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General => Tips, polls, updates => Topic started by: Jimmy V. on 26/01/16, 03:12pm

Title: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 26/01/16, 03:12pm: Hi all,

We are working on Lost Cities again! The game will benefit from all the new technology and from the tools developed for Migrato. It will also have the same screeen size as Migrato.

I have started to tell the story on Boardgamegeek.com.

Read it here: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1514096/lost-cities-makeover-behind-scene)
Title: Lost Cities makeover (Episode 2)
Post by: Jimmy V. on 27/01/16, 11:04am: Episode 2 is released. Follow the initial link!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Mike M. on 27/01/16, 01:00pm: So far so good! I love the incorporation of the actual game board! Will you be doing the panorama card art too? The art on the cards has always been a nice touch of flavor.
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 28/01/16, 11:36am: Well, the actual board game has always been there Mike. What do you mean?

You question about the panorama card art is a very good one and I don't have an answer yet. But be sure it is at the back of my mind. I'd certainly like to use more of the game art, but I am not sure how to do it. I will have to come up with a solution though.

The cards will be much bigger than currently (and I will hide the opponent's cards which will leave more space too). But will that be enough to use the original cards? Will the number be easily readable? I don't know. There might be an intermediate solution: use the original card backgrounds but not the numbers of the cards. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for your interest!

BTW, day 3 is now published. Have a good read!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Mike M. on 28/01/16, 01:29pm: Great reading. I am excited by this because, as you already know, Lost Cities is the primary game I play here. I hope the panoramic art can make it on, but I understand these things aren't easy and won't stop playing if it can't make it on! I have always liked that the expedition cards have had the 'object of desire' and the 10 have the same object in full view. Just a really cool flavor aspect of the game.

As for the original game board, I suppose it has always been there, but in the new version it looks more complete? I don't know if I can make sense of this.
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 28/01/16, 03:49pm: Mike,

Have you looked at the illustrations carefully? Did you notice that there is actually only one big image, zoomed in differently depending on the number? It took me a while to realize this.

Regarding the board you are right. To save some space, I only displayed the central bit in current version. The new version will probably benefit from the extra pixels. Hopefully, i will be able to show the objects that float around the board.
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Mike M. on 28/01/16, 08:15pm: Yes, that is what I mean by 'panoramic art'. If you overlap them you get one image that gets closer to the object on the 10 card. And the object on the 10 card is a picture hanging on the wall for the $$$ (expedition) cards.

Point illustrated on link: http://boardgaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Lost-Cities-card-theme.jpg
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 29/01/16, 09:20am: Yes, it would be nice to use those, but it is not easy. Great would be to be able to scroll the background (I have the big images in one piece) but I doubt I can make that.

You enticed me to start moving artwork around. I have still a problem of space. The new size is only 46 pixels higher. That does not leave me with much more useful space actually. The new size is much wider but for Lost Cities layout, it is not of much help. It is next to impossible use the space on the right anyway. It is too small to display the hand or anything useful. There is nothing to display vertically in Lost Cities.

I am wondering if I am not going to display the player's hand below the actual playing zone...

As for the board, I don't like the wood background too much. I might get rid of it.

I've just posted a few images in the BGG thread soon.

Feel free all to give feedback as it will help me figure out the best layout!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 29/01/16, 10:41am: Another interesting question that will come up. Can you let me know our thoughts about the game atmosphere (=music).

Do you like it or is it too creepy? Too scary?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Mike M. on 29/01/16, 01:23pm: Let me start by saying that you are doing a GREAT job with all of this. I can't really think of a way to do it better and I know what you are doing is really tough! I just like to voice my likes of the game in hopes they can become reality.

As for the wood background... get rid of it if you don't like it! Or moreover, get rid of it if it isn't enhancing other aspects of the game.

As for the music: Honestly for me it isn't a huge issue. I find the music a bit odd but I spend most of my time playing while listening to other music or I am at work with no sound at all!
Title: Lost Cities makeover (day 5)
Post by: Jimmy V. on 01/02/16, 02:17pm: Hi all,

The next episode (day 5) is ready. Follow the initial link!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 03/02/16, 06:34pm: Day 7 was published today.

Good progress made.

And you'll see more tomorrow. Visually,we are getting there.
Title: Lost Cities makeover (day 8)
Post by: Jimmy V. on 04/02/16, 11:01am: Day 8 published.

The latest screenshot may be final.

I will now (re)work on the tutorial.

Have fun!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Stephanie E. on 04/02/16, 10:19pm: wow,. looks really good!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 05/02/16, 02:59pm: Thanks Stephanie!

Day 9 published.
Title: Lost Cities makeover (day 10)
Post by: Jimmy V. on 08/02/16, 10:44am: Day 10 published
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 11/02/16, 10:25am: Lost Cities makeover - Work in progress (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1514096/lost-cities-makeover-behind-scene-work-progress)

Day 11, 12 and 13 published.

See how it goes! We are getting close to the end.

Holiday is coming for me. You will have to wait a bit more to play the new Lost Cities. If you are interested in trying it out before everyone else, please get in touch!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Mike M. on 16/02/16, 05:13pm: Updates? Curious more than anything!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 16/02/16, 06:24pm: Hey, hey, holiday time for me.

But it has improved again before I went. There is now a distinct image for every expedition button. It is nice but there is a tiny problem : the image hide the numbers already placed in the expedition so I'll have to figure out something. Either offset the button a bit or make it transparent...

See you soon!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 07/03/16, 05:54pm: Final words on the Lost Cities makeover published on the Boardgamegeek thread (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1514096/lost-cities-makeover-behind-scene-work-progress)

Enjoy the read!
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Lisa W. on 09/03/16, 12:58am: Quote from: Mike M. on 27/01/16, 01:00pm
So far so good! I love the incorporation of the actual game board! Will you be doing the panorama card art too? The art on the cards has always been a nice touch of flavor.
I agree with mike why not make it like the real board game with cards
Title: Re: Lost Cities makeover behind the scene
Post by: Jimmy V. on 09/03/16, 11:03am: Hi Lisa,

Well it it a matter of space. Displaying the real cards with their actual artwork would require a lot of space (otherwise you would not see much). The figures would also need to cover the art for readability.

The middleground I chose was to display art in the expeditions. At some point, I thought I would make the background move every time a card is played in an expedition. I am still not sure if this would look good. I may try some day. But as you guess, this is yet one or two days of work.

Thanks for taking the time to post. Very much appreciated.