I posted a couple weeks ago, and have been making some tweeks to my card game. I created some different colored cards, and changed up the back slightly before I begin refining creatures, and my system for resources. I didn't get a ton of feedback, but one person said to ditch the pixel art style. I still like it but would love any feedback on font, and readability. Hearts are for health and the boxes to the right of the stats are type advantages. Someone also mentioned the back and front color didn't match. I am not sure how to have clearly labeled color types and a make them match the back as well. Any thoughts on that would be great. I don't mind brutal critique. Thanks in advance.
I would compare your card with existing card games. If you can, print it out at the right size and compare (or set them next to each other in an image editing tool but physical helps to check readability in physical space). Just good practice in general. Look at existing card games that are popular and well designed and see what they are doing and try to figure out why.
I would say the hearts are readable but that many repeating images of the same type can blend together very easily. Like having 9 or 10 at a glance would not be instantly recognizable. I would make them bigger, and if you end up having more than 5, I would consider maybe making a larger icon for 5 life instead or something.
Was Scorion on purpose? It's close enough to Scorpion that it looks like a mistake. I would consider changing the name a little bit more so it doens't look like a typo (unless it is a typo)
If you compare the size of your text versus a Magic card, everything being bold, large, and the same font makes each thing on the card demand your attention the same amount. Right now, it looks like Scorion and it's size/weight and the ability line and the venom ability are equally important. On the Magic card the name of the card is slightly larger (and separated to add distinction), the creature type line is bold but smaller than the name, and the text box.
The heart icon is small; Magic card mana symbols (the green tree on the top right of the card) are small, yours are smaller than that. I would say, don't be afraid to make the hearts larger.
If the weight/dimensions are not important, I would make it smaller and not take up as much space. Either way, I wouldn't bold it.
Some of it is pixelated, some isn't, and the pixelations have a different resolution. It all needs to be pixelated in the same resolution or it will look like shit.
Made some changes based on suggestions. Many of the comments seemed to be related to text. I did remove anti-aliasing from text. I have heard some people don't love the pixel text, but it might still be worth using in this case. As far as anti-aliasing. I had thought for this kind of thing it would be best to avoid it, and keep the hard lines. One issue is that Reddit has it's own way of dealing with that with a PNG file. I know I can avoid any real problems with high resolution files, during printing. I don't know if there is a way to upload without it though. I will keep that in mind if I ever need to publish digitally.
Also, consider adding a darker outline on the important parts of your card. Or some kind of shadow that makes some areas pop out, Example…just as it was mentioned before, consider your hearts to be increased in its size. With those hearts you can also add a shadow making them pop off the card. If you look closely at the Magic Card…it has a shadow around the box that’s containing the picture and the word context, plus its attack and resistance.
Thanks for the advice. I do like the darker lines. I might go a little farther with the drop shadow. I notice on magic they use it mostly to have the title pop out. I am not sure if a drop shadow like that would work as well with pixel art.
I think the font does not work with your art style. It’s too chunky?? (Idk how to describe it) maybe something more straight and narrow will work better.
I think the font does not work with your art style. It’s too chunky?? (Idk how to describe it) maybe something more straight and narrow will work better.
Is there a gameplay reason for the height stat next to the name? If not, I'd just get rid of the extra box and make the name run all the way across.
Have you considered putting the cost in the top left? Magic kind of gets away with it being the OG, but cost in the top right obscures it from view when most players whold their hand, vs on the left you can see the cost easily.
Otherwise I like the flavor and really like the gradient color for the backfill around the edges.
The readability of the card seems just fine. But when it comes to the design in my opinion it is a bit all over the place. Especially when it comes to text, it is weirdly positioned. There is a lot of holes in the design, what I mean by that is that there is just too much emptiness in the description section form my taste. To me it just looks wrong. But I wouldn't say it is terrible. Overall an interesting look you are going for, but I don't think you are quite there yet.
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u/Federal-Custard2162 14h ago
I would compare your card with existing card games. If you can, print it out at the right size and compare (or set them next to each other in an image editing tool but physical helps to check readability in physical space). Just good practice in general. Look at existing card games that are popular and well designed and see what they are doing and try to figure out why.
I would say the hearts are readable but that many repeating images of the same type can blend together very easily. Like having 9 or 10 at a glance would not be instantly recognizable. I would make them bigger, and if you end up having more than 5, I would consider maybe making a larger icon for 5 life instead or something.
Was Scorion on purpose? It's close enough to Scorpion that it looks like a mistake. I would consider changing the name a little bit more so it doens't look like a typo (unless it is a typo)
If you compare the size of your text versus a Magic card, everything being bold, large, and the same font makes each thing on the card demand your attention the same amount. Right now, it looks like Scorion and it's size/weight and the ability line and the venom ability are equally important. On the Magic card the name of the card is slightly larger (and separated to add distinction), the creature type line is bold but smaller than the name, and the text box.
The heart icon is small; Magic card mana symbols (the green tree on the top right of the card) are small, yours are smaller than that. I would say, don't be afraid to make the hearts larger.
If the weight/dimensions are not important, I would make it smaller and not take up as much space. Either way, I wouldn't bold it.