Splinterlands: A Year of Card Design

So I've been looking at the card designs recently.

Over the past few days, I've needed to dig up old files and templates to tackle the new stuff that's coming up soon. As I look at these archived assets, I'm amazed at how far Splinterlands has come.

A lot of these files are well over a year old. It brings back memories of all the different possible directions. All the different ideas that were being tossed at the wall.

Some of these images have been shared in the past. Others have not.

I thought it would be fun to hop in a time machine together. See how things have evolved!

Let's start with the very, very first card design. No stats, no abilities. Just a name in a brown box, haha. Some of you may remember buying these. This was back before the game was even a game.

See the old Death symbol? It used to be a gravestone (instead of a skull).

I got involved after the first card design was already finalized. I was tasked with using this existing template to create new versions of the card and eventually make the gold foil versions. At the time, I felt we could do much better.

However, looking back at things now, I'm glad that we stuck with the original look. It feels very "classic". Very retro. And that's a good thing.

Speaking of the original cards, this was one of the older collection screen designs.

Some of the elements are still around today.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the Life symbol used to be a "wing". And there was no Dragon splinter. It was the Gold splinter.

In fact, the Gold splinter had a gold frame.

Eventually, that idea was replaced with Dragons. And "gold splinter" cards became "gold foil" cards...

As you can see from the image, it was around this time that we decided to start experimenting with how Stats and Abilities would work. How would they be displayed on the card? What will be the game dynamics?

Here are some concepts that I proposed.

Little by little, we fine-tuned what worked and what didn't work. I'm not going to share every single mock-up and concept, but there was a LOT. Different looking cards. Different looking stats.

Eventually, we ended up with the design that is currently being used for Beta.

I'm pleased with where we landed. It has character, and it has a fantasy vibe to it.

I think the collaborative process was a success!

You'll be happy to know that we're never satisfied. We never stop improving. We never stop wanting to push the boundaries of what's possible.

The designs. The website. The game. Everything. It's only going to get better and better.

I'm sure we'll all look back a year from now and think that Beta is so "old school".

Such are the joys of the game industry.