Welcome to a new installment of the Goatfish Card Design series! Today we will look at the evolution of another "Defend" card, the Maremma. The Maremma sheepdog originated in Italy where it is used to guard sheep from wolves. Today, the Maremma is used in other parts of the world to protect a variety of livestock (including goats) from predators and thieves.
When choosing our various characters for Goatfish, we endeavored to stay true to real animals, breeds, and uses as much as possible. We of course took artistic license in our designs to achieve the right humorous tone for the game; you don't see many llamas sporting sunglasses and badges in the real world!
We chose to use the Maremma because the dogs are faithful, fearless, and outright handsome!
Maremma sheepdog. Image by MGerety, via Wikimedia Commons
Once we picked the character, Lillian put together the original illustration.
After playtesting to make sure we liked the character, we worked with our illustrator, Hank, to get sketches. After a few rounds of edits we moved on to the stages of digital inking and coloring for the final card design.
We hope you like the Maremma, he is your best friend when it comes to protecting your goat herds!