A matter of branding: translating the look and feel of a board game in a digital environment
You notice some things only when they’re not there. This is not the recollection of a sad love story, rather, an ode to good design. Paradoxically, good design is often invisible: there’s so much we don’t notice in the world around us but only when it’s done right.
For example: when a door opens in a counterintuitive direction, we often feel startled. Or when the toilet paper is just out of reach, we can’t help but wonder if the interior designer has even tried to use it. Real-life design problems directly translate to app design: it might be something users don’t instinctively think about, but when cut/paste doesn’t work in your app like it does in all others, you can be sure someone will let you know, fast. The same applies when graphic elements are concerned: if the app has to look like Cones of Pawnee, but Cones of Pawnee didn’t initially include elements one would expect to find in an app, how do we make sure things feel right?
Framework first
Concerning the design of Dized Tutorials and setup, the first thing we worked on was a framework including all the elements needed on screen: buttons, banners, where the text goes, etc. It took a few attempts, but what we have now applies to every single game — for example, all games we are going to tutorialize in Dized will have an unboxing phase: what needs to be there so we can show the box opening, the elements neatly arranged inside, and then watch everything fly out awesomely? If the framework is done right, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time in those situations.
Getting the art right
Once the basics are in place, we need each Tutorial and Setup to look and feel like the game they are teaching. Having a direct channel to the publishers helps here, of course. All the projects we are working on come with the game’s original assets: depending on the publishing status of the title, these can be more or less suitable for a “digital conversion.” Of course, many elements need to be created ex-novo (buttons, icons, title bars, UI elements) or refined (some artworks for example need retouching, because many smartphone displays have higher resolution than the print assets). To create all these new assets we mix and match what we’re provided with and what our artists feel appropriate: for example the art style of Blood Rage is “viking-inspired.” We then look at viking iconography and aesthetic and try to stay as true as possible to the original material.
A matter of branding
Getting overzealous can be counterproductive — for example when the outcome steps on key brand assets. Here’s a story: in an impetuous of creative fury, we initially recolored the Carcassonne logo in sanguine crimson and elegant gold, not realizing that the Carcassonne logo is color-coded in a very specific way because of is iconicity. Changes were reverted quickly, but it was a good lesson to learn: we’re deeply committed to quality and authenticity, and branding definitely needs to be accounted for.
Will it scale?
Once the tools we’re working on will be completed, the framework and placeholder assets will be available to all third parties.
In the next few months we will define guidelines detailing all the elements the UI needs to work properly, so that publishers of older games can create the new art needed, and upcoming games set for a Dized release can plan assets in advance.
We envision Dized as something you don’t have to look at all the time — we want you to focus on playing the game — but every tutorial we put out needs to look good, present information in the right way, and engage players at the right times. For that to happen, and for Tutorials and Setups to feel right, artists will always need to offer a small contribution.
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