Charta - a venture into boardgaming

[The Lazy One]

Cheers everyone!

While I've been recently working on some minor commissions, most of my cartography attention is now focused on a project of my own, which is both a cartography endeavour and a boargame project.
The game itself is light and not too complex, although it requires strategy and a bit of geometric eye.
The base of it consist in combining modular tiles in creating a map. Game-wise, each tile should contain very simple informations (roads, forests, villages, cities, coasts), but I'll obviously end up adding loads of minor elements in each.

That was a very preliminary test. No forests were implemented (which allow to interrupt roads) yet.

dYJTePG.jpg

The project started a few months ago, and that's the current prototype, more or less.

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The current experiments are more focued on the look, and it's where i'd seek your help!

Now, here's a flat overlay over the linework. The result is quite plain but somehow gives an old paper look.

threeTiles.jpg

I tried with watercolor brushes (grutBrushes, which i highly recommend), and that's where i'm at right now.
I have to say, i'm extremely happy of the relism of the watercolour itself, but i'm not sold on the overall look.

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At this point, I'm really after suggestions and ideas. Feedbacks of any kind are greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Jack

[snodsy]

This is really nice,the watercolor looks great and the matching tiles work really well. Really like how you've presented the concept and individual pieces here. Maybe a few lines on the roofs to give them a little dimension/character?

Great job, look forward to seeing this one evolve.

[MistyBeee]

Great project, wonderfully done ! In addition, your pics are top notch !
Chapeau bas !

[Batat]

Both versions look great! The only thing I'm concerned with it's how the watercolour version will look like tiled, whether the slight differences in colour won't make it a bit wonky.

[Vygavriel]

It looks very nice ! I love the style and colors.

Thank you for your recommandation on grutbrushes, they look so cool ! I've watched tons of tutos on how to create watercolor brushes but the result was never satisfying.

Do you plan to make the game available to buy ? A kickstarter could be a good idea. Looking forward to see the progress and the finished version

[Ifrix]

Oh wow this looks incredible. And thanks for the brush recommendation

How does it play?

[The Lazy One]

Thank you everyone!

I have a few conerns regarding the watercolor effect between tiles, but what i fear most is that while the watercolor is good for a print, on tiles it will be too subtle, and people playing the game will mostly see undistinct colors, which could lead to mistakes in game.

I'm working on a second prototype - for PnP testers, with smaller tiles - which uses softer colors and might provide an old paper effect nicely.
Here's the first page done. The hexes are realigned to be easier to cut, too.

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Somewhat i feel that the simplified tiles below could be even better than the super-detailed ones above. Feelings?

EDIT: For anyone curious, we've got a FB page, and we're soon going to start a broader alpha-testing too! I'd require updates every now and then, but nothing too cumbersome!
https://www.facebook.com/thelazygames

Cheers
Jack

[The Lazy One]

I've to say i'm a little insecure about the forest look, both in the smaller prototype and the bigger tests.
Do you all have suggestions to represent forests from a top view (so no trunks showing, that would be cool but would reduce modularity a lot!) which are different from the one i adopted? Really looking to improve there!

[AlfansosRevenge]

In terms of the forests, I think they currently look good. What specifically are you insecure about?

Also, I was wondering if the tiles are supposed to be pieced together randomly or intentionally? If randomly, how do you ensure all the roads connect? Maybe I'm just missing some aspect of the mechanics, but it seems that since some tiles have more road exits than others there will be issues preventing odd dead ends.

[The Lazy One]

In terms of the forests, I think they currently look good. What specifically are you insecure about?

Also, I was wondering if the tiles are supposed to be pieced together randomly or intentionally? If randomly, how do you ensure all the roads connect? Maybe I'm just missing some aspect of the mechanics, but it seems that since some tiles have more road exits than others there will be issues preventing odd dead ends.

Thank you! The forests seem a bit "cobbled together", and somehow don't show enough accuracy in the lines IMHO. Yet, i don't know how to make them look better ATM.

As for the tiles, these are meant to have a large number of possible combinations but are NOT put together randomly. For once, that would be a serious issue with the coasts.
The game require players alternating placing tiles while moving explorers in the settlements around. As long as players have options to put their tiles, it's fine.