Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Allow me to introduce my latest project!


--Download--

Windows
Mac

If your browser gives you some warning that "This file may harm your computer," that is because it is an application and browsers tend to do that by default. I promise this will not harm your computer in any way.


--Update Log--
V1.0 - Program released.


--Installation--

No installation required. Once you download the program for your OS, simply run it.

This was built in Flash, so if it does not work for some reason, check for any Flash updates.


--How to use--

When you open the program, you will see a card on the left, and the interface on the right.

Text:
To edit text fields on the card, just click on them and begin typing. You can edit:

*Title
*Icon numbers
*Identifiers
*Special Ability
*Verse
*Book
*Artist Credit

When you add your verse, the bottom line is supposed to be just above the book name. If your verse is less than four lines, put your cursor at the top and hit enter a few times to push it down to the bottom.

If your special ability is longer than four lines, you have two options:

1) Use shorter wording
2) Use a smaller verse and run the ability onto a fifth or sixth line.

Page 1 Icons:

In the first menu panel, simply click on the box for the icons that you want.

When you are finished on this page, click on the large right arrow.

Page 2 Brigade:

If your selected icon requires brigades, you can customize that here. First, select the number of brigades you wish to use.

NOTE: 3 and 4 brigades do not work well with curses and covenants.

Next, use the list of brigades below to fill in your brigades. Multicolor will only work with the single brigade option.

If you find the numbers in your icon box are difficult to read, you can use the White Text or Black Text boxes to change their color.

TIP: Dual brigade cards now split top and bottom by default. If you want to split left and right, use the four brigade option and match brigades 1 and 3, and 2 and 4.

Page 3 Frame and Image:

The top options control the color of the card frame. You can either select a preset color (Or Ultra Rare), or use the sliders for a fully custom background color. Play around with it and see what you come up with!

Below that is the image controls. There are two ways you can use this:

1) If your image is online, simply copy the URL of the image file and paste it in the box, then click load image. It may take a few seconds to load depending on your internet speed.
2) If your image is on your computer, copy it into the same folder as the program and copy the file name. Be sure to include the file extension (.jpg, .png, .gif) or it will not load properly. So for example, if you had a file named image.jpg, simply move that file to wherever you saved the card builder, and paste image.jpg in the URL field.

Once your image is loaded you can use the + and - buttons to control the size of the image, and the arrow buttons to move it around. You will notice I left a bright blue background behind the image. This is a quick and easy way to tell if your image is not filling the box completely.

TIP: If your image is very small, then it will usually look bad when you scale it to fill the box. Try to find larger images.

Page 4 Review and Save:

Just follow the instructions on this page. Be sure to click into the text field above the export button. If you do not do this, then your blinking text cursor will be saved as part of your card image.

Finally, click the big EXPORT! button. Pick where you want to save the file, and name it anything you want. Just be sure to include .jpg at the end. If you do not include this, the image will not save properly. Hopefully the big bold message on this screen will help you remember to do this every time.

Once your card image is saved, you will need to find a website to upload your images. Photobucket is a free service that works well for things like this.

And that's all there is to it! If you have any questions or suggestions, either post in this thread or send me a PM.

ENJOY!

If you need more extreme card options, such as dual icon boxes, crazy backgrounds, etc... then feel free to post those ideas in my card request thread.

This looks amazing! You are my favorite person ever!!

*makes all the cards*

If anyone has feature requests, let me know in here.

Updates I am already considering adding:

* A "reset card" button.
* Dual icon boxes.
* Custom "Set icons" in the bottom left corner. (This one would be tricky. I'm not sure if it's possible but I can try)
* More background patterns.

Minor thread title edit.... It helps if I remember the name of my own program. 

I am excited to get to try this out.  Awesome job!

Fantastic! This is just in time for my sons and I to finish our project for Nationals. (It's typically Redemption New Jersey-ish.)

This is Great!  Thank you!

One suggestion: for the 2-brigade box that you check, can you have give a second option for how to split the brigades?

For example:

Number of Brigades:

1,  2 (R/L),  2 (T/B), 3, 4.

That way, if I prefer to split the 2-color card the other way, I can. 

Thanks again!

Initially I did not add more brigade options because I thought it would require a massive amount of extra code. I now realize the way I actually coded it makes this very easy to do.

Until then, use the tip I posted in the instructions:

TIP: Dual brigade cards now split top and bottom by default. If you want to split left and right, use the four brigade option and match brigades 1 and 3, and 2 and 4.

can anyone tell me how to post my cards on here?  I can't remember.  I have them saved to photobucket and when i tried to post them on here last night all that came up was the url that the card was linked to.  Please let me know at your earliest convenience. Thanks!

Quote this post and look at the code for this image:



You just wrap the URL with (img) (/img), using brackets [] instead of parentheses ()

There's a way to set up photobucket to provide you with an IMG link like that.

It may be better to start a new thread for your individual card creations, and leave this thread for questions or comments about the card builder itself. 

Lambo...

You are my new best friend.

I tried to download the card maker to my new computer, but the link appears to be broken.

I just checked, both links still work on my end.

If anyone has feature requests, let me know in here.

Updates I am already considering adding:

* A "reset card" button.
* Dual icon boxes.
* Custom "Set icons" in the bottom left corner. (This one would be tricky. I'm not sure if it's possible but I can try)
* More background patterns.

Apologies for the dead kitten, but I was curious if this is actually in the works.

This is amazing, not sure if it was already said or not, when choosing black brigade, it would be nice if the ring around it could be customized or just auto white, the black on black doesn't look quite right

The new design always uses a black border, see Lahmi for a good example:





*EDIT*
Regarding updates to this program: I may still do them in the future, but I've found myself losing interest in Redemption again. Maybe I'll get inspired when another set releases.

Is there a way to reduce the font size of the card title so it fits?

I'll see about adding that soon. I might look into dual characters while I'm at it.

I'll see about adding that soon. I might look into dual characters while I'm at it.

Dual characters would be wonderful, because I've wanted to make a number of those...

I wonder if Rob would be willing to cooperate with the Card Builder and provide files so two-tier identifiers and Card names would work?

Ah ok. Nice job replicating the real thing. Illustrator confuses me and my Photoshop-centric lifestyle.

Progress hype!






Explanation for the type tab:

In V1.0, if you left the cursor in one of the text fields, it could export as part of the final image. Moving the input off of the card removes that possibility.

Other new features:
 • Multiple lines of identifiers. you *can* go as high as you want and the image box continues to shrink, but I strongly suggest limiting it to 2 lines.
 • The verse area flows from the bottom up automatically.
 • "Illus." is automatically tacked onto the artist credit. Just type the name of the artist, or leave it as the default Artist Unknown.
 • Dual icon boxes. The title will also center itself based on what boxes you use, or snap back to the right if you disable the right icon box.
 • Territory Warriors / Territory Weapons. These don't exist yet, but it was an easy enough thing to add, so... why not?
 • Removed the black background and gave the card frame a thin shadow instead.
 • You can now increase and decrease the title size, with limits.
 • Hopefully fixed the bug where the verse text becomes bold instead of italic.

Things I still need to do:
 • Brigades... this is going to be the biggest challenge now, considering I have two icon boxes to deal with.
 • Image and Frame. All the code from V1.0 should still be good here, I just need to move it over.
 • Export button. Again, code should be fine.
 • Reset Button. I have a very simple method for this built into the structure of the file, I just need to add the button to do it.

After some thought, I figured out how to condensed the brigade section into a single tab.



Pretty self explanatory, The first section toggles which icon box you're editing, the second section toggles how the brigades are split within the box, and the third section is where you pick your brigades.

The number of color wheels will change based on how many different brigades you need to select.

Now comes the coding part. The old system should still work to some degree, I just need a lot of "If" statements for all the toggles.

IT'S ALIIIIIIIVEEE!




And yes, you can include multicolor as one of the slices in any configuration. I'm not sure why you'd need that outside of dual enhancements... but... it's an option!

Also, I toned down the black on the brigade arrangement buttons. It was kinda hard on the eyes before.

So is this ready to go now?  Do I just update the current installment that I have now? This looks awesome!

Everything works. I'm delaying the release to to test for bugs.