On one of the other threads, our discussion briefly touched on how 'ALIEN Isolation' is deserving of its own trading card series. So, I got to thinking, "Why not make my own set of 'ALIEN Isolation' cards?" It would be a fun Fan Art Project I can do with relative ease. It won't take me too much time to sift through and select enough screenshots from a folder full of images on my hard drive, whack a border around 'em and post 'em online. Hey Presto, Instant Card Set!
So I thought about it some more and this past Easter I spent most of Saturday and much of Sunday making a set of 100 faux 'ALIEN Isolation' cards. It was pretty easy, actually. These cards all depict characters, situations and environments from the game and are intended solely for fun. Of course, I'm also more than willing to share them with the Community - but I don't want to just spam the forum with 100 cards all at once! That would be kind of cruel. lol...
Instead, I thought it might be fun to released them in small groups, say, 6 per poost. I got to thinking a little more and realised I could turn the experience into a card collection simulation for you all to enjoy. Here's how I intend to go about this experimental exercise. By means of a lottery (By drawing numbers out of a plastic tub.), I intend to select 6 cards at random from the pool of 100. This process is intended to simulate the opening of a packet which is how cards are normally distributed; and 6 appears to be an ideal number. I'll wait a while, maybe a day or 2, or maybe wait for a number of reply posts to be made and then once again via the means of the lottery, repeat the action and select another 6 random cards from the pool post them on the thread as well. The wait time will be completely arbitrary and up to myself.
Now, here's the catch. The 6 previously drawn lottery cards are returned to the pool prior to each new draw so the pool constantly contains all 100 cards. This means the first draw will be unique. Most likely, the second draw will be unique, too. ...maybe even the 3rd and 4rth draws may possibly be so. However, at some point in time, duplicates will start to appear as the lotteries progress. Eventually, at about the half way mark where around 50% the contents of the pool has already been drawn, the number of duplicates will commence to outnumber the original items in the draw on a regular basis. Anyone who has actually collected bubblegum or trading cards will be familiar with this.
Ultimately, and theoretically, each progressive draw from that point will contain mostly duplicate items and I realise that that could be a problem. I know it's going to be frustrating to watch an excessive number of duplicates being drawn once unique items become outnumbered, rare and are no longer being called from the pool. Certainly, the final 10% of unique cards will be hard to draw without an over abundance of duplicate items appearing.
So here is my solution to this problem. Once the lottery reaches this point, the lottery will cease and no more cards will be drawn. Instead, I'll be zipping up all the contents of the entire card set into multiple batches of 6 random cards per archive (Let's call it a 'pack'.) and then distributing all those 6 card 'packs' amongst all of the Posters participating in this thread at the rate of 1 'pack' per Poster (1 only per Poster. Multiple posts by posters won't receive multiple packs.). All and any previously undrawn cards will be included in those 'packs'. This way, everyone will receive a different 'pack' of 6 cards and the entire set of 100 will be distributed amongst Posters. You can then do what you like with the cards which you receive. You can post the missing ones here and share 'em with your fellow forum buddies or recipients may keep them to themselves and the online set here may remain incomplete. I won't be tracking the Poster 'packs or who receives them or what the 'packs' contents will be.
I don't mind either way as that's the nature of card collecting and I'm sure that while we all love to see our sets of cards be completed; an incomplete set is just as valid as an experience. We all have series of incomplete items in our collections, too; and I'll be leaving the potential for this card collecting simulation to be 100% complete or not up to you as to whether those last holes get filled or not by posters who may be in possession of those missing cards. Simulating the challenge of completing the set is one of the goals I am attempting to embrace here.
Either way, the cards required to complete the online set will eventually be in your hands. The more people who reply to the thread, the greater chance that the set has of becoming completed via the virtue of wider distribution. This process may take days... Weeks... Months... whatever. There's no time limit and no rush.
No draws will be discarded nor will any cards be returned to the pool in favor of other items - I'd be just cheating myself and corrupting the experiment if I did so. All draws will be random. Any combination may be the result.
= = = = =
Just a few notes about the cards themselves appearing as part of this experiment. Basically, it's just stuff that occurred to me while making them. Some of it's important - some of it's just background info.:
-
Most of the screenshot images appearing on these cards were taken by myself but there's also a bunch of unidentified downloaded images amongst them as well. If you identify any of these cards and know who the Author of the image is, please let me know and I will retro-credit them as appropriate in the post in which they appear.
-
In keeping with 'ALIEN Isolation's retro theme, the card border design were inspired by those present on old 1977 'Star Wars' and 1979 'ALIEN' bubblegum cards.
-
The order of the cards is loosely based the narrative order of the video game. There are some continuity descrepancies and this is a deliberate homage to old movie bubblegum cards in the past that have depicted scenes out of sequence. It does happen.
-
Captions present on each of the cards are largely written in the tradition of late 1970's and 1980's bubblegum cards. They are corny, cheesy and some puns are present.
-
To lend a more cinematic presentation to the cards, I used Cheat Engine to free-roam the camera in various locations. HUD and first person perspective elements were avoided as much as possible. An attempt was made to make the cards look like old movie stills of yore.
-
I haven't made the backs of any of these cards. This would have been time prohibitive to me and I have enough on my plate as it is. I'll let someone else make those if they are so inclined. Don't forget to make 'em cheesy!
-
Other bubblegum cards based on movies would frequently contain images other than those taken directly from the film they are based on. Concept designs and behind the scenes images are commonplace. I could have done something similar with this set but decided to solely restrict the images appearing in the set to actual screenshots from the game. This decision was largely dictated by the sheer additional amount of work this activity would have required.
-
If you want to make your own 'ALIEN Isolation' cards please do so. Remember, the number sequence from 1 to 100 already exists! I won't be making a 2nd Series so you are welcome to make cards numbering 101 and upwards. Hell, go make 'AvP 2010' cards or cards for 'A:CM'; or some other ALIEN/Predator themed game. I'd love to see your work!
-
In the event that this exercise infringes on copyright, then there is no recourse for me other than concede and agree to their removal. I understand that Fox, SEGA, Creative Assembly and their respective companies reserve the right to have these cards removed without notice. I completely understand and acknowledge their right to do so. Mind you, I make nothing from this experimental exercise other than spread the Joy! This exercise is just for fun, for the fans on this site. If these companies feel this exercise poses an issue in any way and the cards need to be removed, then I will do so upon request without hesitation, argument or debate or warning. On the other hand, a brief message to those companies,
please consider making an official set available. We'd love it! Just watch and see.
To get this process started then, here's the first draw of 6 cards from the pool.
Numbers drawn: 35, 43, 48, 68, 81, 89.
Duplicate No.s: NA
Corresponding Cards:Notes for this Draw: Of course, there's no duplicates in the first draw. We get Dr. Kuhlman's abduction straight off the bat. A great selection of characters, events and environments here and this draw is very representative of what the full set of 100 cards consists of.
I'll post the next batch of 6 cards sometime soon.
-Windebieste.
