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by tartarugafeliz

New board design for Card Stories

June 30, 2011 in Card Stories, Game design, Graphic design

Hello my friends! My name is Deborah, I’m the designer of this game that everyone loves so much and I want to share the updates with you.
We have problems with the interface right now. From the playtests made, its clear: the newcomers have trouble understanding the whole concept of the game. With this in mind, brainstorms were made with a lot of good people on the chat (which you’re most welcome to join). It gave a new mockup that presents the game play in a more intuitive and simple way: using the board table concept, like when we are playing in real life. And there’s also a chat, so now we can not only invite our friends and everyone that is online – we can also make fun of the losers! The mockups are ready and now I’m starting to wrap it with design.

I must say, this is not easy task, but I’m having a lot of fun!

I finished the hardest page for the Game Master view! Hurray!
What do you think?

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by blanchard

Priorities for the months to come

May 17, 2011 in Article, Business, Card Stories, Code, Communication, Game design, Graphic design, Project management

Farsides has recently closed a first round of investment, for an amount of 50k€. With the burn rate currently forecast (a little less than 10k€/month), and assuming we  keep this rythm, Farsides funding is already secured until the beginning of Autumn.

For this period, with the objective of having a game up and running, and showing interesting  metrics, in a few months from now, it seems more reasonable to focus on a smaller project than the Humanity Project, one we have been working on for some time already, CardStories. The studio is therefore to switch focus from Humanity Project to CardStories during the coming months.

Humanity Project is not forgotten – time and budget allowing, there is conception work to do in the meantime – like clarifying a bit the game design, the positioning, the overall context and art direction of the game. This would prove useful for the next steps.

Loic, Deborah, Lincoln, Romulo, Rogerio, Laurent and Charles have already started focusing on Card Stories, with Loic contributing a big headstart by developing the version found in the original specifications.

Playtests have also started, and shown that there is still a lot to do. If you want to play a game, don’t hesitate to drop by the chat to play with the development team. If you feel adventurous, you can even try it out on your own there – but beware, the game being in early stages, chances are that you won’t understand how to play. :)

As always – all comments are most welcome.

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by antoviaque

Another reference for HackIt: Day X Exists Game

November 15, 2010 in Game design, HackIt, Inspiration, Storytelling

You’ve probably at least seen the ads for the latest Angelina Jolie’s movie – Salt. While the movie itself is just another traditional blockbuster from Hollywood, Alex Vachon hinted to a side game that was produced to promote the movie – Day X Exists.

While our approach is a little different, the way they structure the missions and set the atmosphere has a lot in common with HackIt – worth having a look and trying a few missions!

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by antoviaque

Ever Heard of Alternate Reality Games?

September 16, 2010 in Game design, HackIt, Inspiration, Storytelling

I promised I would tell you more about HackIt last week, so today I’ll describe another source of inspiration for the game: Alternate Reality Games. You may not have heard about them, but they are now commonly used as a way to advertise large productions, such as TV series, games or movies.

For example, let’s take the ARG made for the Batman movie The Dark Knight. Here is one of the websites involved in the game:

I believe in Harvey DentYou may recognize one of the characters of The Dark Knight, Dent, who campaigns for the District Attorney position in the movie. Everything on the website is made like if Harvey Dent was real, and like if this was his actual campaign website.

So you play on the Web, and it usually involves browsing websites such as that one to find clues. For example, Harvey Dent’s campaign website might include a link to the police department denunciation website:

Gotham City PoliceHere, you could report the Joker’s website… And probably get an answer back from a police officer, right in your (real) email inbox.

Joker's websiteOf course, things in HackIt would be different, and more simple. But this mix between reality and the game is an important source of inspiration, and some elements from the HackIt mission system, currently in development, are inspired from ARGs.

What do you think of the concept?

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by antoviaque

Want to test Card Stories before everyone?

September 3, 2010 in Card Stories, Game design, Graphic design

Deborah has sent her first set of sketches for Card Stories, the first Facebook game that is currently in development. : )

Card sketch

Basically, the game is about trying to guess which card was chosen by one of the players, based on a word or sentence that he said about it.

I’ll put the other sketches in the comments (see link below). Also, she is looking for remarks, especially if you can help to playtest the game yourself! It’s easy, you only need a printer and 2-5 friends. Yes – it’s paper playtesting : )

If you want to give it a try, let me know in the comments, I’ll explain more.

Xavier.

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