How I Designed a Game Around Streetwear

Geometric Eye was the first design that I drew for the Teemill store. I had no idea what kind of store I was building, other than sustainable. I knew I wanted it to be different.
At that stage I was cycling between everything from 90s retro symbols to geometric animals with no decisions. I knew I wanted to use my old art.

The first design, the geometric eye sketch and printed version.

Redesigning 20yr old characters

I took some of my old characters, drawings and sketches and put them in the store. I didn’t have a reason why. Some I redesigned slightly, and some I kept the same.

These became Logic, Tenet, Ultraviolet and Sun Eater.
Gradually, as I added more art, illegible to all but to me, the world was emerging.

Their stories were unfolding.
The characters were evolving and before I knew it I had a psychostasia judge,  a slightly too experimental planet builder, an intergalactic backpacker who stopped by for the music and bubble wrap and an intergalactic star maggot who is happily munching on dying stars.

Unfortunately, that last one is heading toward ours.

Mapping game to garment

That was really the easy part. I researched different ways games communicate rules, worlds, progression, player behaviour, consequence and more, across wildly different games and media, and then figured out what my existing world could mechanically do.

What happened to sustainability?

I leaned heavily into sustainability messaging those first few months and discovered then that sustainability on its own wasn’t going to move the needle. I had to make it worthwhile. Mean something.

One of the biggest things we do is circularity. And it’s one of the last things we do as people.

So I built recycling into the game twice. In play, Recycle undoes your opponent's last move. Outside the game, the same idea continues through the clothes: scan the QR code in the care label, return the garment when you're finished with it, and it goes back into the system to become something else.

I’m not claiming I’ve solved the problem, but I am trying to make participation part of the thing.

Alternate Reality Streetwear Game

The clothes are the artifacts. The cards are where you play. The comics are where the characters come alive.

Different parts of the same world.

Game to garment

The cards and the artifacts (clothing) are now coherent. The final designs are being added over the next few weeks.

Next, I'll be finishing the cards and working on getting them into the hands of our testers.

If you would like to test the game, you can find out more here.

Playtesting An Original Card Game

The past couple of weeks has been an all-out sprint to get the game completed and simulation tested. I’ve started art, though I wish I had a clone I could force to draw for eight hours while I work on everything from socials to funding.

The Canis card game is moving from simulation to physical playtesting. Prototype decks are coming.

Finding your people

Mongrel Logic has always been for people like me. Who can just as easily be found listening to metal as they can opera. Who love science and science fiction, who love words, worlds and fantasy. The more blurred the genre, the better. Intelligent topics but not to the exclusion of “Destination F****d.”

People who love fashion as much as they do cosplay and make-up and the holey sweatshirt they have lived in for the past twenty years. People who care about what is going on in the world, would quite like to, you know... well, you know. But we're also determined to see it fixed.

We don’t really fit in the boxes. We exist across genres, places, cultures.

How do you find playtesters?

Ideally, you find your people.
Well, that strategy is unfolding. In all the areas hinted at above.

What do the playtesters do?

We're selecting a small group to receive a prototype deck and booklet before launch.
Play it. Break it. Tell us what doesn't work.
Selected testers will receive a Mongrel Logic organic cotton T-shirt as thanks.

When is this happening?

Over the coming weeks, as I complete the artwork, I’m selecting a small group of people to playtest the first Canis card game before launch. Register your interest in playtesting if you’d like to be a part of this.

I still need to name the card game. The Canis blank as it stands. Might just be the card game, spade a spade.

Designing The Canis Game

Designing The Canis Game

The final stage of building the Mongrel Logic alternate reality streetwear game is approaching.
The comic is written. The card game has been designed, and I’ve just completed simulation testing. I roughly built the deck out of paper, played and…

I lost but there we are.

I will be naming the card game, but right now, The Canis game is close enough.

How did I build the game?

You are not going to like the answer.
Backwards. I spent months upon months since I launched the first T-Shirt designs using my old teenage art; they were characters I had drawn and started developing over 20 years ago, trying to figure out how I was going to tell a story that started there.

I built the world first, played with character ideas and concepts and eventually turned that internal logic into a game. I built a world until it became playable.

Rudimentary Canis Game card deck, used for testing

From 18 Characters down to 4

Over the past week I have trimmed back over forty different concepts, built sequences, and run days of simulation testing. The deck is playable, there are no dead hands, the sequences all work and are well balanced.

My brain has run a marathon.

Sun Eater is coming; it’ll soon be up to you.

Art can start

There is a Kerryn shaped hole in the door.

What comes next?

Sustainable comics and cards. You will finally be able to see The Canis in its true form.

Plus, our newsletter; I am working on making this valuable, different. I know some wonderful people have subscribed, and I will be getting this done soon.  

To infinity and be..oh no wait that’s the wrong thing.