This week we got to see the art that Josh Cappel created for the Guild Cards for our upcoming game, Belfort. So for those keeping track at home, we’ve seen a segment of the board, the building cards, the logo and now the Guilds.
For those that have never played Belfort (and that would be the majority of you I assume!), each game you choose which 5 Guilds you want to play with. This allows for a lot of replay-ability as it keeps the game fresh every time you play it (and also allows for some expansions!).
I’ve posted our original prototype and Josh’s art below. When I say original prototype – I mean this was our 23rd actual prototype of the game that we made. Belfort has gone through more playtests and tweaks than any other game that we’ve made. It’s probably because it’s our most gamery game – meaning it has layers of strategy that have to be finely balanced.
Looking at both the prototype art that we used when playtesting and Josh’s art, it’s interesting to see some of the differences.
1) This biggest difference (besides great art vs. only serviceable art) is the crest on each of Josh’s designs. This adds more theme to the game and creates more character for the game. Great idea.
2) The Worker Placement spot has been removed as it was added to the actual board instead (see here)! Saved a ton of room on the tile.
3) The names of some of the guilds were changed – and the reason for this was because visually it’s nicer to look at when the font is the same size on all Guilds – and we couldn’t do that with some of the longer names – so Josh came up with new names! Great idea!
4) Some of the grammar has changed – and that came from some feedback from the group once we saw the final art (as this is the third version we’ve seen this week of these guilds!).
All in all, another fantastic piece of work from Mr. Cappel. I’m ridiculously excited to see such amazing quality for this game. I think this game has a big chance to make quite the impression in the board game world…but maybe I’m biased a bit! 🙂
Inspiration to Publication 