You are a Cat. You live in a House. You share this House with your pet Hoomin. Your mission is to smother this Hoomin with Affection, then cause as much Mischief as you can without being evicted. The first cat to score NINE Mischief points is the winner!
Currently available at http://www.cantankerouscats.net
30 Second promotional spot for Kickstarter. Full credits on http://www.cantankerous-cats.com/contact
Cantankerous Cats is a self-published card game we developed over the course of 3.5 years. Our intent was to create a project that could showcase the breadth of talents we can offer as a boutique design collective. We also wanted to expand our business into game design.
Gameplay tutorial video. Directed by Al Gonzalez. Shot by Alice McGown & Joey Rassool. Voice over by Al Gonzalez.
Full credits at http://www.cantankerous-cats.com/contact
PRODUCT IMAGES
BRAND ASSETS
We wanted to capture the "old tyme" spirit of parlor games like "Hearts," "Spades," and Old Maid. We were also inspired by Victorian era letter press work. Subtle cat inspired accents were added to the base font to evoke the spirit of cats without being gimmicky. We elected to use the "Fertigo Pro" font from exljbris to compliment the work throughout the game.
Logo and "Cantankerous" Type design by Al Gonzalez. "Fertigo Pro" by Jos Buivenga of exljbris
The colors we picked were inspired by our love of tea and our requirement for color accessibility. Each color was meant to evoke a particular category of tea: Pantone 7526 for Black Teas, Pantone 5145 for Earl Grey, Pantone 7495 for Green Teas, and Pantone 7752 for Chamomile and other herbals.
We also tested our color sets with color blind players to make sure all players were describing the colors in game in the same manner. The icons in the center of the fields are yet another way to allow rarer forms of color blindness to still play the game without the need for color references.
GAME COMPONENTS
The core principle that guided all of our choices for this game is that first line in our marketing copy: "You are a Cat." Everything about the art in Cantankerous Cats is meant to be from the perspective of a Cat. And not just any cat. A FANCY cat.
Hoomins are never seen above the waist, dogs all look the same, flavor text is written in the divine plural, and all of the mechanics are driven by our core narrative.
KICKSTARTER COLLATERAL
Kickstarter banner image. Art & Design by Elise Spacek and Al Gonzalez.
To fully convey the personalities of our favorite predatory companions, we opted to pursue a traditional, realistically proportioned style for all of the cats in the game. While we do break the rules of anatomy to convey more expression, it is always subtle, taking care never to feel too out of line with what a real cat might do.
Poduct website built with Jupiter/Wordpress framework. E-commerce through Backerkit.
Our website is built with the Artbees Jupiter theme over a WordPress core. We were looking for a framework that would allow us to put the art of the game front and center, maintaining the elegance of the game. Jupiter was recommended to us by our friends at the Labyrinth Masquerade and we quickly fell in love with the flexibility of the theme.
