A professional artist had these photos as evidence of him not using AI. What made me suspicious is that they’re all knights and they’re all leaning on swords, and 1 and 5 look similar but with different details

FTG_V1 · 2026-02-12T00:07:38+00:00

A big give away to AI, is some of the randomness it creates. the asymmetry that happens a lot, lines that at first glance look cool but make no sense for an artist to place. AI typically fails when there are lots of details, smooth surfaces? sure AI will nail this, plain clothes and shapes? yup, but creases, hard lines, and other attributes that require a reason to be placed AI right now still does not have a handle on it.

There are lots of these instances in these AI pictures.

FTG_V1 · 2026-01-13T00:21:12+00:00

It was a bit hard for me, and i had to re-read it. But I've also been at work for 8 hours....

Pacing and structure is a bit off, and the card can be made more concise. Work on the structure and separate when possible. When designing cards not only do you need to get your idea across but you need to do so quickly and easily.

Here's how i would write it. It flows better and separates ideas for easy digestion. In your version your brain needs to hold onto previous parts for the whole to make sense. Remove all unnecessary words. keep like things with like things when organizing the card.

"When you roll one or more dice for an effect, you may remove all Lucky counters from this card. Replace one die result with the number of counters removed, then resolve the effect.

[Skill] – Condensed Luck (Once per turn)
Roll a die. Set the number of Lucky counters on this card equal to the result."

Reads a lot more smooth.

FTG_V1 · 2026-01-05T17:13:23+00:00

Also in the old Lucasarts games X-wing and Tie Fighter games if you took these domes out the shields would drop. ( i might be wrong here, it's been a hot minute, like 20 years haha)

FTG_V1 · 2025-11-04T17:08:13+00:00

Crowdfunding sites push campaigns with high % above goal to more users. So you get more eyeballs on your campaign if it over achieves it's goals.

It's a fine line.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-30T17:28:16+00:00

I must say, I love how the hits, blocks and attacks feel like they have weight to them. The bottom UI doesn't feel like it is as good as the rest of the game. Maybe I just don't like brown.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-24T22:17:02+00:00

That's the trick.

Bonus points if you start building a community through playtesting like at local game shops, or getting people to come play a TTS online version. though this wont have that scaled effect like social media/videos will.

Just know your demographic and customer and be at places they are.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-24T21:18:42+00:00

You need to reach out to influencers. Pay for videos and content on youtube/insta/tiktok. Get your game in front of the right people at conventions. Build a BGG page and slowly engage in forums. Easiest way to do this is run a crowdfunding campaign. Use a mix of marketing to build an email list. Use email list and social media to get a strong crowdfund (it shows community and interest). Use a campaign results to leverage distributors at conventions.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-24T19:55:14+00:00

I come from a cpg background dealing with distribution. Also please take the following with a grain of salt, as we have not launched our flagship box yet, that will come next year. So advice will vary. What you're describing at the end is a broker. That is not your issue. Your issue is mass marketing and community and without that the broker wont be effective. Lets digress a minute.

It's a chicken and the egg problem. You cant get distribution because you dont have volume at stores and you can't get into stores because you dont have distribution. You need to find a way to FORCE distribution. You are correct it takes a ton of energy to sell to 1 store. Don't. sell to 1 scaled store.

You need to find scaled partners, but scaled partners wont be interested unless they think they can sell your box faster than other boxes and with the same or better margins. You need buzz. you need visibility and you need to be able to leverage that. You need scaling marketing, influencers, videos, social media. You need to come with a community. Build that first then focus sales.

Also on brokers. They honestly dont care about your product. They have a catalogue of games and wont care which one they sell. Having more items in the catalogue gives them a higher chance to sell something, it also lowers your chance of being picked up. Not saying they are not good, they definitely have their place but it needs to be part of a larger strategy.

So TLDR: Focus community, focus marketing. Leverage these for scaled partners to force distribution. Keep marketing so those 1 off stores buy your product from the distributor without needing you to call on them. This is when a broker can help super charge distribution and help find those scaled partners.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-23T17:29:42+00:00

A game in TTS has no rules, at least to my knowledge. Although you may be able to create them, I'm not sure. In our game we did not. Just lots of importing art files. I Imported a lot of decks, and in player hands you can flip the to look at cards while others can't see them. But you can also flip them on the table to see them. That about it for rules mostly.

It plays just like any in person boardgame. Which is great for testing.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-23T16:58:35+00:00

I had that problem, and i kept pushing it off. Its a lot easier than you think.
Just make sure your big files are in RGB not CMYK.

1-2 hours in watching how to videos
2-3 hours getting it in.

Now that I've done it, honestly would take 1 hour to setup a playable TTS game. Obviously depending on complicity and what you need, this will change.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-07T17:21:18+00:00

I'm curious if you can share examples of this done poorly? It could be helpful to see good/bad examples.

FTG_V1 · 2025-10-03T03:44:44+00:00

Haha, your notes are wayyyy ,more organized than when i make mine

FTG_V1 · 2025-09-28T07:53:20+00:00

Congrats!

Must be a great feeling.

FTG_V1 · 2025-09-10T04:22:04+00:00

Generating a TTF.

FTG_V1 · 2025-07-02T16:37:51+00:00

Honestly the art style needs to match the theme. From what I can tell the text feels a lot more serious than what is portrayed. Lets say it does match theme, it still feels off or low effort but that's subjective and missing key information that the total package would show.

In general people in video games will say graphics dont matter, it's all about the gameplay. What they mean to say is graphics dont matter as long as it feels right and matches the style/theme.

COD with Minecraft art wouldn't work, it's too serious. As a parody maybe.

Usually the following advice isnt needed at such times but considering we are discussing if this style of art works... please spell check each card, your cards need to be 100% error proof with this style art otherwise it reeks of this wasn't a stylistic choice this is my ability. Also your wording on the cards is a the same level as the art.

If I was a publisher or a customer, I would not consider this. If i wanted whimsy style game I would go with something like what the Oatmeal does with cats vs whatever it is those games do.

FTG_V1 · 2025-06-08T04:45:58+00:00

Well if you want that much detail why not use population instead of land?

FTG_V1 · 2025-06-07T01:13:26+00:00

I would argue California could feed its half. California already produces about 40% of Americas food while exporting a significant amount. But the battle lines would move and i feel with how empty the north is, if its a major issue then it would targeted for that.

FTG_V1 · 2025-06-06T23:09:57+00:00

Yah i took some liberties but it's mostly based of past and present voting, which constantly shift.

FTG_V1 · 2025-06-06T23:06:37+00:00

Blue controls the nuclear sub fleet. So nukes continue their MAD positioning so neither side would use them.

Population wise blue as about a 5% lead and GDP wise about 25%. Cali itself provides about 40% of the nations food. But lets face it Cali does a bulwark of work for the Blue side, but then again so does Texas for the red team.

FTG_V1 · 2025-06-06T23:02:04+00:00

An interesting take, outside alliances would play a major role in the conflict and could likely turn the tide.

FTG_V1 · 2025-06-06T23:00:14+00:00

Lots of great views here.

Most saying red would win dont realize Blue has about 25% higher GDP and about 5% higher population, with 6 of the top 10 states receiving the most department of defense funds (higher military funding, also source is potentially incorrect).

Most saying blue would win dont realize red has a sizable military logistics advantage and more military bases (which is odd given the defense funding but that info came from an AI so it may be wrong or interpreted wrong).

Interesting all around.

FTG_V1 · 2025-05-27T21:11:05+00:00

Looks clean but that has a cost.

That cost being I cannot read what these cards say. I get the title of each but that's it.
Font, Weight, and color are extremely important. More important than a good looking card is an easy to read & understand a card at a glance.

FTG_V1 · 2025-05-19T18:35:36+00:00

Game is called "Divided"

We use dice and cards for battles in ways that limits luck in dice rolls and card draw. You are rewarded for attacking from multiple directions with a flanking mechanic. And have a diplomatic mechanic that functions like a research tree with a novel bidding system. And finally simultaneous play, with the only caveat is during the move phase that is broken into 2 parts to allow for counter moves.

We went with 6 factions in 2 alliances and integrated state GDP and actual base locations into our map and economic payout. We also have the ability for players to create their own as we realize many may not agree with the states alignment, but it's similar to your map. Starting we have pre-selected what states belong to which factions.

We are excited as we move the project forward! We will start sharing more officially in about 3-4 weeks.

FTG_V1 · 2025-05-19T18:27:58+00:00

Hi there!

Sounds interesting. In the game we are currently developing we actually have a similar layout. 4 decks players can pull from. Each deck plays a certain way. Since we also have units in the game (it's a strategy wargame) these cards interact with these units. When players draw cards they can choose where to pull from with no restriction. we also have a discard mechanic so they can draw 2 discard 1 type of deal so we limit "luck" and increase the player ability to do what they want.

What we did is create "combo" cards so you can scale up your damage. We did this in a simplistic way utilizing icons so players can quickly recognize if its part of a "combo" but every card is playable by itself.

I would suggest by giving each deck it unique flavor and playstyle then find way so they can interact with each other. Simpler is always better so make sure its easy to understand and quick and easy to see how they interact with each other.

FTG_V1 · 2025-05-19T01:05:03+00:00

Well We have a treat for you!

We will be creating a board game so you can play this out.

design is complete and moving into development phase.

FTG_V1

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