Recreating A Childhood Card Game

The following pictures are a few examples of the many cards my brother, Russell, and I designed for fun during our childhood. We had started with a parody on the popular Pokémon franchise, using the name Dokémon, in which the D came from our surname, Dorn.  After creating a good handful of Dokémon cards, we realized that Jokémon would have been a better choice in name given that the cards were a joke version of  the Pokémon card game, but we had crossed the point of no return: we had laminated them.

The following are some of the original cards that were made with cut up toilet paper rolls and glued paper on both sides. Many are based on our family members.

After literally creating hundreds of 3X5 Dokémon cards(300+) we moved on to more original card games.

I had the idea for this particular nameless game during a family vacation to Florida. The first card I created was that of the white cat Charm. It reads:

CHARM

You will have good luck until you see

a black cat cross your path or

if you get the bad luck card.

The use of the fractions as a representation of the the card’s health and attack damage potential eludes both of us in the present day, but at the time of creating this game, we played one another effectively and understood it perfectly. Here are some more of the cards we created for the game.

The Recreation Project

My goal setting out on this project was to recreate the game we both envisioned, as children, with the skill set I have now. I started with remaking the card design. I used 3Ds Max to model the card, after that I exported the uv maps into photoshop. I added the detail and then rendered the new card.

Once I finished the card design, I decided to add the details of each type. We had four main types when we originally made the game. Fighting, Magic, Shield, and Time. Knowing this, I wanted to make something that made each of those stand out instantly at a moments glance. I did this by creating colored banners for each class.

Finally, as a test, I recreated the very first card I ever made. Meet the new Charm card: