Cactus Game Design Message Boards

the art updates gave me an idea. what if some redemption players made the art for at least some of the cards? then you could probably pay them with packs or something, and help everyone out. just a thought. of course, they would have to be sworn to secrecy, but that probably wouldn't be a huge deal. just like, five or six people that can draw. or even low key do it through a monthly art contest, where winners get a pack of cards. of course, you wouldnt only do said cards in the contest, but other characters too so it is a toss up between 12 random people in the bible, and people would be trying to connect them all year as well.fun for everyone.

I really like this and i was actually trying to think of a way that the redemption community could have more input and feedback in card designing. This is in my opinion a great way to do that, even if the art isn't used. 

Well, the way I see this is a way to get good cheap art. it is also a way to allow players to have fun., and can even give some people a closer connection to certain cards. Of course, there would have to be a thing about how if art is entered into the contest, you are giving permission to use the art for cards. also could do it where on the first of the month, the new subject is released, say "Joseph's Brother's Scheme" then either have the dead line on, say, the 20th so that play testers can pick the top three over the next 10 days. or, have the deadline by the 25th, then set up a thread on here with each piece being a separate post, and everyone votes by plussing the post the art is in. the second would involve people even more, but might also mess up designs sometimes, depending on how vague the subject was. the thread would come out the first of the next month with the new subject, and voting would end, say the 15th and prizes announced the next day.

I would be happy to help out with it, and even to run it on the forum or something. I feel that it would be useful to discus this with some of the elders and play testers, to come up with a system for getting titles to work with, like give me a list at the beginning of the year or something, then sprinkle them or whatever. I can talk to Mr.Underwood about it for some ideas as well, but I think the more ideas the merrier. Mr.Underwood is just easiest for me to contact.

I would also love to participate, but you have not seen my art skills, you know, maybe i could obtain art some other way... hmm 
It sounds like a great idea!!

the forum member 'Daniel' is always posting killer card art and design

And so is ironisaac

Finding "killer art" isn't difficult. Finding art that is legal to use is a much different story. 

Yes, I would agree with that. My sister (although she doesn't play redemption) is a super good artist and could probably make some art. I'll talk to her about it.

i love that Doug Gray did a lot of art that is still used today!!

I think this is a great idea.  I also like Gabe's idea of testing out the process first before doing it with an real cards.  So for the first contest what if you had 3 possible entries of very different subject matter, and see how many people actually participate and contribute.  If the idea takes off, then it would show that this sort of thing could really work, and then next time perhaps we could release some ideas from future cards to enable people to create art for them.

Maybe there could even be 2 categories for each subject: "original art" and "discovered art".  Both would need to meet certain qualifications: size, resolution, etc.  Artists of "original art" would naturally have to give permission for their artwork to be used freely by Cactus.  And the "discovered art" would have to be legal to use as well.

For the first contest, I would suggest one weapon (perhaps a spear), one living subject (perhaps a tree or animal), and one person (perhaps a shepherd or wiseman from the Christmas story).  People could submit entries for any or all of these.  That way if someone was good at drawing objects, but not living things, they could still participate.  Or if someone wasn't good at drawing anything they could still look for legal artwork online.

Give a time limit, and then see what kind of participation you get

What Mark describes is what I had in mind as a starting point. Because we might use even pieces from the first contest I'd like to make a couple suggestions for the subject matter.

• The weapon is a great idea. It can be difficult to find good art depicting a weapon (thus Doug Gray has done so many for the game).
• For the "living subject" it's not very likely we'd have much use for a tree, possibly an animal. I'd suggest things more like a landscape, building, or city that looks like it's from a Bible era. Those can be used for Sites, Fortresses and sometimes Enhancements.
• In addition to a person, I'd love to see some good illustrations of angels. They are usually very difficult to find in quality free art. The way artist depicted them in previous centuries is very different than what you see today.

For those that choose to "find" art, it's usually public domain if it's 100 years old or older. The modern artists that have given permission to use their work usually just provide that authorization over email. I would think we'd want that to be a requirement before a piece could be entered.

Art needs to be a minimum of 600 x 600 at 300 dpi. TIF is preferred but we can work with other file formats too.

wyatt, if you'd like to Skype about any of this I'm happy to do that with you. Just shoot me a PM with days, times and your Skype name.