Cool Card Design of the Day7/24/2012 - Making cards for this site has had an unexpected impact on my development as a designer beyond the improvements afforded through your critical feedback and ideas. Because I produce a card image for each design (years ago I'd just divide a piece of paper and shorthand ~18 cards onto it), I'm more aware of how the final product looks, which has helped me to produce simpler cards with shorter text.
The big change that I couldn't have predicted though, is that I find a lot of art that begs to be made top-down into Magic cards while looking for some art for the one I just finished. While I've always enjoyed top-down design, if you look at my pre-GA work, much much more of it was bottom-up because I'd just sit around thinking up new twists for the game. Working from the other direction has broadened my perspective considerably.
I can't recommend enough stepping away from the methods you're comfortable with and trying some new angles. Not just in Magic design or game design in general, but in all things. Hang out with some new friends. Try some new foods. Take a different path home. You will grow, and life will be more interesting to boot.
With all that build up, you might be expecting more from this card. It's not here to blow you away, that's not the point.
Falls Market plays well with the Innistrad/Dark Ascension self-mill theme in blue (and not much else—maybe reanimator). If I didn't know that I had designed this from the art, I would guess this was a bottom-up design made explicitly to support that theme. I was just looking for a way to represent a city on a waterfall, slowly falling away over time, yet still rich and vibrant. That the deck-forgetting effect happens to play into the last block is just happy coincidence. Or convergence. I mean, I would have kept looking for more options if there weren't a solid use for the card.
Love it! Literally dripping with flavor! Nobody can accuse you of falls advertising.
ReplyDeleteOkay, now that I've gotten that out of my system. I want to say a quick thank you because initially, all of my designs were top down and, thanks to this blog, I've been able to look at some things from a bottom up perspective.
I love this. As soon as I saw it I started thinking of what the rest of the cycle would look like. (not saying that it needs to be a cycle, it's beautifully designed as is) Also, I wonder what the ramifications of it being either a Basic Land or an Island would be. I know those two categories are doled out ever so sparingly because of the power implications but this card just looks so... harmless...
I wouldn't consider making it Basic, because that has a very specific and important role in the game, but I would consider making it a nonbasic Island. Since the effect is negative, at face value, that seems fine. In that scenario, the ability would be triggered: "Whenever Falls Market becomes tapped, forget 1."
DeleteDiscard pile? What? Isn't it graveyard nowadays, y'Old Fogey? :P
ReplyDeleteHahaha. While I am an Old Fogey, it was always called the graveyard in Magic. Nice catch.
DeleteInteresting as a Threshold enabler.
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested in fantastic-city design (who knows, may be relevant in a month or two), I humbly suggest http://danworks.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/italo-calvino-invisible-cities.pdf .
And now I know why you insisted on spelling her name "Isidora" and not "Isadora."
DeleteI didn't even think about that! For me, it was in tribute to Isidore of Miletus, the primary architect of the Hagia Sophia; and because slightly-less-modern names sometimes ring truer in fantasy settings.
DeleteVery similar to Deranged Assistant / Millikin. Which is fine; in fact, if this tapped for colourless it would be Falls Market : Millikin :: Plains : Gold Myr, also evoking the conversion between 2-cost artifacts and lands shown by the Talismans / painlands, Prismatic Lens / Shimmering Grotto, etc.
ReplyDeleteFascinating point about looking for card art leading you to top-down designs.