Updated Book Cover Direction

As I mentioned in the last post, there has been a lot of work done in the art department for Masquerade. Not only in the card art but the book cover design as well.

Our graphic designer Elliott Lutton has taken a minimalism approach to the cover for the novel, and I can't say I'm not pleased with the outcome.

The new book cover almost takes a "Godfather" approach, using the color theme I think suited Masquerade the most, red, white, and black. The crown hints at the business of royalty present in the book while the single drop of blood gives a small window into the bloodshed that is present throughout the story.

Elliott is also working on the back of the book (though that's still a work in progress), the chapter headers, and has promised to look into doing new design work for the actual cards.

Look forward to seeing more art from these guys!

More Art!

Here we go with another update from our wonderful card artist Deanna, this time with 4 more and 2 on the way for the week!

Rollin Hodgkin: A wolf-masked assassin under the employment of Count Wymund. In the book, he's the most dangerous assassin in the city and sides with Newgate and Mary for most of the story. In the game, he's a one hit wonder that can do 12 damage, killing any card in the game.

Gunter Newgate: The second protagonist in the book and the most famous character in Masquerade, Newgate is a veteran soldier haunted by his past demons. He hides this fear by being strict and training himself to exhaustion. In the game, he's another powerhouse, being the card with the best overall stats (8 attack and 8 defense).

Jop Carnell: The best information broker in Avalot, Carnell is a small wizardy man who likes to boast that he knows everything. Underneath his arrogant attitude is a sleazy politician who will switch sides in an instant. He has high defense in the game.

Lance Wymund: A young count who has inherited his father's riches. Wymund is a resourceful, handsome, and charismatic young nobleman who believes in supporting the lower class rather than abusing them, like most nobles do. In the game, he is a weak card until the King or Queen is in play.

More card art will be updated as it is given to me, as always. Stay tuned next time when I start posting the new cover art from our graphic designer, Elliott!

The New Card Art

As promised in my last post, here is a preview of the new card art for Masquerade, done by the wonderful artist Deanna Vaida. These images really capture the silly yet dark feeling I wanted Masquerade to portray.

Baron Radolf Maynard: The smug, greedy nobleman who values money over all else.

Queen Beatrice Dacre: The powerful queen of Avalot, her motives are as questionable as her heritage with a rivaling nation.

King Alric Dacre: The wise ruler of Avalot. He is seen as a kindhearted king among the nobles, but the commoners have mixed opinions about him.

Sampson the Sneak: A giant of a man, who was, at one point, Maynard's servant. He's now out for revenge, taking up the mantle of a thug under orders of a mysterious masked man.

More card images will be updated as the project goes along! More images for the new book cover should be coming up soon as well. Remember to check out Deanna's page as she's a very talented artist and will doing 60 of these images! Thanks Deanna!

Artist's Work

There has been a ton going on this week involving deals with artists and communicating with people to get the Masquerade print out there! I would like to announce to everyone that we're on schedule: the card art is on the way--and looks spectacular by the way, I'll put up files as soon as I get them--and I just finished making a deal with a graphic designer for the book art.

First draft of the new book cover

The good news of all this is we're within the range of our funding and will have plenty leftover to spare on the actual printing costs of the book/card game. The goal is still March, an official date will be announce once the final art is all in place.

There's still going to be more playtesting for the Masquerade game next week to ensure the rulebook is up to speed in terms of details so that people can actually play the game. There will also be a how-to-play video in the works for reference. This actually ties into my portfolio class...

Expect some more updates soon with new art from the card game!

Plans for the Future

Hey guys! This is an update on the blog after a little hiatus. I've been hard at work finding some artists to continue the next steps for the Masquerade update.

What about the Kickstarter, you ask? Oh. We got funded!

But I've not been celebrating though, I've been hard at work at the next few steps. Polishing the project and finding printers so we can get the game/book shipped in March. What does that entail, exactly? Well, here's the planned schedule.

January

• Finish basic edits on book and rulebook
• Find graphic designer for book cover
• Find artist for redesigning cards
• Playtest game to perfect rulebook
• Get samples from several printers for cards
• Get example of final art for cards
• Create Plague Doctor card

February

• Finish final book cover
• Finish final chapter headers
• Decide on a final printer
• Complete final edits on book and rulebook
• Get shipping addresses for Kickstarter backers
• Finalize card box
• Video tape a playtesting round and create a video for it

March

• Complete final card art and put cards together
• Get first edition cards and books printed
• Ship! (late March by the latest)

Obviously, we have a lot to do and more may be added to this list as time goes on. For now, there's a lot to do in the 10 days that remain in January. The real work is going to be February though and getting the final art in place.

I'm going to need volunteers for more playtesting in the card game before we ship, so please message me if interested!

The Last Day

It's hard to believe it, but we're on the last day of the Kickstarter.

We've come so far in the past month, it's hard to believe where we once were. I'm so happy I did this, even if the Kickstarter probably isn't going to go through this first time. The last 30 days have been some of the most enlightening and beneficial moments of the project. I've learned so much in regards to editing, marketing, building connections, and selling a product that I think this Kickstarter has been worth it.

Even to those of you who feel this project doesn't deserve to go forward, I say thank you. Thank you everyone. This has been a major learning experience in my life, both the good and the bad parts. Thank you everyone who has backed me and given me the support I've had this month. Thank you those who have given me criticism. Everything has been valuable.

I'll be posting a "plans for the future" page soon to let all the backers know where I'll be taking Masquerade next. This project is far from over.

Link to the Kickstarter

Working on the Chapter Header

If you've been following the Kickstarter updates for Masquerade (shameless link here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/708854852/masquerade), you'd know that I've recently begun my search for a graphic designer. Personally, I think I'm going to stick with a student graphic designer who'd be interested in doing the project for their capstone or such.

This includes graphic design work for both the book cover.

And the chapter headers, which are the little detailed pictures you see in a book at the start of a chapter. Similar to the drawings in the Harry Potter books.

These are the examples I have so far of each, I hope that there's a graphic designer out there who can do more with them.

In other news, I'll be holding a Kickstarter "fundraising" event at school in hopes that I can spread the word out more to my fellow classmates. You can find that event here on Facebook. (http://www.facebook.com/events/118540901647589/) There should be free food and a chance to read Masquerade's first few chapters as well as play the card game.

That's all for now, more updates as things move along and the Kickstarter days start ticking down.