Star Borders maps WIP

[timallen]

Hi all:

I thought I would show you one of the six maps I am developing for "Star Borders", a game to be released by Victory Point Games (probably in a couple months). The original artwork, which I dont have handy right now, had a rather cute, reto-50's style, but the publishers wanted something else, and asked me what I could do. The results are, hopefully, a more high-tech look. My inspiration was all those Sci-Fi movies that have those kool computer interphases (like the ones in "Minority Report). The maps will be geo-morphic; that is, you cut the bottom charts off and then you can connect them any way you want. I was stuck with the gray background as the publishers insisted they could not afford the ink for a full-on space black style, but overall I think it works.

The main problem I am having now is lining up the green lines so they connect properly on the different maps. The publisher will be useing a Full Bleed to print to the edges of a sheet of paper, and the amount of bleed is messing up my ability to get the lines to connect.

[Sapiento]

Looks great.
The issue with the bleed at the edges sounds difficult to solve.

[Marken4]

This is the way I usually do it:

[timallen]

I"m still working away slowly on this one. The publisher asked me to design a card-back to go with the game and I came up with this. The maps are pretty much done. I'm just waiting on the publisher to go over them and if no more changes are needed I can send them the PSD files and we can put this one to bed.

[tilt]

sounds like they plan to print the maps on a desktop printer. Normally when producing something like this you'd make the document about 5 mm (1/5 inch) larger than the final format, add some crop marks and cut it to size after printing. Professionel printing would also mean being able to not worry about the amount of black on the page, although with deep black you should probably add a coating afterwards to protect the print from fingerprints.
But looking good - congrats on the commision

[timallen]

Woohoo! VPG has published the Star Borders game, with my maps and card backs.

http://victorypointgames.com/details.php?prodId=133

In order to overcome that issue with full bleed printing, I first shrank down all the map layers in photoshop by 1/8th, then scaled the "canvas" back up 1/8th. That left enough room around the edge for the bleed. The maps still dont line up perfectly, as the printer does not seem to bleed exactly the same amount on each side, but the publisher says its close enough.


Now they have asked me if I could throw together a few web-ads, for the website. I am Working on that now...

[ravells]

Congrats Tim! Have you played the game? Is it good?

[timallen]

I havent, actually. I have read through the rules (months ago) and I have the components as pdf files, but I havent actually played it. I know Alan (head honcho at VPG) is very enthusiastic about it. I am planning on giving it a try as soon as I get my own copy in the mail in a couple weeks. But the really interesting part will come later. Right now its just a two player game, but more expansions are planned (with more maps and more ship counters) that will make it multi-player. Now That sounds like fun!

[timallen]

What a difference two years makes! Victory Point Games got themselves a big fancy new printer, and apparently now they dont have to worry about ink costs. They asked me to re-colour/re-design all the maps for Star Borders, as well as make up some new ones for the upcoming expansion pack. This is a sample of what they will now look like. You can compare this one with the earlier version.

These were fun to make up, but took a heck of a lot of tweaking to get right. And they still arnt done yet. I recently heard back that the new printers are over-saturating all the colours so that either They figure out how to get the printer to work better, or I have to de-saturate 16 separate maps. Ugh!

[rdanhenry]

Pretty cool. In the Battle Round Sequence, Step 2, "Your Hide/Retreat Retreat Option", the double "Retreat" is awkward. You might check if the second "Retreat" can be removed.