by mmrempen
I'm working on my filmmaking game (WIP here) and I'm a bit stumped with my player boards.Here's the rough utilitarian prototype board I've been using for playtesting so far, to give you an idea of the pretty simple purpose it serves mechanically; each player has two unique action slots that only they can use on their turn (the "refresh" action is the same across all players). In the future I might also add a VP track for a competitive version, but for now this is it:
If you have a look at the WIP, the concept of the main game board is that it's a bit of a mix between a top-down view of a film studio / back lot, framed by close-up elements that look kind of like documents and boards which hold various cards (I guess it's a lot like Viticulture in that way).
So I want the player boards of course to be in line with that somehow. Originally my idea was that the player boards would look like a top-down view of the inside of a star trailer, with artwork that kind of mirrored whatever action there is (for example the "rewrite" action could be next to the table in the trailer, where there's an open script and a pen).
However I quickly realized that my art skills are pretty meagre when it comes to integrating text and imagery. I basically taught myself to draw through my web comic Itchy Feet, where text goes on top and art goes on bottom, and rarely do the two meet. So although I can draw a top-down trailer, I can't figure out how to place the action slots in a way that doesn't look super busy.
So I thought maybe a closeup of a table would be easier, with items representing each action, but as you can see from this rough sketchup, my problem with imagery and text clashing is still on display:
Ugh. It's just busy and gross. I find this really frustrating. I want the artwork to be clean and simple, and the icons and text to be clear and readable. I could just do a minimalist board like the top image above, spruce it up a bit, but I feel like I can deliver something much more interesting. But I don't want "interesting" to get in the way of players' smooth gameplay.
Any advice? Ideas? Any good player boards or similar art/graphic work that I could look at for reference?
Thanks!