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| Layout only, this is not a final card |
The Eve Online board game War For New Eden is up and running on Kickstarter right now.
I thought I'd spend some time today talking about the heart of the upcoming board game - the spaceship cards. (And, obviously the miniatures that go with them) Just like Eve Online itself, spaceships are at the heart of the board game. This is entirely by design and right from the very beginning the spaceships were a top priority for all of us on the development team. In fact, in many ways, development of the card designs led the way in development of the game itself. When I started working with the folks at Titan Forge we really had nothing designed yet - only a concept for the overall game itself.
For example, we had no idea how much information would end up being on each card, or what exactly that information might be. I also knew that we'd have a lot of cards to design. And that each spaceship illustration would take me a certain amount of time, which multiplied by upwards of 30+ spaceship cards - really starts to add up. So it was critical to get the design of the cards established as soon as possible.
Luckily the concept of spaceship cards in Eve Online is something I've spent a lot of time on over the years. Way back in 2014 I spoke with then CCP Manifest and others regarding a potential card game based on Eve Online. I even brought along a rough concept with me to Fanfest in 2015 to show around to get feedback. That game was based around the four empires doing battle, but it eventually evolved into an Alliance Tournament card game. Later on I developed two other card games as well. All of which eventually earned me some nice letters from CCP's legal department. Point being, I had a bit of a head start on this idea.
That is an early design framework I developed in Illustrator based around the fitting window. It was a day one decision to include it in the early concepts and it quickly became the theme around which further development would focus. In fact many of the early design cues came from the fitting window from in-game. It is such an essential part of our lives as players and it already naturally includes a spaceship environment which we've all become accustomed to seeing every day.
I also liked the idea that the fitting window wasn't something already being exploited in other Eve designs. In fact, I don't believe I've ever seen it used outside of the in-game context before. This made it a rather unique design to base the cards around. And also provide the perfect window through which you could see space and also present the spaceship itself in a unique way - popping out of it with a nice drop shadow gives it a very natural 3d feel. Lots of action.
I'm extremely pleased with the spaceship cards as their own thing and I believe they stand on their own as gorgeous art cards that showcase the beauty of Eve's ships on their own merits. This is something that I strived to achieve from day one and I'm happy to see that they managed to survive through all the rounds of evolution and keep that alive. You never know what might happen as the game developed over time and my constant fear was that more and more copy necessary to play the game would kneecap the design. Luckily I wasn't the only person who shared those concerns.
This is just another example of hundreds I could share with you that I found tremendously great about the team at Titan Forge. They wanted the same things I did. They wanted to bring the experience and beauty of Eve Online to the board game as much as I did. And while we may not have always seen eye to eye on every little detail, we did always stay true to that goal. And that is ultimately what was most important.
Just a little peek into the background for you there. I'll be sharing more as time goes on. And, if you haven't already, please consider pledging. Even if it's just so you can get your hands on these cards and those incredible miniatures. It's worth it, just for those.
Fly safe o7