Happy (USA) Thanksgiving! (More Art!)
about 7 years ago – Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 12:28:12 AM

So it's just by happenstance that the art produced earlier this month (that is currently ready to be viewed) is all pretty "sad" art - Drought, Poor Harvest, and Sinkhole are all "negative" Action Cards in that they either remove a player's Harvest or outright eliminate carrots from your current stash. Not very "Thanksgiving"-themed art for those of us who are gearing up for next Thursday!

So, to try give more "fun" content during this update, I'm going to let you in on the art direction process that works for A.M. and I while making these pieces.

1) The Description

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As you can see, it doesn't have to be too fancy. A.M. and I have worked together for a long time, so we are pretty much on the same page with what we're expecting to see from an image moving forward. 

In this bit, you'll see that we've established the rules text, a flavor, a setting, which character will be seen, and what the image concept is. Very exciting! Exclamation point!

2) The Rough Sketch

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This is not NEARLY the rough sketch that it could be, y'all. A.M. knows exactly what she's doing here since she developed the art for this world and all the characters within it. Therefore she's already added color and some textures that she would expect to use in the final piece, in order to convey the feeling of the picture better.

3) The Final Piece

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Those colors! Those textures! Those poor carrots! Exclamation point! 

Not much has changed from the rough sketch to this final piece, mostly because nothing needed to! Sometimes we will go back and forth to clean up a composition, to take out or add in elements that either of us think might aid the viewer in interacting with the picture in a better way. 

The purpose of this image is to immediately strike dread in the heart of your opponents - albeit in a fluffy kind of way. Sinkhole is a great card to play on an opponent right before they upgrade (and take over) your Camp or Village, depleting their carrots to a point where they may no longer be able to afford their fancy new settlement.  

I'll be back around the 1st of December ready to show off some more art! I hope you all have a plentiful next couple of weeks, regardless of where you are in the world :)

November is rollin' in! Full Harvests for all!
about 7 years ago – Fri, Nov 03, 2017 at 05:47:54 PM

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween, and got lots of treats - just like Acorn in Full Harvest!

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There's not much to update you on this time around. I just wanted to touch base, show off some new art, and wish you all a lovely early November!

I'll be back around November 15th to continue to keep you updated. :D

New Art Update! And, RVA's Unpub Mini!
about 7 years ago – Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 05:03:52 PM

The most common update from here on out will be card art. I probably won't be able to show off all 82 pieces of card art, plus all the other component art, before we go to print next year, but that doesn't mean I won't try to give you as many spoilers as I can!

Without any further ado, who sneaked into Acorn's kitchen to have a piece of pie?~

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Oh, Cobalt, you greedy bun! :D

Our artist, A.M. Scharf, and I sat down and went through every card one by one after the Kickstarter was over. This is inherently a competitive game, but not all cards are negative cards - some help you Harvest more carrots, for instance, or even gift everybunny carrots! Others are blatantly negative (negating Harvests altogether, etc.) - and then there are cards that are largely neutral, and could be taken either way depending on who's playing them and why.

So this first card was the first we conceptualized, and the first that A.M. worked on! There are 5 Advance cards in the game, and they'll be split - 2 positive images, 2 negative images (such as above), and 1 neutral image. 

I love playing Advance on myself to reach areas of the board that my Movement cards just can't quite get me to - or on my opponent to keep them from upgrading one of my territories! I hope they'll be useful to you in the future, and I look forward to showing off even more art around the beginning of November. 

RVA's Unpub Mini - Saturday, October 28th!

Join me and a whole group of other game designers for our third annual Unpub Mini, located at Battlegrounds Game Store (13172 Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian, VA 23113) in Southside Richmond!

We'll be there from Noon - 7 p.m. showing off our awesome game prototypes. I'll personally be bringing Rabbit Island (of course) and Corruption: Sanctus Malum, a new social deduction game we've been working on. If you're in the area and have the time, definitely check it out!

Facebook Event Link
Event Website Link

And that's it! I hope everyone has a great rest of Halloween Month!  ;)

Green Wins! - and, Action Card Template Update
about 7 years ago – Tue, Oct 03, 2017 at 11:00:12 PM

This update is a few days late, sorry about that! I was trying to get a couple of art elements finished and lost track of time.

Let's get down to it!

You have spoken, and...

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Brown obviously is still a heavy part of the art that will be on the sticker accompanying the meeple & emblem token, but ultimately those wooden components will be green! We hope that there will be some harmony between the two for those of you who appreciate a variety in color options. :)

Okay, let's talk art -

Making card art is one of my VERY favorite things in the whole world - it's the reason I got into the tabletop game industry, and I relish in it. 

Of course, I can't actually draw, but that doesn't stop me from doing everything else - worldbuilding, mood boarding, writing image descriptions, critiquing art as it comes in, etc. etc.

Our artist and I have gone through the first stages of the Action & Movement card art descriptions, but ultimately one of the most important elements when you're talking about card art is size - how do you showcase such a small piece art in a way that works with the game? The card frame itself is an incredibly important element for player interaction, both for legibility and thematic consistency.

In the last couple weeks, we've finally hashed out what our Action Cards are going to look like - check out our....

Action Card Frame Template!

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Sorry about the not-so-great picture quality, as Kickstarter only lets us upload at a certain size, and these are still prototype arts. We're getting there, though, and I hope to have not only definitely-finalized frames, but the beginning of card arts at our mid-month update!

I'm very pleased with the progress we've made so far. Our artist is excellent at time management, and we're on schedule for where I want to be here at the beginning of Halloween Month! I can't wait to show off more arrrrrtttt~ :D

Vote on Acorn's Meeple Color & Print out a Coloring Book Sample Page!
about 7 years ago – Fri, Sep 15, 2017 at 01:05:20 AM

Mid-September is upon us, and with it comes the chance to help us make a design decision, as well as design a few decisions yourself! (That will make sense, I promise)

First thing's first! Rabbit Island is home to four Leaders - Russet is red, Cobalt is blue, Saffron is yellow, and Acorn is...well, that's where you come in! 

We originally made Acorn our brown pawn, to give the game's components a maximum color-blind friendly nature - but now that we have individual meeple designs & art, there's more for color-blind people to rely on than just color.  

This gives us the opportunity to look at Acorn in a new light, and potentially change up our meeple color choice! 

 

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Coloring Book Page Preview!

Now that all of our Rabbit Leaders have art, we also have coloring book samples! Click here or the picture below to access!

 

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If you print'n'color one of these pages, make sure to tag our Twitter or FB page so I can share it too! I'd love to see what your Leaders look like :D

I handed out a whole mess of these at WashingCon 3 this past weekend, where I shared a table with the ever-awesome Stone Circle Games.

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My next gameday event will be RVA's very own UnPub Mini, on October 28th here in southside Richmond, VA. We'll be playtesting a ~*new game*~ (eeeee!) and taking preorders of Rabbit Island (of course). 

Hopefully I'll see some of you there! I hope your September continues to be safe and awesome, and I'll see you around the 1st of October!