I’m looking to invent a card game and print my own cards as a project with my boys.
Last halloween, we made a board game that turned out pretty slick. But we made cards as part of it using thick matte photo paper. The printing turned out great, but the cards stuck together. Not stuck as in wet ink sticking, but rather sticking in that they don’t slide across each other very well. This was annoying for the board game, but will make using that paper for a card game pretty much impossible.
I considered laminating them, but that doesn’t seem ideal. I’m convinced there must be some card stock I can use that will be good.
I wonder if maybe you could print your designs on something like Avery shipping labels (no. 5163, which are about the size of a standard playing card) and just stick them on the front of a deck of regular cards?
I was in the paper business and there are so many different types of paper it is unbelievable. I think that Jayjay has an excellent idea. Once you develop the game and want to go into big time production then worry about where to get the right stock. [sup]Good Luck[/sup]
Ohmygod, I was just about to post a very similar question.
I’m designing a deck of playing cards for a client. I don’t have any playing cards at home. Anybody know the exact dimensions of a standard playing card?
Well, prior to the time plastic coating became the rage in the 1940’s or so, most playing cards were manufactured out of two sheets of card stock. The sheets were pasted together with a sticky opaque black gook called, well, “gook.” (Cite: Scarne on Gambling; I’ve seen other cites as well.)
I collect playing cards, and some years ago I bought a water-damaged pack from the turn of the century for a buck. One of the cards split right down the middle when I tried to separate it from the rest. It was obvious that the card was composed of two distinct sheets of stock, each printed on only one side. This style of manufacture makes sense for pre-plastic cards: they would have been easier to print, and less susceptible to water damage. (The chief problem with one-sheet card stock is that water damage would make them translucent. It looked like my deck, though, had been soaked in water for an extended time.)
What does this mean for your card game? If you want to put a little more effort into it, I think it might be worth your while to look into making your cards from two sheets of a thinner, more flexible card stock, rather than looking for a thicker, opaque stock. The thicker stock would be tougher to print on and use. I would even assume that you could run the thinner card stock through your average laser printer, flatten them, and then “gook” them together.
Have fun, Bill, and let us know how this turns out.
You may want to check out the Board Game Designers Forum. They have some useful tips in their Game Production forum. It’s a great resource that I check often (although not as often as here).
For my first game, I took Avery labels and pasted them over regular playing cards.
For my second game, I got Avery cards (I don’t remember the model number off hand, I’ll check when I get home) and placed them in deck protectors (the type that M:TG players use). I plan to use that same approach for the next two games I currently have in the works.
astro, that is a very cool link, and will likely be my approach. Spraying the cards seems like the easiest and most effective way.
zev_steinhardt, thanks for the pointer to that BBS. I had no idea there was a whole community of board game makers out there.
Duke, thanks for the suggestion. I may do this. But I suspect that gluing front and backs will be a bunch of effort, especially compared to spraying each one.
jayjay, kniz, TJdude825, I appreciate the comments. Unfortunately, what I’m planning to build isn’t so much a prototype, as it is a one-time actual game that hopefully we’ll keep around for a while. So, I’d like it to look and feel as professional as possible.
[sup]Good Luck[/sup]
[sup]Damn if a google didn’t make me out to be a [liar.](