Jason and I have been talking for a while now about what kind of game we would create, if we were going to be game designers.  And it occurred to us that talking about that creative process in an open format might be something other people are interested in.  So that’s the idea.  Every week we’re going to talk about the art, mechanics and business of independent game publishing, pitch a new game idea to each other, and see where it takes us.  That means the listeners can be a part of the creative process as we explore it.

Building the Game Podcast Logo

I thought it might be fun to talk a little bit about the logo I created for the site.  As all of my work does, it started in a sketchbook.  Jason and I had already agreed that we wanted cartoony versions of our heads as a part of it.  So getting a shape and a style down for those came first.  I pretty much filled two pages of my sketchbook with doodles and drawings of our faces.  I eventually got down to this sort of pill-shaped look which I think is silly, fun and easy.

Next came the actual text of the logo.  I like symmetry in a title.  I like letters to line up and fit together.  So I liked the fact that “building” has 8 letters and “game” has 4.  I began drawing a grid at first just to help me keep everything lined up as I was trying different shapes, swoops, cuts and angles.  That would usually have been erased as I refined the design.  But pretty soon it hit me that a grid of squares behind the text actually kind of mimics the impression of a game board.  From there it fell together pretty fast.

Well, not that fast I guess.  It was still a full day’s work to recreate the black and white bones of the design on the computer and re-draw the cartoon faces.  I went through a LOT of fonts to find lettering that looked the way I wanted it to.  It still kinda bugs me that the “E” in “GAME” is spaced away from the “M” so much farther than the “G” is from the “A”.  But having the grid in the background helps to define the space, so it doesn’t really look that out of place.

The next day was spent coloring everything.  I’ve got about 6 layers of color and texture in “GAME” alone.  When the logo is scaled down this small you can’t really see the checkered halftone pattern in it.  That’s more visible on the website.  I’m ok with that.  I meant it to be subtle.  Finally drawing the little game pieces at the bottome was probably the most fun part.  In the end I wanted to keep them white so they didn’t draw the eye away from the main title.  And of course they’re deliberately a little messy with no straight lines.  I didn’t want to just trace a photo perfectly.  This way they have some more character, and fit in well with our heads.

I guess that’s it for today.  Thanks for reading, and I hope you enhoy the show when it launches on June 4th!

Rob

Rob

I’m back in the saddle here.  I apologize for the long hiatus.  We had a rough Fall and Winter with some real bummer stuff keeping me away from fun things like this.  But I’m back in business.  I’ve got a lot of new artwork to post.  And an exciting new project launching at the end of May.  So stay tuned!!!

Rob

Stone Age
Quarriors
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Hey, That’s My Fish!
Paizo GameMastery Faces decks 1 and 2

Plus a bunch of free stickers, lanyards, and random neat stuff.  I also managed to either play or at least see almost everything from my list.  So in addition to being a fun trip, it was exremely successful.  I also met Jerry from Obsidian Portal.  And bumped into Brad Talton, creator of Mystic Empyrean.  He gave me a free preview copy of the new game!  I’m looking forward to reading through it and hopefully doing a playtest.

Tomorrow I’ll be starting a new Ravenloft campaign with some friends.  I think once that first session is done I’ll add a page on here where I can keep track of the maps and things that I design for this and other D&D games I run.

That’s all for today!

Thank goodness it’s almost here.  Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading up on a lot of games and books that I’d like to buy/demo/check out and made a list.  Here’s what I’ve got:

1000 masks book
Asmodee – Claustrophobia
Mage Wars
Glowfly Games Impossible Machine
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Closet Nerd Games - Cambria
Closet Nerd Games – Hibernia
Cryptozoic – Penny Arcade
Cryptozoic – Food Fight
Fantasy Flight – Deadwood
Flying Frog – Fortune and Glory
Hive
Paizo GameMastery Faces deck
Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond box set
Small World
Stone Age
The Downfall of Pompeii
Wizkids – Quarriors
Z-man – The Ares Project
Zombie State Games – Scavengers
Zombies of the World

So I have some goals.  But who knows what’ll actually happen once we get there?!  Damn I love Gencon!!!

I was standing in the shower yesterday trying to wake up.  My wife was at work.  I was all alone.  My new business cards had just arrived from VistaPrint a couple days before:

My Business Card - 2011

This design went through a lot of changes before it got to this.  I wanted it to be striking, but uncomplicated.  Ultimately I settled for working with part of a ph0to I took of a campfire during a camping trip, and combined it with a silhouette of my wife’s eyes, based on a photo taken at a death metal concert.  I’m pretty pleased with the end result.  Still, I couldn’t help but feel like I missed out on doing something more colorful.

So I was standing there in the shower when it hit me.  I’m going to a gaming convention.  I’m going to be passing out cards to people who are in the gaming industry.  My business card should have a game on it.  A complete and playable board game all on one business card.  But could it be done?

I called my buddy Jason, a fellow gamer and Gencon enthusiast, to bounce some ideas off him.  Together we talked our way toward the rock/paper/scissors mechanic.  It’s simple and familiar and easy to communicate in a small space.  Then I got to work.  The end result is what you see here:

The Business Card Board Game

I’m really happy with the finished design.  I tried to make it sort of comic-booky in the lettering and graphic elements, with the gesture symbols hopefully reading clearly despite their size.  The back of the card is devoted to the rules.  It took a lot of careful editing and rewriting to make them fit, but I think it works.  24 hours later, it is complete.

Now I just have to cross my fingers that I can get the cards delivered in time.

-Rob

In the meantime, I helped my friend Jason out by putting together some business cards for him.  Here’s the final design:

Imminent Entertainment Business Card

It’s a pretty simple and clean design.  He really wanted his logo big on the back of the card so it would be really striking.  I suggested that if he was going to do that on the back, maybe he didn’t really need the logo repeated on the front.  Jason agreed, so I came up with an alternative for the title.  I pulled in an element of the logo by using an ink stroke for the background, some really bold cinematic lettering, a heavy dramatic shadow, and a taper to the text which mirrors the taper of the ink.  Of course the most important part of a business card is your contact information.  So I chose a crisp and clear type.

Jason is the director of Atrophy, an independent film project currently in post production.  I’ve done a lot of work for Jason and Atrophy, and you can see examples of that on the site.

That’s all for now.

www.thekmf.com

Now back to my own site. I updated the banner graphic. I have a feeling I’ll be doing that a lot. I also managed to add my Twitter feed over there on the sidebar. I sure am learning a bunch about WordPress. It’s about time I learned something about WordPress. I’m overdue.

Anyway, the next project is to get the photography page situated. Wish me luck.