Making Gang Up! part 2

   

Having found the right references, the general style was set. Now it was time to work towards a first prototype of a card. The card consits out of two parts that really have to work together;

• the card design itself,
  
• and the illustrations that go on it.

The card design is very important for the gameplay, but at the same time it's just a background for the story we want to tell with the illustrations. So after formulating a general plan on the card design, I started with a first prototype illustration, in this case a character; Kingpin Jim.

Step 1. I usually start with a sketch on paper, often in my sketchbook. Then I scan the drawing and tweak it in photoshop. This is also the time I look up extra references, so I can refine details, like the gun in this case. First I gave Jim a tommy-gun, but it didn't fit his size, so I changed it for a WW1 LMG, the bern MK2. Then I tested some different colors for his suit (which are strongly determined by the background color of the card, but more about that later) When I was done I printed the sketch on A3 paper, refined it and colored it again.

   

As you might have noticed, I like to keep the sketchy/ lively feeling in my drawings. In the past I inkted my work, which made it really stiff. And it was also extra time-consuming, which is a big burden when for example making comics.

Step 2. Now I had made one character that we liked. But how does he relate to other characters? To really make sure I made the right choice here, I had to come up with a few more characters of the same gang. Note; although 'gangs' in the game can have any mix of members, it's just easier for storytelling/design to imagine some group origin for the characters (like also shown in the movie). So I sketched these guys.

   

Now I felt confident enough that this would become a good mix of characters. Last I refined a few more of them; so I would have enough material to work with while designing the cards themselves.

From there we continued Read more about it in part 3!

You can find our project here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/r…

-Robin

*copyrights of the references belong to respective owners