Dark Nights Metal

Assignment: 3D Mockup / Packaging / Rulebook Layout / Card Layout / Web Graphics / Print ads / Amazon Graphics

For the Dark Nights Metal deck-building game, I got the opportunity to create the packaging, all the components, and supplemental graphics such as web graphics and supplemental imagery for the Amazon listing. Although previous entries in the DC Deck-Building Game featured large groups of characters on the front, with a small logo, I pitched the idea of focusing on a large imposing character (The Batman Who Laughs, a popular new villain) and using a large foil logo. Special cards in the deck were also printed on a metallic foil board with opaque white ink.

Later, I created web banners, print ads, and other assets for use in marketing and sales.

Changes to the rule book format

Where previous DC Deck-Building Games relied on an existing template which used an entire page to explain each icon and callout on the cards, for Dark Nights Metal I was able to change this format, explaining each part of the card as it was mentioned in the rules.

This allowed readers to easily make a connection between the rule being discussed and the icon or text related to that rule without flipping back and forth in the book. It also prevented pages from being solid blocks of text. I was proud to be able to suggest and make this change, as well as others such as using new fonts (like the headers, which use the same font as the game’s logo) and including inset art relating to the property, to more closely tie the game to the source material (such as in the Page 9 and back cover images above).

Cards were laid out in InDesign, using several master pages to swap between templates for various card types. For the special metallic cards, which were printed on a foil board, I used a separate opaque white ink over the text portions of the card to maintain readability.