Dave's Kool Game

[airdave]

yea, me too...this time.
I am hoping that the issue is resolved.
Unless its just stored cache that helped them load?

[peter taft]

Excellent artwork Dave...what a talent.

[airdave]

Continuing on with the story...

For a long time I had the idea of creating some sort of tabletop drag racing experience.
A board game or something similar, where you could collect race cars and drag race on an actual 1/4 mile drag strip.
Koolwheelz - The Classic Drag Racing game is what that is.
Built on my own love for vintage drag racing.

In my game, players collect cards that feature race cars and other necessary elements
and when weekend racing events show up, everyone can go racing on a game board drag strip, and collect event wins.
Who ever collects the necessary amount of weekend event wins, wins the Championship (and the game).

How is all this connected to Koolwheelz models? or paper modeling in general? It isn't.

Or wasn't...originally I wanted a more 3D experience, with a tabletop drag strip big enough to include some sort of actual race cars.
At first I thought about 'standees' (card or plastic cutouts),
but then I got the idea of making the strip big enough to accomodate small diecast toys, like Hot Wheels.
If you didn't already have some toy cars, you could pick them up anywhere, real cheap.

And once I started working on that idea, I realized that small paper model cars would work too!

Thats when I decided to actually include some simple paper model race car templates in the game,
and promote the idea of using my available Koolwheelz models (as more detailed/complicated models).

Oh, and thats when I decided to attach the Koolwheelz name to the game.
You see, I had a few good ideas for a name (for the game), but I figured why not? its a decent sounding phrase "cool wheels"
and it connects with paper modeling work.
For those who know my models, its already established...for those who don't know me, the name still works.

[mbauer]

Hi Dave,

Great artwork, photos loading good here.

That VW Bug will kick &$$!

Mike

[Wyvern]

Congrats on getting your ideas to market, Dave! The production values look awesome - one wouldn't know they hadn't come from one of the big game publishers.

Great to see dreams and visions becoming reality!

Bart

[airdave]

Thanks Bart...and Happy belated Birthday.

The biggest draw back to 'print on demand' service is the cost.
While it requires very little initial investment (my time, effort, and the cost of at least one test copy)
the retail cost of the published game is a lot higher than what a game might cost in Walmart (as an example).

The final retail price is made up of:
production cost (that I have to cover),
a mark up to cover a very small commission,
and my profit...which on all my games, I choose to keep around $3-$4.
Not much profit when you consider the amount of time and work put into the game.

There are ways to cut production costs, like choosing less expensive packaging options, etc.,
and I am always looking at those options only to lower the retail price.

Granted, I'm not expecting to sell games (LOL) its just so rewarding designing everything.
If I sell any games, it will be a bonus.

[airdave]

While every type of car was drag raced, 1969, 70, 71 was the era of the Flopper.
When one piece fiberglass bodies were being introduced to go over dragster chassis'.
And those bodies were generally sleek small streamlined compacts.

Hoods and front fenders were stretched to accommodate the longer chassis and big motors,
but other than that, the goal was to resemble stock and well known cars and brands.

My original plan was to only use floppers of that era for this game.
But that didn't fit exactly with the theme, or with my existing Koolwheelz models, so I started adding a few other types of cars.
Now I have funnies, rails, gassers and altereds.

The game requires 18 "race car" cards.
It doesn't really matter what race cars they are, since there is no advantage in the game.
I just wanted to have fun with the artwork, and create 18 unique cars.
I made the decision, with the very first artwork, that I would stylize the race car and try for a more generic look.

It was important not to use any known brands, or copyrighted logos or well known names.
Even the decals I placed on vehicles are nothing more than geometric shapes in various colours.
I even picked my own names for each car, to give it a unique name and mimic the style of painted graphics found on drag cars.

This is one of the race car cards used in the game...although the game cards don't have the game logo up top. This card would have "Race Car" at the top.

[airdave]

And more...

In the (Koolwheelz Drag Racing) game, players will collect cards to build race teams and go drag racing at weekend special events.
The artwork for the various playing cards is varied and unique, and all original, created by me.

The large collection of cards includes 18 Race Car cards, as well as 18 Racing Event cards, along with many other important cards.
To build a race team and go racing, players also need to collect Sponsor Funding and then hire a Team to support their race car.
They will also need Fuel and Tires for each race event.

All playing cards will feature the same back artwork (shown below)

[airdave]

Article I posted on facebook:

Something kept me up last night, and I decided to say something about it.
I keep noting that the artwork is 'original', 'by me', 'my own', etc.
Not just because I am proud of the artwork I created for this game,
but because there is a trend these days (especially in game design, it seems),
to use AI created artwork.
Not everyone is an 'artist', I get it.
And many game designers will hire other artists for the job.

But, there are now many websites, and software(apps) that you can sign up for, or purchase out-right, that use whatever artificial systems to create images based on whatever you ask for.
You literally describe the image (you want created) using key words.
Most of these apps use existing photos and art images found on the web to build a composite piece of art for you.

Not only are there questions of intellectual property,
but many of these images can contain weird composite elements.
And I think its cheating.

Anyway, I just wanted to speak my piece and admit that I am not just tooting my own horn.

[Vermin_King]

Your artwork definitely shows the effort you put into it