Ancient Star Chart

[Smonbrogg]

Here’s a map of some star constellations as perceived a long time ago from a planet far far away.

CosmicHare_MapStates.jpg

This is the levels overview for a little indie puzzle game I’m working on. Each star represents a level. The groups of stars appear as unknown constellations at first. As the levels are unlocked the connection between the stars gets drawn. When enough levels are unlocked the zodiac sign appears.

I’m currently working on a complete version of the map that I would also like to print on paper at some point.. Does anyone have any experience / tips on how to print maps such that they feel old?

Thanks for any feedback!

[ChickPea]

Nice work on this. I chuckled at 'Felis Catus'

As for old paper, I know people have aged their paper with coffee or tea. I've seen some threads about this, so maybe a search will turn up something. Not sure how that would work with a dark background though, unless your other map is quite different from this one.

[Smonbrogg]

Here's an update with border, title, and all the constellation signs visible.

CosmicHare_BorderAndTitle.jpg

Thanks for the coffe / tea sugestion! I'm probably going to invert the colors for the printed version, so that trick might work I'm also thinking about fading the chart to an inverted color scheem ingame once all the levels are completed..

[Smonbrogg]

Almost done :-)

CosmicHare_MapBorderWeight.jpg

There's some issues with details in the border etc, but I'm quite happy with the overall composition. What do you think?

[Smonbrogg]

Print done!
printedMap.JPG

[madrileen]

Print done!
printedMap.JPG

That print looks amazing!

As for making the paper feel old, you could try to make the paper moist using tea or coffee or any solvent (as previously mentioned) and then slightly damaging the paper by hand.

[ChickPea]

Oh wow, that looks great!! Well done.

[Smonbrogg]

thank you!

Since the type, the lines and the compass should stand out from the rest, they were printed as an additional layer, so that there's two layers of white color where it needs to be stronter. The magnifying glass on the print was to check if this second layer was exactly on the first. It took a bit of adjusting the printer until it was precisely at the right position. I learned a lot about offset printing last week :-)

I've got about 300 nice prints now. They will be folded next week when the color is completely dry.

Meanwhile, if you want to see the map animated in the game, it's on the app stores and free until the end of easter!
www.cosmic-hare.com
Hope you like it! If you're into puzzle games on mobile you probably will :-)

[Smonbrogg]

I'm now working on burning my map!
:-D
https://twitter.com/smonbrogg/status/997417603135082502

[Smonbrogg]

here's the gif to look at without following any links ;-)
burningUI.gif