This was a great seminar with lots of technical content. You’ll want to go to their website (www.pandagm.com) and get it from there and not from me! (download the Design Guidebook – pandagm.com/resources/). The other great news is that they now have a rep in Montreal.
They talked about the process and how at the start – you as a game designer and your graphic artist will get on Skype with Panda and talk through the process. This is done in the beginning before you finalise all the design work. And you’ll use Dropbox to share files back and forth.
Communicate With Panda – often and more…..
Best giveaway/swag/promo piece ever!
They gave a list of top ten issues –
- Card inventory needed – they have a download for this on their website – make sure you include something that tells them how many cards and what’s on the fronts and backs
- RGB vs. CMYK – they use CMYK so make sure you do too
- CE and child safety marks – don’t change the size of these (you get them off the net)
- Rich black for the UPC code – nope – you want it in pure black (Photoshop will change it)
- Overprint issues – use InDesign and set the text to overprint
- Low resolution images – use 300 dpi or higher
- Die lines in the art files or missing – turn this layer off when you go to finalise things
- Bleed and margin issues – things drift – don’t go tight to the edges (again Panda has templates – use them)
- Contract issues – see the bold text above and communicate with Panda – especially if things change
- Text in rich black – not sure if that’s good or bad but they mention using InDesign for text and not Photoshop
So the swag game box was the best thing ever. I picked up an extra and gave it to the Twins from Alaska (their official title).
So my question to game designers is – how are you getting your art and design work done? Are you an artist or graphic designer – are you using one from the industry or are you finding one locally? Let us know in the comments!
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