Thanks for the feedback! Wording is the bane of both my entries, sadly. 9/16 missed points were for wording. *facepalm* Congrats on the win, @doofisconfused!
Contest June/July 2023 CaC: Special Energy Swap (All Results Up!)
- Thread starter Jabberwock
- Start date
@Jabberwock
Getting full points on believability/playability, wording, and fonts and placement in a row for Protean Energy was one of the most encouraging parts of seeing the results from this CaC! I have historically struggled with these categories in image, especially the later two. The bubble technique will definitely be helpful if I want to make more Special Energy down the line. Also, I found your explanation of what would have earned that second creativity point very insightful, and will keep them in mind for future CaC’s. To be honest, though, I’m not sure what I would have changed about this Energy if someone else had asked for help on this same card and Protean Energy had never existed. I suppose the big takeaway for future CaC’s, since I’m unlikely to make any more Special Energy for these contests, is that adapting effects a Pokémon has in the video games won’t earn as many points as creating a thematically fitting effect that synthesizes information from a Pokémon’s lore, video game mechanics, and other areas of Pokémon world building. Is that a fair interpretation? I would be interested in talking about this some more.
As for not designing around Overflow Energy’s second effect, I completely misread the effect and thought the Energy would become every type, not the Pokémon. In other words, I thought it was a more flexible Delta Rainbow Energy rather than a more powerful Protean Energy.
P.S. the glasses from the google illustration were Choice Specs., which goes well with the theme of tools. I forgot to mention that in my notes at the time.
@PMJ
I understand why the name Silph Scope Energy bothered you. It took me a long time to settle on it, since the actual item-emulating Special Energy from Team Rocket featured healing items (and healing items, moreover, which had been featured in Base Set). Eventually, I decided to go with this idea instead of my ideas for “Ether Energy,” “Elixir Energy,” and even “Rare Candy Energy,” because I realized that a Mr. Mime counter would be more valuable than some niche effect like “remove all effects of (your opponent’s?) attacks on this Pokémon” (which I almost used instead). I’m glad you still thought it sounded like a card which could exist in this era.
The costume was plot armor in more ways than one. Rowlet uses it as a decoy to avoid an attack during the battle, because that’s definitely legal. Catalyst Cosplay was definitely more creative than Bullet Grit or Seed.
Also, thanks for your continued support and encouragement as I grapple with first generation wording. It really does help me persevere in designing cards for this era.I suppose I can try writing an e-reader card next time if I really want to torture myself?
Hope you are both doing well! Thanks for keeping the CaC’s rolling!
Getting full points on believability/playability, wording, and fonts and placement in a row for Protean Energy was one of the most encouraging parts of seeing the results from this CaC! I have historically struggled with these categories in image, especially the later two. The bubble technique will definitely be helpful if I want to make more Special Energy down the line. Also, I found your explanation of what would have earned that second creativity point very insightful, and will keep them in mind for future CaC’s. To be honest, though, I’m not sure what I would have changed about this Energy if someone else had asked for help on this same card and Protean Energy had never existed. I suppose the big takeaway for future CaC’s, since I’m unlikely to make any more Special Energy for these contests, is that adapting effects a Pokémon has in the video games won’t earn as many points as creating a thematically fitting effect that synthesizes information from a Pokémon’s lore, video game mechanics, and other areas of Pokémon world building. Is that a fair interpretation? I would be interested in talking about this some more.
As for not designing around Overflow Energy’s second effect, I completely misread the effect and thought the Energy would become every type, not the Pokémon. In other words, I thought it was a more flexible Delta Rainbow Energy rather than a more powerful Protean Energy.
P.S. the glasses from the google illustration were Choice Specs., which goes well with the theme of tools. I forgot to mention that in my notes at the time.
@PMJ
I understand why the name Silph Scope Energy bothered you. It took me a long time to settle on it, since the actual item-emulating Special Energy from Team Rocket featured healing items (and healing items, moreover, which had been featured in Base Set). Eventually, I decided to go with this idea instead of my ideas for “Ether Energy,” “Elixir Energy,” and even “Rare Candy Energy,” because I realized that a Mr. Mime counter would be more valuable than some niche effect like “remove all effects of (your opponent’s?) attacks on this Pokémon” (which I almost used instead). I’m glad you still thought it sounded like a card which could exist in this era.
The costume was plot armor in more ways than one. Rowlet uses it as a decoy to avoid an attack during the battle
Also, thanks for your continued support and encouragement as I grapple with first generation wording. It really does help me persevere in designing cards for this era.
Hope you are both doing well! Thanks for keeping the CaC’s rolling!
I think that's a fair interpretation, but my point was more that C/O is a two-part category — we often call it "Creativity" as a shorthand, but originality is just as important. While there are many creative ways to adapt a VG effect to the TCG, the most original entries are typically those that come from a place other than adaptation. It's kinda like writing a book versus translating somebody else's book: If your goal is to take a VG effect and translate it into TCG terms, you're imposing a limit on the effects you can put on the card, and no matter how you go about it, the core of the idea will always have come pretty clearly from somewhere else.
There's no checklist you have to complete in C/O, or at least not the way there is for Wording or Fonts. It's just about the core ideas of the card and how you follow through on them. What new design space are you exploring? How does your idea tie into the theme? Are you thinking about exciting gameplay interactions with other cards and effects? What kind of decisions would the player of your card have to make in practice? What other effects does it remind me of, and is that good or bad? That kind of thing. These are all open-ended questions and still not an exhaustive list.
To be clear, your card was great. 13/15 is a great Creativity score, and when it comes to the last couple points we can often get into the weeds. There are great ways to do adaptation-style effects! I'm mostly trying to encourage you to look in other places as well for inspiration.