Smurf along with me: la la la-la la la!

[japes]

My only concern is that with each card having it's own text mask to wrap the text around the figure it will add time to the process. While it may not seem like a lot, when you take into account that C3G is about 700 cards alone, it adds up. But visually...I like it.

I like the heart, it reminds me of the Legend of Zelda.

The cut-out bottom bar is cool but I'd probably only do it if it would reduce the text masking around the figure. Otherwise I'd probably not do it for the benefit of a few text heavy cards.

[Xorlof]

Wrapping the text will be easy-peasy (at least how I plan to do it). Chopping out the mini image from the background is the time-consuming part.

I like the heart better than the blood drop, but think it might need a bit more tweaking. I might investigate reworking the blood spatter version to be less graphic as another option, but maybe not if the heart meets approval.

The cut-out at the bottom does provide more room, but that's not why I did it. Trying smaller icons has been been on my to-do list for a while to see if the size I've been using is optimal or too big. (Low probability that they're too small). I don't think we should move to the smaller variant if the motivation is just for more space--only move to it if we think the smaller looks better and is equally functional. I'm undecided myself. I probably need to print some out to be sure.

[Dad_Scaper]

I like the bottom blood drop slightly more than I like the heart. After that, the upper blood drop.

As for the point cost, I might want to see it in my hand, but I suspect it would look a little better if the word "points" was also in bold. Could we get a look at that?

[TREX]

You should have different options for the lifes. Heart, drop, and spatter on a blank.

[dok]

I prefer the drop to the heart, and mildly prefer the glossy drop to the more flat drop. The drop and the heart are both much better than the blood splatter, which eats a lot of real estate and doesn't fit the aesthetic of the card. A blood splatter does not communicate the idea of a life value as well as the other two.

The font size/appearance for the (rare) double digit stats seem fine.

Have you considered putting personality in the same phrase as class and species? e.g. "Egomanaical Human Ruler"? Obviously only saves you a dot, but I think it reads slightly more naturally.

No strong feeling on the reduced stat bar size; if you do cut it down I'd cut the font size on the life stat to match. I'd want to see how it looks with a squad.

THE COIN! It honestly just seems odd at this point that we're entertaining all these options for making the tiny font for "XXX points" more bold or noticeable, without looking at doing what we're doing with every other stat - that is, getting rid of words that are repeated on every card, and instead embedding the stat in an icon that makes its purpose clear. That's the aesthetic of this card design; why not embrace it? Especially now that it's back on the right edge (although we could consider several different locations for it). In that spot all it's doing, at worst, is forcing some of the figure image to hide behind the icon.

[Xorlof]

I'm looking forward to going back to non-text-heavy cards since they look so ugly compared to the regular amount of text, but I did agree that it was worth making sure Amazo would fit since he's probably a worst-case scenario. Lots of text, 5 powers (each power heading burns a lot of vertical space). Here's the basic card:

It works. Font the same size as the official Repulsors card. Usual apologies for the image. I don't have the mini so used a low resolution ebay image of a Heroclix mini with one of those clear stands showing that he's supposed to be flying (that's why his feet don't touch his shadow), but don't know if it feels that way in the image, so I might be better off making him just stand. He seems to be in more of a standing pose.

In coming up with his symbol, I used the "A" from his belt; unfortunately, the best mini image I could find didn't have the belt, but you can see it on the official C3G Card. What do you guys thing about putting a superhero symbol for people in the General logo area? I did it for Dr. Doom as well.

I dug up A3n's symbols for flight and super strength (haven't found a clean C3G logo yet) and in this case just used a very bold 700p for points. However, some wanted to see what the coin looks like these days:

Here are the reasons I don't like the coin so much at the moment.
1) It's too tall. This guy is flying, otherwise the coin would be right on the mini image. We need that area under the mini for possible symbols (including customs group) unless someone else has a better way to lay them out, perhaps in the bottom bar.
2) The coin calls attention to itself when points don't matter much when playing. (Although I could get more on board with the desaturated version I showed a while back.)
3) Lord Privy Seal

Other things to note about the second card image above.
1) Drop vs. blood, and I changed the side the reflection is on. I think this is better than the other side where it could get cut off in a confusing way if the card gets printed slightly off center. The drop is narrower than the heart, so I did have to shrink the font a bit for the double digit life Amazo has.
2) "Relentless Android Antagonist" as suggested by dok. I like the economy, saving the dot, but also like the visual look of two dots on that line. Not sure why. Thoughts?

I thought I would throw together one more Hero with the smaller icon variant (and will do one squad card with it too). Here's that result (with the wrong stats at the bottom):

Lastly, I tried dragging around the green shading rectangles and hit a couple of points where it felt like some possibly useful idea was being expressed. I don't know what it is, but maybe you guys can untangle it for possible refinements to the main design:

Spoiler Alert!

[dok]

Originally Posted by Xorlof

What do you guys thing about putting a superhero symbol for people in the General logo area? I did it for Dr. Doom as well.

I'd lean towards a Marvel/DC/etc symbol there.

Originally Posted by Xorlof

Here are the reasons I don't like the coin so much at the moment.
1) It's too tall. This guy is flying, otherwise the coin would be right on the mini image. We need that area under the mini for possible symbols (including customs group) unless someone else has a better way to lay them out, perhaps in the bottom bar.

I don't particularly like that coin symbol either, TBH - the font and background are too similar in color so the text doesn't pop. Aside from that, though, two thoughts:

• Maybe try turning the coin perspective on its side, to save vertical space? By that I mean, make the reeded edge of the coin viewable from the side instead of the bottom.
• Do what you do with literally every other stat icon on the card - cut it off on the edge. The coin can provide a bigger text area with less overall area if one or two edges are cut off by the side of the card, and possibly the bottom of the card or the top of the bottom bar.

All of that said, I don't think it's horrible if parts of the figure image do hide behind the coin (and the heart) at times.

Originally Posted by Xorlof

2) The coin calls attention to itself when points don't matter much when playing. (Although I could get more on board with the desaturated version I showed a while back.)

I think you are overstating this as an advantage. Lots of parts of the card aren't strictly needed for gameplay, yet we don't try to hide them on the card. And as LordRaidor noted, many players riffle through their cards looking for cards of a certain cost. Points being easy to spot is a feature, not a bug.

FWIW, If you do end up going text only for cost, I'd definitely suggest just leaving it at "P" instead of "points".

Originally Posted by Xorlof

Other things to note about the second card image above.
1) Drop vs. blood, and I changed the side the reflection is on. I think this is better than the other side where it could get cut off in a confusing way if the card gets printed slightly off center. The drop is narrower than the heart, so I did have to shrink the font a bit for the double digit life Amazo has.

I still prefer the drop but the heart is growing on me. I'm happy with either.

Originally Posted by Xorlof

"Relentless Android Antagonist" as suggested by dok. I like the economy, saving the dot, but also like the visual look of two dots on that line. Not sure why. Thoughts?

Thanks for giving it a shot. After looking at it I think I like your original two dot approach slightly more but both work fine.

Originally Posted by Xorlof

I thought I would throw together one more Hero with the smaller icon variant (and will do one squad card with it too). Here's that result (with the wrong stats at the bottom):

Still looks good to me. As I said before I'd shrink the life icon/font to match it. Also, the bump as the bar gets taller right before the hitzone is a bit distracting to me. Maybe try a more sigmoidal shape for the transition?

Originally Posted by Xorlof

Lastly, I tried dragging around the green shading rectangles and hit a couple of points where it felt like some possibly useful idea was being expressed. I don't know what it is, but maybe you guys can untangle it for possible refinements to the main design:

None of this is doing anything good as far as I can tell. The bar at the top just cuts out space that the figure image could spill into for some cards. Breaking up the bottom bar doesn't add useful space, doesn't make anything clearer, and makes the card appear more blocky.

[Dad_Scaper]

I don't like the coin in that spot, under the picture. It's too big. If you're going to use a simple icon like that for the points, it should be neatly alongside the other icons. Otherwise, just bold (or some other emphasis).

[dok]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

I don't like the coin in that spot, under the picture. It's too big. If you're going to use a simple icon like that for the points, it should be neatly alongside the other icons. Otherwise, just bold (or some other emphasis).

Putting it just to the left of the hitzones seems reasonable. So it's MRAD, blank space (less for squads), cost, hitzone(s). If the bottom bar is straight and doesn't bulge out for the hitzones (which I think I slightly prefer) then you could even put it all the way in the corner, so it's MRAD, hitzone(s), cost.

[Dad_Scaper]

That's where I was imagining it would go.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Xorlof

In coming up with his symbol, I used the "A" from his belt; unfortunately, the best mini image I could find didn't have the belt, but you can see it on the official C3G Card. What do you guys thing about putting a superhero symbol for people in the General logo area? I did it for Dr. Doom as well.

I dug up A3n's symbols for flight and super strength (haven't found a clean C3G logo yet) and in this case just used a very bold 700p for points. However, some wanted to see what the coin looks like these days:

PM me your email address and I'll send you what I have for symbols and such.

As for the Dr Doom symbol and Amazo symbol. I'd probably go with Marvel, DC, and such for icons in that place. I once thought about doing team symbols (X-Men, Avengers, Justice League) but it got to complicated with the different characters at different times being parts of multiple teams. Plus anytime something changes in the future I'd have to update. So I dropped it and instead have a few sheets printed in my card binder for thematic team rosters.

[LordRaidor]

My $0.02:

I like the 'pop' from the full-bold POINTS. I could give or take the coin 'icon' itself - I'm not sold either way.

I think the green shading looks best just at the bottom, and not cut-out or notched. Sometimes, simpler is better. Plus, I think the icons/stats are optimally sized; you're not hurting so much for special text real estate that you need to shrink them. ^_~

I like the life splatter, but I could support the heart too (straight edges or curvy ones). Not a fan of the drop. Sorry. X_x

As for the 'general' symbol on supers, I agree it would be best to avoid 'team' or 'faction' icons, in favor of a simple license nod. Marvel/DC/DarkHorse/etc. symbol would be grand, methinks.

Still looking awesome, and getting better every day.

^_^
-LordRaidor-