More Card Games

I really liked the idea of making my work into a game, and I think my mix and match game I had done earlier worked really well as it is completely interactive. I had already also tried making a set of playing cards as a side project, and really liked the effect of these.

I researched children's card games, and found a really interesting website called World of Playing Cards that had information on various card games throughout history. 

http://www.wopc.co.uk/games/index.html

I decided to make another card game, but this time make one where the child has to match two cards together, a bit like the traditional "Happy Families" card game.

My idea was that I could have one card with an image of the child dressing up as or trying to become something, and the matching card would be an image of the object. I used some of the images from both my previous experiments and some experiment for my FMP project, and started to put them together in pairs. I also used the same font as my FMP book in order to make them match.

I kept the format of the cards the same throughout, having the text of the first card at the top and using an image of my character. The second card in the pair has the text at the bottom and is a simple image of the object. The colour scheme for the cards each match their pair, making it easier for children to identify which cards match together. 

However, I would need to keep the materials used and style consistent in a set, I used some images from previous experiments so the material switches between paint and collage. If I produced these as a set I would have to choose one style and use this throughout, as the first two pairs go together, and the second two do, but they don't look interchangeable between all four pairs.

I could make two sets, one of which being very simple and painted like the first two, and the other made of collage and slightly more complicated. This would expand the age group I could market my cards to, as the simple painted cards are ideal for younger children who want bright colours and simple images, and the collaged images are more complex which would be more suited to a slightly older child.

I printed the cards on heavyweight paper at A6 size, and rounded the corners. Put together as a set they look really effective, and the size and weight of the paper make it easy for young children to handle. I had tried printing them at half this size, which is standard playing card size, however this would make it difficult for younger children to handle so I decided the larger cards were better suited to my target audience. 

Making these cards also inspired me to make a game of snap. It's a very simple game to make and play, as I needed to make around 6-8 images on cards and repeat them. I decided to make them smaller than my other cards, as it is a game probably better suited to older children. 

I selected 8 images which would be repeated around 4 times to make a pack of cards, and put them into a grid on photoshop to ensure they are all the same size and give me a guideline of where to cut when printed.