Since becoming unemployed and realising that my portfolio could use some expanding, I've been looking for a project with the right scope, as I won't be able to create an epic ARPG in about a month. A few months ago, I discovered Scoundrel and had quite a blast playing it, but I realised that constantly having cards lying around and rearranging things on my desk just to play a quick round was becoming annoying.
After doing some thorough searching, I realised that there weren't any polished digital versions of the game around, so I decided to create my own.
So, I'd like to introduce you to Scoundrel, the digital version!
Okay, okay, okay, yeeees, it's still a prototype, and there's a lot left to do, but I think it looks promising!
For starters, the card art is missing. It would also be nice to have artwork for the buttons and drop zones, as well as a different background and so on. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
In the beginning, I had a nice idea in mind: two monster suits, one for Brutes & Beasts and the other for Undead & Evil. Together with potions and weapons, that would mean four different backgrounds. However, while working on the sword background and getting quite far in the process, LibreSprite crashed, and I hadn't saved in a while. To spare myself any further pain and get some placeholders onto the digital canvas, I ended up with the following weapons:
I really liked the template, to be honest. The golden decorations give it that treasure-you-might-find-in-a-dungeon kind of vibe.
As it was getting late in the evening, I decided to skip the artwork for now and focus on the templates. I wanted to be able to play at least one round without having to guess the values. While preparing the remaining templates, I noticed a few issues that I'd like to share.
As you might notice, the 10 and the dark suit are barely noticeable against the dark background, and the 10 barely fits into the frame. On top of that, with the current font, (Kenney Pixel↗), long names like "Phoenix Tincture" don't fit at all.
With a few ideas on how to fix these issues, I'll have to rethink my current design approach. I'll probably have to ditch the dark blue and gold frame and perhaps go for more conventional playing cards, like Balatro does. If I still want to keep some kind of frame, I could use it to colour-code the different card types, as I do with my current placeholders.
I've got my work cut out for me, and I haven't even started exploring my ideas for a building ontop of that that prototype and turning Scoundrel into a deckbuilder.
So stay tuned!