Wanted to make a short broadcast about designing assets and graphics for games that aren’t directly related to gameplay.
Games like Call of Cthulhu or even Hunt-A-Killer’s murder mystery subscription boxes are great inspiration for graphic design assets. They rely heavily on diegetic or in-world assets to provide info and clues on what’s happening in the world. Newspaper clippings, maps, etc. It’s always exciting to hand-over a wax-sealed letter and see the table’s eyes light up.
But since we so often have to play remotely, I find myself with a ton of physical props and that feeling of uploading a screenshot into chat just doesn’t quite feel the same. Even so, I love designing graphics as part of my game-prep routine.
Like this one, you might have found in a 90’s auto mag when getting your tires rotated.
Where I Abuse the Noise Filter
My go to is making ads to pitch new games or sessions. They can set and establish tone, provide a blurb about the game, identify the system we’re going to use, and how we’re going to play. Usually over Discord voice but I’ll occasionally get a chance to throw in a little table icon for the rare in-person game.
These are usually just pitches for my home group so I don’t know how effective they might be in swaying anyone to one adventure over another. But I’d like to think that they help build the hype for our next session.
Even if it is just dropping a .png in chat.
Designing this way acts as a great practice. I can try out new techniques, figure out how to use unfamiliar tools and resources, or experiment with different styles. Whenever a new game session corresponds with an asset pack sale, it’s a great time to test out some new brushes, texture packs, or scanned assets.
Weirdly, it also helps expand my library of SRD/compatibility marks which comes up occasionally for client work.
Talking about experimenting with different styles, a lot of my commercial work and games are very modern and sci-fi adjacent. So I don’t often get an opportunity to branch out into some of the designs commonly seen in fantasy games. Gives me a great opportunity to work with blackletter and some more trad/maximalist styles.
Maybe it’s time for a Knights of Lazarus session… Two birds and all.
Of course I also love doing the usual game ephemera: paper standees, tokens, overworld and tactical maps, ciphers, puzzles, &c. But I don’t often seen session ads so thought I’d briefly share some of mine. Even if we’ve only played two of them.
Do you do anything like this? What are some of the things you do to build up hype for your next session? Curate a playlist? Try out a new recipe?
Featured Art
Since these are only ever used for personal work I source pieces from all over so I can get the exact feel I’m looking for. I can also use them in moodboards for future licensing or custom commissions on commercial projects.
The pieces featured here are a mix of original assets, public domain pieces, and work from Anato Finnstark, Reza Afshar, and Shigeno Shūichi.
That’s it for now. Thank you for tuning into Transmissions from the Archive and hope you’re here for the next broadcast.
Newsletter Ring
Transmissions from other frequencies.
Sean and Watt talk about Why adventures beat systems.
Tim from Old Dog Games talks about the gorgeously designed Deathmatch Island and his new game, Blades ‘68.
Not technically newsletters but…
Joe DeSimone announced the winners of The Awards, an independent tabletop game award and…
Emiel Boven started a new blog called Quantum Ogre (solid name) and shares how they like their games, which is a great idea. I think everyone should write about that.