by justjohn
Great questions, Zed!Stone & Relic started out as an overhaul of Bhazum. I was designing it for 2-4 players, with an Egyptian theme (players were attempting to unlock ancient avatars, and played cards to their temple to gain Scarabs which they could use for stuff). I had an artist picked out who was interested in the game, but she was in the Philippines, and was hit with the Monsoon stuff a few months ago, so that took her out of commission.
As I was looking for a new artist, I got to thinking about changing the theme and mechanics around some, one thing lead to another in my head, and I ended up drafting the skeleton for Stone & Relic, and started looking for a different type of art altogether. The original design had too much griefing in it for my playtesters. And after designing a handful of games almost entirely focused on card-based combat of one sort or another, designing something that players could relax a little bit more in while playing was actually a nice change. You can't really ignore what the other players are doing, but at the same time, you're not constantly worrying about how the next player will react to your play. The game has a totally different pace than some of our other recent games.
I found Joey on deviantart (which is where I also found Sandro, the artist for Shadow of the Sun). His landscape pieces where exactly what I had in mind, so I shot him a message and we got things worked out. Finding artists willing to do what we need at the rate we can pay is a job in and of itself. I'll usually contact 20 or so artists, and I'll hear back from maybe 5 to 7 of them, and of those, there will maybe be 1 who is interested in the job. It's a whole lot of hunting, messaging, and waiting.
I would have used John Ariosa for this game as well, he's my go-to guy, but he was really busy with several projects, including the illustrations for The Valkyrie Incident.
As far as direction goes, if I've contacted an artist, it's because I really like their style. I give them an overview of the game and atmosphere, and a brief description of what I'd like. Sometimes it's a bit more detailed, but most of the time, it's just an idea (colors, male/female, evil/good, etc). I give them as much creative control as I can (obviously, if I need a dark castle, I need a dark castle and not an ivory tower, ya know). Out of the 200 some odd pieces of art we've commissioned in the past 2 years, there have only been a handful of them changed in one way or the other. I put a lot of trust in the artists we choose; I figure with their imagination as an artist, they can do a lot better with what they come up with than trying to "get" what I'm trying to tell them to do down to the last detail, if that makes sense.
We're at a point where I'll commission a few pieces of art for a game I'm working on before I'm even close to playtesting it. Often times, looking at art helps me with mechanics and abilities, I've had entire card abilities change due to the art. I may have one ability in mind when I send over the description, and end up with something totally different because I get a different vibe from the art. I try my best to get any kind of icons for a game done first, as having these really helps with the direction I'll take the game's overall graphic design and presentation.
The people in the rulebook: Britt's my wife. She shows up a good bit in examples. Scout's our daughter, and she shows up a good bit too. The other people who show up are generally playtesters.
Jeb is my lead playtester (after Britt). He's my "breaker." He's also my oldest friend and one of the most brutally honest people I know. If a game sucks, if Britt hasn't already told me that it sucks, Jeb will. He's a spike/johnny, if that makes sense to you (and has had the same dci number for 15+ years, also, if that makes sense to you). If a game can be broken, Jeb will break it. He's really good at strategy, and often lends a big hand with balancing stuff.
I tend to think of SBG in 2 phases: before Omen and after Omen. There were a lot of changes that happened when we published Omen. I think we're in a really great place, and have a solid group of testers, which leads to much better games (and better looking games).