r/homemadeTCGs

Hello,

So I'd like to really dive into Android Netrunner, I bought System Gateway several months ago because I didn't really want to bother printing and having ugly results

HOWEVER I'm french and even though I'm not bad at understanding english, I realised that it's quite tiring to learn a game, its rules, cards and effects in a language that isn't my mother tongue. I haven't found System Gateway in french and even if I did, I originally wanted to try Android Netrunner because it's a deck-building card that you can play without much money.

So I think i'm ready to print the cards myself and take the time to do it well. Might even be fun who knows ? I'd prefer not to use the classic combo "paper/trash MtG card/sleeve" because I'm trying to use less plastic in my life. The process I was thinking about was:

1. Print on classic paper
2. Cut the cards
3. Glue them on a trash MtG card
4. Paint the back with the right color (red/runner blue/corp) with spray paint for example
5. Coat each side with spray hair lacquer or just spray lacquer to protect the colors

The other option was to print on a thicker paper but I guess you would need a specific printer for that ?

Either way, I don't know if coating with spray lacquer would be the right way to go for stuff that will be used and manipulated quite frequently, maybe even slightly folded. I know some artists like charcoal artists use this technique to fix the colors

I know it may sound futile or even meaningless to try and work without plastic sleeves, especially with the fact that lacquer often isn't palstic-free, but I would still like your thoughts, opinions and advice on how to do this

I'm currently working on a card game, and one of the biggest challenges I've run into is the artwork.

There are a lot of cards in the game, and hiring an artist to illustrate all of them would be very expensive. My budget is already quite limited, especially since this is an independent project and I don't know whether the game will succeed or ever make enough money to cover its costs.

Unfortunately, I'm not an artist myself, and I don't have the skills to create the kind of artwork I'd like my game to have.

So I'd like to ask people who have faced a similar problem: How do you find affordable art for a card game when you can't draw and can't afford to commission an artist for every card?

Are there ways to work with beginner artists, collaborate with other creators, find artists who are interested in smaller projects, or use other alternatives that don't require a huge budget?

I understand that artists deserve to be paid fairly for their work, and I'm not expecting someone to illustrate hundreds of cards for next to nothing. I'm just trying to figure out what options exist for someone starting with limited resources.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has managed to overcome this problem or has advice on how to approach it.

Thanks!

I am starting to make the art for my tcg, but I have no idea what to use for making the card design.
I am mainly working off of this from my phone (just cause I’m away from my PC a lot) so any help on what apps for IOS or Android would help.
Any ideas for ones that improve work load would help a lot.