A story about the history of Dungeon Poker, and its visual appearance and graphics – where it all began
In the picture: the Blue Prince bets, and one of the players needs a pain hook to survive. This was such a long time ago that we cannot quite recall, which characters were in the play. We still played with our own cardboard cards.
We had the idea to write a blog about the history of the visual appearance and the graphics. We are aware of the fact that in – some board gaming circles artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted pictures are looked down at or that they may even alienate people. Or that it is a competitor to real art – as it kind of is – albeit from a slightly different angle. Dungeon Poker, in its entirety, is a rather unique hobbyist-made project in the field of graphical design and in art assisted by artificial intelligence. In this blog, the process that was required to get to the point where the graphics are at stage they now are at publication is uncovered.
The production of Dungeon Poker started in the year 2017, when the first version was made to the bachelor party of our friend. The cards were bullet points written on cardboard we had cut ourselves. However, we noticed that the idea worked and we had to advance it. The game required illustrations.
As the years passed, we started to include pictures we and our friends had drawn ourselves, which we used in the first illustrated prototypes. However, these pictures did not quite match what we envisioned when it comes to their style and quality. The picture above contains two of the oldest monsters, whose mechanics have remained unchanged from the beginning – only their visual appearance has changed. The encounter card in the lower part, on the other hand, have changed quite a bit even mechanically.
In the picture above there is the “Baron” who is still around, and whose outward appearance has been impressive from the beginning – in a crude way. When making the game accessible, we have been forced to adjust the Baron’s style, game mechanics, and story slightly toward a more appropriate direction… you will hear more about the Baron later!
When various picture editing tools utilizing artificial intelligence started to appear in the 2020s, we reached a new threshold in our process. We started to design the graphics of the game ourselves, partially manually (MS Paint, Photoshop, etc.) and partially by using artificial intelligence particularly when it comes to the actual “art”.
We still asked our friends / graphic designers to draw some pictures for us to evaluate, whether it is possible to have a version on the marker containing drawings made by real people from the scratch. Because we know that after all, art drawn from the scratch is at the end of day, art drawn from the scratch.
When the year 2024 arrived, the game was already so far that we presented it to few Finnish board game companies. They liked the idea but eventually decided that their resources were not sufficient to publish the game, as it would be quite a large project and they were busy with other projects. Especially when it came to graphics, the game was still lacking, and did not please our eyes, or those of the board game companies. However, they believed in our idea and gave us tips and pointers to develop the game and in finding partners. This -resulted into a brief “seeking to build steam again -phase”, as our hopes of finding a publisher were not realized even if we got so close.
Above, few cards from the time we presented the game to the board game companies. The cards already started to resemble playing cards, but the implementation was severely lacking. It must be noted that our game is very visual. The amount of illustrations and graphics required is immense. There are over 200 cards, and a 36 page rule book, the game box, the playing mat – all of which include a substantial amount of graphical elements.
Because we did not get a publisher, but we had strong faith in our idea, we decided that we must do it ourselves. We, and particularly I, had a clear vision on what the game should look like. So we started making the game using AI-assisted picture editing. I have done several graphical design projects in my life, so I did not consider this impossible. Also, grabbing impossible-seeming projects by the horns is not foreign to me.
At the same time, we made inquiries into the possibility of using a professional artist, but it turned out to be completely impossible both when it comes to the schedule and the cost. Also, the lack of certainty, compared with the resources we had to invest, in coming up with a result that we would have approved, did not seem sensible.
When the new cards started rolling out of the design, we became even more convinced that we can do this and this is actually the only way we can make the game look like what we envisioned using the resources we had.
Above, one of our favorite cards both graphically and by game mechanics – the encounter card “Reckless charge”.
We then made the decision that we will continue making the graphics ourselves. After this (and before), we have spent thousands of hours during the few years in honing the graphics. It is not an automatic process at all. Each card has been thought out numerous times (there are dozens of design versions of each card), and they consist of many small bits (for – example, all the cards have same borders, but in different colors – to achieve an unified look). In addition, hundreds of hours have been spent on editing the pictures, changing the palette, removing the backgrounds, and adding them to the other graphics of the game. In addition, it has been important that each picture corresponds to the vision we had about each character, monster or treasure. This has probably been the most challenging part, and it is possible to improve on it in the future.
The visual appearance of the cards has been the single most challenging part in making Dungeon Poker. However, it must be noted that we have, at the same time, built and fine-tuned the mechanics, balanced the character, and developed our rule book, which certainly is the second largest endeavor in making the game. The rule book version 751 was finally accepted for print. The graphics and the visual appearance of the game has always gone along, during the history of the game, with the other development and it has never been a separate part of the process. Some ideas have been left out, because the “vision” has simply not materialized in a way that would graphically satisfy us.
Above, also one of our favorites, the player character “Gnome Artificer”.
There are five different versions of our game with different graphics, which we ordered as prototypes and played during the years. This means that for four times we have ended up doing the entire graphical design over, because the previous version did not correspond with the vision we had about what the game should look like. At the same time, we have always updated the cards and the rule book with the newest changes in game mechanics Now the last version has been approved both by us and our game manufacturer Panda Manufacturing by their stringent quality standards. 😉
We are well aware that all the graphics in our game are not perfect. There are some cards, whose illustrations are “ok” by our standards, but these have all been marked for at least minor revisions for the next edition. Nevertheless, we are very happy with the general look and quality we have achieved. And anyway, we also feel that there are some cases where we have completely nailed the combination of the theme and the illustration. Artificial Intelligence is now, and in the future, present everywhere around us, but it does not make things ready for us. Rather, it makes many things possible. There is an enormous amount of handiwork behind the process. At the end of the day, we feel that the game looks just like we envisioned it should look over 5 years ago, or even better.
We greatly value the work of real artists, sketchers, and graphic designers. This version includes that work, requiring artistic vision, along with the hours spent with artificial intelligence.
In the future, if Dungeon Poker is successful, we plan on releasing a version, where all the art is drawn by hand. It might be named “Exclusive Art Edition”. Until then, please enjoy our thousands hours of work with making the heroes and abominations of Dungeon Poker, and making them look like they are. Or, can you seriously claim that the countenance of the happy mining magnate Sir Nobble is not stunning! It cannot be questioned who has the biggest pouch. 😉
Proudly presented by: Tuukka and the whole Dungeon Poker team
