rather elegant with his cards, so I would have room to create boarders and resize the cards to Euro size (Saving a little printer ink in the long run) as it is the card size I prefer.
Here's what I've ended up with.
I'm rather pleased with these, although a lot of the credit must go to the texture, which fortunately lent itself well to the design thanks to the colour, screws and the plate line divide. I hardly had to retouch it at all and could concentrate on layout instead.
I tried a few fonts and decided in the end that Mark's choice was the best, especially now that the text is 'painted' onto the metal.
It's a pretty simple design and didn't take that long to sort out but sometimes things just work first try.
I had more difficulty when I started to work on the outpost decks...
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