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[fika monster]

Update 10 may 2023:
Feeling a lot better now around dominion and making the cards i want: They arnt winning the contests, but that was never really my goal: The cards now feel like they are expressing ideas i want to explore, and whether i suceed or fail with the exploration is a different matter

Thanks for the support and thoughts. it helped.

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So ive like to make Fan cards and submit them to the Weekly design competition in the past, but ive struggled with feeling that my cards art bad, and that people dont like them being submitted(which im 99% sure is false, as people at most simply dont like the design and just ignore it. but my mind isnt fully rational).

I have no problems with low scores and not winning, but its been a negative loop when i come up with an idea, but feel like it will be bad anyway, and thus dont put more effort into it, and its worse than it could be.

Does anyone have encouraging words or tips?

[Xen3k]

So ive like to make Fan cards and submit them to the Weekly design competition in the past, but ive struggled with feeling that my cards art bad, and that people dont like them being submitted(which im 99% sure is false, as people at most simply dont like the design and just ignore it. but my mind isnt fully rational).

I have no problems with low scores and not winning, but its been a negative loop when i come up with an idea, but feel like it will be bad anyway, and thus dont put more effort into it, and its worse than it could be.

Does anyone have encouraging words or tips?

I think the most important thing is to design fan cards for your own enjoyment. Not necessarily enjoyment of the end design, but enjoyment of the design process. I find the best thing about this forum is the criticism and feedback I get on my designs. Refining something after feedback can be very cathartic if the criticism and feedback is taken at face value as additional information to help in that refining. I, for one, welcome even harsh criticism, as if it is unreasonable it can easily be ignored, but can still help inform design decisions. Not everyone has the same opinions on how Dominion should be played or how it should be designed, and as we are in the custom content part of the forums that is fine in my opinion.

The other thing I would suggest is to not force something that does not satisfy your standards of design. It can be very difficult to find inspiration or motivation to design something sometimes, so I simply don't and just let the challenge parameters just percolate in the back of my mind. I post to this forum for my own enjoyment, and will stop if I stop enjoying it. I think more people participating will only help everyone, as even poor designs are helpful and informative whether they are your own or someone elses.

I am sorry if that wasn't as helpful as you may want, but I do hope you continue to participate in the forum. The more the merrier, and bettering yourself is more enjoyable with other people around. Take care of yourself first of all.

[segura]

 

So ive like to make Fan cards and submit them to the Weekly design competition in the past, but ive struggled with feeling that my cards art bad, and that people dont like them being submitted(which im 99% sure is false, as people at most simply dont like the design and just ignore it. but my mind isnt fully rational).

I have no problems with low scores and not winning, but its been a negative loop when i come up with an idea, but feel like it will be bad anyway, and thus dont put more effort into it, and its worse than it could be.

Does anyone have encouraging words or tips?

I think that the quality here is pretty high. Designs are rarely unbalanced and it is more a guess or hunch about subtle power level issues than „dude, this Lab variant for $4 is too good“.

Then there is stuff like, is a card interesting to play with. That is much harder than to design something that works technically and power level wise and here feedback is, at least to me, most helpful. In your head it was a sweet idea, once other folks looked over it you realize that it is not that special or outright bad. I try to not let that discourage me but continue to come with ideas. Even if only one in ten is interesting, the other nine were nonetheless fun to design and you learned something on the road.

And, last but not least, card design is always subjective. For example I had once won a contest with a quick unrefined idea that I did not really like and that accidentally had some cool interactions. That is cool but to me it is more satisfying to put more effort into something that is then shred to pieces.

[NoMoreFun]

The WDC has a different judge every time and no set criteria. There's no formula to reliably win the contest.

Some judges will care deeply about balance, while others will reward an interesting concept even if the card needs tweaks. Some value simplicity, but plenty of intricate designs can win (especially if the prompt is a theme). Sometimes your card gets misread, misunderstood or even skipped in the judging. It's no big deal, there's always next week.

The creative process is what drives it - the fun of putting up an idea and seeing other ideas.  "Bad" ideas included. There are a lot of good ideas that can come from the concepts behind "bad" cards  - think about Contraband and War Chest.

If you win the fun of seeing the community collectively respond to your prompt makes up for the time consuming judging process. One week I judged someone else's contest
idea and that was a lot less fun (it was "design a curse" without clear gameplay rules for alternative curses).

As a back up, the contest ideas thread does actually get used if you have an interesting prompt and are frustrated by not being able to test it.

[4est]

Thanks for sharing, fika, and man, it's something I bet just about every fan designer on this forum here has felt at some point. The most important thing is to do what's fun for you.

I tried designing an expansion years ago with a bunch of crappy, untested cards, and eventually realized that I didn't have the patience to make cards that all interact with one another, or come up with unique ideas totally unprompted (and I hardly have the time to properly playtest stuff). Instead, the one-offs (like WDC) where there's a prompt someone else gives me and I can try to solve that puzzle in my own creative way (and if it sucks, oh well, there's another prompt next week) is something that gives me energy, and I can take inspiration from all the other terrific ideas people come up with.

Card design is a process, and something we get better at with time. Go check out DXV's secret histories and the MANY outtakes (not to mention actual published cards that turned out to be duds or broken). If the maker of Dominion sometimes makes bad cards, we all certainly will too! But the key is learning why something doesn't work or is too complicated, and not being afraid to try it in a different way, or scrap an idea altogether and move on.

Any time I'm evaluating other people's cards, my main goals are: what are ways to make this card better and offer small suggestions that can help praise and retain the creator's idea/mechanic/theme while making the card simpler and more playable whenever possible. I never am annoyed by "unrefined" submissions, because honestly that's what pretty much all the cards people submit are (including mine!). The goal is to experiment, try out wacky ideas, learn from others who are tinkering in card design, and most importantly, have fun. Dominion is just a game after all!

But yeah, if there are elements of the design process that aren't fun for you anymore, don't hesitate to make a change and choose a different medium in which to create.

Finally, if you're up for it, definitely keep sharing your card ideas! We're all here for it.

[fika monster]

So ive like to make Fan cards and submit them to the Weekly design competition in the past, but ive struggled with feeling that my cards art bad, and that people dont like them being submitted(which im 99% sure is false, as people at most simply dont like the design and just ignore it. but my mind isnt fully rational).

I have no problems with low scores and not winning, but its been a negative loop when i come up with an idea, but feel like it will be bad anyway, and thus dont put more effort into it, and its worse than it could be.

Does anyone have encouraging words or tips?

I think the most important thing is to design fan cards for your own enjoyment. Not necessarily enjoyment of the end design, but enjoyment of the design process. I find the best thing about this forum is the criticism and feedback I get on my designs. Refining something after feedback can be very cathartic if the criticism and feedback is taken at face value as additional information to help in that refining. I, for one, welcome even harsh criticism, as if it is unreasonable it can easily be ignored, but can still help inform design decisions. Not everyone has the same opinions on how Dominion should be played or how it should be designed, and as we are in the custom content part of the forums that is fine in my opinion.

The other thing I would suggest is to not force something that does not satisfy your standards of design. It can be very difficult to find inspiration or motivation to design something sometimes, so I simply don't and just let the challenge parameters just percolate in the back of my mind. I post to this forum for my own enjoyment, and will stop if I stop enjoying it. I think more people participating will only help everyone, as even poor designs are helpful and informative whether they are your own or someone elses.

I am sorry if that wasn't as helpful as you may want, but I do hope you continue to participate in the forum. The more the merrier, and bettering yourself is more enjoyable with other people around. Take care of yourself first of all.

that was very helpful actually.

I can compare myself too much to other people, and there is some super talented people here which is cool and also a bit intimidating.

[fika monster]

Thanks for the responses everyone

[fika monster]

Wrote an update, feeling better around card making now