Concept wise the cards in our game owe much to the ‚Zombicide‘ game and so it seemed fitting to start there when it came to design.  For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with Guillotine Games‘ Kickstarter breaking phenomenon, Zombicide is a collaborative board game where the players ’search‘ for equipment by drawing cards.  These can give a survivor’s chances a boost with the addition weapons or artefacts, sometimes having to be combined to increase the value or strength of the item.  The cards might also have an impact on game play, sometimes for the worse!  Above is a typical example of an equipment card and as I was reviewing them, I was suddenly struck by the black, red & white colour scheme, which echoes the German Imperial war flag design and had been a consideration when thinking about palette for this adventure.  As a result, I shamelessly stole payed homage to the card design and added our theme to their existing background.

I was aware of the box art for ‚Escape from Colditz‘ board game and Action Man set and was channeling these themes, along with the Commando comics of my youth.  I was interested to discover that the ‚Escape from Colditz‘ game also came with equipment cards and that theirs had historical information relating to the various escape attempts.  Again this was something we had considered and so will be looking to add facts about the battle to ours; after all our core goal is education. 

With a design concept in place, I thought it only right to try out a few ideas for actual cards.  I have had to learn a few new skills along the way, but quite excited at the results.  Obviously there is a need for consistency, particularly when applying fonts and filters, but these examples are done to show a variety of ideas for discussion rather than a finished article.   I imagined any historical information at the base of the card and the light colour on red, seems to work well, making us realise that this is relevant, but separate information from the game itself. 

 Another concern was how do we show that some elements can be combined?  A simple numerical solution perhaps?  There is a lot of information on this set of cards and I wonder if all is necessary?  As always, these are just my thoughts and any additional considerations about them or their development can only be helpful so please don’t hold back.