How are my favorite Mages doing? I see we got new heads today (Okay to be fair I can’t see anything I’m just typing in text. Let’s just pretend…)

So what’s up since last week?

We got our card back! So that one cool thing.
We also took care of various issues with printing our prototype. Nothing critical, but it had to be done. More info further in the update.

Okay what about that new card back?

We told you last week that we felt it was a bit off. So we changed the background texture and we’re glad we did. The card back is now way prettier than before. We liked it a lot but now we think it fits Mage Noir’s general style even more.

Making a card back is pretty hard for one main reason. You can never change it. In a game that requires you to draw from a deck where you only see the back of your cards, having different backs between some cards inside your deck would give you knowledge on what you are more susceptible to draw. Hence why you can’t change the card back between two editions of the game or in an expansion.

The result is that this specific card back will stay with us for years and years as the game will evolve. So we have to make sure it will still be relevant in the future. This why we opted for something as simple as possible. No text, no small details. Just a texture and the iconic circle on it.

New version of the card back

We know this simplicity will ensure that this card back will stay and become a sign of rallying for Mages all around the world. Our objective is that when you see the white circle, you know some fellow Mages aren’t far and that you can bond with them in any circumstances.

It is an icon, a link between all of us. We love this Circle. And we hope you’re as proud as we are to be a part of it.

Oh wow this went very far very quickly. Let’s just say we’re very happy to have you in the community.

Yeah… maybe some more down to earth news now?

You’re right. On a way more pragmatic note, we managed to do a lot concerning the printing of the prototype over the last week.
On thursday evening we managed to send the necessary documents to print the prototype. And on friday we got a message explaining that the layout was missing some bleeding space.

To explain it quickly, the machine that cuts the cards can’t be 100% precise. Therefore it’s always good to have some extra space around the card to ensure that even if the cut is made a tiny bit too much on the left or right, the card still looks great.

It is very easy to make when the border of your cards is a plain color (like a thick black border for instance). But Mage Noir cards are borderless. So we needed to extend the current layout in order to make it look good. We did manage to do that in under a week and just sent the new documents yesterday. Now we just have to wait for the prototype to be printed and sent to us. We can’t wait!

That’s all for today Mages!

So yeah we did a whole lot of new things. For the curious ones, the video game version is still going on, we didn’t stop. We’re just on a heavy refactoring task and those things take time.

Until next week though, take care of yourselves Mages, and have fun!