With the color version of the crown & sword and the castle & battlefield finished, all the illustrations are now complete. Excellent job, Gabrielle. Link to the full collection.
Lords of Scotland Cover Art
Lords of Scotland Artwork
The final version of the artwork for the clan portraits is finished. Kudos to Gabrielle for the excellent illustrations. Link to the full collection.
Updated Play Screen for Straw App
The New
The Old
Lords of Scotland Illustration Project
Introduction
Lords of Scotland is a card game of strategy and battle for the Scottish throne. It is set during the interregnum period of Scottish history about the time of William Wallace. In the game, players assume the role of Scottish lords, competing with each other in a series of skirmishes for the support of the clans. The lord who manages to acquire forty points worth of supporters first wins.
Components
There are 96 playing cards and 1 turn marker card in the game. The game comes with a rules sheet and is packaged in a box large enough to hold approximately two decks of playing cards.
The Project
I need a total of 11 color illustrations for the game, broken down as follows:
A separate portrait for each of 9 Scottish clan chiefs.
A landscape of a battlefield in front of a castle.
An image of a (Scottish) crown
Style
I'm looking for a larger-than-life, comic bookesque style for the illustrations. Something with sharp lines, unblended colors, a degree of body dismorphia (embellishment) and perspective distortion. Think of your typical contemporary comic book cover to something like Batman, Spiderman or Witchblade. It needs to have the attention to detail and color shading of a comic book. But, definitely NOT comic strips or disney.
Reference Material
I have a large collection of images of Scottish lords, clansmen and landscapes that I can provide you. Ultimately, I'm looking for something that closely resembles this reference material but illustrated in the style outlined above. However, in creating the art, depending upon your ambition, we can discuss making alterations to the age, weight and outfits of the clansmen who are portrayed. It would be great to explore a range of characters in the 9 portraits, so that each card tells portrait tells a story. To this end, you will have a lot of leeway to add personality, expression and affectation, if you want to.
Time Frame
We can start as soon as you want and go at whatever pace will be convenient for you. However, I would love to be able to shoot for producing 1 image per week. In each case, you would draw a concept (pencil or pen) image and run it by me. We can then discuss alterations (if any) that are necessary and after we settle on a design, you can go ahead and make the final image. At the beginning of the project, I'll provide you with all the reference material I have and we can discuss the color palette. Then, throughout the project, I'll be there to provide you with any other reference material that you need.
Medium
The tools you use are up to you. But, in the end, I'll need a digital copy of each image with separate black & white and color layers that will fit on a poker size card. The resolution of any digital image should be no less than 600dpi and the layers need to be preserved in a format capable of handling layers (such as a PSD). If you choose to draw (and/or color) the image by hand, then I'll need the original for each image to be drawn on a durable surface, like Bristol board or the equivalent, and I'll need you to scan each image before (and after) you color it. However, if you want to create each image entirely on the computer, as a vector drawing instead (using something like Abobe Illustrator), then a physical copy of the original is not necessary.
Compensation
Tell me what you want for each piece of artwork and we'll figure out the total and payment schedule. You'll also receive credit for the illustrations in all versions of the game that are published.
Grant of Rights
As a work made for hire, Evertide Games will own the copyright.
Straw iPhone App Programming Project
Introduction
Straw is a humorous game about packing objects on top of a camel. Players take turns placing objects they have collected in the bazaar onto the camel's back until someone 'breaks the camel's back'. Hence, the name of the game. Set in the world of Arabian Nights, the game is full of funny objects like monkeys, bags of bricks, flying carpets and genies that either add, subtract or copy weight on the camel. Eventually, someone will have to play more weight than the camel can bear and its back will break. Your goal is to make sure that that someone is not you, unless you can do so with the one and only Straw.
Predecessors
Straw is already a published card game. This iPhone App will attempt to capture the fun and excitement of the card game in a new medium. The App will incorporate existing art assets from the card game as well as the basic game play mechanic. However, it will add animations, a fun user interface, sound effects and a thematic soundtrack for a full sensory experience.
The Project
I need a working iPhone App written in Objective C which runs the game, including:
- A working game engine which loads, tracks and updates the game state
- A random shuffling program
- Touchscreen user interface integration
- Event-based integration with animations, sound effects and soundtracks
- FSM artificial intelligence
- Game results recording and reporting
- Menu screen navigation
- Variable gameplay options
Updates
The immediate goal is to produce a working single player game for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. However, this ecosystem is not static and the game will likely require updates. Some of which are planned. Others which may unforeseeably arise. Planned updates include:
- A full blown iPad version (minor)
- A player matching system integrated with the player's contact list and/or server (major)
- An option for playing against 2,3,5 & 6 players (minor)
- Alternative skins: music, objects and scenery (minor)
I hope to approach the program architecture of the single player version with enough flexibility so that these updates will be easy to implement, but strictly speaking they are not a part of this project. So, we will handle the additional programming of updates separately in the future.
Development Team
As the project's designer and producer, I am your humble servant. It is my job to get you all the elements that you need for the game including the art, layout design, sounds, music and AI specs. There is already a plethora of design documentation available to this effect, but I will be updating it constantly as you need. I will also be coordinating things between you and the other team members. Right now, I have people on board to help with the sound effects and the layout. As I pull together the character design for the camel, I will also be in the process of finding a suitable animator. And, you and I will work on the AI together. Your job will be to 'make it happen' on the screen.
Time Frame
We can start as soon as you want and go at whatever pace will be convenient for you. However, I would love to be able to shoot for publishing the game by the end of August. I will be working simultaneously with Apple to ensure that we don't run into any publication snags… but, of course, they maintain 'approval' rights over all content. So, we will be at their mercy for the final publication date. As a result, I'd like to push to get things does as fast as we can. Given the amount of design and documentation already produced, 'as fast as we can' will largely depend upon your schedule.
Compensation
Tell me what you want for the job and we'll figure out a payment schedule. You'll also receive full programmer credit for your work in the game.
Grant of Rights
As a work made for hire, Evertide Games will own the copyright to the uncompiled program. However, you will be granted full rights to exploit any element of your programming for use in a non-competing product.
Simulating Unforeseeability
My former roommate and I are teaming up right now on a Black Swan game design.
At the moment, it’s a(nother infamous Richard) card game that tries to parody the Survivalist mentality while simulating the collapse of global society as a consequence of the collective exploitation of Earth. I’m not exactly sure whether its supposed to be irreverent at this point or educational…maybe both… but my goal is to build a game where everyone is responsible for the destruction of world, but no one really knows what that catastrophe will be.
So, the game mechanic creates an information exchange where each player has an incentive to know even less about what is going to happen as a result of their desire to accumulate things. As a result, it challenges the players to correctly balance the trade-off between knowledge of the future and having the correct resources for the future… with a gun toting, loot what you need, third option thrown in.
I’m hoping that there is enough depth to make it not only a quick (socially incisive) laugh, but also something that people would genuinely like to play for the strategy.
