We’re finally ready! After a whole year of sketches, playtests, arguments over card names, and way too much coffee, our card game is officially ready for Kickstarter. We’re super excited to share it with you!
From our initial draft to our final design
When we first started figuring out the rules, we kept it super simple. We ordered a bunch of blank card decks online and wrote everything down with a Sharpie. Cards, effects, chaotic ideas, all of it. Let’s just say we went through a lot of those blank decks before we landed on something that actually made sense.
Once the basic rules felt solid, we wanted something a bit more visual for our cards. But we also didn’t want to spend weeks designing artwork if things were still going to change. So this was the one time we turned to AI image generation. We used it just to get quick inspiration for the overall vibe and look of the cards, something we could hold in our hands and react to. It helped us figure out the style we wanted without committing a ton of time right away.
Once we had our temporary card designs ready, we printed a copy at a local print shop. This became our test deck for playing with family and friends. And wow, that phase was important because we still ended up changing a lot of little rules and card effects along the way.
But this is where things really started getting exciting. It was time to define the final style and build the real version of the game.
To get the final look figured out, we picked one card and took it all the way to finished quality. Emiel worked on the background and layout details while Lisa focused on designing the cat characters themselves.
We tried a bunch of rough sketches and different ideas first, slowly narrowing it down until we found a style that felt just right.
Once we had a card style we loved, we spent the next two months bringing every character to life and polishing all the cards. It took a lot of tweaks, revisions and late-night snacks, but we finally reached a point where we could say, this feels right.
After that, we sent everything to a professional print shop to create our final demo deck, the one we’ll be using for Kickstarter.
We really hope you like the designs. It was a long journey with plenty of trial and error, but we’re proud of where we landed.
If you want to get your paws on Whiskers Academy when we launch, make sure to sign up for the mailing list!