Hello First Pancakes!

How I Heard It Cover - by Nala

My cover design for “How I Heard It” went through a long ideation process. George and I talked at length about what we wanted on the cover, and how to balance our ideas with ensuring the game has shelf presence (being able to stand out on a shelf from all the other products around it) and a unique branding identity (how easily can people see this cover and get an idea of what the game might be about, what vibes playing it might bring, etc.? as well as being a unique image that can be used for marketing) 

He was a fantastic client because he had an idea of what he was looking for already, AND had an ashcan layout already so I could read the game and get more context. The game is centered on the oral tradition of telling stories around a campfire and so we agreed some sort of illustration showing people around a fire was the general direction to go in. The second thing we agreed on was the use of my digital linocut art style—a process that mimics a traditional linocut print, which are created with sharp tools to carve a linoleum (or rubber, or foam, or other material) block that you then make prints of. My art style mimics the look and process of traditional linocuts (also called block printing) while being done using a digital art program (no generative AI was used in the making of this art, or any of my art). 

I'm really happy with the thumbnail we decided to go with. The stylized smoke allowed me to get some REALLY fun shapes in the composition to help with flow, and I really enjoyed the direction I took the 'stick figures' around the fire because they feel personalized and 'different' but still ambiguous enough. I decided on orange and a desaturated teal (plus black) for the color palette to keep it simple while also being a unique color scheme that is more visually interesting to look at than just a black and white cover. 

I also used the same orange for the title and the accent details.I specialize in hand drawn title design and was very excited to get to flex those skills here as well. I can't wait to come up with a completely different design for the special cover, which, unlike this one, will be an actual traditionally-carved linocut print with hand drawn ink details on top, making each print a one of a kind!

Project Recommendation: The Wanderer's Bookshop

My literary heart is happy to recommend yet another book-inspired project, and one that Nala is working on at that! If you want to play the role of a rare book collector, while getting to actually READ books, then this is the game for you! They recently reached the stretch goal at which Nala will be doing the layout for the whole book. Nala's unique digital collage style looks super rad and will be perfect for an eclectic book collecting game like this.

The Wanderer’s Bookshop is a solo* journaling bookshop simulator, guided by tarot cards; you collect stories, read books and find your “white whale”.

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In flame and word,