Graphic Design for play testing. 2 of ?
So it took me longer than I thought to get to the second part of this but here is where I’ll talk about the test map that I came up with. Firstly the working map has a good frame to it. Everything was in about the right place but what it lacked was a feel of the period. o Eiffel tower and no place on worship on Mont-Matre so physical landmarks were not going to be of use.
Firstly the size was a very new size for me. Most of the boards I’ve done were full size. This one was spec’ed at 11” x 17”. This would change at a later point but it was a challenge to think in such a relatively small space. I’m planing on writing something on the Mr. President game by Gene Billingsley and to be published by GMT Games in the nearish future talking about working on my first double (well 11/2) size board so look out for that if you are interested in something big and different just like Red Flags is small and different (both, I think in a very good way).
Its always been a a bug at the back of my head that games tend include the name of game on the board. It is not needed for practical reasons, it tributes nothing and takes up real estate that could allow for all kinds of tracks and things. You know the game from the box after all. Certainly it’s an opportunity to avertise the game to any observant passerby but cons and game night at your FLGS most games are not seen by the greater world. It may be a qwerty aor VHS (in its day) situation. It is what it is and we just deal. Fortunately the origin play test board had placed the logo so as to serve the purpose of separating player specific areas so there’s some purpose after all.
I spent a little more time, this time in a more constructive way, and resolved to use the Arc De Triomphe (because its Paris and there’s always something stylish to steal/borrow) in place of the Eiffel tower and he addition of the eponymous red flag and progress was being made. Placing it a the top as a form of operator then adding the blue and red to either side helps to reinforce the sense of two players in opposition - sitting on the left and right side of the map, their objective card to hand and the board ripe to to be fought over. Creating a logo is not necessarily something I’d do straight tout of the game but it would help give the impression fo process in the games development as well as getting the correct game title on the game.
The next task was to get everything onto board and see how things might layout. This was relatively painless. Taking the idea of two sides it was an obvious move to center the assorted tracks and color them appropriately. Its always a struggle for me to keep the color palette simple (see my illustrations). This was vital when using a strong blue and red for the dominant colors for the color palette. The four colors for the four areas of conflict (political and Military divided into Institutional & Public Opinion, and, Paris & Forts, respectively).
Using the period map to give a little sense of the geographical was an obvious keep from the initial test map and I was fortunate find one from the period that had the width that I needed. The final addition I made once I had things all aligned and where I wanted them to be was some ornaments that I made that were inspired by art nouveau (while not purely French it was a style redolent io Paris and France). This is not ‘in period’ by a couple of decades but the Victorian ornament of the period would not give the little touch of Paris and might read more British or even Prussian. Such is he degree of our collective ignorance art history. But like adding the logo to the board its something that seems to work so I stayed with it. Sometimes you need to break the rules but you need to know you are doing it.
So in a few days I had cards and board to give the game a lift and give its audience a sense of its movement and hopefully enough to get them on boar the P500. It as and in the fullness of time production began on the game. Anyone who has seen any of the materials Fred has shared know that tis is not here the game finished in its look. So the next blog will be talking about the changes and refinements that the components went through.
As a place holder here’s what the card backs looked like at this point.
