At Arms Length

As I mentioned previously, I planned on using my personal arms (unofficial, and currently only a shield without foundation, supporters, mantle, or crest as the basis for my custom Settlers of Catan logo.

Described in layman's terms, my personal arms would be a two swans facing each other, swimming on rolling water, above a broad white stripe on which rests a signle purple ring, all atop a purple field - the field being the entire face of the shield.

To customize it for my Settlers of Catan build, I removed the white stripe and purple ring, and instead put a rising sun at the base of the shield.

I think it looks pretty cool, and will look really sharp on the card backs. As an aside, the card backs, are another element I have to think about; there are multiple types of cards in the game that will each need a distinct card back design. It'll probably be a simple matter of using different background colors behind the shield and whatever other embellishments I decide to put on the card backs.

In any case, have a look see:

Isn't it Iconic?

The full set of resource icons are now complete, they have a consistent look to them, and I'm very proud of them.

Here they all are together:



Now, compare these new custom icons to the icon set that I used as initial and primary inspiration:



The wood icon is the only one that really looks remotely like that first inspirational icon set's counterpart. All of the other icons ended up being drawn from scratch using other images as inspirations or as starting points.

I think I feel all the better for having diverged almost completely from that inspirational icon set.

What The Flock Is Going On Here?!

I like my little sheep icon, but it just seemed to be missing something. It turns out what it was missing was a thicker coat of wool. I started playing around with the sheep icon to see how it looked with a fatter, thicker wool growth; that experimenting yielded surprisingly nice results.

So, after a bit more revision, I had a sheep with a thicker unshorn coat of wool. Since I was revising a copy of my sheep icon, I also had a sheep with a thinner, seemingly shorn coat. I decided to put the two together. The result is synergistic; the two sheep icon looks even better than either of the sheep on their own.

Have a look see...



On a side note, I've been doing some research into polymer clay sources locally (in the Kitchener, ON area); specifically, Fimo clay sources. Hobby and Toy Central, near the Costco on King Street sells Fimo. Fimo Soft seems to be the more popular and common product, but they do also carry the more desirable Fimo Classic. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Michael's probably stocks Fimo clay also. I'll probably be going to H&TC, though; they're local, and can probably be of more immediate assistance with special ordering items they don't have in stock.

Stihl Looking For Ewe

I finally got my wood and sheep icons redrawn to be more consistent with the other scratch drawn icons. The wood is very similar to what it looked like before, but the sheep is definitely very different. All in all though, I'm very much happier with these new icons than I was with the old ones.



With these new icons finished, I can move on to other graphics work.

I've started work on a card back design; it will feature my own personal arms (which are unofficial) but may be modified in some way as a tribute to Mayfair's Settlers of Catan arms logo - the shield with the sailboat and sun.

I've also started working on designs for the knights, or soldiers as they are known in some sets. I decided that I want to use revolution era french military as my soldiers; I've always liked the uniforms of that era.

I am tempted to create a variety of soldier designs inspired by some famous canadian battles of that approximate time period. For example, the french-indian war, and the war of 1812 are important periods in the history of Canada; it would be cool to pay tribute to that. I'm just worried about the amount of work that would be involved.

So, that's where I'm headed next in this project; I'm sure I'll have another new update some time soon.

It's All In The Cards

I have finally made a decision about the cards, and particularly their size. The cards will be 2.375" x 3.5"; I will be using playing card blanks purchased from PlainsCards.com.

The PlainCards website described the card blank sheets as follows:

Blank on Both Sides Coatable Cards - 8 micro-perforated cards per 8-1/2 x 11 in. sheet. Cards measure 2-3/8 in. x 3-1/2 in (60 x 89 mm). These cards have a coating that enables them to be made glossy by spraying with the clear plastic playing card coating and they are true playing card stock. Your printer might require that adjustments be made to the advanced printer settings in order to obtain best printing results.

Since the card blanks are blank on both sides, I'll be able to fully customize the cards with custom backs as well as custom faces.

I won't be laminating the cards as I previously assumed I would do. Instead, I will use a spray coating/sealer on the cards to protect them and give them that typical playing card 'plastic coating'.

I can't get PlainCards' proprietary card coating spray up here in Canada, so I'm gonna have to find a slightly different solution available up here. I don't think that's going to be much of a problem. A satin finish clear acrylic spray sealer should do the job perfectly. I've used such a sealer before to protect wine labels. The satin finish acrylic sealer create a durable, only slightly shiny, and rather slippery/low friction finish. I can probably pick that kind sealer up almost anywhere.

Rock This Town

The fifth and final resource icon is drawn; the rock is ready. Like the wheat and the brick, it is an original icon. It was inspired by a photo of chunks of iron ore. Beyond that I don't know that I've got much to say about it; so without further ado:



So, with all five resource icons drawn, the next steps on the graphics side will be to a) edit the wood and sheep icons to make them match the look of the three original icons I created, and then b) move onto the graphics for the various other cards of the game.

I'll eventually have to think about card backs too. I found a great, simplified version of Mayfair's Settlers of Catan shield shaped logo for the game which I might redraw, simplifying it further; or I may use my own personal, and definitely unofficial, arms emblazon. I think the latter would definitely solidly mark this custom build as my own. I'll get a sample up soon.

Drawing a Line In The Sand

As I look back at the icons that I mostly traced from the original set (the wood and sheep), and look at those that I created from scratch (the wheat and bricks), I'm realizing that I'm no longer happy with the wood and the sheep icons.

I'm proud of the custom icons I created, and the mostly traced icons don't quite fit the look of the new/from scratch icons. It all boils down to the black outlines. On the traced icons, the outlines are mostly thick throughout and have a sketchy not so clean look; whereas the new icons are cleaner and thave thinner outlines on the inside with thick bold outlining around the perimeter only.

I like the general concept of the two traced icons, but I think I'm gonna rework 'em to be more in line with my new icons. I'll probably do that after I finish the rock icon though.

She's a Brick... House!

More graphics work during lunchtime yielded the faces for the Number Tokens - for both the basic set and the 5/6 player expansion, and the brick icon for the resource cards.

I haven't exported samples of the Number Tokens yet, but will do so eventually.

As for the icon for the Bricks, I used the original icon set as a guide, but diverged significantly. Rather than build an icon representing a disorganized pile of bricks, I went for a more stacked and organized appearance. I think it actually looks nicer than the original icon. I added a little bit of distressing to the bricks, to show chips and such on them. I may add more distressing later; I haven't decided - I don't want to overdo it.

So with the Bricks done, that leaves me with only the Ore/Mineral/Rocks to do. I think that'll be the most challenging icon yet; making an appealing yet clear icon of Ore will be tough.

Without further ado, here are the bricks:

Baa! Baa! Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?

I took a few minutes this morning to do that final embellishment of the sheept icon that I've been wanting to do. It's a pretty simple embellishment, really; nothing more than some shading along its underside. It makes a difference to the appearance though. It looks nicer, and is certainly more consistent with the other icons I'm building.

Have a look see:

Is This In The Farmer's Almanac?

Did some more graphics work tonight on the icon set for the resource cards; this time around I decided to work on the wheat icon. Of the five resource icons in the set I am using as my primary inspiration, it's the icon I like the least.

So, I did some looking around and found some images of wheat and cobbled up my own orginal wheat icon that I'm much happier with. It's not 100% the same style as the other icons; it's lines are a little too clean and crisp, but it's not so far off as to look odd.

So, here it is:

I'm a Lumberkack and I'm Ok!

Did some significant resource card icon work over lunch today. I did the wood icon; check it out:



It's much like the icon from the set I found on BoardGameGeek.com, but embellished.

It seems like the Heathenx Inkscape tutorial screencasts I've been watching have paid off.

I have the sheep icon started, but its practically just a trace of the original icon; I want to give it more shape and definition like I did with the wood icon, so that'll be coming up soon.

That's About The Size Of It.

I did a bit of a hex tile sizing study this morning to determine how appropriate my proposed hex tile size of 3" (edge to opposite edge) would be. Here's how it looks.



The dimensions shown based on the AutoCAD's extreme accuracy; I expect that the finished physical product will vary slightly from the dimensions shown. No matter though, the dimensions are close enough to indicate that a 3" hex tile is a good size.

I'm looking at a 3"x3" post it note, and imagining a 3" hex in relation to it, and I like the size. Allowing a 1/4" edge border around each hex for placing roads and settlements/cities, and providing a 7/8" diameter central 'plateau' for the numbered chit in the centre leaves me with a 13/16" wide (at the narrowest parts) ring in which to sculpt the tile's terrain.

The basic game will make a board that is a foot and three quarters wide by about a foot and a half. The expanded layout is longer, but maintains the foot and a half width. Since typical tables are at least two feet wide or more, this ought to make a perfectly sized playing surface.

It's a Font of information.

We have a winner! I've made a decision regarding the font selection for the chits and card titles. The lucky font is called Tolkien, presumably because it's patterned after some kind of Tolkienesque or Tolkien associated type face.

Here's a sample of what it looks like:



It's decorative and elegant, yet informal and whimsical in ways; it also happens to be nicely legible and has well formed and consistently sized numbers.

I cast a Hex upon thee!

My mind is on Hex tiles; lots and lots of hex tiles.

The game has 38 hex tiles; 53 if you include the 5/6 player expansion.

Rolling out the poly clay for all those isn't too bad, but trying to cut them out could get ugly and time consuming.

Another fellow who made 3D hexes used a board with thickness guides to roll out the poly clay. Natch! That's the easy part. Some poly clay websites have suggested a pasta roller for quickly and easily rolling out clay in even thicknesses. I like making homemade pasta, and the machine would make rolling out the clay to an even thickness easy; it's an option I'll have to keep in mind as it gives me an excuse to buy a piece of kitchen equipment I've wanted for a while. I'd just have to make sure to clean REALLY well after I'm done using it for this project.

That same fellow I mentioned used an existing hex from the Settlers of Catan game set as a guide for cutting his hexes. That doesn't work so well for me. I don't already own the game; If I did, I probably wouldn't be going to the trouble of making my own.

So that got me to thinking about using a hex shaped cookie cutter to cut the hex tiles. I think that's likely to be my best option. I can get hex shaped cookie cutters online from Golda's Kitchen.



I'm sure if I look around some local home furnishings shops I'll find some locally and save myself the shipping costs.

I need only check their geometric trueness, and cut carefully, and it could save me a whole lot of time in comparison to using some other kind of jig/guide setup. I could easily cut several hexes at a time; probably faster than cutting a single hex with a hobby knife and ruler. I'm also more likely to have straighter (vetically) sides by using a cookie cutter.

I guess I have some shopping to do.

Icon See Clearly Now!

Planning for some of the cards started in earnest last night starting with a search for suitable icons for the Resource cards. The plan is to find images that I can use as inspiration for drawing my own icons in Inkscape.

That brings me to another decision; the majority of the graphics for this project will be developed in Inkscape. I've got the program installed both at home and at work, it's feature/capability rich, and best of all, it's vector based, which is something I'm very keen on; it provides the best image scaleability.

Finding individual images in similar styles might be a challenge; but with some reasonable effort, should be a surmountable problem. As I write this, the strangest idea has struck me; drawing icons and artwork in a similar style as Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick Comic. It would certainly have that whimsical appearance that I'm hoping for. I'd best tuck that idea away for now, I think.

Yesterday, I found a custom resource icon set on boardgamegeek.com that has a nice iconic/whimsical look to it. Check it out below:



It was the sheep and the wood that appealed to me the most. It fits the bill nicely, and will be relatively easy to trace and modify for my own purposes. I'm not entirely satisfied with the wheat and ore icons though; so I may look for alternates of them.

I've also started comparing different fonts in order to select a decorative font that I'll use for the Card Titles, a more practical font for the card body text, and a font for the numbers and letters on the chits.

With regards to the numbered chits, I've decided the easiest way to deal with them is to draft up the faces in Inkscape, and then glue/adhere them to circular wooden cutouts. 3/4" diameter cutouts ought to be just the perfect size. The technique of choice here will be to print the chit faces on a heavyweight, high quality paper stock using a color laser printer so prevent ink bleed - gee, I wonder where I can get access to that kind of equipment, heh heh. Then using carefully applied white glue or similar craft glue, attach them onto the cutouts, which will have been painted prior to the face application. Once the faces are applied, a clear acrylic spray lacquer/sealer applied in a couple or few thin coats. I know that sticker sheets could make the sticking to the wood cutouts easier; but in my experience, label sheets compromise the print quality, and the adhesion of the sticker sheet to the wood can sometimes be hit or miss.

I'm starting to put some thought into the hex tiles size. My initial thoughts were to make the tiles 3" from edge to opposite edge; but I have to do some diagrammatic planning to get an idea of how big that would make the fully laid out board.

Introduction

It's true, after playing just one simple game of Settlers of Catan, I fell in love with the game. It's a strategy game and an economics game all rolled into one with very simple rules. After doing some looking around on the internet and discovering that others had made their own 3D versions of the game, just going out and buying the Mayfair Games edition of Settlers of Catan just wasn't going to be good enough for me. I figured I needed to make my own custom 3D version.

So, this here blog is intended to be a journal of the project that will track and record my thoughts, work, and processes, and progress on the project.

More, and consolidated, information about the project can be found at this project's wiki page at ForgedRPG.com.