May 6, 2018

Hobby

This part of my site is dedicated to small projects I have made in my spare time, that all has a relevance in regards to design, both in the graphical sense, but also as a process. You may notice that a lot of these thing are centered around Role-playing Games, War-games or similar, as I find that this hobby is very conducive towards creative thinking, and the design of new contents for the game world.

Dungeons & Dragons – Spellcards

  • Goal:
    To make an easy and quick reference system for spells and abilities available in the game.
  • 1st Request:
    Preferably with the capacity to be modified over time; a fixed book or a constant set of pages is going to be filled with a lot of information that isn’t relevant at all times.
  • 2nd Request:
    Something small and handy, that isn’t hard to transport around or transfer from one scenario to another.
  • 3rd Request:
    The system should be able to show whether or not the ability or spell is available, as this chances a lot during play.
  • Result: 
    A series of cards, all with the same formatting with both text and visual aids, were created; each card holding all the relevant information of the spell or ability, such as When it is gained, When it can be used, What is required to use it, Who can use it, and What it does.

Dungeons & Dragons – Adventure

  • Goal: Create a story for the other players; with a big focus on building up a community, rooting themselves in it, and then make them do their very best to protect it.
  • 1st Request: 
    A map showing the city that they are experiencing, to aid understanding of where they are, what it’s like, and most importantly, involve them more in the place in order to make them care.
  • 2nd Request: 
    A mystery-development, to avoid the cliche experience of an NPC explaining all the details of their quest, and then simply going out at doing it. Instead, try to make the tasks they are set only parallel to the actual story unfolding.
  • Process:
    Using the visual aids granted by a map found to adequately match the concept, a connected story-world was slowly created as the players explored the setting, adding more and more concrete locations and possible activities as the players progressed into the story.
  • Result: 
    A location in the already established lore of the Dungeons & Dragons universe, filled with mystery. The players are each hired to act as a mercenary force to try and take over a long abandoned city in the south, and as they wrestle the area free from orcs, goblins and other beasts, they slowly discover the secret as to why the town was abandoned many years ago; was it a plague, or a magical terror, or just the remote location that kept people away from the otherwise pristine harbor town of Port Whitewater?

Role-playing Table

  • Goal: 
    To make a table of good quality, with the added feature of having a raised section, made for holding the play-area mat, that otherwise dominate the table and makes the conventional use of the table problematic at best.
  • 1st Request: 
    A way to easily store the raised top, when it is not in use.
  • 2nd Request:
    A glass plate that can be places on top of the play-mat, since this would make it possible to draw sketches of the area visited with a marker, and then wipe it away after use.
  • Process: 
    Instead of jumping straight into hammer and nails, the table design was mapped using a 3D modelling program, in order to both preview the finished result, but also make a three dimensional blueprint, complete with measurements, for later purchasing and use of materials.
  • Result: 
    The table never reached it’s final construction, because another table was purchased instead, but the full planning and design of the table was ready for production.

Warcry Diceboard

  • Goal: 
    To make a small tablet sized board optimized for showcasing the ability cards associated with the game, and managing the several dice-types used when playing the game.
  • 1st Request:
    The diceboard was to be made with the parameters fitting a 16mm die and easy removal of the flat ability cards for changing these as the players bring their own cards to the game.
  • Process: 
    A quick sketch led to a more precise 2D illustration, that worked as a stencil for cutting out a prototype for test in play. The prototype seemed to fit the desired requirements, so a 3D illustration and illustration with measurements illustrated was made, and sent to Games Workshop for consideration as part of their product line.
  • Result: 
    A set of paper and cardboard prototypes was made for personal use among the players associated with the small project, and the plans and concept is still under consideration with the Games Workshop corporation.

Kill Team Resources

  • Goal: 
    To make a simple set of useful tools for the Kill Team format of the Warhammer 40.000 game franchise, including multiple handouts of abilities and leveled powers for each unit in play.
  • 1st Request:
    A series of tokens that can indicate which actions have been taken by each player in each turn, to avoid the confusion that comes with the large amount of varying commands for each unit in play.
  • Process: 
    A few iterations of roughly printed info-cards and a large set of icon tokens quickly came to fruition. Personalized color-schemes was made for each faction to make the tokens easy to distinguish from each other, and names and icons for the info-cards were added to make them easy to riffle through and identify.
  • Result: 
    A set of cards describing the ‘Tactics’, a kind of activate-able powers for each unit type, and a set of ‘Unit Type’ cards, describing built in features of each unit type, as well as the Tokens used for indicating turn actions were printed on hard paper and distributed during play.
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