Shamelessy copied from https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainbow6/comments/83y5rm/do_you_guys_liek_my_champion_suggestion_i_think/
The "Loud voice" icon is also shamelessy taken from http://game-icons.net/lorc/originals/sonic-shout.html
What about five objects that are laid out as the dots on a dice? You still don't count them, but know how many these are.
I guess this might be, because of an immediate visual association - where the learned (dice) layout itself stands for five without counting the dots.
For any custom game creators, there's a whole website of free-to-use, easily-customizable icons for games. A really popular roguelike, ToME 4 incorporates them for basically everything. With some uniform colours for ability trees (green for support, red for damage, etc.) and maybe some gradient shading for style, you can convey a lot of information.
Might be too basic for items, though.
This is the first I have told anyone about this, but if you use a computer or tablet while GMing, I made an online program that works like Rory's Story Cubes. It pulls from thousands of images at game-icons.net though. Here is the link: nathanhare.net/rpg/storygen
edit: Typo
As described in this introduction post a few months ago, the lorc collection is available on game-icons.net
Advantages over the old pack you mentionned :
To come : a live editor to tweak size, rotation, blur, shadow and colors directly in the browser!
Cheers
This is very cool. You should post it to r/boardgames.
It says that you need to pass out role cards - do you have a pdf of those? I think it'd be easier to learn the rules by looking at role cards with images and ability text for each character. You could use this website to add images to cards if you don't have any. http://game-icons.net/
This has been a pretty good week for design. With two days off from work in a row, I was able to hunker down and crank out the initial design docs for my new mammoth game. I've been using the icons from http://game-icons.net/, which has over 1000 icons, for the different resources - food, tools, wounds, points and mammoth strength. I'm looking forward to testing it this Thursday with the local game design group.
I found a really neat way to make a game board for prototyping too. I have these dry erase posters that I got back in college. They had adhesive backs, so I'm going to take a board from a thrift store game and stick the dry erase board to it. Bam - instant dry erase folding game board. Since the game is partially a dexterity game that has players flicking cubes onto the board, the board design is probably going to go through many iterations.
Wow, that looks incredibly detailed, definitely very useful. As for feedback and suggestions:
1. The first map looks a bit blurry, I prefer the second one, more details are noticeable.
2. The Legends section looks pretty good.
3. Try color coding each area uniquely. If the background is dark, the colors need to be bright to make it easier to read and the text/legends need to be dark to contrast with the zone's color. If you use a light background, the zone colors should be dark and the text/legend should be in light colors. Its a Power Point trick that helps visibility immensely. And with unique background colors and with a legend for those, you can find the zone you are looking for at a glance.
4. The map looks really visually busy, this can be solved with an added table after the map. Separate items by category (weapons, consumables, sanctuary offerings, etc) and each category gets a unique color. List each item in the category alphabetically and give them a unique ID (consumables might occupy ids 1-10, which mean weapon IDs would start at 11). Use brackets to express quantity, for example, 15 can indicate a Kureimoa and 23[10] means 10 Waters of Blessing. Use < and > to indicate a Mimku, such as <147> indicating the Aristocrat's Set guarded by the Mimku. Now players can see the info much more easily.
5. Please make some legends for NPCs as well and quest stages, such as "Thief (stage 3)" using the previously mentioned system.
6- Use a paired colored key and lock to indicate switched and what they unlock, as well as keys and doors.
7- You could use a dotted out door to indicate secret passages ( for example: http://game-icons.net/icons/delapouite/originals/svg/secret-door.svg)
8- Use the Redshift icon to indicate that type of barrier.
Hope that helps. This could easily become the single most useful resource for a Salt player, can't wait to see the next iteration :)
If Photoshop is your comfort zone you can make it in there for sure. Other software is better suited for it once you learn the software though. heck, I made mine in Word because that's my comfort zone.
also, a plug to game-icons.net because they have a lot of great icons.
Try to draw it out on paper before getting all technical. And just make the sheet you want to play on.
As a quick note, add two spaces after your links in order to create a line break for your headings.
Another good resource for icons is http://game-icons.net/.
The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design is a solid repository of advice for designers.
Also, this is a bit specific to me and won't have the same impact for every designer, but this was the single most important piece of advice I've ever read regarding game design: http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/11885/you-have-have-guts-ask-question
The single biggest issue I had with designing when I started is that I would solve design problems by adding new rules to cover any edge cases that came up. "This thing is exploitable? Let's add a new mechanic that fixes that." "This part is confusing? Let's add another system that helps the player better understand the existing system." There was some amount of give and take, but it largely just boiled down to bloated designs. Ever since I started designing with the philosophy that no rule is sacred in mind, I became a much more competent designer basically overnight.
Glad you like it! Part of the motivation was that one of my nephews has dyslexia, so I really wanted a way to simplify the sheets and pulled from http://game-icons.net (a great free resource) for each of the attributes.
Also I stripped away a lot of the setup. No race-based bonuses, no class feats, etc. Basically just gave them a choice between "sword guy" and "magic guy"
It worked out great!
Just a few notes on these:
Let me know what you think :)
> That's just it you don't need to be a great programmer. 3 months of experience is enough.
You don't need to be a great artist either - you do need to choose something appropriate to your level of skill either way (for coder-art that could mean a simple abstract theme for example). You can make decent simple art with <=3 months of practice + some free assets available online (e.g.)
There are a few resources out there for royalty-free (sometimes for attribution) or public domain images. Game-icons.net is a good one, and there are a handful of other ones out there. If you want to be on the safe side, I'd swap over to these.
That said, I'm not a publisher so I really don't know. The copyright enforcement around Microsoft clipart appears to be vague at best. Based on that reading (and I'm definitely not a lawyer), it would appear as though your usage would fall on the 'ok' side of their terms of service (as long as they're attributed), but again, I really don't know.
It doesn't seem like it's a huge risk to use the clip-art, but if you want, you can play it super safe and just use royalty free/public domain images and be 100% sure.
Amrita
I haven't quite made it to a v0.1.release, but I'm almost there. I have 3 issues left on my list that I need to address, then another 3 that I'll probably quickly address as a follow-up. I'll be strapped for time next week, but I should be able to cut a release within the next two weeks.
Unfortunately it will be until v0.2 where the game really becomes accessible. The next release will make things look nicer, and add mouse support, but it's still lacking gameplay animations that are needed to understand what's happening in combat. But that will be most of my focus once I get there.
As for a longer running goal I've started thinking about how I want to improve the potion brewing mechanics and think I have come up with a system that will fare better in terms of providing depth and accessibility. The core ideas will be similar, you will add reagents to potions to modify their effects, but I'm going to adjust the rules that govern how it all works; something I'll write more about once it's implemented and working.
The new idea does have one requirement though; icons to represent the effects a potion or reagent will have. So I've gotten started at drawing some SVG icons I can use in the game to represent effects. So far we have heal, damage, poison, and antidote done. For a few of the icons I may turn to http://game-icons.net/ to save time (and because they look good).
I know that a lot of the Aspect icons came from vector clipart that's available under Creative Commons, though I didn't realize that until I saw them used in a different video game.
Creator here: This map was done as a challenge to myself, as I set a goal for myself to finish it in a single night after I got off of work. This took me about four hours, which is the quickest I have ever finished a map. My process was to outline in Inkscape a map that I had sketched during a work meeting and then take it into GIMP for colors. I am still learning both GIMP and Inkscape, so if anyone has tips or tricks for either program I would love to hear them! Regarding the icons, I wanted to try a map that wasn't covered in labels but was still understandable and usable. All the icons are from the people at http://game-icons.net/ who have so many free awesome icons that are released under a Creative Commons - Attribution license. The font is Lora from Google's OpenFont project. Please feel free to give comments and criticisms, I am always looking to improve. So let me know what works and what doesn't! This map is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You can share it, change it, use it commercially, as long as you credit me. Please let me know if you use it, I would be excited to see what you do with it!
What I would do (if I were trying to think of things here) would be to look over a list of mundane magic effects. Slyflourish has a nice list here (click "reroll" to generate a new list etc)...
http://slyflourish.com/random_mundane_magic_item_generator.html
You could also pair this with something like this site of game icons to also inspire new ideas and/or give you visuals to use as ideas for the tattoos themselves...
I used Unicode chess symbols, but eh, it doesn't look that good. You can probably find what you want on http://game-icons.net/, for example check out the building and place list.
They should add a hero who melees by slapping. Backhand. And it makes a crisp slapping sound when you melee people. The kill feed icon would be something like this.
There is a game called WitchWood. They use a fair few physreps for resource gathering and recipe construction, which seems to be a large part of game play. At NELCO 2015, their demo table had all kinds of physreps for reagents, potions, etc. You should contact them and ask more detailed questions.
As a fan of the board game Caverna, a mix of wood blocks and acrylic gems, both painted and unpainted would probably grab my attention immediately. Grab a 2x2 board and a saw. You'll have all the wood blocks you need. Come to think of it, I have some spare 2x2 boards... Hmmm. Now I'm tempted. A pyrography kit and some simple icons, say from LORCs RPG Icons, might make some interesting 'resources'.
Not exactly a plugin, but game-icons.net is great.
Smart Localization is free, easy to use, and works wonderfully.
It looks like all the icons are from http://game-icons.net/ (which is a really fantastic site that I can't shower enough praise upon). Not sure if he made the backgrounds or got them from somewhere else.
If you're looking to use something that's already made, here's a link to one that I think is pretty good.
http://game-icons.net/delapouite/originals/backgammon.html
If you're looking for something to make, I think would be a cool if you had a pip layout on the outside of your suitcase and you could fill it up with pieces that are collected from tournaments / places you go to. Kind of like a 50 states quarter card or pokemon badge collection.
The icons are not mine - they are taken from the excellent game-icons.net site, which offers them for free with a very permissive license. You can search for specific ones there, or just download a huge image with them all.
Hey everyone! Keeping track of the buffs you give out with flowers can get confusing, so I made small tokens that you can hand to players you grow flowers on.
LINK - Orchard Origin Flower Tokens.
The image will be a little blurry if you zoom in, but it should print fine. The flower image I used can be found here
I actually programmed a little software(using icons from http://game-icons.net/) for playtesting, because I didn't have dice at home and I really enjoy the distribution of symbols among the dice so I might reuse them in other project.
Check out http://game-icons.net/, I used it quite a lot for game development and they have some quality icons on there that are constantly being updated. It's not necessarily tailored towards web development, but you could probably find some nice icons to use.
>I have had a lot of people glance over it and just ignore it based on looks
This is solvable, there are tons of free resources online to create prototype cards that don't look completely ass. I use the hell out of http://game-icons.net/ when creating prototypes.
As for the rest of the stuff:
I suggest you do some research on playtesting methods, there are lots of solutions that will help you get as accurate feedback as you can, as a hint it isn't just about what they say, write down what they do, their reactions to certain points in the game, etc. You also don't have to tell them that it is your game.
Look up some articles, it will help you out a ton.
Aesthetics is more than visual elements. It includes language choice, tone, style and even the way your mechanics relate to players. You should feel free to think about aesthetics from day one, and, with some examination, you might find you've already instilled some aesthetic elements.
If you want a wrapper around it while you work, you can get some graphics to work as standins at http://game-icons.net/ and http://freepik.com/
You can do custom icons if you want to dig into the config, but otherwise there's not a way to write text on the button itself. It will show the keybind assigned to that spot, and if you give the slots a title, that will appear above the radial menu as you hover over the slots.
game-icons.net would be a good source for custom icons if you wanted to go that route. All you need to do with custom icons is put them in a folder inside the game's folder called ~~customicons~~ touchmenuicons, and then they will appear at the top of the default Steam icons when you go to add them to the radial menu slots.
Edit: URL was right, new folder for custom icons was not :)
I'm gonna see if I can lobby Valve to just include a dump of Game-Icons.net with the steam client itself :)
I'll start playing with my own custom icons ASAP. This is super cool.
Hi Leron, I built it out using Adobe InDesign, but I used a lot of vector artwork and Photoshop work to assemble the artwork assets. One good resource for icons is http://game-icons.net/ . I highly recommend them and they only ask that you credit them in your final product.
Where to get pre-set clan logos to start with, if you don't have the time to check each icon personally
For clan icons, you can introduce something similar to the UT2004-style clan icon bank. I think http://game-icons.net has a list of simple, two-toned, yet awesome vector icons for different projects, available under a Creative Commons Attibution License (commercial ok). These will work incredibly well on clan banners.
_
These will allow you to make a clan banner of your own (something like Bronze/Silver/Gold/Diamond tier banners, but for clans).
Make it possible to choose icon, icon color, banner type (shape, material), banner color, various graphical effects (like scratches, easily overlayed over vector), possibly banner borders (like nameplates, but for banners) and any animation like sparkling -- and there you go. Tens of thousands of variations, and the symbol database above looks good enough to be put into the game pretty much without any changes.
There are programs out there to help make cards. Card Maker (https://www.nhmk.com/tools.php) is one, Squib is another is you know/want to learn Ruby, I'm pretty sure Inkscape has some plugins to help with that, and I think there are others I'm forgetting. For art, you can either try to pull stuff from the internet, or just use icons for everything - regardless, you'll probably want icons for something, and you can get a lot of those at http://game-icons.net/.
Regarding actually making a game where the gameplay is enjoyable, well... That's not necessarily simple. Make a version, playtest it, change it, playtest it, change it... Rinse and repeat. Playtest it with multiple groups, too, to make sure there aren't bad/broken elements that your default group just ignores. Really, it depends on how much time you want to sink into it. Keep in mind that this may not be a short process if you want to get a good game out of it. Are you sure there isn't an existing game that you could use for your research?
This is a great sheet and I am taking it to use haha. It would be great for new players who find the regular sheet a little overwhelming.
As for people's comments on the icons, I personally like them, but here is a great site that might have some alternative for you:
Any chance you have a PDF of this btw?
Just a sheet I made up when I couldn't find the exact thing I needed having 7 players and throwing in some variant stuff. Due to this, it may not be entirely useful to anyone, but if you are using the FR factions and some version of the Honor rules, feel free to use at your pleasure. The icons are from the wonderful http://game-icons.net/.
Thanks.
TL;DR: I can lead a small project. Support needed for graphics, sound and music. I'll do the coding. It'll be a browser game.
Idea: I saw the awesome icon collection in game-icons.net. I want to make use of them as main game assets. I have a find the pairs game with random generated levels type game in my mind. Idea can be evolved with contributions, provided that scope stays simple. I'll have the final word on the game mechanics.
Engine: I'll use impactjs and do the main coding. It's a 2D game engine based on javascript and works in the browser. I think for this simplicity one coder is enough. We can host the game on the web and contributions etc.. will be easy to upload and test on-the-fly.
Assitance needed: At least 2 people. 1 for Music, sounds 1 for 2D basic graphics (intro screen, score screen, main game). Ofcourse, if the artists talk to each other about the general mood of the game, it'd be nice. In the testing phase, I expect active participation (translate: play your game over and over) Btw. I really liked the idea of live Cello <wink> Johnnicholas.
I have a day-job and a family. So I'll be working mainly at some nights and in the weekend.
Milestones and deadlines (based on Chris's suggestion): * 11.04.2014: Game design * 20.04.2014: Coding & asset creation * 03.05.2014: Testing & Bugfix & Polish * 04.05.2014: Ship
I can submit the game in a platform like Kongregate, regardless of the final quality, provided that it's completed and playable. So we can sit back and gaze our little creation with awe in the end :)
Bonus: If the contributers (and you , Chris) also approve and the final quality is good enough, I can even submit it to Apple Store and Google Play as a free game. But it'll take some time to adjust.
First and more important, the icons within the tokens are not my work and come from <strong>game-icons.net</strong>. This is a great icons database with a lot of fantasy/sf stuff that you can use for free (LCC 3.0).
Better still: a universal set of icons, not words. No language barriers there, and the icons represents the action the player is to do, so reading isn't even required.
Among others, http://game-icons.net and the Noun Project are great for this, but some curation would be needed...
So the card is all text? No info as icons or anything? No numerical values?
> Like a fire card will have burnt edges ect.
Here's where I'd lean towards icons. How many categories of this sort of thing do you have? Like, could you make a flame icon, ice icon, etc and stick one of those in a corner? (You could also grab stuff from http://game-icons.net/ )
If you've got title and flavour text, the title should use a larger text size.
Ah, I checked on the site, and their are some icons that interest me. (Like this - http://game-icons.net/delapouite/originals/dwarf-face.html) Do you have to individually add them or is it a bulk thing? Also I might have just missed the icons if they are in fact in the editor.
Just some examples of cards I designed for my new players in my D&D game. I thought it would help first-time players to keep track of everything. I know it's been done before but it's a fun little project.
Currently working on a full set at least for our Wood Elf Warlock, Dragonborn Cleric, and Firbolg Barbarian and then some for magical loot
Special thanks to these guys for most of the icons I've used: http://game-icons.net/about.html Would've taken much longer if I was making the icons myself
Wasn't super attentive keeping track of individual authors since these were intended for personal use, but I wanna make sure everyone is credited so here's their whole list of authors/creators contributing to these free icons
Haha it's all good. If I decide to do any more mockups I might as well use these resources you have provided to make it look closer to the actual game.
Also, here's another free icon site: http://game-icons.net/
I've made some additions. I'm assuming 42 chips will fit comfortably into a tube, so each side will have 21 chips. I've included a standard set (a chess set, more or less) and a pirate expansion, with links to the icons at Game Icons. At some point I'll create a printable set of labels, with facing and rank marks.
Nikola Tesla was not the inventor of the electrical battery. Tesla was indeed a great mind, but he is tremendously overrated.
The inventor of the electrical battery was Alessandro Volta. And the first known usage of the word battery to describe a group of electrical components was Benjamin Franklin.
So I suggest using symbol that are more related to Tesla like the symbol for Alternating currents which is a sine graph. Not an invention by Tesla but first theories by Michael Faraday, with yet another person to first produce a machine of the principal by Faraday. Though Tesla is known to have supported the adoption of AC current.
And instead of a lightning symbol I would suggest a symbol inspired by a Tesla coil, a contraption that Tesla did invent. Here is someones symbol for a Tesla Coil, I am sure you can make a great symbol (google for images of the tesla coil)
I think it depends on the setting of the game. If it's a medieval European setting, then something like a flag, banner, or standard might work. If it's a more modern setting (which I assume from your wifi example), then a walkie-talkie radio could work, or something like the envelope with motion lines that usually indicates sending an email.
If you want to take a more setting-agnostic approach, you could do a simple head & shoulders outline of a person with waves emanating from one side of the head, kinda like these. You could also go with a scroll or piece of paper with an x on it.
Like I said, it really depends on the setting and what the rest of your icons/interface look like.