Great summary and pics - thanks for sharing.  I don't generally play card games, but the branding has drawn me in.  Reading through the first post makes me think I'll be getting this one when it comes out.  Seems simple enough for someone new like me, but still has a variety of gameplay options.

I do like the artwork as well.

Very cool.  Thanks for the pics, TC!

Surely the final artwork should contain lots of photos? Most of the pictures I have seen are practically copies of stills from the films (or advertising material), and being a movie tie in game (unlike LoTR) it kind of makes sense to me.

I doubt (and hope very much they don't) that they will use stills from the films and everything suggests they're going to be using their own artwork for the game :D 

All of the card images should be consistently a combination of recycled Star Wars artwork and original freelance commissions like they do with the other LCGs. This would free them up to do Expanded Universe material without the original images looking cheesy next to movie footage. Just look at how silly it got to be when WotC's cards began using CGI rather than live actors. (Snide comment about the PT goes here.) Not to mention that in a live-action film of average length like the Star Wars films, only a small fraction of the film's frames contain footage suitable to use in card imagery. No, original artwork is the way to go for them, I think. And I hope they are allowed to use some of the artwork that has been shown on the demo cards; for instance, the picture of Han playing at Sabacc is one of my personal favorites and I think it would be excellent to have a Han Solo card with that image.

Thanks for the images, indeed. It was great to be able to see them.

I think I can give a little more info on the illustration process for the game, since I'm one of the free-lancers illustrating for FFG (some of you may know me from other boards).

No movie stills were directly used, but the licensor is very, very precise. Everything put in a card illustration must be referenced from the movies, to the smallest detail (in short, we paint shots that were never filmed). Among the images I've seen, I can say for sure that some were commissioned for the game (Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker are works of mine).

My guess (and it's just a guess, mind you, I don't know anything more than you do on this) is that some illos (namely those recycled from other sources), might be placeholders Lucas licensing holds the rights and has authorized the use of until the definitive image has been painted.

Or otherwise (in specific for ships) it may be that that one is the standard image Lucas wants used for that class of ship.

At this stage, I guess a lot of things are still in flux. Artwork can be moved from card to card (the art for Luke Skywalker originally was for a different card) and new art can still be commissioned, in my opinion the final core set will likely have a good percentage of the art seen in the demo, but not all.

 Thank you very much for the info and educated speculation! And of course, bravo to you on the fine work you have done. 

Can't wait to play!

Tiziano said:

So we won't be seeing any Expanded Universe material? Ever? That's disappointing, especially given the fact that clearly, at least some of the missions are going to be extraneous to the films: the Rebels were never shown or referenced to be returning to Yavin (or indeed, fleeing Yavin in the first place, though that is implied by their moving to Hoth by the time of ESB). Technically though, that Han Solo image ought to be fair game, since he mentions Lando losing the Falcon to him "fair and square."

I wonder why both Wizards and Decipher got to use the EU, and Fantasy Flight doesn't get to? That's not very fair.

MarthWMaster said:

This is incorrect. FFG has rights to all the extended universe story, imagery, characters, vehicles, etc.

cP
FFG

Phew! You guys had me for a minute there. Thanks for the clarification!

I guess I'll update my response to Tiziano to say "Awesome!" It's a fleshing-out of a universe that has captured the imaginations of multiple generations of fans. It is certainly a lofty privilege to be among the artists for this game. Congratulations to you all, and may the Force be with you.

MarthWMaster said:

Sorry for the confusion, I should have made myself clearer. With 'everything must be referenced from the movies' I didn't mean 'every situation' but 'every object, prop, uniform and so on ', hence the 'we paint shots that were never filmed' comment (besides it all applies to the work I have done up to now).

Thank you very much,  I. J. Thompson and  MarthWMaster for your appreciation and well wishes, working on such franchises as these is definitely a privilege.

I'm glad they got you doing some art Tiziano, You do some of my favorite work on FFGs games and that Luke is kick ass.

Are these pictures available anywhere else? I've tried many times, but cannot get to that web page. It keeps freezing and I get a blank white page displayed. I've tried going to the main page and I can access that fine, but once I go to the link for the SW page I keep getting the same result. Thanks!

Hi Immortal,

What browser/version are you using. I've seen an issue similar to what you describe when using old versions of Internet explorer. You could try to access the site using Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer 8+ and see if you get any better results. If that doesn't work shoot me a PM here and I'll see what I can do to get you the images.

That sounds like what it is. I've got an older verison of IE. I've been meaning to update it, so this is the perfect time to do it! If for some reason it still doesn't work, I'll let you know. Thanks!