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Amiga CD-Sensation - Ausgabe 2 - Golden Games (1996)(GTI - Schatztruhe)(DE)[!].iso
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Designing Cards.doc
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1993-09-27
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***********************************
** **
** DESIGNING NEW CARD GRAPHICS **
** **
***********************************
All the card graphics files are now standard ILBM format files which means
you can use an art package such as Deluxe Paint to create new designs. The
procedure is very simple and as long as you are familiar with Deluxe Paint,
it should be within the capability of even the most Neanderthal Amiga user.
I know you're just dying to get stuck into designing some hot new card
graphics so here's an quick idiot's guide to get you started :
** Designing a new 8 colour card back **
[1] Load up your latest version of Deluxe Paint and select Med-Res, (640 x
200), 8 colour screen.
[2] Load an existing card graphics file from the "Card Backs/" drawer.
"Blue" will do nicely. Design a new pattern for the back of the
card, on top of the old design. Don't forget to modify the small
re-deal icon as well, and the foundations outline if you wish.
[3] Save your design under a different name in the same Card Backs drawer.
[4] Load a game and select "Card Graphics" from under the "Preferences"
menu. Click on "Card Backs" and select your new design from the file
requester. Then start a new game and admire your work.
[5] Consider sending me a teensy weensy donation for providing you with
such an entertaining product (in return, I'll send you two disks full
of card graphics, sound effects and latest versions of all the card
games I have written to date. Check out the "About" menu for more info.
You can design new card faces, symbols and sets in a similar manner. You
should find that designing these new card graphics is really quite easy.
However, people have been known to cock up much simpler things so here are
a few Top Tips :
[1] Make a backup of your disks first, 'cos you never know !
[2] Card Faces and Symbols must be 8 colour 640 pixel wide ILBM files. Card
backs and Card sets must also be 640 pixel wide ILBM but can be either
8 or 16 colours. Card movement with 16 colour cards may start to get
jerky though. I advise you to follow the asterisk* name convention that
I've adopted to distinguish 8 colour files from 16 colour ones.
[3] The graphics are carefully positioned on the screen, so don't move
them. You will obtain a card set template when you register. Also note
that card faces should be 4 Jacks, 4 Queens, 4 Kings, Ace of Spades in
the order Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds from left to right.
[4] To maintain as much compatibility between card combinations as
possible, colours 0-7 shouldn't be changed. However, colours 8-15 can
be set to any values you like, but bear in mind that some numbers are
used for highlighting and menu and gadget selection. (See later).
[5] If you're modifying an existing graphics file with Deluxe Paint, make
sure you select "No Icons" from the "Prefs" menu before saving the
file. If you don't then Deluxe Paint will replace my nice custom
designed card icons with its 'orrible oil painting icon ..... yuk !
[6] Before saving a Card Back, set the background pen to the colour you
wish to appear transparent. This is usually green but will have to be
some other colour if you want to use green in your back design.
That's about it, so good luck with your designs. If you come up with any you
are really proud of, then please send them to me and I'll compile the best
and send them to Monsieur Poisson in the near future. Only send new card
faces or sets though. I already have loads of back designs as these are
really simple to create and unless yours are really good, then I'd rather I
wasn't swamped with them.
My permanent address is :
30 Coronation Drive, Penketh, Warrington, Cheshire, WA5 2DD, ENGLAND.
** Technical (but not very) Card Graphics Information **
Compressed ILBM files (DPaint) or uncompressed ILBM files (not recommended)
are recognised. All files must be hi-res non-interlaced 640 pixels wide.
The height doesn't really matter as the programs will only load as much
as they need.
One of two methods are used to create a full pack of cards.
[1] If you have specified a Card Faces file then my program uses the blank
card from the selected card back file, fills in the re-deal symbol with
a white block 54 pixels wide, then uses the face and symbols graphics
to create 52 cards. This method is the most efficient in terms of disk
space used as all that is needed is 12 picture cards + 1 ace of spades
(faces), a set of suits and numbers graphics (symbols) and card back,
redeal and foundation designs (backs). You'll notice that these three
files are very small in length as DPaint compresses the screen's blank
sections.
[2] When you select a Card Set, the program creates a pack from this single
file and ignores all other graphics files (except an optional card
back). A card set file contains individual designs for each of the 52
cards, backs, redeal and foundations. Therefore these files take up
much more disk space and take much longer to design but offer more
flexibility than method [1].
When using method [1], a card mask is created from the card back design
using the background pen (selected from DPaint) as the transparent colour.
This will usually be colour 0 (green). However, if you are using an 8 colour
card back and you wish to use green in the design (eg for the Lemming's
hair) then these areas would appear as transparent windows. To prevent this
you need to select an unused colour as the background colour, then fill
areas not belonging to the card with this colour. These sections will then
be transparent when you are playing the game and the green areas will be
solid. See the "Lemmings" Card Backs if you don't know what I'm going on
about.
Anyway, back to the card mask.... Once the mask has been created from the
card back, it is mirrored vertically and applied to each of the 52 card
faces. This means that you can design a card back with a transparent section
torn from it and the whole pack of cards will resemble this card back (see
"Defect" for an example.)
When you select a Card Set, however, things are done a little differently.
An individual card mask is created for each of the 52 card faces using
colour 0 as the transparent colour. During play, when a card is displayed
face down on the screen, it's individual face-up card mask is mirrored and
applied to a card back design. This enables each card to have a different
piece torn out of it, and when it is turned face down, the back should
resemble the face up shape. When you use method [1] to create torn cards,
you end up with 52 clones rather than method [2]'s 52 individual cards. If
you have a play about with various combinations of card sets and card backs
then, you should start to understand what's going on.
One final note, on the colour palette :
As mentioned earlier, Card Faces and Symbols should be 8 colour but Backs
and Sets can be 8 or 16. The reason I've not implemented 16 colour Card
Faces is to prevent colour clashes between them and 16 colour Card Backs.
Card sets and Card Backs are not usually combined so it doesn't really the
colours don't really matter there.
Colours 0 to 7 are fixed and should be set as follows (R,G,B) :
Colour 0 : (0,7,0) Green
Colour 1 : (15,15,15) White
Colour 2 : (15,13,0) Yellow
Colour 3 : (0,2,10) Blue
Colour 4 : (15,0,0) Red
Colour 5 : (8,8,8) Grey
Colour 6 : (15,8,5) Pink
Colour 7 : (10,0,0) Black
If you wish to design sixteen colour cards then you can use colours 8 to 15
as you wish. However, the following three colours are used by the system and
you may wish to set them to acceptable values.
Colour 8 : Main Menu Text (Default White ......... 15,15,15)
Colour 10 : File Requester Selection (Default Bright Blue ... 0,2,10)
Colour 14 : Main Menu Highlighting (Default Light Blue .... 0,8,12)
When a card is moved to a valid position, the following colour changes
occur to highlight the card :
White (Colour 1) -> Grey (Colour 5)
Blue (Colour 3) -> Black (Colour 7)
Colour 9 -> Colour 13
Colour 11 -> Colour 15
All other colours remain unaltered. You only need to worry about these if
you intend to use a colour other than white (colour 1) for your cards.
Have fun .........
Pete (19th Jan 1993)