Monday, November 28, 2011

Bones Batterman 002/400

  Here is our second card, Bones Batterman.  He obviously is a baseball card and all baseball cards will have this dark red border.  Also, baseball monsters name's will be written in this aqua/green color.  Baseball is weak to football, so both his stat changes are in the negative.  He has his Off. Stat starting at 13 and Def. Stat starting at 11.  In his player info, bones does not strikeout while on the baseball diamond, but because of his fragility he can't survive on defense on the football field.   After his first defensive play he is placed in the discard pile(win or lose).  Let me know what you think.



  Be the first one to comment on this card here on blogger and receive a free card(when printed).  Thanks for you time.

-SRock

Looking for Artists/Followers

  So the last couple of days I have been posting ads on craigslist in various cities, looking for artists who would like to help create the monsters for our cards.  I have been getting a few emails from various artists, most looking more for information than actually submitting art.  This is o.k. though, because it has increased the traffic to our site.  As of right now we have tripled our site views for the last three days and hope that we will soon get a few followers.  If you would like to submit art for a chance for it to be on one of our starter cards send a copy to sportswarscards@gmail.com, put "Monster" in the subject line.  Thanks again everyone for reading.  I hope you are enjoying it.  Lets get some followers, artists please follow to get updates of new monsters.

-SRock

P.S.  Don't forget to check out our indiegogo page:  http://www.indiegogo.com/sports_wars_cards

Saturday, November 26, 2011

MySurveys

     To earn some extra cash to use towards my Sports Wars project, I have been doing surveys on MySurveys.com.  I know some of you might be skeptical about these sort of sites.  So was I.  But I started doing surveys on this site about two months ago and have already earned enough points to get a few rewards.  For 1100 points you can get $10-$20 gift cards to various places.  I have been turning in my points for iTunes cards and Paypal cards, both give you $10 for 1100 points.  Each survey tells you on avg. how long it takes for people to fill them out.  It usually take a few minutes less they state so don't let the time scare you away.  They also tell you how many points you will receive if you qualify for the survey.  Usually anywhere from 20-350 points.  If you would like to join MySurveys.com and use sports wars as a referral to get us some extra points to be used toward making our game, send us an email with "MySurveys" in the subject line, with a blank email after, unless you would like to talk about the project.  We will in-turn reply with a code for referral.  Thanks for your help and help us get some decks made.

- SRock

Friday, November 25, 2011

Basketball Game Board

     I have been working on making my basketball game board using gimp.  Like the Football game board, this one is the same 20 in. X 20 in and the actual playing field(court) in the same size as the football field. Both are approximately a 2 to 1 width to height.  I also added a center court logo for Sports Wars.  I kind now wanna put this logo in the center of the football field too but not sure if it is worth it or how it will look.  One day when I don't feel like doing anything else I will give it a whirl.  I have not entered label into the on court card spots because I am not really sure how this game is going to work yet.  I do have a few ideas but have not narrowed it down to one yet.  Where as football, I think that I have pretty much figured out how the game play in going to work.  I did also use the same home and away team colors.  Well, with no more a do here is what I have gotten done on the basketball court.



   
     Well, Let me know what you think.  First one to comment on this board will be awarded a limited edition card available to a select few.

- SRock

Thursday, November 24, 2011

New Football Playing Field

So, last night I start making the football game board using gimp instead of making it from construction paper and art board. I'm not gonna lie I got into kind of a groove and before I knew it was 2:00 am. Also, being very excited with how it was coming out, I woke up early this morning and worked for a hour or two before the Lions Thanksgiving day football game started. By the way, I have been a huge lions fan since I was 8 or 9. I know, I know the lions suck. But this year they are playing pretty well.

Back to the game board. So I started with a dark green 20 in. X 20 in. Square. I then put a border and yard lines around the field. I then added yellow yard markers at every 10 yard line and a smaller yellow dot at the five yard lines. Starting to look a little like a football field. I then added home and away teams, in team colors to the end zones. I chose blue and silver for the home team( yeah they are lines colors), for the away colors I went with orange and black for my high school team colors(HMB H.S., CA). After this I started adding borders(in team colors) for card positions and deck/discard piles. This is where I left off for the night.

This morning I got back to work early and fell right back into the zone I was in last night. I got through adding the labels for each card/pile position. I also decide to call the "deck", your roster. I decide to go with "Ineligible List" for the discard pile. I then added the labeling for the offensive and defensive card positions and the yard lines for each position offensively and defensively. I also added out lines to some of the labeling to make the works jump off the background. Below is the pic. Let me know what you think, good or bad.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thanks for reading.

- SRock

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Updated card design

Here is an updated card front. This is gonna be card number 001. As you see I removed the team name under the Player Info box and replaced it with a card edition and card number. I added a buffer of 175 cards to the first deck size of 225 just incase. I would also like to add an online code to the card some where. I believe this is gonna be the final card design right now for the first edition of the game.

Next I will be finishing up my digital copy of the football game board. I am about half way done with it. I just needed a little break from it. I was also able to create a Facebook page
www.facebook.com/pages/SportSWars/289816837725176
I also created an indiegogo donations page but I have to wait for my PayPal account to be verified to start the page. It should be 2-3 business days and with Thanksgiving tomorrow it might be a few days until the page is up and running.

Let's get some followers. Help a good cause and share this page with some friends. Thanks for reading.

- SRock

New Card Design

     So, I spent a few hours watching tutorials on YouTube about how to use Gimp.  I learn about alter images and adding shadowing, plus a few other tips.  I then tried applying these new techniques to my cards.  I have created a new front and back card design that I am very happy with.  Here they are:


     I have realized since designing these that I need to add some sort of copyright info and also a card number to the front of the cards.  I also think that I am going to take out the team name, maybe place else where.  I would also like to eventually ad some sore of online code to each card so you could fight online or with a mobile app.  Pretty much you could have a virtual deck as well as your physical desk.  Obviously this is much further down the line.  So lets here it.  What do you think.  This is just the first card of many to come.

Changes to Card Front:

  I changed the background from a white to light blue background to this greyscale background.  Gives the card a little more meanness, if you would.  I also changed the coloring of the stat letters, these are much easier to see than the yellow color I had before.  I also increase the size of the Player Info box.  This small font size is hard to read hear and I don't know if it will be readable until I am able enhance the graphics or use a different program.  Maybe when printed with a laser jet printer they will be easily readable.  I am really not sure yet.  I also got this image online.  It had no copyright info or info on the artist.

Changes to Card Back:

     I took out the trophy that I was not happy with and put this yellowish colored star and the S and W colliding in the middle of the card.  I also add the silver lettering going down to each corner spelling out sports wars.

Donations Button

Just a little addition to the site. I added a PayPal donations button. All donations will go towards the making of our first set of cards. Also, everyone who donates to our creation will receive a card available only to those who donate. Also, while doing research online last night I found this site:
www.indiegogo.com
It is a site designed to raise funds for just about anything from new inventions, projects, outings, ect... I will be placing a ad here to help gain funds for our first deck edition. This link will be coming soon. Thanks in advance.

- SRock

Beginning Game Board Design

     Before starting to design my game board I laid out all the different trading card boards that I had purchased a Wal-Mart the other day.  First I was looking at the different sizes ranging from 8 in. X 18 in. to 22 in. X 22 in.  For my board I decided that I was going to go with a four sided foldable board where the playing field that is being used measures 20 in. X 20 in..  Then was looking at the lay out of each board and the color schemes.  I have decided to go with a medium ranged blue for the home team colors and an orange for the away team, both of these I believe look good over the top of the green fields(besides  hockey).  Before I started constructing one of the game fields I had to figure out the dimension of the field, outlines for card placement.  After measuring everything out on a piece of graph paper, I started building a football playing field with a white piece of thick art board and colored construction paper.  After a few hours of gluing and cutting I had my first edition football game board.



     I actually really like the out come here.  But I forgot to put in a place for your deck of cards, a discard pile(in this game the discard pile will be call the ineligibles) and your in-play cards(in Magic these would be your traps or spell cards, here they are going to be plays or trick play cards).  This art board was also only 16 in. X 20 in., which gives me an additional 2 in. to play with on each side of the field.  Also my field calculations were a little off and the field is only 19 in. long with an inch boarder on each side.  This gives me a little bit more to play with as well.  Also each 10 yard strip of field is only an inch wide.  I think that the yard markers are a little squished so I would like to maybe shorten the end zones a little and make the field slightly bigger so there is a little bit more gap of green between the yellow.  I also think that my next board I will be making digitally on Gimp instead of trying to construct it physically and wasting product.  I will be spending the day I have off today learning more about how to use Gimp to improve my cards and play fields.  Any suggestions from my readers would be greatly appreciated in the comment form.  I hope to hear from some of you soon.

- SRock

Next post on Improved Card/Board Design.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Beginning Card Design

   I have started to design my cards a little bit.  I am doing all the design work on Gimp.  Since I do not really have any artwork yet for my cards I have just gotten some free images off the web to use on the first few cards to get everything started and underway.   After looking over all the different cards that I had bought the other day they all slightly very in size but are all in the 2.5 in. X 3.5 in. range.  The sports cards being biggest and the trading card games being slightly smaller.  I have decided to go with a card that is 2 5/16 in. X 3 3/8 in.  Here is a picture of the first card I designed.  Full of flaws but the first one.



    Sorry gotta get ready for work.  I will continue later.  Thanks for reading.

- SRock

Monday, November 21, 2011

Beginning card design cont. 2

Here is my first version of the card back. I really liked the red/ blue fade and the silhouettes of the helmet and monster. I'm not too thrilled with the trophy now that I see it on paper. I my head it looked a lot better. So i will have to tweak this one a little bit more. Also I think it needs the game name on the back.

For the front of the card, this version just seems to nice or happy. I think the background colors need to be a little darker and also the picture is just a fill in. I don't like that it isn't a monster of any kind just a typical human. Lol. Also don't like the colors of the lettering. Gonna work on tightening up these cards. Updates coming soon.

Post 1: Welcome to the creation of sports wars

    First off, thank you for checking out the blog.  This blog is being used to gain interest in my new trading card game while I'm creating it.  All comments and questions will be take into consideration while creation of sportS*Wars - The trading card game.  in concept this game came to me one day while walking through Wal-mart, I passed the trading card aisle and remember how much fun I used to have buying packs of sports cards growing up.  Standing there for a while looking over all the different card packs, brands, sports, and then there were all the role-playing game cards(Magic, Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon, etc......).  Both in one section, next to each other, I don't know why but the thought had never came to me before to cross the two.  A trading card game that somehow involved sports and monsters. DING, DING, DING, KO!!!!   sportS*Wars is created.  Now with a purpose for my shop at Wal-mart, instead of just wondering around aimlessly trying to kill some time, I grab a basket and the ideas start flowing.  Once home and at my desk with a stack of bank paper, I begging jotting down all the little ideas that are flowing through my head.  I can't even get them down on paper as fast as I am thinking them up.

     After a few hours I believe that I have the general idea for the game. Wanting a little break, I decided to go back to Wal-mart and buy a pack or two of a couple different type of trading cards.  I figured that I could use them to get some more ideas and also help me figure out a general lay-out for the cards when I get to that point.   Opening the packs brought me back years again to being a kid.  I had no clue what to expect it had been years since I had bought cards like this.  After looking through the cards and reading of the game manuals, help me again hone down my idea and get a better understanding of what I wanted my game to do.  Back to the pen and paper it went, jotting down notes and drawing little picture of potential cards, logos, names, and so on.  After hours of this I finally came up with the name Sports Wars, first because I wanted to use the 3 major sports(football, baseball, basketball), then I am still kinda up in the air about going with hockey for the 4th sport or having the 4th playing field be a battlezone, and secondly because it involves monsters and sports, so in my head that sounds like violent fun, Sports Wars.

     Next posting will be on my beginning the card design process or another card design depending on how fast I learn how to make better graphics using gimp.  Hopefully you guys are signing up to follow my blog and also please share it with your friends on facebook, twitter, etc..  Once my first batch of cards are made followers will receive a free bonus card available only to followers of this blog.  Thanks again.