My next game will be Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs. I plan to have it released before the end of the year. This will be the second physically published game from Cili Padi Games. Here I'd like to share the progress of the art work.
This above is the second version of my prototype. The first prototype didn't
even have any art. It was just a deck of standard poker cards. I used the
Joker as Snow White, and the numbers as the dwarfs. At that stage I didn't
have expansions like the Evil Queen and Prince Charming.
The art for the second prototype was all from the internet. If you look closer
you will find that the cards have different art styles. They are by different
artists. My favourite art is that of the dwarfs. The same artist did a series
of dwarfs, and they worked perfectly for my prototype.
When I decided to make Snow White my second physically published game, I asked Edwin Chong, who did the art for Dancing Queen, to help me with this project. This was the first concept art:
Similar to Dancing Queen, this concept was based on a Japanese manga (comic books) style. I didn't specifically requested for this, but I told Edwin if he thought it would work I was open to try it out. It might be good to use a consistent style for all Cili Padi Games publications. It becomes our identity. A brand promise. Something people remember us for.
Edwin had a bold idea. He brought Snow White to modern day Japan. He re-imagined the dwarfs to be children at an orphanage, and Snow White and Prince Charming being teenagers or older kids taking care of the young children. The whole atmosphere is that of warm, sentimental anime movies. This was a bit beyond my expectations. I am more conservative, so I thought dwarfs should still be dwarfs, i.e. of the short old bearded men type. I thought the first Snow White was a bit too young. The reason I picked Snow White as a setting was it was something people are familiar with and can relate to. So I felt the art and concept should not veer too far from what most people have in mind. So the next iteration was adjusted as follows:
My favourite was Grumpy the dwarf. I think he's absolutely adorable. I did not specifically want to follow the characters in the Disney version of Snow White, even though it is probably what most people are familiar with. I have 14 different dwarfs in my game, so the 7 from the Disney movie won't be enough. In my version of Snow White, only #1 will be named Happy. The rest won't have names.
More dwarf designs were then added, but my favourite was still #4. I'm probably becoming a grumpy old man myself. That's why I like the grumpy one.
With colours added.
The first box front mock-up
What do you think? Any thoughts? Suggestions? This is still work-in-progress, and it will be really helpful to me to have feedback.
Very fun style! I really like the newest art, and the boldness to set it in a more anime style.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite agree with your comment about having all your games look similar, though. I think it can lead to confusion between the games, falsely suggesting there's a connection between the games, and perhaps discouraging learning about a new game by someone who didn't care for a previous game.
However, to me Snow White's art seems different enough from Dancing Queen that it wouldn't fall into that category. Looking forward to hearing more about Snow White & the Eleven Dwarfs!
Thank you Bay. Good points! Food for thought for me.
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