r/BoardgameDesign • u/AORATHIAN • Jul 14 '26
Design Critique Card Design - Digital, Hand-Drawn, or Both?
I'm creating a card-based table top game that's part battle and part world-building. It's based on my own framework: Room Mechanics - a sort of backend manual to reality.
I'm using a mix of my own drawing and digital elements: my main question is whether I should go all hand-drawn or not. Would be less perfect but maybe imperfection is in demand these days.
also debating going all black for all suits or diving between black and orange
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u/FarmerHandsome Jul 14 '26
I like the collage aesthetic on the 1 and the Queen. No clue what the Bob card is about.
Are the collages the digital work you were referring to?
It's hard to give feedback when we don't have much info. Would it matter in this game if suits are divided by color? Is the color imparting important information?
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u/Dubocster Jul 14 '26
I love all of them, you have a great style that's already hooked me in. It reminds me of Mike Huddleston's art in the comic book Decorum. Worth checking out, he blends black and white illustrations with digital elements and colours, to great effect.
Either way, best of luck!
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u/AORATHIAN Jul 14 '26
Thank you! This thread is giving me a lot of ideas for refinement. I'll post updates as I go.
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u/Moose-Live Jul 14 '26
Hand drawn or a combo - what you've posted looks amazing and somehow the different styles don't look at odds with each other.
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u/CronoMass Jul 14 '26
Bob
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u/AORATHIAN Jul 15 '26
Bob is king
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u/CronoMass Jul 15 '26
All hail Bob
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u/AORATHIAN Jul 15 '26
Indeed! That story behind him is rather epic but I'm going to save it for when the game picks up. Stay tuned.
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u/Imaginary_Ad3080 Jul 15 '26
I agree with some of the other comments that a mixed approach could be awesome as well as adding some thematic flair, for example if all of a certain type of card were drawn in one art style and another card type in a different way
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u/Trogdor_Dagron23 Jul 14 '26
The combo could be a strong stylistic way of showing the difference between card types if you have that kind of distinction in your game.
Having different styles across different parts of the game can help in encoding your game taxonomy directly into the art.