In October of 2019, I was contacted by Indie Boards and Cards to work on a new casual game they had just finished. I was brought on to be the Art Director and Graphic Designer for Magic Money, a quick, fantasy inspired auction game where players have access to infinite amounts of magic money.
The client hired artist Kriz Villacis with my input and consultation on the style and direction for the game. I guided Kriz through 22 Illustrations. As the Art Director, I provided the reference material, basic pose concepts, and the occasional sketch and redraw to help the illustrator land on the target style.
The warm, approachable art style of the game was heavily influenced by titles like Pokémon, Hilda, Gravity Falls, and classic Disney animation. We wanted the creature illustrations to feel like a colorful Audubon guide to magical creatures with just enough personality to feel more engaging and less academic.
Concept sketches for the card UI. The final selection wound up being the center design.
For the graphic design portion of the project, we had a few discussions on how to approach delivering the theme and experience to the players. While Magic Money is an abstract game, my personal approach to design is always to find a solid narrative to inform the visuals of a game.
Without a solid, believable narrative, unifying the various components of a game becomes difficult. Player engagement also drops without a core narrative hook to sell them on the experience and inform the players HOW they should behave when playing a game.
Without a solid, believable narrative, unifying the various components of a game becomes difficult. Player engagement also drops without a core narrative hook to sell them on the experience and inform the players HOW they should behave when playing a game.
The card deck is an abstracted magical bestiary of fantastic creatures. I wanted the player to feel like they were turning the pages of a book as they revealed a new card from the deck.
Each card can have a number of different properties: Horns, Half Hearts, and Wings. Collecting sets increases a player's score at the end of the game.
For the final concept, the client decided to run with the idea that all of these creatures were hiding in a magical bestiary. Like a catalog of magical creatures. I drafted numerous runes and magic circles inspired by alchemist writings and ancient magical tomes from the middle ages. I then used those components to create rich textures underneath the art to keep the style minimalist, but provide some level of theme and personality to help tie them into the other components.
The core mechanic of the game is wagering infinite amounts of money to win various magical creatures in the game. Since the players were cast in the roll of wizards in a fantasy environment, I wanted to really sell the experience of them holding magical, reusable paper for their envelopes, so I used the same runic patterns on the card deck here.
Players used the small Bidding Envelopes to write down their bid for the round. They tracked those bids on a magical Ledger for reference at the end of the game.
Magic Money is currently scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2020.
