Dev Diaries II: How is a card created?

Welcome to another Dev Diary! In this new series we’re pulling back the curtain to give you a peek at how we create Escape from Site 19. Each issue will be written by one of the members of the EFS19 team, and will give unique insights into the game’s creation.

In this Dev Diary, our amazing game mechanic developer Richard Hájek will delve into the card creation process for EFS19 and the Additional Security Protocols booster pack. I’ll let him take over from here!

“Let me start by showing you our card development diagram, in the exact form in which we work on it:

As you can see, each card has several development stages.

1. The first thing we need to figure out is the task & story. This is my job, but I usually work alongside Anna, a dev team colleague, Kamil, the founder, and Petr, a developer and web designer. Because we work on numerous cards simultaneously, we each take the lead on a few cards, while observing and commenting on the others, but with a smaller degree of involvement.
2. Once the card’s task is ready, we move it onto the “voting” stage, where we all have to agree that we are happy with the card. We have been looking at tweaking this stage, because it has been noted that being less strict at this juncture has allowed some small issues to slip through, which makes our job more difficult further down the line.
3. Next up is the story. Usually, we have an idea of how the story should look by this point, but we need to make sure it matches the card’s task.
4. After this comes the illustration stage, where our graphics design and photo team either sources or creates an appropriate picture for the card. I must say they do a tremendous job, as our illustrations have even made it onto the official SCP wiki! For example, SCP-023’s illustration was done by our team! Just wait until we feature a Dev Diary with one of our illustrators!
5. Now we’ve arrived at the translating / proofreading stage. This is sometimes done simultaneously with the previous stage, as they do not depend on each other. Our incredible teammate Sam is the only proofreader on the team, so Sam checks EVERYTHING we develop, post, or create to make sure it makes sense and uses proper English grammar.
6. When this is finished, the card is, in fact, ready for production! Our production team is always working hard to find different suppliers, because after the coronavirus pandemic started, some of our suppliers have stopped… well, supplying. So we define the cards’ physical dimensions, the cards’ material, and send our request to the factory. They then manufacture the cards for us and we pack and ship them! And that is how EFS19 cards go from an idea all the way through production and into your hands!”