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PythonProtoCards - Prototype Card Game Images - v1.5.01 - 9/9/12

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mouser:
I've now uploaded a rough version of my Open Source Python library/helper code for very rapidly prototyping card game images for playtesting, PythonProtoCards.
It includes my sample "CodyCards" game and sample use of the code to generate the cards for it.

Download from: https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/pythonprotocards/

Release history:

* v1.5.1 - 9/9/12 -- improved layout of large blocks of text; fixed bug when displaying text with linebreaks
* v1.4.1 - 4/5/11 -- added corner circle text helper function, and used it from sample CodyCards
* v1.2.1 - 3/25/11 -- improved transparency effects, improved full page bleed layouts
* v1.0.1 - 3/13/11 -- first release
The PythonProtoCards library provides classes and functions that are useful for rapidly prototyping *printed* card games.

The library makes it possible to programmatically create lots of cards quickly. It helps you divide up work into different steps, so that you can manually create and edit game piece data or automatically generate it programmatically, and then generate printable images for this card and piece data. The data file format is designed to be very easy for humans to edit, but also parsable by code, which can load the data, modify it, and write out newly modified files, almost like a minimalistic database. This makes it easy to programmatically modify or add to existing data files that will also be hand edited.

The focus here is on very rapid prototyping (rather than pixel-perfect laytout control) so you'll find things like functions for automatically scaling text and images to fit within specific regions, text-wrapping, etc.

By interfacing with the Python Imaging Library (PIL), the PythonProtoCards classes can quickly generate large numbers of nice looking card images, and even lay them out for printing on card template sheets.

See the samples/codycards directory for a sample card game and scripts to create cards programmatically, and sample images

Please note this is an early release intended for programmers. I would very much like to extend this work to a full-featured tool for game designers, and even extend it to support online playtesting. If you are interested in seriously funding such work, please get in touch with me.



Let me know if you find it useful!


Non-core-python requirements: PIL image library

cranioscopical:
Interesting!

I'm going to see if I can generate a couple more aces to keep up my sleeve.

Do you (does anyone) plan to create a DonationCoder card game?

mouser:
Do you (does anyone) plan to create a DonationCoder card game?
--- End quote ---

Open up your eyes.

cranioscopical:
Do you (does anyone) plan to create a DonationCoder card game?
--- End quote ---

Open up your eyes.
-mouser (March 13, 2011, 10:37 AM)
--- End quote ---

 :-[

Actually, my eyes are open but I have to keep looking away in order to boost the thermometer.

Ampa:
Oooh - looks interesting.

I have never used Python but may have a look as this develops.

When prototyping games I have always laid out cards on a portrait page 3x3 as I then get 9 per page rather than 8. Just a thought!

I would dearly love to see a good card prototyping environment developed, and would even lend a hand if I could. I most recently looked at NanDeck, but was quickly turned off as it seemed rather clunky.

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