Today’s comic was a lot of fun to draw. When people ask me what I want to do after Penny Arcade I always say “draw children’s books”. It’s a chance to try some new stuff and loosen up in a way that I just don’t feel comfortable doing with Gabe and Tycho.
When I started doing my sketches for this piece I realized it was going to be much harder than I anticipated. Simplifying something as detailed as a Titan for the purpose of a kids book was actually really hard for me. It was a fun challenge though. trying to figure out what parts of the Titan define it and need to be kept. As well as what parts I can lose and still have it look like a Titan.
The last frame is probably my favorite. Even after the first sketch I did I knew I was gonna love this drawing. Trust me it doesn't always work that way.
Speaking of my Sketchbook, some of you might find this interesting. A while back I mentioned that I think in Photoshop when talking about designing Thornwatch. At the recent game night I did I had a few people ask me about the early stages of the game. When I was first thinking about it was it all in Photoshop? The answer is no but it was in a sketchbook.
I have never designed a game before or talked with other game designers about it. I don’t know if this is normal or not. But for me I had to start by drawing the cards.
I had to know what the game looked like and the only way I could picture it was to actually draw it.
I have pages and pages like this of various ideas. Some of them are still in the game today but not many.
Jamie surprised folks at the Snapdoodle game night by bringing Thornwatch to play. She was able to run two games of it and I had a great time grilling the people who played after they were done. Did you like this card? what was your favorite part? what did you hate? what was confusing?
We will be doing another public test of Thornwatch on International Tabletop day (April 5th) at Card Kingdom. We will be there all day running games. Sign ups will be available on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the event in the Tournament Room. We only have a few tables and there will be tons of other games there but we want to show as many people Thornwatch as we can so come down early and sign up to play.
-Gabe out
