Well, I'm happy to report that the game is already at the print shop in Europe, and Dominion is still on schedule!

The rules are available online at the Rio Grande site
http://riograndegames.com/games.html?id=278


And... here's your first chance to see some of the actual game art!


http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/363265



http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/363264


Enjoy!
Dale

Thanks, I've been struggling to view very pixelated images of the cards in the .pdf of the rules, but these are much better!

The cards are bridge-sized, right?

No they will be standard CCG size (same size as RftG)

Dale

Great! I was a bit worried about that, because they look so narrow.

Very nice!

For those who don't know, this is a tremendous boon, because you can easily get card sleeves to protect your cards.

I'm sure a lot people know that, but just in case.

Wonderful card art. I can't wait to get my hands on this game. Keep up the excellent work.

Interesting. The card layout reminds me of Legend of the Five Rings CCG. THanks for the preview.

I noticed that Mike Menzel and Mirko Suzuki are doing art for the game; they are both established board/card game artists.

Do you know what other artists will have work in Dominion?

I think the cost should be brighter. It's kinda dark.

Yes, as you have noticed, we are employing a number of well known artists for the game.

Matthias Catrein is the main artist (and is credited in the rules)
He has been a joy to work with, and I've been extremely impressed with the overall layout and feel of the Dominion graphics/art.

He has done a lot of work on other games such as: Hamburgum, On the Underground and Imperial.

The other artists (who get credit on their individual cards) include:
Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle (Attika, Attribut, Funny Friends)
Julien Delval (Memoir '44, Mystery of the Abbey, Ticket to Ride)
Harald Lieske (In the Year of the Dragon, Ming Dynasty, Lascaux)
Claus Stefan (Race for the Galaxy)
Michael Menzel (Shogun, Pillars of the Earth, Thurn and Taxis)
Christof Tisch (Diamant, Carcassone: The Tower, StreetSoccer)
Ryan Laukat

So as you can see, we've got a great lineup of artists for Dominion!
Dale

That was my first thought too. If it's really that dark on the card (scanners and monitors can lie), that's unfortunate. Ideally it should be as readable as the name of the card if not more.

Black card edges show wear much more quickly.

You sure you wouldn't consider white borders instead?

Yech.

Black borders in KMC gunmetal sleeves are where it's at.

My goodness, yes. There needs to be more contrast -- perhaps a white border around the number.

if the cards are already at the printers I think we're a little late to change them.

I am guessing this was a last minute mistake, as part of changing the bars; the last version of the cards that I saw had slightly brighter bars, and also a brighter coin, which was much easier to read the numbers on.

Having been responsible for uploading the pictures, it could also be the computers... The uploaded pics do seem a bit darker here than what I've seen in previous files, and it may be that when I converted the files from their native .tiff to .bmp for uploading, it may have darkened the graphic somehow.

Dale

The originals are probably in CMYK, and the ones on the site in RGB. Conversion often involves a change of color.

Oh excellent. I didn't consider that, and now that you mention it the actual art is darker too, which I hadn't noticed.

You didn't really convert them to .bmp (as opposed to .jpg or maybe .gif) for uploading, I hope!

I dont know whether or not Rio Grande has any kind of relationship with any sleeve manufacturers, but let me be the first to say that I would LOVE to see some pimped-out Dominion-specific sleeves for the game, purchase-able seperately. Same goes for RftG, fo that matter!!!

Edit: 500 cards arent exactly cheap to sleeve!

Actually, I did. I had to somehow shrink the 12MB pictures down into something that could be uploaded responsibly. I was stuck at work and MSPaint was what I had to work with and only about 5 minutes to take care of the whole thing.

So .bmp it is.

Dale

I didn't notice the dark coin/cost. I was too distracted by the beautiful art! I am adding this to my wishlist right away.