Trust Fund
I have a few words before we get into the meat of today's update, which includes a stretch goal I'm very excited about and a topic that is easily overlooked in board games: graphic design.
As you know, our funding levels have gone up and down a bit—people pledging, then changing their minds, then increasing or decreasing pledges. I have to imagine this will continue to be true throughout the campaign, and it makes for a very bizarre Kicktraq graph:
Where is this one going to end up? I don't think we'll be able to know that for certain until the campaign actually closes. I'm certainly not counting any chickens yet.
But that brings me to my point: some of you are worried that you won't like the project and you'll get something you didn't want, and you're not sure how you'll find out short of spending money and waiting for your package to arrive. I already mentioned in Update #5 that this is not just a big troll. (Though if you think that, hop over to Days of Wonder's Small World 2 campaign and buy their "I Backed a Troll!" T-shirt.) When the campaign is over, we will be charging credit cards, using the money for production and fulfillment, and you will in fact get whichever rewards you pledged for.
I also explained that I would be revealing things on April 1, the last morning of the campaign. However, I was recently informed that Kickstarter's policy is that you can change your pledge level at any time during the campaign, but you cannot remove a pledge if it would drop the campaign below its successful funding goal in the last 24 hours of the campaign. While I certainly hope that I won't lose so many backers on the last day that this would be an issue, I've stated that I'm not interested in tricking anyone into spending money for something they don't actually want. I don't want a single person to say that they meant to pull their pledge on the last day but were unable to because we'd dropped down to $500 and they had less than 24 hours to go when they found out the final contents of the box.
So that means I'll do the reveal on March 31, or maybe even March 30. Obviously it's not as fun as having an announcement on April 1, but that gives you time over the weekend to decide what you think. We'll have to determine which stretch goals are still unlocked based on the final funding numbers.
I hope that puts you at ease. If you're worried that I won't remind you on the weekend or that you'll forget to check the update, then you can also hit that little "remind me" button on the front page of the Kickstarter project, just below the video. If you click that, then Kickstarter will automatically send you a reminder email 48 hours before the project closes, which gives you sufficient time to change your pledge to whatever level you desire! I use it all the time myself for projects I'm not sure about but would like to check again before they close.
Ok, now, on to the exciting stuff!
Stretch Goal: PennyGems Add-on!
PennyGems are one of my favorite game accessories. Dave Howell funded the first batch through Kickstarter last spring, and then ran another successful campaign in the summer for his "Pale Imitation" series that included lighter colors. I first saw them at GameStorm, when Dave was shopping them around and shooting video reactions to them (I show up in the video for the first campaign, among other GameStorm guests). PennyGems are tokens that you can use to replace plastic chips, wood cubes, glass beads, etc. They have a really nice heft to them, they're easy to pick up off a smooth table, and they're slightly grippy so they can stack despite the curved surface.
The secret is that PennyGems are stickers that you put onto pennies—the dome portion is made of a polyurethane coating. It's non-skid and really has a nice feel to it, and the weight of the penny gives it some heft. While I haven't gone the route of using them for every game I play (I have to admit that I still like wooden bits), I do get them out whenever I need counters for keeping score, or to replace cheap plastic bits in certain games, and I think they're terrific.
So I'm really excited to announce this add-on stretch goal: if we reach $10,000 in funding, we will make these custom-designed Emperor's New Clothes PennyGems available as an add-on for any pledge level. Dave got the ROOS formula from Wysiayg Press and ran a test batch for me to see how they would look, and I'm thrilled with the results. Each sheet of PennyGems comes with 80 of the stickers, enough to make 40 tokens, and will be a $20 add-on to your pledge. You'll still get the wooden resource cubes in the set, but this lets you replace them with PennyGems instead. And, of course, you can also use them for any game in which you need counters and tokens.
Dave provides a helpful instruction sheet on the best way to apply the labels, and you'll have to provide your own pennies. If this stretch goal is unlocked, we'll also add one sheet of PennyGems to each box at the Emperor's Parade and Narcissist reward levels.
If you like the PennyGems but would like to have the standard designs rather than the ROOS-printed versions, you can check out the Improbable Objects site for more details. Dave has a lot of different designs and they'll run you $15 per sheet plus shipping.
Meet the Graphic Designers
Graphic design is a bit like editing: you don't notice it unless it's done wrong. When you play a game in which the board makes sense, the cards are easy to read, the iconography is intuitive, then you just think about playing a game. But when you have to stop to look up every single icon, or you can't remember which number is hit points and which one is victory points, or when you simply can't read the text because it's too tiny or in a horrible font—that's when you complain about the graphic design.
But as important as graphic design is to a game, the designers often aren't the ones who get the praise. They'll get a credit in the rulebook but most of the talk about the visuals will likely be focused on the art and illustrations, not the layout and typeface and design. So today I wanted to stop and take a little time to celebrate graphic design in board games, and also introduce the two primary graphic designers for Emperor's New Clothes, Darrell Louder and (surprise!) Heiko Günther. (Cody Jones also contributed some graphic design for the game and the Kickstarter page, but was unavailable for interview.)
Darrell designed Compounded: Better Gaming Through Chemistry, which blasted through its funding goal on Kickstarter earlier this year. He was not only the graphic designer but also the game designer on that one, and I'm really looking forward to playing it. Heiko is the graphic designer behind the Black Box Edition of Glory to Rome, which successfully funded in 2011 and is a fascinating example of redesigning the visuals for an existing game.
I'm delighted to have both Darrell and Heiko on board Emperor's New Clothes. I'd admired Darrell's work on Compounded and got connected to him through Game Salute. Heiko actually reached out to me because he'd seen the project and wanted to offer his insight in the "special needs of playability and striking the right balance between beauty and ease of use." As somebody who backed Glory to Rome based largely on Heiko's visuals, how could I turn that opportunity down? Of course, having two graphic designers on the same project can lead to some conflict, but Darrell and Heiko have been quite professional and we haven't had to break up any fistfights. (It helps that they're in completely different countries, I guess.)
So to draw a little attention to graphic design in board games, I thought I'd let Darrell and Heiko speak for themselves, and I'll refrain from making my own Designer Diary entry for today.
Jonathan: First, tell me about your day job—do you do graphic design for a living, and if so, what types of projects have you worked on?
Darrell: I have been doing Graphic & Web Design for over 12 years, starting with a web hosting company, than Marketing Director with a medical company —after that I went solo and started a freelance company, Get Louder Design. I did that for 2 years, and that is when I first was introduced to the idea of doing graphic design for gaming. Once I did one... I wanted to do more. Thankfully, Game Salute was hiring so I jumped on board. I have done one game with them, thus far, Serpent Stones—but I mainly focus on their web presence as I am their web designer/administrator first and foremost.
The other games I have done, freelance, are:
Compounded, my own game.
DiceAFARI, from Stratus Games.
Off Your Rocker, from Stratus Games.
Paradise Fallen, not yet released.
Pay Dirt, not yet released.
Flummox, not yet released... look for it soon.
VivaJava, just a few of the blend slates.
Lost Dutchman, just the rulebook.
I'm honestly hoping that once I get the new Game Salute website working like the well oiled machine it should be, that I'll return to designing a game or two with Game Salute. It's all the boss' call though.
Heiko: Yep, I do graphic design for a living; mostly, in no particular order, editorial, usability, interface, typeface, web, animation, illustration, exhibition, project, corporate identity and some other kinds of design. I work together with 5 lovely other designers, all of them exceeding my skill and beauty, in the heart of Saarbrücken, a picturesque town in Germany dominated by an Autobahn from the 60ies running right through the middle of it, next to the local recreation areas along the river Saar.
Most recently I have worked with the German TV series production 'Tatort' doing inexplicably technical things, for a company selling touch screens to hospitals, completely reinventing and streamlining their GUI, the identity and exhibition design of the official biannual Saarland county art fair and with Conquistador Games on their games Tomorrow and War Stories. I also offered my services to the Louvre in Paris, to do all of their new CI and communication, but, alas, I live 5 kilometers on the wrong side of the border between Germany and France.
Jonathan: When it comes to board games, what do you feel is the most important aspect of the graphic design?
Darrell: Iconography. The less words on things the better. I realize the irony in this as my game, Compounded, has words on the player tableaus. So I guess it's using words only when absolutely necessary. Nothing is worse than having to consult a rulebook every single time to play a game because the design/symbolism isn't clear.
Heiko: Good graphic design for board games is not too different from good graphic design for anything else.
A good graphic designer shares a lot with a good waiter; he keeps stuff ready for you where and when you need it, cleans away the things you don't want or need to see, handles the flow of information, brings more (and picks the right) alcoholic beverages when the conversation threatens to dwindle and overall amplifies the experience, cleans up and stays out of the way. And it's as simple as that. The perfect husband.
Jonathan: Are there any games (aside from yours) which you feel have excellent graphic design? What about them impresses you?
Darrell: My style is very simplistic. I like the minimalist approach: less is more, you know? So games that have really nice art and simple icons have my heart. Case in point, the design for the Black Box of Glory to Rome is just beautiful–especially when you compare it to the eyesore that was the previous build. I also like the design of Stone Age, and Alien Frontiers... again, simple, clean.
Heiko: No, aside from Darrell's and mine, all boardgames have terrible graphic design. Well, most aren't half bad, some are pretty all right, some even decent and then there's the odd one where the graphic design really stands out.
Take Eclipse for example; Eclipse has almost no art, and the artworks it sports are, while not bad, outright boring and drab (subject to taste, obviously). But the way the (graphic) design on all material and especially the player mats helps you recognize things and keep track of your empire is nigh-perfect.
Bohnanza is another good example; to be true, I really hate the art on that game, but the meter that tells you the value of your current field of beans and its potential value if you add more is executed quite well and simply works.
Kahuna, a two player game relying heavily on a little map of a group of islands, is one of the few games that has a map that actually works no matter which side of the table you are sitting at. It has different symbols on both edges of the board (a fish and a turtle) which are repeated on the cards, in the same relative spots. Each card refers to one island on the map. If you orient the cards on your hand in the same way the map on the table is oriented relative to you, (say you see the turtle on the far end then you would turn the card to have the turtle at the upper edge), the highlighted position of the island on your card always matches up exactly and intuitively with that island's position on the map.
Actually, I could far easier come up with many examples of bad graphic design choices hindering easy flow of gameplay big time. May that be awfully laid out rulebooks, crazy counterintuitive arrangements of obscure symbols to convey core mechanisms of gameplay, excessive dropshadows in silly colours, slight variations of colours meant to mean totally different things, stupid choices of typefaces, gradients that make your brain hurt, ach, the list goes on. What was the question?
Jonathan: Being a graphic designer, is it hard to play a game that you feel has poor design, or do you find that you can compartmentalize that bit of yourself while playing a game? I know that my internal editor cringes whenever I read a card that is misspelled or has punctuation errors, but if the game is fun I try to ignore it.
Darrell: It can be, yeah. I'll play with people that may dislike how the game is played, how mechanics work, etc... then I pipe up with "Yeah, and the colors make no sense. This typography is hideous!" They fall silent and just stare at me. Seriously, it bugs me and does detract from my enjoyment of a game. Case in point, Princes of Florence. A GREAT game, really, but the fonts in that game really reduce my enjoyment of it. I understand the style they were going for, but I think they went a little too gung-ho into it.
Another game is 7 Wonders, I really, REALLY like 7 Wonders. The base game is perfect. Simple, clean design, understandable icons... then came the expansions. This is a game where we need the rulebook out because the icons are so similar, but mean totally different things. I wish they put more thought into the icon designs... to make them more unique and understandable; as they did in the base game.
Heiko: Nah, most of my regular group have OCD either way or have been trained by yours truly in a way to either chime in, ignore my ramblings or stay home from the start.
In either case, if the graphic design is really really really poor, the game, however good its mechanics or the art direction may be, falls mostly flat for me. In the rare case where you find a game with a lot of potential wasted purely through bad graphic design, I just have to redesign it, to make sure it gets played at my table. That's what brought me to doing graphic design for board games initially, redesigning Glory to Rome, just because it really felt like a good game, once you closed your eyes while playing and only admired the witty mechanics.
Jonathan: Part of me feels like a game's specific components, art, or design shouldn't matter because it's really all about the mechanics; the other part of me argues that having great art and design and components is what brings those mechanics to life. How much of a game's appeal do you think lies in the appearance?
Darrell: All of the game's appeal lies in the appearance. All of it. Contrary to popular belief, people DO buy games based on the cover art/design. Gamers are smart; they like their collections to look good. They do like style. Of all the top 100 BGG games, they all look good. I'd be hard pressed to find an ugly game out on the table of a convention... with the exception of the non-black box of Glory to Rome. Yeah, I pick on that game a lot... but have you seen it?!
Heiko: Hah, tricky one. Especially when asking a graphic designer. Short and obvious answer: It depends.
Leaving abstracts and carefully read descriptions of gameplay or reviews aside for a moment, in my world the initial appeal any game has to potential players is mostly appearance. Once the nice pictures have lured you in, and you actually start playing, it's the graphic design's job to keep out of the way and arrange everything where you would look for it, and the art's job to fill in the theme and immerse you. I'm including flavour text and background stories with the art here, since basically it is.
If the making of games is an art in itself, then, very much like movies or audio productions, it is one where seldom a single person can create an artwork all alone; it is one thing to be a good actor, a great director or write a decent script; it is a totally different thing to make a good movie. And to most people, the graphic design is one of the more obscure parts, similar to the cutter in a movie. The best editing you don't even notice.
Wrapping It Up
Thanks again to Darrell and Heiko for making my game look good! Next time you play a game, take a little time to think about the way things are laid out and the iconography, whether things are easy to read and intuitive. If so, thank a graphic designer!
Note: On this day, the PennyGems stretch goal was added to the front page:
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