HOW DIFFERENT DOES THE RELEASED GAME LOOK FROM HOW IT WAS ENVISIONED? It’s pretty much identical. The only thing I miss is animals: horses, dogs, chicken, birds, etc populating some of the scenes. Other than that, if this was an animation film I would have done more detailed light effects and broken down foliage into many more pieces for a more organic look. This was simplified to avoid performance issues.


AS THE ART CAME TOGETHER, DID IT INFLUENCE THE GAME DESIGN IN ANY WAY? The art style was established very early in the project so it likely influenced many decisions. The most apparent one is that scenes had to be contained in static camera shots, so they had to be written and designed to work without cutting to a different view. For instance, since the characters are small on screen, tiny gestures and small objects are not noticeable, all meaningful actions had to be big. One other example that I recall is the Art Workshop, the decision of having the player inspect individual paintings was made by the team when they saw all the paintings I put in the background.


ARE YOU PLEASED WITH HOW THE GAME TURNED OUT, ESPECIALLY IN TERMS OF ITS AESTHETIC? Very pleased and very proud.


WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM MAKING CARD SHARK THAT YOU’LL TAKE FORWARD INTO FUTURE GAMES? I have developed a very efficient, simple and flexible character setup


64 | MCV/DEVELOP July 2022


for cut-out animation and I’m sure I can improve it even more. I have also underestimated the amount of work the backgrounds would take working with this monoprinting method so in the future I should be able to plan better and have more realistic estimates.


WHAT WAS YOUR PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT OF MAKING THE GAME?


The highlight for me was working with a diverse, talented and passionate team. Everybody was motivated and had a strong belief in the project and everyone was able to discuss, propose ideas and contribute. While all productions have moments of tension and stress, there were no significant conflicts or misunderstandings. Seeing the team take every idea and push it far beyond what you thought was possible was an absolute joy.


ARE THERE ANY DECISIONS THAT YOU WISH HAD BEEN TAKEN DIFFERENTLY, OR ANYTHING YOU WOULD GO BACK AND CHANGE? I would have started looking for someone who could help with background compositing much earlier. I greatly underestimated the amount of work it was and by the time it was clear we needed help there was not much time to look for the right person.


WHAT HAS THE RESPONSE BEEN LIKE FROM PLAYERS - TO CARD SHARKS’S VISUALS ESPECIALLY?


I am honestly surprised by how positive the response has been, considering how different it is to the kinds of styles that are popular in video games. My hope was that the difference would make it “interesting” but there’s a lot of people who seem to really like it beyond that.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72