Art Gallery Light's Designs - Cards, Drawings, and Fakemon

bbninjas said:
Even still, I'd still argue it is a bit too powerful. Keep in mind that filling your deck up with tools isn't really a bad thing, so this is basically something that makes the strong get stronger, at least in my opinion. Anyways, that's just my two cents - you're the designer! ^_^
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No, I understand what you're saying; I agree that if I can spread enough tools around, it could be rather bothersome for the opponent... but then again, I find that making hitting you difficult is often the only way to keep the game from ending rather prematurely (you may have noticed I tend to use immunity to damage quite often; for the kind of pokemon I use, it's their only defence).
I would make it only effective while Cinccino is the active pokemon, but that might be weakening it too much (and it would be essentially the other Cinccino, but requiring a tool). Perhaps I could remove Makeover? I added it to give it a little more synergy, like when I added the other attack to Gardevoir, but in this case it might make it too easy to get full protections.

My line of thought, not just for Cinccino, but for the set in general, was that in order to load the deck with tools, you need to take something out; say, supporters, or energies, or pokemon. That isn't a bad thing per se, but by using cards that require tools in order to reach their full potential, you're giving up other (perhaps more straightforward or common) avenues to make your deck powerful; hence why I wanted the pokemon to be even just a little more powerful than usual, if you have the tools to give them; I wanted to compensate the frequent occasions when a certain pokemon won't have a tool available and you won't have an alternative method of moving forward (because you gave up something for the tools) by making sure that the one who did get the tool can make up for it.
Or, at least that was my intention.
 
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professorlight said:
No, I understand what you're saying; I agree that if I can spread enough tools around, it could be rather bothersome for the opponent... but then again, I find that making hitting you hard is often the only way to keep the game from ending rather prematurely (you may have noticed I tend to use immunity to damage quite often; for the kind of pokemon I use, it's their only defence).
I would make it only effective while Cinccino is the active pokemon, but that might be weakening it too much (and it would be essentially the other Cinccino, but requiring a tool). Perhaps I could remove Makeover? I added it to give it a little more synergy, like when I added the other attack to Gardevoir, but in this case it might make it too easy to get full protections.

My line of thought, not just for Cinccino, but for the set in general, was that in order to load the deck with tools, you need to take something out; say, supporters, or energies, or pokemon. That isn't a bad thing per se, but by using cards that require tools in order to be reach their full potential, you're giving up other (perhaps more straightforward or common) avenues to make your deck powerful; hence why I wanted the pokemon to be even just a little more powerful than usual, if you have the tools to give them; I wanted to compensate the frequent occasions when a certain pokemon won't have a tool available and you won't have an alternative method of moving forward (because you gave up something for the tools) by making sure that the one who did get the tool can make up for it.
Or, at least that was my intention.
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Yeah, that's fair enough. So you know where I am coming from; some of the Tools, especially the Silk Scarf and the Trendy Glasses, are quite powerful tools, and you'll probably end up including them in your deck even if you didn't have something like a Cinccino. Eitherway, I reckon it's not all too important. ^.^
 
I've been working on quite a few more cards and I will keep working today, with any luck, so here are Snivy and Servine, as always, added to the list.

I believe I fared better this time with the FIM style, but it isn't quite there yet; it might be an issue of complexity, or even the camera angle, I don't know. I also changed slightly the wording of Expert Belt to make it clear that it applies only when weakness and resistance apply.

Finally, a technical question: do the holos look right to you all?
I've been watching the cards a lot lately, and they just seem odd to me; the illustration's holos seem only to darken the card, but they don't give them shine, so speaking. And the card's body holos (the drawings in the blank) seem to have the same problem, they just make the area darker, instead of making it shine like an holo would (except for fire-types, in which case they make it slightly saturated but hard to distinguish); do any of you guys know a better way to make the holos, well, holographic and eye-catching instead of so dark?
 
For the holos, you're using two layers with something like Multiply 50-70% under Color Dodge 100%, right? That should give them the optimal shine.

And about the illustration holos, I still feel like it would be nice to exclude the Pokémon from the holosheet, but that's of course up to you. :)
 
Jabberwock said:
For the holos, you're using two layers with something like Multiply 50-70% under Color Dodge 100%, right? That should give them the optimal shine.

And about the illustration holos, I still feel like it would be nice to exclude the Pokémon from the holosheet, but that's of course up to you. :)
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I should have put the specs, sorry:
-The card background holos are a black/transparent layer in overlay at 50% opacity, with the holo as a mask, in luminosity at 50% opacity.
-The illustration holos are using two old holo layers, that, yes, they're supposed to have the pokemon in between them; I just never cut them from the drawing. The lower is in multiply at 20% and the top one is overexposed at 40%. I should probably tinker a lot with them to see how to make it better, but I thought you guys would know better what to do.
 
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Let's see if I fixed it:

Old Lilligant / New Lilligant
Old Diancie / New Diancie
Old Cinccino / New Cinccino
Old Altarianite / New Altarianite
Old Ampharosite / New Ampharosite
Old Gardevoirite / New Gardevoirite

One thing I like about these new holosheets is that they make the card look on par with how my megas' illustrations look, bright and clear. Well, at least hue-wise.
Now, I only have to change ALL the background holos to whatever I make up next. Grand.

EDIT: What do you think?

Old background / New background

EDIT: Well, I loved the more sparkly new background holo, so everything is updated, because apparently I didn't have enough things to do on the day, that "updating ALL the holos" had to be added to the list.
 
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I think the holo may look off centre. Also, Arresting Look does look a bit too far to the top.
 
Thanks for the warning! I thought I had fixed all the cards with that off-center holosheet. The ability, though, seems fine; I didn't move it from its default position, so there's no reason it should be different from the other cards' abilities.
 
I felt a need to remind myself what style is, so here's another middle-of-the-week update: Ducklett and Swanna are on the list now.

Swanna is another case of me trying to make a spiritual successor of a beloved card; this swanna was the main attacker of my very first TCGO deck, accompanied of Lilligant(/s) and the aforementioned Cinccino; she gave me quite a few victories, using Burned tower and Recycle energy to get back her discarded energies and use Wing dance when I couldn't attach an energy. So, yes, I just mashed the two attacks into one, and kept the discard, but only if you had spent the previous turn recovering damage or the energy you just lost.
Also, I adore the background holos of these two, for some strange reason.
 
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And an early weekend update! there are some you guys haven't seen yet, but I'm at 8-9 cards of finishing this. Misdreavus and Mismagius are added to the list.

You all might be too young to recognize it, but Mismagius has many references to Bewitched, an old sixties' show that I simply adore; I didn't know what to do for the drawing, when I noticed that the attack name was "Bewitching eyes", and the inspiration by Bewitched's opening was simply too perfect to pass.
I added a new attack as well, because it bothers me it when cards show too much blank space; in this case, it was just enough to look empty, but not enough space to make a more "interesting" attack, so Nose Wiggle (another Bewitched reference, but I couldn't think of anything better) is the first attack of Luminous Dreams without any effects. I couldn't fix poor Misdreavus, however; I already feel like I'm pushing it with Cinccino, Mismagius and Gardevoir having three attacks, but Mismagius' attack can be iffy sometimes, so I believe it deserved a basic damage attack to pair with Bewitching Eyes.

Also, one little thing I realized when illustrating this: Mismagius is terrifying.
I always found her... "scarily adorable", but, no! terrifying; attempting to make her smile without inciting existential fear was quite a task; I don't think I did too bad, but without altering her face in any way, no, it cannot be done; whoever made that face is a genius.
 
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A small update with the two last trainers: Silk Scarf and Graceful Tiara are added to the list.

I've been thinking about Graceful Tiara a bit: I meant it as another spiritual successor of a card I loved; Charity, from Gym Heroes; curiously, I have never been able to figure out why it existed, what was its use... but, I frequently used it on my decks, even if only to stretch a game I was winning too quickly; with this one, I tried to give it some tactical utility, without undoing what I liked so much of the original, so, I've come up with two alternatives:

You may reduce the damage the Pokémon this card is attached to does to the Defending pokémon by any amount. At any point between turns, or when the Pokémon this card is attached to is Knocked Out, you may return this card to your hand.​

I don't know if the wording is completely right, but this one is more faithful to the original, while still giving you the choice to get it back, or to not use it if you want.

If a Pokémon would be Knocked Out by damage from an attack of the Pokémon this card is attached to, reduce that damage until the Pokémon is left with 10 HP. If the Pokemon that has this card attached to would be Knocked Out by damage, reduce that damage until it is left with 10 HP.
At any moment between turns, or when the Pokémon this card is attached to is Knocked Out, you may return this card to your hand.​

Of the wording on this one I'm even more unsure, but regardless, this one seems more tactical, to my understanding; it can be used to stall the game for a while while you prepare, locking both active pokemon into not killing each other; it can be used to punish those decks that eat up half their deck in a few turns, and give you control over when the game starts properly. The downside is that without checks, you could just use it and let your opponent deck out, if you're more conservative than they are with drawing.

I like both, but I thought I should ask you guys which one you think is better. Perhaps I should use the first one, and save the second one for a stadium? I like the idea of a stadium you can set up to give you time to get in good enough shape to level the field.
 
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The two alternatives are quite different to each other, however the second one is broken as the Pokemon it is attached to cannot ever be Knocked Out by damage from an attack, which as you hinted at, would allow any Pokemon that discards cards from decks to win the game easily. A Stadium sounds more realistic although very powerful, as it can be Knocked Out of play by the opponent somewhat easily.

Anyways, wording for the first one would be as follows:

You may reduce the damage the Pokémon this card is attached to does to the Defending Pokémon by attacks by any amount (rounded to the nearest 10). At any time between turns, or if the Pokémon this card is attached would be Knocked Out, you may return this card to your hand.
 
Thanks! I used that one, and saved the other for some sort of start-of-game preparation-friendly stadium; I'll figure something out to make it a little more balanced.

And, another middle-of-the week update! Ninetales is on the list now, and let me tell you, I was having so many problems to draw her properly! I even seriously considered to break my rule of never using artwork I didn't made myself and use this lovely picture; it's something I would definitely hang on my house, and the color balance was simply exquisite.
But I was in the end, inspired by it instead, and ended up making something at least equally fabulous; I couldn't be happier about it, even if mine isn't quite so... expressionist.
 
I actually liked your Ninetales art over the other one, although it is still very nice. Spiteful is a nice flavourful counterbalance to the tools - I like it. ^.^
 
bbninjas said:
I actually liked your Ninetales art over the other one, although it is still very nice. Spiteful is a nice flavourful counterbalance to the tools - I like it. ^.^
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Mine is far too faithful to ninetales' shape; it lacks artistic interpretation compared to the other; but, baby steps.
And I know, right? I don't have many effects that remove tools or play with you losing tools in this set; it's something I realized well after I finished the spoilers. I should fix that some time.
 
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The list is now updated with Flaaffy and Ampharos, finishing one more line!
An interesting thing about ampharos' drawing is that I used the same medium we use for lighting design perspectives, which, as it turns out, works quite well with my style of shading, even if doesn't have a lot of detail; an odd choice for a pokemon card illustration, perhaps, but very appropriate in this case.

And on a different matter; I'm at three illustrations away from finishing this (as it was planned), so if you have some mistake, some wording problem or some imbalance issue you would like to see addressed, please, do tell me about it so this set can be as realistic as it is marvellous.
 
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bbninjas said:
Flaffy's first attack needs a captilised "Energy".
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Fixed. I cannot believe I didn't notice such a dumb mistake.

I wanted to wait for this until the other lines are full so this line could be, given their importance, the prelude to the closing of the set, with the megas, but I think I'll just do it now in order to make things faster for me in the coming days:

Ralts

Kirlia

Gardevoir

Are on the list, at long last!

I feel Gardevoir is one of the few pokemon of the set that has some kind of less-straightforward strategy to it; the combination of Phi Style to get two tools, Trend Clairvoyance to get tools on her, Psychic Generosity to spread them around (and remember, she has Phi Style), and Dazzling Aura can potentially make some serious damage, and encourage you to take care of your benched pokemon, since their number indirectly affects the damage output. You can also partner her with Diancie's Energy Refraction to get damage out of fairy energies, Cinccino to get her and all your pokemon a decent protection, and pretty much anything else, since she gives them up to two extra pokemon tools (some of my tool-needing pokemon, like kirlia, could get scary with that); it might be a little too much, and it is totally nepotism, but, I like it.

And I hope ralts' illustration references DnD enough for TGK; a set based on style and beauty isn't exactly compatible with dungeon crawling. I wouldn't normally do author insertion on this kind of things (oh, who am I kidding?) but the only point of contact they had was the style I brought to it, so that's what inspired me; there's also that I wanted to make Ralts share the picture with Misdreavus, and everything worked out nicely.
And just in case, the attacks could be understood as references as well; perhaps this Charming Talk can actually accomplish something for once dumb rock, not budging.
 
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