TRAVELLER'S DECK Playing Cards | No Man's Sky

cards deck geometric merchandise no man's sky Playing Cards video game ILLUSTRATION

TRAVELLER'S DECK

Playing Cards Inspired by No Man's Sky

The Traveller's Deck is a set of playing cards directly inspired by the game No Man's Sky. Designed to feel like an artifact from the game itself, these cards feature geometric designs inspired by the characters and decals encountered by players. Most notable of these designs is that of the Atlas. This diamond-like representation of the Atlas has served as an icon of the game for several years and lent itself well to playing cards.

SUITS AND EXOSUITS

Each classic suit was redesigned in a sharp, geometric style to mimic the graphics seen on ships and equipment throughout the game's universe. Barcode-like patterns inspired by binary code were also added to each card to give them additional readability in a universe of both organic and mechanical beings. Each suit was also given its own identity with the assignment of a secondary color and alien race from the game.

SPADES

The highest ranked of the suits belongs to the Travellers (or Anomalies). The in-game race associated with players, Travellers are favored by the Atlas and serve as protagonists in the universe. The secondary color, gold, represents their power and status in the universe.

HEARTS

Vy'keen are a passionate race; passionate about their communities, their traditions, and their battle prowess. As blunt as they are sincere, the Vy'keen put their heart into everything they do from combat training to developing tools and vehicles. Orange, the secondary color, represents their fiery passion as well as the heat of their weapons.

CLUBS

The Gek are famous for their relentless trade and commerce-making as well as their botanical pursuits. As traders and farmers, the clover of this suit was a good match. Green was a natural secondary color representing wealth and botany as well as being associated with the Gek in the game.

DIAMONDS

Lastly, the Korvax could be no other suit but the Diamond. This race of mechanical beings worship the Atlas, represented by the diamond in this deck. Blue was chosen as their secondary color both for its academic connotations as well as its relation to them ingame.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustrating each set of royalty was probably my favorite part of this project. Since No Man's Sky characters are mostly procedurally-generated, I had to select three examples of each race that represented some of the most prominent features without looking too similar. Additionally, each character can be seen holding an item associated with their race in the game. While figuring out who to include for the Travellers was pretty difficult, figuring out the deck's jokers was a breeze. Nada and Polo (two friends who travel between realities) were the obvious choice and are the only named characters depicted.

CUSTOM POKER CHIPS

In addition to a full deck, a set of custom poker chips was also created. Drawing colors, barcodes, and iconography from both the deck and the game, this set of chips is the perfect companion for this otherworldly deck.

Instead of sticking to a single size and shape, each value of chip is unique. This helps sell the exotic nature of the set as you imagine traders betting with currency from different systems around the galaxy. Prototype poker chips were printed on punch-out boards similar to game tokens.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

No Man's Sky is one of my favorite universes to get immersed in, however merchandise is few and far between. I set out to design these over a weekend in anticipation of the game's 5-year anniversary.

It was an absolute blast to illustrate characters from one of my favorite games in a new style. I was also lucky enough to get them produced as official merchandise and now look forward to sharing them with other fans across the world! I can't thank Hello Games enough for their support and collaboration.

Video-game-inspired projects like these are my absolute favorites. If you love them too, check out my profile for other No Man's Sky and Bioshock-inspired projects.

Thanks for checking out my work!

—Christopher C. Castillo