Putting Our (Achroma) Cards On The Table
“I want our cards to feel good when you hold them.” That was one of the first things our Managing Director, Jack Constantine, said to me when he introduced this project that he and co-founder, Chris Hillman, were working on. Aside from the stunning Ghibli-inspired artwork, it was the printed prototypes Jack handed me that made me realise both he and this project were to be taken seriously. These first generation Achroma card samples featured an earlier version of the design layout and game text but the high quality look and feel was there right from the start.
Jack was insistent that we didn’t obscure artwork and crowd the design of Achroma cards with text boxes like so many other card games. Influences were mobile games like Monument Valley and Pokémon Go where a UI is minimal, if not non-existent. An Achroma card should be a window into that world (or realm) with information floating in an overlay. That was a challenge as the trade off could be legibility. Fortunately, artist Matt Vince had created illustrations and the foundations of a layout with this in mind. As Chronicles became Achroma, the game rules, design and final product evolved. But things we kept all along were the thickness of the cards and the special finish of the rarer cards. Judging from the response of those who handled our cards at playtesting, demos and events, we were on the right track.
Achroma cards are printed here in the UK by the wonderful team at Epic Print. Epic are a short journey from us and we love that we’ve kept things local. We’ve been able to work closely with Epic and benefitted from their expertise every step of the way. For the first print run in our first release, The Curse of Curdle Hill, we printed 72,000 cards + 1,200 limited edition promo cards. It’s a small run so we absolutely had to make some sacrifices to make things cost-effective. A few ideas didn’t make it to the final prints, but I won’t divulge just yet – after all, Achroma is an evolving card game in more ways than one, so you still might see those ideas materialise in the future!
We were however able to keep things at a nice sturdy 300gsm, meaning Achroma cards are far thicker than those of leading trading card games. Achroma cards also have a matt finish, which gives them, in our opinion, a unique look and feel. Rare and Legendary Achroma cards benefit from luxurious glossy embossed details which really pop due to the contrasting matt finish. To us, this harks back to the playground appeal of ‘shiny’ trading cards and stickers, but with a next-gen twist to add something fresh. You really know when you’ve drawn a cool Achroma card from your Palette!
The last piece of the puzzle was making Achroma cards uniquely identifiable, so not only can cards be registered to Achroma accounts with the Achroma app, but they’re also ready for the big plans we have in the future. We explored different solutions for this and ultimately went with something simple: a metacode printed on the bottom of each card. It means the metacode can be scanned in via the Achroma app, and also punched in manually. Each Common and Uncommon design has a unique code. Each Legendary and Rare printed card has a unique code. It caused some head scratching from a logistical, tracking and printing point-of-view, but we did it. Currently, registering a Legendary card to your account will unlock an avatar for your profile. There’s more where that came from though, and we can’t wait for you to see it.
The future is bright for Achroma. The Curse of Curdle Hill is being well received and we have a new release just around the corner. Print will start soon. We plan to keep evolving and keep improving Achroma. That goes for the design, print and production too. Truth be told, we’re only just getting started.
