THEMED GAME CARDS

Playing Cards for an educational board game about Cyber Criminality

I designed the cards for a game that our team created during one of our university courses. The course was called "Gameful Design" and we were tasked with designing and crafting a board game that fulfills the purpose of educating the players about cyber criminality.

Desiging the actual game was a big challenge in itself and it is probably deserving of its own entry, but with this I would like to focus on the cards specifically as they would define the overall aesthetic of the game. The visual appeal of the game material should help the game stand out and grab the attention of potential players

Two's Company, Three's a Crowd

Three different types of cards needed to be designed: The Hacker, System and Order Cards. The game is one, where the players take on the role of intruding hackers, to steal money from a foreign system. The cards therefore needed to reflect this situation in their individual design.

The Hacker Cards make use of a very common aesthetic of what hacking looks like - at least in movies it does. It's a cliche, but a very powerful one.

The System Cards needed to have a design that makes them instantly distinguishable the moment they are played. This was important as these are the cards that decide whether you will win or lose. If they would not be instantly recognizable, it would take away a lot tension and excitement behind their reveal.

I am really happy with how the design turned out. The cards all have their unique qualities that make them stand out but still form a cohesive whole, that times them to the themes of our game! The System Cards look neat and orderly. The Hacker Cards ominous and deceitful.

An early Prototype of the Cards

Here is also a version of our cards, that we used during development. It is clear to see, how the final version evolved from that point on. This, more stripped down, version really helped us to understand what parts of the design were essential. People are not going to read the text every time they see the card. The icons are, what makes the cards easily distinguishable. The text is nice to have for new players, but play it a couple of times and it becomes redundant information really quickly.