The Tempest Trading Card Game
Hi there, so this is the first of many blog posts to come about projects I’m working on across many mediums.
North Fulton Drama Club’s website featured the lastest project. Check it out before you read ahead. It’s a great place to start with this particular project.
What I want to talk about here is how I made this project come to life. 
This is what the original sketch looked like. It was drawn at 7:30-ish in the morning. Time went by and I slowly began my research into trading card games. {Honestly… it meant I went into my living room and pulled cards out of various places. Eric and I are dorks. Yes… we’ve played more than one trading card game over the years.} In any case, I had a ton of original photography I knew I wanted to include. Normally, in a fully developed trading card game, there are character cards, item cards, attribute cards, and trap cards. There was certainly enough content visually and contextually from the show to create all of those cards… but then there would have been nearly 100 cards instead of the 24.
The intention behind the cards is more about a memorabilia set and less about the function of a game. That being said, I didn’t want to ignore the fun of attack points, special moves, and classes. I worked with the director of the show, Thomas, to make sure everything was in line with how he saw the characters and I didn’t run off in some random direction with all of this.
Visually, I formed the design of the cards off the show poster created by Erica Cruz. I fell in love with this poster the instant I saw it and couldn’t imagine a better design for the show. I certainly didn’t want to reinvent such a gorgeous wheel. I already had the file on hand because I created a screen-card for the short documentaries I made about the show. I completely tore the file apart. Only to then reconstruct it into this:
Not too shabby. I will say this – I added in NFDC’s and my logo.
The next step was to create a template for the back of the cards – where all the fun stuff is kept. This was a little easier and a little harder. I had to leave the design alone for days a couple of times because I was so frustrated with myself and what was or was not happening. A monkey wrench was thrown into the mix because of the program I have to use to send the files off to the printer is -basic- to say the least. I wanted to beat my head into my desk because they insisted on one thing and I refused to conform to the mediocrity it would have created. Half way through I had to restructure the files to trick the printer’s program. Once I jumped that hurdle everything else began to fall into place.
The template was complete. The photos were in place.
I think the hardest part was creating the content for each card. At one point, Thomas and I were bouncing around a GoogleDoc at the same time, filling in blanks, revising, inserting jokes, and generally making the cards bad ass.
And so, I present to you, the full line up of the official North Fulton Drama Club’s: Tempest Trading Card Game.
I gotta say, I love the line up. The one design choice I would think was the most original are the gear symbols representing each class. The gear and color splashes are the same for each character type: Royal, Exile, Goddess, Airy Spirit, Elemental, Mariner, Islander, Fool, and Steam Robot. There is a subtle difference between them all that I like. If you look closely enough at the Royal/Exile and Elemental/Airy Spirit symbols you will find the same outer ring on both the Exile and Elemental with the inner ring matching Exile – Royal and Elemental – Airy Spirit. It’s a hint between the complicated connection of Prospero over all the characters involved. Anyways, I’m probably the only person who really noticed the different and connection… but I wanted to share because I liked the reference it made.
I hope you enjoyed this preview. The deck will be for sale soon. If interested in buying a set, let your voice be heard here and over at NFDC’s Facebook page. Make sure you like their page while you are there. 
Thanks for reading!
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