Together with Natasja (from Portent fame and blissfully also our graphic designer) we have been hard at work finalizing the layout of the cards, and today we want to walk you through a bunch of the changes we have made to make all information on the cards as easy to understand as possible, so lets dive in.
Old vs New
Lets start off with comparing the design of the cards that were in the Backerkit campaign and showcase how that same card looks now. We will be using Sonja as a Twilight card features all the changes we have made: That is a lot of little changes that overall make a ton of difference! Lets walk through these changes one-by-one and see why we have made them.
Power Icon
This change is rather straightforward. While we loved the design on the banner for each card type, we ultimately wanted a clearer way to indicate what the value in the banner was referring to, which is of course the card's Power. We went through a few iterations trying to preserve the original icons but ultimately had to cut them for clarity. The design of the fist-icon emphasizes that while the animals attack each other, these are non-lethal attacks and no one dies. Having an Icon that represents the game mechanic of Power also allows us to use that icon throughout the manual to make it extra clear what we mean.
Order & Ambush
For similar reasons as with the Power, we always wanted to have icons for the Order and Ambush effects on our cards: They make explaining them easier, help differentiate the effects better, and make referencing them in the rules clearer. While the old icons we had kinda worked, we really wanted a new design that was a better embodiment of their usage. We settled on the design of an open eye for Orders and a closed eye for Ambushes.
Firstly, this design strongly conveys how the effects are played: Orders are played openly and have an immediate effect, while Ambushes are placed closed and need to be activated in later turns. Secondly, during playtests we noticed that sometimes players struggled with this difference and thus chose to help reinforce this concept by having the icons act as little reminders.
With this change we also decided to outline the text to the left, rather than the center, and have the effect be the start of the sentence, rather than displayed as a title. This links the effect name and the effect text closer together and creates a more cohesive textbox.
Set Icon
Last but not least, we are introducing set icons in the bottom right of the page! Because both decks in Hare to the Throne are almost identical, we really wanted to have a way for the players to easily identify which card belongs to which deck, with this neat little icon as a result. The number within the icon still represents the amount of times a card is featured in the deck.
The inspiration of the icons came from two plants that in the Netherlands can only be found in the Biesbosch; the Kingcup and the Club-rush. While it's a small detail that maybe not many people will notice, we really loved how this came together and helps to differentiate the two sets. And who knows, maybe we will see these icons show up in some other places? ;)
We hoped you enjoyed getting a glimpse in the behind-the-scenes of the development of the cards. We are super happy with the progress we are making and as always will keep you posted.
