Ross Connell 13/11/2019 Ross Connell 13/11/2019

Magic: The Gathering Card Art - Artistic Process and Building Your Community - Interview with Sara Winters (Issue #67)

“In 2012 I made my first fantasy illustration portfolio and brought it to an artist convention in Kansas City called Spectrum. I showed it to as many artists and art directors as possible. Even though I knew that I wasn’t ready, I made this portfolio as…”

Welcome to issue 67 of my series sharing the stories behind board game art. If you’ve played Magic: The Gathering or The Lord of the Rings TCG, you’ll likely have seen her work. Her incredible ability to capture the energy and presence of the figures she illustrated drew me in, and I’m so happy she took some time to talk about her work with me.

For more great insights into tabletop game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Hi Sara, thanks for joining me! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I am a freelance artist working in the gaming industry and specialize in character design and illustration. Although I was born and raised in New Jersey, I currently live in the Seattle, WA area. I am 30 years old. My husband Mark Winters is also an artist and former art director for Wizards of the Coast. We have five chihuahuas and our first child turned one recently!

I love being part of the artist community and used to run figure drawing nights and industry lectures in Seattle. I’m planning to do more of that in the future.

Sara Winters - Pisces - Llewellyn's 2019 Astrological Calendar

The freelance illustration industry is tough to break into, so how did you get started?

I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City from 2006 to 2010 and received a bachelor’s degree in illustration. In college, I wasn’t really sure what type of illustration would be a good fit for me professionally, but I knew that I loved designing clothing and painting expressive characters. As a child I used to play a lot of video games with my father and brother. Some of my favorites were Tomb Raider, Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft. I loved copying drawings from the World of Warcraft handbook and Tomb Raider comics. At some point, I started designing my own characters. I’m actually a bit bummed that I missed out on playing Dungeons and Dragons and Magic The Gathering as a kid. I know I would have loved it!

Sara Winters - Loyal Sentry - MTG: Masters 25 - © Wizards Of The Coast

After college, I started to get more serious about becoming a professional artist. Throughout high school and college, I worked in various retail, bartending, and waitressing jobs. In 2012 I made my first fantasy illustration portfolio and brought it to an artist convention in Kansas City called Spectrum. I showed it to as many artists and art directors as possible. Even though I knew that I wasn’t ready, I made this portfolio as a starting point. After the convention, I made a whole new portfolio with all of the precious feedback in mind. A few months later, I brought it to a convention in Pennsylvania called Illuxcon. I had reviews with art directors from Wizards of The Coast, Paizo Publishing and Fantasy Flight Games. That next year I would start working with all of these companies on various projects.

Sara Winters - Ravager - The Lord Of The Rings TCG - Fantasy Flight Games

The first art director that reached out was Zoe Robison from Fantasy Flight Games. She gave me my first shot and I can’t thank her enough! My first assignment was for a Lord of The Rings Card game. As a child, I probably read The Lord of The Rings Trilogy over ten times and used to copy all of the maps in the books. I was so excited to work for a brand that I understood and cared about.

The first year of working for games companies was off and on. I was also housecleaning and nannying on the side. Whatever it took to make enough money to be able to pursue becoming a professional artist! By 2014 I was completely full time with my art.

Sara Winters - Tolarian Scholar - ©Wizards Of The Coast

Getting that first shot is a huge step but a challenging one too. What do you think you learned from it?

I feel that I did well with that first assignment by executing the art description and making the deadline. I definitely had an unnecessary amount of stress involved though. I am an over-thinker by nature. Looking back now, I would have approached the work with a healthier mindset. This assignment was very useful in helping me analyze the deficiencies in my process. I learned a ton from the experience.

From both a personal and professional perspective, how important is it for artists to seek out each other in the community?

Being part of a community is a crucial part of being an artist. For one, you can get meaningful critique of your work from your colleagues. They can help you see something in your work that you cannot. It’s also incredibly inspirational to see what people are working on. I was lucky that I grew up near New York City. There is an incredible community out there.

There are also a ton of online resources for aspiring artists that don’t live near a big city. I really enjoy Artstation, which is an artist community website. It’s an easy way to show off your portfolio. Artstation also has a ton of helpful resources such as job postings, articles, etc. There are also magazines such as Firestarter and ImagineFX that have a lot of info for artists both aspiring and professional. I also recommend going to conventions if possible. Ones that helped out my career are Spectrum, Illuxcon, and Gencon. There are also a ton internationally such as Trojan Horse Was a Unicorn, Industry workshops, etc.

Sara Winters - Daenerys - Game Of Thrones TCG - Fantasy Flight Games

Bringing the focus back to your art, what’s your process when working?

Nowadays, I have a pretty set process. It can change based on the assignment, but I generally compartmentalize. I start with research and thumbnailing. I will occasionally create concept art in this stage too if necessary. During this stage I want to identify the win conditions for the assignment: "What does the client need to make a successful product?" and “how do I make this assignment as enjoyable as possible for me?”. The latter question is much more simple for me. I typically won’t take an assignment that doesn’t fit me as an artist. It’s pretty rare for me to receive an assignment that doesn’t fit at all. I really enjoy the problem-solving aspect of an assignment.

Sara Winters - Cancer - Llewellyn's 2019 Astrological Calendar

The second part of the process is the sketch phase. I essentially detail the thumbnail that I picked and send that to a client. Once the sketch is approved then I will compile reference. I always do a photo shoot with models. I never find a pose online to go from. One, this is typically copyright infringement. Even if you purchase a stock photo legally, you are letting the photo dictate what you draw. I like to have complete control over lighting, pose and costuming. Reference should help to elevate the work, not be a crutch.

Once I am ready for final, I have little to nothing to figure out in the piece. All of the planning is done and I can focus on painting only.

Sara Winters - Thought Collapse - MTG: Ravnica Allegiance - ©Wizards Of The Coast

After 5 years as a freelance illustrator, do you have any advice for those looking to go down the same road?

I think it’s important to always consider yourself a student and always keep improving. You never want to plateau. It’s important to keep the energy going. I also believe that there are other things in life other than art. When I take time for family, friends and hobbies, I am refreshed and I feel like when I do paint, my work is better for it. Burnout isn’t just tough on you physically and mentally, but I believe the work suffers for it.

Sara Winters - Taurus - Llewellyn's 2019 Astrological Calendar

With creative fields, it can sometimes be forgotten that the paid work you do is still exactly that, work. What brings you enjoyment in the jobs you’ve had and how do you look to keep yourself motivated and inspired?

I really like to diversify the type of projects that I take. This prevents me from getting bored and burnt out. As an example, a perfect work week; I would maybe work on an illustration one day, concept art another, have a meeting with a client, then do some oil painting for myself. I’m very extroverted and don’t really enjoy being in my studio all day. I would also have plenty of time to relax and spend time with family and friends. I really feel like taking breaks fuels me to be a better artist and get excited about what I’m working on. I also think having other hobbies helps with idea-generating. For example, I love fashion. This really helps inspire my costume designs for my characters.

Sara Winters - Sanguine Glorifier - MTG: Rivals Of Ixalan - © Wizards Of The Coast

Let’s talk a minute about your use of models for artwork. Where do you start and how do you draw inspiration in terms of the poses and positioning?

It’s really important to take great references. Especially as a character artist. It will always improve your anatomy, posing, expressions, etc. I always try and take as exact reference as I can in order to make the most believable image possible. It’s easiest for me to hire models and put them in the exact costume. I always thumbnail/ sketch out the illustration first to figure out the pose, costume, lighting etc. I use this as a map for my painting and photograph the reference exactly how I want it. Hiring my own models gives me complete control over the painting. I hire models through friends, finding cosplayers at conventions, or use websites like Model Mayhem. Sometimes I model myself or have friends pose. It really depends on the needs of the project. Over the years I’ve developed a model list and have a great working relationship with some incredible local models.

Lighting can give characters a sense of presence and help bring them to life. Are there any key concepts you focus on when applying it to your imagery?

Lighting for me is all about mood for a piece. It can be a great tool for storytelling. Also, some illustrations call for a particular setting. I have a ton of lights I can use to create the exact setting I want in my photoshoot.

Sara Winters - Wizard - MTG: War of The Spark - © Wizards Of The Coast

This is probably a tough one to answer (personally I'm terrible at choosing favorites) but do you have any particular pieces of work that you're especially proud of?

I think my favorite piece that was released so far is my Wizard Token for MTG: War of The Spark. I had something in mind and felt that I achieved it. I also have my first oil painting in the newly announced MTG: Throne of Eldraine set.

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

It sure is hard reading or watching shows with a new baby, but lately, I finished the Chernobyl series on HBO. While it was at times heartbreaking to watch, the cinematography and performances were breathtaking.

Sara Winters - Honored Crop-Captain - Magic The gathering: Amonkhet - © Wizards of The Coast — Sara Winters - Honored Crop-Captain - Magic: The Gathering: Amonkhet - © Wizards of The Coast

Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?

I’m planning on doing some fine art for myself focusing on oil-painted portraits. I’m really looking forward to doing work without a purpose other than expressing what’s in my head.

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

You can follow me and my work on my website, Twitter and my ArtStation.

All images provided by Sara Winters.

If you’re new to the site, why not stick around a while? There are interviews with some of the best artists in the industry and if you’d like to read more you can them by heading over to the Interview Archive!

Ross Connell 03/11/2019 Ross Connell 03/11/2019

Welcome To Board Game Art - Reversing Gender Norms - Interview with Anne Heidsieck (Issue #66)

“I wanted to make a joke about the omnipresent sexism of the 50s era by reversing the roles on the cover. At first, I imagined a woman in a suit near a sold sign in front of a nice house, giving the key to her nice husband..”

Welcome to issue 66 of my series sharing the stories behind board game art. Roll and Write games aren’t always well-known for their gorgeous art, but what struck me Anne’s work on ‘Welcome To’ was how fully realized its theme was. Hearing about Anne’s process on this project and more was fascinating. I hope you enjoy!

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Anne Heidsieck - When I Dream board game card art

Hi Anne, thanks for joining me! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Hi Ross, and thank you very much for writing about the art in board games! I'm a 27 years old illustrator, working since 2012 after my studies in Nantes. Currently, I live in France and more precisely in Lorraine. When I'm not working, not often enough, according to my dog, I like hiking in the mountains and the snow (as much as possible!), reading, playing games of course, and devouring lots of series!

I have worked on several games from Blue Cocker (Welcome To, Argh and Meeple War), on Majesty and Carcassonne Safari of HIG, on some cards for When I Dream of Repos Production and on a game of Haba, Frido's Treasure Trove.

Anne Heidsieck - Frido’s Treasure Trove board game art

So how did you first get involved in making board games?

Soon after finishing my art studies I wanted to make the artwork for games. My sister and brother made a game themselves for our family when I was a kid and maybe that inspired me! So, with my partner, we created a game. We invented the rules, I carried out the illustrations and then we met several editors to present our project. It was quite a failure and the game is somewhere in a box in the cellar now, but it allowed me to meet people who were so nice and gave me the advice that really convinced me to keep trying, but only on the side of the illustrations this time.

Anne Heidsieck - Card Artwork - Frido’s Treasure Trove

I sent emails to many editors and, one day, Alain Balay from BlueCocker answered me. He was looking for an illustrator for his new game, Meeple war! That's how I found my first work on board game designs.

I haven't had the opportunity to work on a lot of things other than games but, from what I’ve seen, the work is really different in-game illustration and book illustration, for example. I think that game design requires even more organization. It can seem too strict because we have a lot of "rules" to respect, for the ergonomy of the game, but it's rather reassuring to me because we don't begin the work with a blank page.

Anne Heidsieck - Save the Meeples cover art

When beginning to work on any new project what are the first few things that you do?

I always begin by researching a looooot of pictures, on Pinterest mostly and also in my art books. I need to figure out the idea of the mood of the game, the color atmosphere, the style, etc. Even if I don't use them later during my work, they help me to find the first ideas. I make some first sketches after that, to be sure that we agree with the editor. When the work begins for real (and after I print a plan and fix it on my wall!), I start working precisely on each illustration. First with a sketch, a definitive drawing, a color rough and finally the definitive coloring, asking the editor for confirmation between each step.

Anne Heidsieck - Meeple War drawing construction

What do you remember about your first board game project Meeple War, and how did you prepare yourself for the job?

As I had already worked on a full project for a game (even if it was personal, it was really formative), I wasn't very surprised by the necessary rigor of work when I started to illustrate Meeple War. The first thing I did was to organize a very strict plan, that I totally exceeded of course. Today when I do planning, I schedule much more time than I estimated at first, to avoid being under too much pressure. I continue to exceed my time limit, but less ;)

What were the most challenging parts of the job?

The newest thing for me was the technique: it was my first project entirely digital, and I have to say that this new way of working wasn't really appreciated by my eyes and my back! The biggest challenge and stress I had were for the cover I think. We kept it for the end, when the art was well fixed on the game elements to be sure to have consistency. I looked into a lot of covers for games and put myself under more and more pressure. Finally, when we validated a rough design with the editor, the final realization was quicker than I thought.

Anne Heidsieck - Meeple War game tile illustration

Other challenges were the setting-up of the punchboard and the cover with the marges, bleeds, cut lines etc, as this was also new for me. I understood nothing at first and hated that. I had to make a lot of searches on forums to know what I had to do. Now I do all the setting-up for Blue Cocker and maybe even like it (sometimes), knowing the characteristics needed for the publisher later, which allows me to gain some time on the art. Moreover, it's rewarding to follow the project from the beginning to its very end. It allows too, amongst others, to check the colors of the first print (which are always very different than on the screen) and to adjust until the production all that must be modified.

I made a big mistake with ‘Meeple War’ when I drew the illustrations for the tiles. I had totally forgotten the bleeds! I had to add on to each file the margins for printing later and remake the forests. I don’t think I’ll ever forget bleeds after that!

You worked on 'When I Dream' a card game with wonderfully creative artwork. How freeing was it to work on a game with this kind of concept and what were some of the words you created the art around?

[Editor: When I Dream is a guessing game and without focusing too much on the rules I’ll just tell you about the cards that make it up. Each card features two words, one at the top and one at the bottom. Each card illustration represents these two words and can be rotated 180 degrees to focus on either one].

The art brief was wonderful because the artists were so free. We had a list of several words and had to combine them 2 by 2 however we wanted. After that, the only directive was to make a surreal illustration that showed both of these words. We could include other objects and ideas, but they had to be less important in the picture than the 2 chosen words.

The artists involved didn't have to work in a similar style, the common theme was the surrealism for the dreams. I wish I could seize this opportunity to reuse my paintings and brushes, which I miss very much! But traditional painting takes me more time than digital and sadly I couldn’t find the time to make it work.

I had some words on my list that I immediately wanted to illustrate. Words like "snow", "vulture", "tunnel", "bear" and I imagined different situations with the others words in order to make, if possible, poetic pictures, and sometimes nightmarish ones. When the project got down to only words that didn't inspire me, I asked for another list of words. I didn't understand at all that we had to deplete most words from our first list before asking for new words but the artistic director still gave me new words, so I was very lucky to have a lot of choices to make my pairs.

Some pictures refer to books, movies, or universes that I love, and I also often listen to audiobooks when I work, so maybe that influences and inspires me in some ways. The most perfect design brief I ever had was on the goodies card of this game, because I just had to do whatever I wanted with as many elements as I wanted! There are two blanks for writing the words, suggested by the card that the player wants to use.

2018 saw the release of the roll and write game 'Welcome To...' which has been a huge success. The game has a strong 50s vibe to the artwork, so how did that develop and was this look part of the original brief?

Alain Balaÿ already knew that he wanted the theme "urbanization during the 50s". The graphic style that he wanted was very much in the mindset of American ads from that era. Most of the work was spent on research: ads, maps, real estate documents, aerial views, logos, style, colors... I even listened to 50's rock and roll music and watched a few movies from this period to be completely in the mood! Even with a lot of research, I still think it could have been even more "50s" in my designs. But sadly it's always so different in my head than the end result I manage to create by my illustrations.

Anne Heidsieck - Welcome To - Art style research examples

I spent a lot of time researching the "perfect traditional house" during the 50s. I also viewed a lot of paintings from Hopper for inspiration. By spending time researching 50s advertising, I wanted to make a joke about the omnipresent sexism of the era by reversing the roles on the cover. At first, I imagined a woman in a suit near a sold sign in front of a nice house, giving the key to her nice husband with the kids in his arms. I wanted it to be so we could imagine her saying to her husband "see what I bought for you and the kids darling". This cover idea wasn’t chosen in the end, but that core idea of reversing gender norms pleased the editor and author.

Anne Heidsieck - Welcome To board game fake advertising

An extra detail I love in this game are the adverts on the back of the player reference sheets. How did this come about and where did your ideas come from?

Alain wanted to give me the chance to make more real illustrations. Beyond the cover, I mainly did icons and graphics, so to strengthen the atmosphere of the 50s he decided to add different advertisements on to the back of the player reference sheets.

The illustration of ‘Meeple War’ is a parody of a well-known ad, where a man and his son are playing battleships while the mother and the daughter are behind, doing the dishes. The illustration of Toulouse is inspired by the many tourism advertisements and the editor and the author are both from this town.

Anne Heidieck - Welcome To board game fake adverts

The one of the man in the kitchen is a reference to the countless pictures of housewives with their all-new household products, and the poster ‘le cocker aux trousses’ is a parody of the poster of the movie ‘North by Northwest’, ‘La peur aux trousses’ in french with all the authors and illustrators who worked with Blue Cocker until the release of Welcome to.

You mentioned that you made some early mistakes when it came to things like bleed lines on projects. So when it comes to creating and editing game art with punch boards and print work in mind what are some basic lessons that you could share?

I would recommend always being careful from the very beginning of the creation of a file about several things:
The size of the picture, personally I often work twice the print size
The definition with 300dp minimum for print
The color profile which depends on the manufacturer, but always at least in CMYK for print.
The density of black, as printers cannot print black deeper than a certain density.
To not forget to embed the fonts on a pdf export.
And in anticipation of the print, which always darkens and tarnishes the colors somewhat, to saturate and lighten up a little bit for each of the pictures.

Anne Heidsieck - Raccoon Illustration - Frido’s Treasure Trove

When it comes to resources, I think it's always a good idea to ask other illustrators how they work, as we have a lot to learn from each other! The boardgame manufacturer ‘Panda’ https://pandagm.com/tools makes very good guides for preparing the designs, it’s all in that link!

I also often search on adobe forums when I don't know how to do something in particular.

Anne Heidsieck - Carcassonne Safari board game cover

Last year you illustrated Carcassonne: Safari, so how did you end up working on this game and was it different working on an existing series?

After working on the game Majesty by Marc André with Hans im Glück, (thanks to Gaëtan Beaujannot from Forgenext, the agent of Marc André), Hans im Glück asked me if I was interested in creating the artworks of their next "around the world" expansion of Carcassonne. I couldn't say no! Besides, I love elephants so much! First, as a test, I made one tile with the different main elements (a piece of savannah, one of a forest, a baobab and a road), in order for them (and for me!) to see if I could make something in the spirit of Carcassonne that would fit with their vision. After that, I improved each kind of element separately as well as designing all the animals, plus some additional to give us choices.

Anne Heidsieck - Carcassonne Safari Animal artwork

For example, I made an antelope and a lioness, but the monkey and the lion were chosen instead. When we agreed on everything, they send me the final layout of each tile, with the frame of each element and the animals present on it, and I arranged them one by one, trying to diversify some set elements. It was kind of tedious work!

For the scoring board, I mainly used the frame of another expansion and used some of the same elements from the tiles I’d made as you see in the other Carcassonne games. As it is a collection with a very specific editorial line, the illustrators have to follow a general pattern, so it's not a very free "artistic" project, however, it is really well organized and we know exactly where we are going, which can be nice too!

Anne Heidsieck - Carcassonne Safari scoring track

You've also gone on to illustrate a variety of neighborhood expansion sheet packs for Welcome To. So are there any differences when illustrating an established game series (eg Carcassonne) and how do you look to make the art distinct within the design constraints?

It was my first work on an expansion, and indeed, it could have been a peaceful project by just modifying a little bit the first neighborhood, but we were under a bit of time pressure on these. Our American publisher (Deep Water Games) wanted to present the mini-expansions on their Kickstarter in Autumn, so we had to work fast. I was working on another project at the time, so they helped me by beginning some of the graphic work to have something to show to the backers at the Kickstarter launch, and I reworked it afterward for the final files.

It was nice and easy to create the art for something that I knew already worked for the players. I just had to change the aesthetic, the mood of the season or the event, and not on the games ergonomy. It was pretty relaxing! After searching for the main color for the ambiance, I made new trees and bushes and I felt that it immediately changed everything. Making new decorative files on the right, even if it isn’t important for the game, was fun too, and helps create a richer atmosphere I think.

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

I often read or listen to audiobooks, mostly fantasy, and a bit of horror and science fiction. I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter and read and re-read them very often! I made the illustrations for my school examination about the french book ‘La horde du Contrevent’ by Alain Damasio, a beautiful emotional adventure! I also read the ‘Game of Thrones’, and wait for the next volumes while the internet spoils me every day. One of my recent crushes was for the books " The Gentleman Bastards" by Scott Lynch.

I watch more series than movies, of all kinds. Some of my favorites are ‘Orange is the New Black’, ‘Black Mirror’, ‘Stranger things’, ‘Parks and Recreation’, ‘Kaamelott’, ‘The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’ and of course ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ :) Thinking about movies, I love in particular all the animations by Laika, especially ParaNorman!

Anne Heidsieck - When I Dream board game card artwork

Just as with my taste in books and series, the music I listen to is really diverse. When I work, I tried to adapt as much as possible the kind of music I’m listening to with the mood of the illustration I'm doing but I do listen to audiobooks and podcasts sometimes. Otherwise, I mainly love Nordic Folk music (groups like ‘Garmarna’, ‘Triakel’, ‘Omnia’) and some french artists like Camille, Claire Diterzi, Air, Polo & Pan. And when I'm working on layouts, I can only listen to very soft piano!

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

Here is my website: www.anneheidsieck.com
On Facebook : Anne Heidsieck - Illustrations

All images provided by Anne Heidsieck.

Ross Connell 26/09/2019 Ross Connell 26/09/2019

Hedge Lord Board Game - Handmade Games and Traditional Methods - Interview with Timbrook Toys (Issue #65)

“The appeal of handmade products is that each item has special details which reveal the hand that made it.Working with irregular surfaces results in the kind of printing imperfections that distinguishes handmade art from mass-production… “

Welcome to issue 65 of my series sharing the stories behind board game art. This week, I wanted to bring to your attention a small company called Timbrook Toys, which is creating handmade games in Huntsville, Alabama. This project made me feel nostalgic for a bygone era, and I want to see more games like this in the modern era. I hope you enjoy this interview and a small insight into their work.

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Hi Dustin/Molly, thanks for joining me! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Dustin - Thanks for featuring us on your blog, Ross! I’m an artist who has lived in Huntsville, Alabama for a little over a decade now. I’ve worked professionally in a lot of creative fields during that time, including a lot of social media marketing and video production. A big part of what drew me to live in Huntsville is our local arts venue, Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment, which is actually the largest privately-owned studio art facility in the US. Being a part of this diverse creative community has been a highlight of my life. Outside of making art, my favorite pastime is probably watching British murder mysteries with Molly and our dogs.

Hedge Lord - top down view of game components

Molly - I've known since I was little that I wanted to write for a living. I'm a technical writer at one of Huntsville's many tech companies; my background in technical writing really informed how we wrote the instructions for Hedge Lord. As an aside, while Huntsville does have a burgeoning arts scene, Huntsville is more commonly known as "the Rocket City" or, sometimes, "the Silicon Valley of the South;" many technologies that got humans into space were developed by NASA in Huntsville and the city has attracted technology companies ever since. In my spare time, in addition to watching too many British procedurals with Dustin, I read, bake, and train our deaf dog, Ernest, who we adopted a few months ago.

Have you always been into games and puzzles?

Dustin - I’ve honestly never been much of a gamer, so it’s surprising to have a game be one of the most popular projects I’ve ever worked on. Molly and I did have a brief phase of being obsessed with the idea of obscure, failed games relegated to thrift store shelves despite being good ideas. The magnet-based game Touche' is one that we found during that time that fits the model. That idea of losing a game to history certainly had some influence on Hedge Lord, which we designed to have the feel of something uncovered from a past era.

Molly - Same. I appreciate a good board game, but I wouldn't have called myself a fan of board games until recently. I like how board games can create a kind of community, whether it's only for the duration of the game play or as a regular occurrence over the course of weeks or months as you play a game regularly with friends or family.

You've created your own game called Hedge Lord! What is it, and where did the seed of the idea come from?

Molly - Dustin and I were on vacation in Asheville, North Carolina in the fall of 2017. On the drive from Alabama to North Carolina, Dustin talked incessantly about gears. How to make them, how to make things with them, and all the endless possibilities afforded by gears. Eventually, this postulation turned into a line of inquiry along the lines of "What would a gear-based board game look like?"

We visited the Biltmore Estate, while in Asheville, a manor built in the late 1800s and the largest privately owned home in the United States. While touring the Biltmore grounds, we noted how inappropriate it was that for all of its grandeur, the Biltmore did not have a hedge maze. A hedge maze just seems like the kind of finishing touch you need for a palatial manor house. (Dustin is also obsessed with hedge mazes, even more obsessed than he is with gears.)

So, these two ideas collided. We started talking about what a gear-based, hedge maze board game might look like. We created a back story, rules, and characters on the drive back home, and while stopped at a bookstore in Knoxville, Tennessee, I came up with a name for our imaginary game -- Hedge Lord.

We got back into the grind of life when we got back home and I honestly didn't think much about Hedge Lord until I came home to find Dustin fiddling with a paper prototype of the game. From then on, our lives became consumed by developing, testing, and then marketing, selling, and producing Hedge Lord. The gear-based aspect eventually fell by the wayside, but I don't think Hedge Lord is any worse off for it.

Dustin - Like Molly said, I'm just obsessed with hedge mazes. The Jim Henson movie Labyrinth was a huge influence on me as a kid. So was the British stop-motion TV series The Wind in the Willows, which had a great episode where the characters race to solve the hedge maze at Toad Hall. Despite being fascinated by their appearances in TV and movies, I've never actually been in a real hedge maze. If we ever get rich off of this game you can bet we will be establishing one on the grounds of Timbrook Gardens.

It sounds like you got well and truly bitten by the design bug. After that first prototype roughly how long were you playtesting the game and what did you learn?

Molly - I think we spent at least three or four months learning how to play the game with a prototype that Dustin made out of copy paper. The circle "hedge pieces" were attached with little brads and the playing pieces were different color beads that had angry faces, for the beasts, and happy faces, for the lords. We made our friends play constantly. The rules didn't change much from what we had in mind in the early days, we talked about it incessantly on vacation, but we did test different ideas, like if the beast should continue playing after the lord has been devoured and when and how the hedge pieces should be turned.

Our friends were really patient to keep playing through every iteration of the rules. Folks really seemed to enjoy the "entrapment" features intrinsic in moving the hedge and some people were frustrated to discover that "camping" their beast near an exit or guarding their lord with their beast were not full-proof paths to victory.

Every copy of Hedge Lord is handmade. Could you give us an overview of what goes into creating each one?

Dustin - We wanted these early copies of Hedge Lord to genuinely resemble something manufactured in the early 1900's, so using traditional methods like screen printing and woodworking was a must. Each copy of the game requires a painstaking process that involves 13 stages of screen printing and a lot of time at the drill press. Hopefully soon we will do the milling stage of production with a CNC router, but so far we've made over 100 games the old fashioned way.

We still aren't totally sure how long it takes to make each game because we do things in batches and stages rather than making one game at a time. It's safe to say each game takes 2-3 hours total though. I recently quit my day job to make games and toys full time, so I'm the main person in the shop. Molly still has a day job so she focuses on the matter of running our business and lends a hand in the shop a few hours a week.

Molly - It seems like it might take about thirty hours to produce twelve games, so Dustin's math checks out.

What is the appeal of creating handmade products and why do you think it's important that people continue to make things this way?

Dustin - The appeal of handmade products is that each item has special details which reveal the hand that made it. I particularly like screen printing projects on wood because every copy that is produced ends up being unique. No two pieces of wood are going to have the same grain pattern, and working with irregular surfaces results in the kind of printing imperfections that distinguishes handmade art from mass-production.

Dustin - With a stack of Hedge Lord game copies

Most copies of our game have some registration errors and places where the wood surface is scarred. As long as the "flaws" in a print don't interfere with anyone's ability to play the game, we consider it a perfect copy. Your copy of Hedge Lord won't be identical to your neighbor's, and that's a good thing!

With such a DIY project how have you tried to spread the word about Hedgelord?

Molly - We have been very fortunate that our promotion has been largely organic. Folks seem to like Hedge Lord as much as we do and word spread quickly after we first offered Hedge Lord for sale on Dustin's personal Facebook page. We were approached by Alabama Public Television and the Alabama Media Group as a result of word of mouth promotion and both pieces from both organizations brought Hedge Lord even more attention.

We've attended events as exhibitors and we've hosted a tournament at a local brewery. Those promotion avenues weren't successful, in terms of sales, but they've been extremely fulfilling in terms of meeting our audience, getting feedback, and sharing some wild games of Hedge Lord.

Dustin - The great thing about board games is that they are shared experiences. Word of mouth marketing is built directly into the product by the very nature of requiring multiple people to play. Since Hedge Lord is fun and people who play it end up wanting their own copy, the game really kind of sells itself.

What were the goals you set yourselves with this project and how have they changed?

Molly - Hedge Lord is the first of what we hope are many, many board games and toys, but making Hedge Lord takes up most of our time. Our current goal is to find ways to better automate the production of Hedge Lord (right now manufacturing is 95% powered by Dustin) so that we can pursue other ideas, too.

Dustin - In the big picture view we want to develop a whole creative universe around the characters and story of Hedge Lord that takes place outside of the confines of the maze. The business that we hope to build will allow us to focus on design and storytelling through other games, toys, comics, and film. It will be a dream come true to some day hire other artists to help bring our imagined world to life. For the near future though we are buckling down and focusing on making these early edition collectible games.

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

Molly - We watch a lot of murder mystery shows... probably too many. We're enjoying Endeavor (UK) and The Brokenwood Mysteries (NZ) right now. This week, I binge-listened to the podcasts Who the Hell is Hamish and Bear Brook and Dustin has binge-watched Call the Midwife while making games out in the shop.

Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?

Dustin - We’ve got more fun hand made products designed and ready to sell once we are further caught up with Hedge Lord production. Simple spinning tops, some colorful magnetic sticks for building with, and a really fun wooden watercolor palette.

Those items are fully developed, but we’ve got other games and toys in the works that still need months of design and testing before they are market-ready. These new products are spin-offs of the aesthetic and story we have established so far with Hedge Lord.

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

Molly - You can visit our website https://timbrook.toys and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages. We post a lot of process and progress videos on Instagram.

All images provided by and copyright of Timbrook toys.

Ross Connell 13/08/2019 Ross Connell 13/08/2019

Techlandia Board Game - Silicon Valley meets Lovecraft - Interview with Dan Ackerman (Issue #64)

“The key for me was not to just have a guy in a suit with a Cthulhu head, but to have the guy in a suit with a Cthulhu head be just another cog in the corporate wheel…”

Welcome to issue 64 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. With all of the tech scandals of the last few years, the idea that a secret evil is lurking behind the scenes, pulling the strings, seems less like fiction every day. Techlandia is a board game that takes the premise of Silicon Valley corporations and spreads supernatural horror on top like a thick Lovecraftian marmite. Enjoy this glimpse into its dark reality.

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Today I'm joined on the site by Dan Ackerman. Thanks for stopping by! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I'm probably best known as a tech journalist, and I've been with CNET, the technology news and reviews publication, for about 14 years, covering everything from social media and hacking to laptops and games. I'm also a pretty regular TV news talking head, mostly on CBS This Morning, and even found time to write a book. Naturally, it was game-related. The Tetris Effect is the nonfiction real-life story of the classic game Tetris, which was created in the Soviet Union during the Cold War and eventually escaped to the West. Fun fact -- not only am I a New Yorker, I'm a native one at that -- born and raised here.

You've got a brand new tabletop game on Kickstarter called Techlandia. Now before we get into the game itself, after years as a journalist covering tech and videogames, why make your own board game?

Over the past several years, I've seen a lot of innovation and interesting storytelling coming out of the tabletop community. It reminds me a lot of the late '90s and early 2000s in the indie video game scene. So, when I had an idea for a story I wanted to tell in an experiential, interactive way, my first thought was: "This should be a video game." About five minutes later, I thought, "Wait, this should be a board game!" Precisely because it was about technology and technophobia and high-tech gear, I loved the idea of presenting it in a very analog way, with cards and map tiles. It made for a very interesting juxtaposition, high tech and low tech at the same time.

Alright, elevator pitch time, what is Techlandia and what's interesting about it?

Techlandia combines some of my favorite things about board games with some of my wish-list must haves. It tells a dramatic narrative story with some Douglas Adams satire vibe, it has cool characters on a hex-based map, some exploration, some combat, and the two big things that were key for me -- it fully supports solo play (or up to 4 players), and it'll fit on a normal, human-sized table. As an apartment-dwelling New Yorker, I'll tell you that's a big plus.

It's a modern-day dungeon crawl, where as heroic (but unknown) tech bloggers, you have to sneak into the massive headquarters of Techlandia, the world's biggest tech company. Their CEO is announcing a brand new smartphone on stage in a few hours, and you suspect he's going to use the power of millions of connected new phones to open a portal to another dimension and summon various Eldritch horrors. I pitch it as "Silicon Valley meets Lovecraft."

Just to put on your journalistic hat for a second, tabletop gaming has seen amazing growth over the last decade or so. Why do you think board games and RPGs have seen such a rise in popularity and do you think this will continue?

Part of the rise, or re-rise of tabletop gaming has to do with people being burned out on digital. From non-stop news to the negative effects of social media, to harmful "blue light" from laptops and phones, it's become trendy to take time away from screens, and recapture some real-world interactions. The ongoing popularity of vinyl records confirms this, and physical book sales are outpacing digital books again. For games, do many video games are big-budget cookie-cutter affairs that lack any real imagination or originality. They're like blockbuster movies -- all focus group and no inspiration. Tabletop is in a unique position right now where it's big enough to be sustainable and have a decent economic footprint, but still small enough for auteurs and indies to compete .

First time designers often find projects change more than anticipated during their development. Thinking back to your first concepts for the game, how has it changed since then?

If anything, my concept became larger and more in-depth as I went along. The entire thing started as an idle thought after a particularly grueling tech industry press conference. "This should be a video game!" And I brainstormed briefly on the idea of an 8-bit-style narrative adventure. Then, like lightening it hit me: "This should be a board game!" I had been playing a lot of Mansions of Madness and similar games, and a dungeon crawl to escape a terrible tech company was such an amazing idea, I got to work sketching it out on hex paper immediately. It really started to come together when I flipped the narrative -- instead of escaping the tech company, you were trying to break in.

I've got to say, it's a great narrative concept. So how did you look to marry that theme to the art?

Techlandia is a satire, in the mode of Douglas Adams or Brazil. But satire works best for me when everyone involved plays it totally straight. The art for the game box, the hex tiles, the various cards and the characters all play it close to the vest. Dark, foreboding, creepy. But when you combine that with the text and the scenario, the humor comes out. The key for me was not to just have a guy in a suit with a Cthulhu head, but to have the guy in a suit with a Cthulhu head be just another cog in the corporate wheel. The ridiculousness and the horror work hand-in-hand, and frankly, except for the actual evil magic stuff, it's not that divorced from the real tech industry.

Where did you find your artist(s) for Techlandia and were there any challenges in communicating your vision for how the game should look?

I've worked on print magazines and websites for many, many years, often very closely with designers, so I brought a pretty solid mainstream media understanding of design to this project. That comes along with respectable skills in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and the like (I mean, back in my print days, it was all Quark...). For Techlandia, I used three main artists, although I had preliminary discussions with many more, though the Board Game Geek forums, Fiverr and ArtStation. One artists did background and environmental art, another did all the characters, and a third did a single concept piece I had in my head and really wanted to include.

Techlandia - Pinboard of early game board sketches, which eventually transitioned into a hex tile map.

How long did you spend playtesting the game and at what stage of the project's development did you begin?

For me, development, playtesting and even art and design are all part of an organic whole, and you can't separate them. So, I was designing, testing, and sketching concept art from day one. For a narrative game like this, so much of the story is told visually, so if that doesn't work, the entire idea falls flat. One of the very first elements I designed was the player dashboard, which looks like a life-size iPhone. It's something I put together in one afternoon in Illustrator, and it's remained almost exactly the same ever since. Other elements change constantly, including all-new character design reasonably late in the game, when I wanted to shift gears a bit.

Playtesting is often where board games graphic design elements are pulled into focus and refined. Did you find this was the case with Techlandia and what did playtesting make you more mindful of?

I'm not much of an artist, in that I provided original very rough sketches for a lot of the art, but they were really just pencil roughs. However, my long media career has given me many opportunities to work on page layout, UI and information design, so I'm a bit of a nut for that stuff. After the illustrations were ready, I laid out everything from the box to the rule book to the cards to the online ads. My design philosophy is all about clarity, purpose and narrative. Is the meaning of each design element clear? Does it serve a purpose? Does it advance the story?

Through playtesting, that led me to eliminate gameplay and design elements that did not advance those goals. By doing so, the writing became tighter and more focused, fiddly busywork elements were eliminated, and the visual design hewed towards minimalism wherever possible.

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

I'm a big reader, as many writers are. Some recent reads I'd highly recommend include Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff and Fall by Neal Stephenson. I'm really into authors like Walter Mosley, Richard Price, and Elmore Leonard. But I also love hitting up used book stores for classic mid-century sci-fi and always look for stuff by Frederik Pohl, J.G. Ballard, etc.

Do you have any recent projects, or upcoming that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?

Before Techlandia, my big project was The Tetris Effect, a non-fiction book from Hachette/Public Affairs. It's a real-life high-tech thriller about how the video game Tetris was created by a Soviet computer scientists in the 1980s, then essentially stolen by western software companies, leading to a huge international battle for the rights to the game. You can find it on Amazon or anywhere books are sold, and it even got reviewed by the New York Times.

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

I am very easy to find. ;) You'll see my work on CNET just about any day of the week, where I've been reviewing gadgets and giving tech advice for the past 14 years. I'm on Twitter as @Dan Ackerman Instagram as @danack and I keep track of all my various projects at danackerman.com. Oh, and I do a semi-regular podcast where I interview authors, called CNET Book Club , and that's here:

And before I forget, the Kickstarter page for Techlandia is right here!

All images supplied by Dan Ackerman

Ross Connell 22/07/2019 Ross Connell 22/07/2019

Kids on Bikes Art - Fighting Perfection and Finding Your Style - Interview with Heather Vaughan (Issue #63)

I went through a long time where in my head “Finished art” meant that the art was hyper realistic and perfect. It was a hard time training my brain to be okay with finished art that was polished, but not sterile.. That’s where my color choices and strange themes come from, me leaning hard into the skid of trying to buck the idea that realism is the only way for art to be truly “finished”.

Welcome to Issue 63 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. Earlier in the year, Restoration Games reached out to me because they had created a series of prints for Fireball Island. As soon as I saw Heather’s name, I was on board, as I’ve long admired her work on projects like Kids on Bikes. Enjoy the interview and her art!

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Today I'm being joined by Heather Vaughan. Thanks for joining me! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Hi Ross, excited to be here! I am an Illustrator and game artist based out of Philadelphia PA. Most players would recognize my work with Kids on Bikes, the 80s themed RPG about small town kids going on strange adventures. In addition to Kids on Bikes I’ve also worked on other tabletop games such as Beneath Nexus from Silverclutch Games, and a few others that are still in development and under wraps. In addition to being a game artist, I also serve as an Associate Art Director for Silverclutch games.

When I’m not drawing I’m usually tinkering with my menagerie of exotic reptiles, a hobby I’ve had since I was a kid. If art didn’t work out I was going to be a Herpetologist, going out and catching frogs and snakes is tied with art as being one of my favorite pastimes. Aside from that I’m generally out enjoying my city. Philly is a great food, drink and walking city and I take full advantage of having all of that right at my doorstep.

When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?

I’m pretty sure that aside from the point in my life where I was hell bent on making a living out of catching frogs, I always wanted to be an artist, as cliché as that sounds. My dad was an artist, he did mostly wildlife paintings that you would see hanging in nice hunting cabins, lots of deer and fish, and woodland scenes. I remember he had this big, old refrigerator in our basement that he had repurposed into a supply cabinet for all of his art supplies and I would raid it with impunity. I probably single handedly destroyed his entire set of very expensive Rapidiograph pens and nice alcohol markers.

I was always drawing as a kid and my dad taught me a lot while also never really pulling any punches with me. I remember once I drew something and when I presented it to him he pointed out how my light sources were all over the place and wrong. After that critique I had to go back and fix it before I got the thumbs up and it went on the fridge.

I think my earliest art making memories were of drawing animals while watching Wild Discovery or Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Drawing animals and endlessly doodling was my jam. If I had a drawing utensil in my hand and something to make a mark on, I was almost certainly drawing a big cat or dragons or something. My grade school teachers hated it, every assignment I ever got was collected back to the teacher covered in doodles.

Illustration for killed project, The Devil's Syndicate.

Your work often has an otherworldly feel to it, either through the colour choices or the themes. Where do you find your inspiration?

There was a time in my life where I wanted to make super, hyper realistic art. I was likely inspired to work like that because of how my dad worked. I went through a long time where in my head “Finished art” meant that the art was hyper realistic and perfect. I got a lot of comments about how while my finished work was nice, it lacked the personality and looseness my doodles had.

It was a hard time training my brain to be okay with finished art that was polished, but not sterile. I think that’s where my color choices and strange themes come from, just me leaning hard into the skid of trying to buck the idea that realism is the only way for art to be truly “finished”.

My choice of palate is just what feels right to me at the time. I like slapping color around and experimenting to see what off the wall combinations I can achieve. There is no deeper meaning, just aesthetics and me messing around until I dig it.

So how did you first get involved in the tabletop industry?

I didn’t ever think that I’d end up in tabletop. It was never even something on my radar. I got into illustration thinking I’d do children’s books or editorial stuff. It wasn’t until I met my fiancé, Tom that I became aware that this whole industry even existed. I’m not a gamer at all, I spent my childhood losing at Sonic to my brother and the only board games I played were Scattergories or Pictionary. I was never into DnD or RPGs or any tabletop games like Tom was growing up. Through him I got my introduction to the entire genre, and while there are a few games I did find I enjoyed playing (I have a soft spot for Epic Spell Wars) I’m still not at all a gamer.

Beyond Nexus - Card Art Development - Baatar

I got my first official start in the tabletop world when Tom and a friend of his decided to try making a game of their own, that game eventually turned into Beneath Nexus. After they won a grant to begin development they ran into a hurdle over how they were going to be able to afford all the art needed for the game, so I offered to help them out by doing some art on deep discount so they could afford to also pay the other art interns they hired for the project. I had a lot of downtime and I saw it as a good way to keep busy making portfolio pieces.

I quickly found that game art was really no different than the other illustration jobs I had previously. I was glad to see my lack of any sort of background in the hobby wasn’t a strike against me, I still had to research and pull reference just like I would for any other project. I’d say the biggest lesson I learned was how tough it is to work to a style guide, it was the first project I’d ever worked on with multiple artists. All of us having pretty different working styles meant we had to all work to a type to make sure the game looked cohesive.

Looking back, the work I did for Nexus is *wildly* different from any work I’ve done before or since. Nexus eventually went on to fund successfully on Kickstarter and from then on I suddenly found myself getting work in the indy tabletop industry. It was a total surprise I never saw coming. From Nexus came my offer to work on Kids on Bikes and there has been no looking back since!

I remember when Kids of Bikes hit Kickstarter and although I don’t play RPGs (but would love to) I actually nearly bought the book just because of your art. What do you remember about the project?

Thanks! Doug and Jon originally contacted me after getting a recommendation from Chris Visco (1/2 of Silverclutch games) and a mutual friend from the Philly Game Makers Guild, Nicole Kline (1/2 of Cardboard Fortress) and the game itself was pitched as a game where players could recreate their favorite 80s themed movie or TV show where weird stuff happens (Super 8, the Goonies, Stranger Things). Which was later more solidified to being a game where the Kids were the heroes, sussing out strange happenings and exploring the stranger side of sleepy suburban life, armed with their trusty 10 speeds.

Doug and Jon were very easy to work with, they provided a lot of “mood direction” which made sure the art was hitting the notes it needed to, while also leaving things open ended enough for me to take some artistic license. Some of the prompts would be like “Typical 80s suburb, moderate income area with sinister shadows like there are things that could be creeping through the shadows after dark that you can’t see, but wouldn’t be hard to imagine being there”.

Or “Close up of a young woman glowing with strange energy, fighting off two or three wolf like monsters. Mid fight with the power the girl is using visibly causing her strain or harming her in some way”. Lots of the mood of the book was lifted from classic 80s movie tropes like Poltergeist, Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Breakfast Club, E.T., etc. Some of the stylistic reference I was looking at during the process were from comics like Paper Girls, Joe the Barbarian, and some old X-Files comics.

Additionally, since Doug, Jon, and I all had roughly grown up in the broader time period the game was set in, I was able to sneak in some autobiographical elements and even our own likenesses in spots throughout the book which was a lot of fun.

We’re talking in part because Restoration Games have made their own poster series for Fireball Island and you’re involved. What can you tell me about this series and the poster you’ve created for it?

Jason Taylor from Restoration Games first reached out to me back in August of last year. They had been looking for several artists to work on some limited edition promo posters for their game Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar. The idea was for these posters to be offered to Kickstarter backers and to be sold as merch once the game became available for general sale.

The pitch for the poster was very open ended. The folks from Restoration Games were lovely and provided me with loads of production stills and some of the existing art from which I could formulate my personal approach to the poster.

Poster design - from initial sketch to finish

One of their expansion packs, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees really tickled my fancy and after just coming off of Kids on Bikes I was really feeling drawing something that wasn’t a human or a bike! I got to go back to my childhood roots and draw some big cats and bugs which was like an art vacation for me. The only thing Restoration asked me to keep in mind with the piece was that Vul-Kar, the angry volcano god, was prominent.

Since the goal of these promo posters was to be more of an artist's interpretation of the theme, in their own voice. Looking at George Doutsiopoulos’s existing work on Fireball island was a great way for me to see where I could diverge. My work tends to be moody/gritty so I decided to lean into that contrast with George’s existing art. Where his art for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees is bright and full of action and some lightheartedness, I decided to go for a darker, more brooding piece. I was heavily channeling some of the more sinister feelings you get in the movie/book Jumanji where Alan Parish recounts having to wait decades in the jungle, which can be dark and full of peril.

Personal Work for Gallery Show - Danger Noodle

Most artists I speak to seem to be split between home, or a shared studio space. How about you, where do you create and what are your go to tools?

I generally work from home these days. I’m lucky enough that I have a spare room in my house that I share with Tom that serves as half art studio and half office. Back when I was working on Kids on Bikes I did have a studio I rented with a few other illustrators which had it’s pros and cons. The biggest con being that it was a big hike from my house at the time and I was not always the best at mustering the gumption to trek out to West Philly from South Philly to go put a few hours of work in.

Now, with a home office I really don’t have that distance excuse to fall back on. I’m also very fortunate to have Tom right next to me to bounce ideas off, and for his assistance in taking photo reference and getting extra eyes on work for fresh feedback when I’ve been staring at a piece for 16 hours and feeling nearly blind! Creating a work environment in your own home can be really challenging, since I work in a separate room in my house, the door to that room plays a large part in creating a dividing line between work time and non work time. It’s not always a perfect solution and I still get distracted, but as long as I’m putting out good work and hitting my deadlines I’ll call it a successful tactic!

My work environment right now is just a desk, an old Mac laptop and my old reliable Cintiq 13HD. I try to keep my area clean but often fail as I am a trash person by nature so my work environment generally ends up looking like a bomb went off by the time I reach the midpoint of the project I am working on at that time.

These days I am working purely digitally. I don’t sketch with pen and paper near as much as I should and it is a goal of mine to make a good effort to get back into that habit as soon as my life calms down a bit. I also want to make a good effort to get back into weekly life drawing sessions…It’s like going to the gym for artists, and I need to get back on that wagon!

I personally have difficulty switching off and putting work to one side as I do my freelance projects from home. Do you have any tricks or advice for people in a similar situation?

I am in the same boat, I think all of us that work from home are in some way. I find that I am very easily distracted and also that I’ll use any excuse to find a thing that I need to do and procrastinate if I’m not in the mood or headspace to work…Clearly that’s not a great place to be when you are trying to hit deadlines and put out good work. Scheduling helps me to be ok with enjoying my down time without guilt, while also giving me a structure to work within when it IS time to get work done.

Being in an inspired mood to create art is great, but if I waited for those moments, I’d never get anything done…So, when it can’t be all “Bob Ross and rainbows” it’s schedules and discipline that comes to save the day.

Based on your experience as a professional artist, what would you say to anyone looking to get started if they were here now?

I guess the biggest thing is discipline and an ability to work even if you feel uninspired. Some people think working in creative is just awesome and a joy all the time. But it’s just like any other job really…There are great days, there are OK days, and there are days when you find yourself dreading your pencils wondering why you ever decided to do this with your life. So I’d tell anyone looking to get into this line of work to accept that it's not this “perfect, dream job” right out of the gate.

You also need to know that no one will chase you to do that work. You have to be your own boss, you have to set your hours and you have to stick to them… On one hand, that much freedom is awesome, but on the other, you have to also hold yourself accountable. You can’t just rely on your artistic skills to carry you through, there are plenty of wonderful artists out there who never “make it”. Drawing well is only a small part of being a successful artist, to “make it” you need to be able to commit to doing the leg work which is a lot less fun most of the time.

In my photography work, witnessing the talent of other people has given me so much inspiration. Which artists have inspired you and whose work you admire?

Probably too many to list! Eyvind Earle is a huge favorite of mine, he was a background painter at Disney in the 50s… His backgrounds and concept work on Sleeping Beauty are just breathtaking. I’m very drawn to how ‘design-y’ and iconic his work is, it’s very striking.

Walter Peregoy is another Disney background artist (101 Dalmatians) that I am enamored by. Everything is loose washes and very organic until he adds a few lines of ink to bring everything together like a magic trick!

Interior Illustration for Kids on Bikes rule book

What are some creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

I’m a podcast person, right now I’m usually listening to Death In the Afternoon, which is a podcast from the same team behind youtube’s “ask a mortician”.

Three other’s are Hardcore History, Lore and Unexplained…I religiously listen to all four of these while I work and commute and I can’t recommend them enough to any one who’s into off beat science, spooky stuff, history, and urban legends.

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

I’m currently trying to cut the Facebook cord, so I don’t have one of those for my art, but I am pretty active on Twitter and Instagram. My art posting can be sporadic as I tend to really only post stuff that is personal work or just me messing around. Client work generally stays under wraps until the project is finished so you will see big art dumps from time to time… Mostly my feeds are full of my pet reptiles and dogs. So if you enjoy snakes, lizards, and dogs with a side of art, I’m the lady to follow!!

You can also find more of Heather’s work on her website.

EDITOR: Thanks again to Restoration Games for putting me in touch with Heather and check out the full print series on Board Game Geek!

Finally, I will briefly make it clear that although this interview will link to a print series on sale, this isn’t a sponsored post of any kind. With all the interviews on my site I do them because I believe there’s a story worth sharing and I’m proud that More Games Please runs purely based on the support of my little band of Patreons. If you like the site, consider becoming a sponsor or giving my interviews a share, it all genuinely helps.

All images supplied by Heather Vaughan.

Ross Connell 19/07/2019 Ross Connell 19/07/2019

Reavers of Midgard Board Game Art - Collaboration and Creative Direction - Interview with Tyler Myatt (Issue #62)

I remember at one point in time I was working on a Kickstarter, making graphics for 2 other games, AND doing the art for another game. It was pretty stressful but you have to get use to cutting down vines one at a time, eventually you start to see a clearing ahead..

Welcome to Issue 62 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art.

Creative directors are often an integral part of creating board games. Board games often feature many creative inputs, from artists to graphic designers to different visions within a team. Creative Directors are often the glue that binds and makes a project feel whole. I’m grateful to Tyler for sharing their story. Enjoy!

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Hi Tyler, thanks for joining me! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

No Problem, Ross! Thanks for having me! I work as the Creative Director at Grey Fox Games here in Saint Louis Missouri. I also live about 5 minutes away from our office in a house with my lovely wife Morgan and my two cats Theron and Artemis. That is over in Maryland Heights.

My work includes Illustration, planning, and graphic design of board games from start to finish. A little less on the illustration side though, it is so time-consuming so we commission out a lot of it.

So how did you first get involved in making board games?

Well, I always loved the look and feel of board games. As an artist I was so drawn to games like Small World, and Sheriff of Nottingham, etc. just based off of the way they looked. The look of a game can totally sell me on it. Anyways, I saw a job opening for Grey Fox Games and immediately went to their Office and asked to be interviewed. I showed up in my best suit and had my portfolio ready! 2 weeks later I had the job.

My first assignment was to work on a game called Bushido and another game called Harvest Dice. Harvest Dice is a cute little roll and write game and is entirely done by me. All of the art and graphics, rulebook, etc. You should try it out! Bushido took a lot longer and we had some issues with the original character art. After taking it into consideration we decided to go with new character art, which set back the release time but it will be 100% worth the wait. The rest of the art and graphics in the game are done by me.

When you start a project, how early do you decide what will be done in-house and what will be produced externally? What are your first steps?

First off, we make sure the game is at a point to where there won't be very many huge changes to the game mechanics. That way we don't run into a situation where we have spent time and money on an aspect of the game which we then have to scrap because something changed.

So, when that point is achieved, we move forward and discuss what kind of audience we want to reach (kids, adults, gamer crowds, family, mass market, etc.) from there we will sometimes write down style aspects and feelings we want to convey or maybe even some backstory and elements of this "world" we want to bring to life.

Afterwards I will go on to some of my favorite sites like ArtStation, or Pinterest (I mainly use Pinterest) and look stuff up. I like to create boards on Pinterest. It is an amazing reference tool for artists and I think everyone should check it out. Once I get a bunch of findings together I will make a "mood board" which is really just a big document with a collage of references put together. I take that and show the Ceo, Shane, what I have and what I am thinking for the project.

He gives me the okay and then we discuss budgeting and how much of this project i will do and how much we will have farmed out. Usually, a lot of the big illustrations we will have one or more artists do. It's just so time-consuming, so we have to min/max a lot here. Let's take City Of Gears for example. We had two different artists do the building art and another artist do the front cover of the game. I did everything else. One important thing that I like to have done in this process is getting the cover art done first. That helps me figure out how the rest of the game can look from there so that you really get a look into the game from a glance at the cover.

We are constantly finding artists we like and try to keep their information for later use. The biggest thing we look for, however, is how good the work you can do in a short amount of time is. Making games is always on a time crunch so you gotta be quick. When we reach out to an artist we like to be very upfront. we take a few of their pieces that stand out to us and link it in the email, telling them what aspects we like about their work and how we would like to use it in our game. we then tell them what the game is about and wonder if they would be interested in working on the project with us. After that we tell them what the budget is and go from there.

I know lots of creatives use Pinterest as a sounding board for ideas. How important is it for your research and has it replaced more traditional methods for you?

So Pinterest is a site that allows you to make something called a "Board" these boards can have any number of things pinned to them. So for instance, one of the big projects I worked on recently was our Reavers of Midgard Kickstarter. I went on Pinterest because I knew the style I wanted to go with. At the top of the page I wanted this Carved wood header with all these cool runes and knot work and dragon heads.

Obviously I can't just pull that stuff out of my head and make it accurate. Most people can't haha. So I created a board called Viking stuff and then started searching for things like "Carved viking stuff" "viking symbols" "norse mythology" "viking ships" etc. then from there I started making all the art for the page. This method helps me stay consistent with the final outcome and helps me capture the feel of what I am trying to do.

If you don't use Pinterest you are doing yourself a disservice. It is so incredibly useful and you can find a lot of inspiration on there.

How do you think wearing many hats in your job, such as graphic design, illustration and creative director work has changed your perspective on each role?

Well, at first hand, I thought working for a game company would be me sitting in a cubicle, drawing characters and monsters and items and whatnot all day long. That is very much not the case. I do all of that (minus the cubicle part), but also I answer emails, attend meetings, do graphics , make icons, sketch out crappy looking boxes for components, crawl through Pinterest constantly, play prototypes, make kickstarters, update graphics, make advertisements, and anything else that needs visuals. All of that happens at the same time haha. You really have to be good at time management. At the beginning of all this I was not the best at it but you really just kind of HAVE to learn it. Like, sink or swim.

What do you do to ensure you can stay on top of things, how do you prioritize and structure your daily or weekly workflow?

Well to be completely honest, this work is very chaotic. Work on this, now work on that, oh! also work on this while you are doing that, and then do these two things. It is a lot to keep up with. Therefore, I use a LOT of sticky notes, and also this cool pad of paper with cats on it :).

In order to keep things prioritized, however, there is a lot of making lists after talking with my boss and coworkers. We also use a system called Trello. It's a project management system based around making checklists and applying due dates on specifics parts of projects. I also get a lot of requests in email format so i use a small priority system in there as well.

You mention the timescales being quite short for turning around artwork on a board game project. Could you give us an idea of how long we're talking and how much art gets produced within that time?

This is a really good question and it is also very difficult to answer. This sort of thing varies from artist to artist. Let's take Reavers of Midgard for example. Reavers has a ton of BEAUTIFUL art by Yaroslav Radeckyi and let me tell you this guy is FAST. We were so fortunate to have him work on that game because he just pumps this stuff out. I'm talking full illustrations in like, 2 days. That is very fast compared to a lot of illustrators.

Reavers of Midgard - BG art by Yaroslav Radeckyi.png

When we start this process we usually try to find different people with the same style we are looking for. We ask them some questions and really like to dwell on the "how fast can you do something like this?" referring to one of their pieces we like. Most of the time they say it was faster than it actually probably took but that's fine as long as it is close. You have to remember they are trying to sell themselves. So, depending on what their answer is we use that to gauge the time frame of what we expect the art turnaround to be. We always give some cushion room as well for our sake.

So lets say if we tasked Yaroslav with 50 illustrations and he can do let's say 3-5 a week. we would probably give him 12-13 weeks for the project. if we need the project done faster, we would get multiple people on it. and cut that time down to a third. Here's the thing, Illustration takes time, and when you understand that, there is less pressure.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the industry?

I believe that the best thing you should do is find out exactly what you want to do, go to your favorite games on your shelf, read who all made the game and reach out to those people in a humble way.

Just simply say something like "hey, I love your games and I would love to get into the industry myself, what kind of first steps did you take to get to where you are now?". Most people are nice and will email you back. Though, it might take awhile because we are always busy!

People love being complimented on their work and I believe that is the best way to start a conversation. Also, if you are an artist, I suggest not sending them your art asking "what do you think about my art?" I can answer that question for you right now, What do YOU think about your art? If your art comes into the conversation organically then by all means feel free to share :)

If you think you have the skills necessary to do this, then put on your best suit and put together a great portfolio and start sending it out!

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

RETRO WAVEEEEEEEEE!!! I love this genre of music right now and it puts me in such a good mindset for creating.

My spotify playlist for this is really cool if you want to check it out! it's called Session:Neon. Musical artist suggestions - Mitch Murder, The Midnight, Timecop1983, FM-84, Kalax, Gunship. I also like this super happy EMD stuff lately likeeeee AIKA, HoneyComeBear, Cosmicosmo, succducc, JVNA, dark cat, Snail's House.

I'm a kid at heart so this really positive sounding stuff really speaks to me and I listened to a lot of this stuff while creating all of the art and graphics for Creatures and Cupcakes.

Do you have any recent projects, or upcoming that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?

Yeah! We have just recently released Creatures and Cupcakes, Feelinks, and Bushido. Run Fight or Die! And Tsukuyumi: Full Moon Down will be released shortly. Also, we are doing Kickstarters for 2 big games you NEED to look out for all coming VERY soon:

After the Empire - A Tower Defense, Worker Placement game set in the Middle Ages.
Science or Die! - A Real Time Dexterity game where players design and build cures to save the world from disease.

This is going to be a killer year for Grey Fox Games so keep your eyes peeled!

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

I try to keep up with my Instagram for art (check out my pet portraits!). I also stream on twitch sometimes.

All images supplied by Tyler Myatt.

Ross Connell 09/07/2019 Ross Connell 09/07/2019

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig Board Game Art - Collaboration vs Solo Projects - Interview with Bartłomiej Kordowski (Issue #61)

All these things make sense if there is an art director. Someone who watches over everything and has a vision of how a particular game should look, selecting the right people and paying attention to graphical coherency…

Welcome to Issue 61 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art.

It’s always a treat when I speak to an artist whose work lives within the board games in my collection. Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a great game, and I was really excited to hear about Bartłomiej’s work. Enjoy!

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig board game art

Hi Bartłomiej, thanks for joining me! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Hello! I'm very glad to share my passions with you. Together with my family, wife Natalia and two little girls, we live in Toruń in Poland. The youngest daughter Eliza is now two years old and the older Lidia is four and a half years old. For over four years my passion is to be a cool dad. My second passion is painting which I've been doing from a young age and I'm currently working as a board games illustrator.

So how did you first get involved in making board games?

During my studies I painted a few illustrations for a collective card game "Veto". It was my first contact with a board game publisher. I had a lot of freedom in this creation so I could practice and develop my skills. At the time I bought my first tablet and I made my switch to digital art. Then after my studies ended, I started working for advertising and illustration agency. I have been working on many different projects from pizzeria leaflets, business cards to book covers and computer game arts.

After a few years I decided to look for my own jobs and I began working as a freelance illustrator. This, which I didn't mention earlier, helped me in my other passion which is board games. I love gaming and this is one of the nicest ways to spend time in good company. This is why I decided to send my portfolio to publishers and I got lucky. I managed to combine work with pleasure. At that time "Rebel" publishing house was looking for a new guy in the industry and it fell to me. I received a work order for my first big project - the Dream Home board game and from the beginning I was in constant contact with Rafał Szczepkowski a Game Development Coordinator at that time. He showed me in from the kitchen (back door) of this game industry and gave me a lot of good advice and tips.

Working on Dream Home took a long time. From the start to the end of the project it had been a year. I've never had to do over a hundred illustrations before, design layouts, box, tokens, the first player marker and so on. It was hard but with the aid of my wife (she is also an illustrator) we finished Dream Home. Many of the details which can be found in rooms were painted by Natalia. Working on this project was a big lesson for me and through this experience I realized how much time every phase of work consumes and also what rules support the visual side of board games.

Did the experience on Dream Home change how you approached your next projects?

In few aspects yes. First of all, I have become more aware of how to spread my time across the work and how fast I need to work too. Knowing how much time to spend on the box cover, how long on components I can therefore more precisely establish when my work will end end. My biggest challenge is the cover art and I'm always stressed because I know how important this is for developers. That's why I try to complete the cover concept first. Everything else is pure pleasure.

You've worked on a number of games released this year which have featured a collection of artists work. What do you think the major differences are when working as a solo artist compared to being part of a team of artists on a board game?

That is true, this year I have been working on a couple of team projects. There were projects where I had to simply adjust my work to the graphics prepared earlier and I had to work on their basis. This is harder but fortunately, that doesn't happen very often. In other projects where I was part of the team, each artist watched over a different aspect of the board game. So it was with the Spy Club board game. I illustrated cards, characters, the box cover and other artists were responsible for layouts, typography, compositions, game visualization, commercial, printing etc.

Of course, all these things make sense if there is an art director. Someone who watches over everything and has a vision of how a particular game should look, selecting the right people and paying attention to graphical coherency. This is very important and in the case of Spy Club, those people were Jason Kingsley and Randy Hoyt. I think that such an approach to the subject is the best way in big and time-consuming projects.

Working as a solo illustrator you have more control over the visual side of a board game. It's a bit more challenging because you need to take care of almost all graphic elements, but personally, I like this way better. I often choose what the board game will look like and this brings me greater satisfaction. In my case, these are typically small games such as Blossoms, Staropolski Wokabularz (Old Polishlexicon), O kocie w kłopocie (Cat in trouble).

One of those collaborative projects was Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, the recent Stonemaier Games, and Bezier Games release. Can you tell us more about your role in this project?

It was a special situation and my role was limited to illustrating the box cover. When Jamey Stegmaier first time contacted me he offered me to join the team working on the art for the room tiles. Unfortunately at that time I was working on Spy Club and our timing didn't fit. However, we made a deal that I would end up working on the front cover and title. I had an insight into all illustrations showing the rooms of castles so I could look at them to get into the atmosphere. Based on the description from Jamey, combined with the room art I started working on the cover and the final illustration is inspired by the game tile themes. I was very happy about this project, it was one of the most interesting jobs I’ve recently had, all the more, I love to paint landscapes.

Having worked on a number of board game box covers are there any key elements you try to include and do you think the box needs to reflect the game inside?

I think that most of all the box cover art should put you into the game vibe. If we also add an interesting style and great colors... it's perfect! That kind of illustration stays in the mind and causes us to want to know more about the game. At least it does for me. Recently I was hypnotized by the box cover and graphic art for Feudum made by Justine Schultz, so much that I decided to buy a game on KS version for the first time. In the case of the illustrations I make, the publishers usually already have some idea of what should be placed on the cover. For example, if I get a brief that it should be a sweet, friendly kitty game but the arrangement of the whole scene belongs to me then I always try to sneak a piece of story in background and details to pull the viewer into the game world.

With Spy Club, you mention the game having strong art direction to hold it together. Could you talk us through the direction you were given and how this helped you to create more cohesive illustrations?

My work on Spy Club began with creating a deck of Clue cards that were shared into six categories: Crime, Motive, Suspect, Location, Object and Distractions. Certainly the subject of the illustrations was important and I was supposed to illustrate each subject but I had a wide margin of discretion with how I did this. The game mechanics and usability were the most important factors and required that the categories should be clearly different from each other.

That point was well tested by the publisher and the same solution was given by the game prototype. Graphics from each category have their own color code (for example the predominant color for locations is green). For the illustrations used on campaign cards there were no restrictions so in that case when layout was put all together it was connected with the main characters and their hobby. The game prototype also outlined the direction of iconography and textures. I think that such preparation of game elements and a good brief make it possible to better understand the game objectives and facilitate the work in graphic arrangements. In my view it is the key to a coherent and attractive product.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work as an artist?

Looking at my current work I see that I still have a long way to achieve the level I wish to. It's a little disheartening, but the good thing is that looking at my older works I can see how they are evolving and that there is a progress. So my advice is don't lose your confidence and keep drawing. Creating is the best work ever.

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

I'm a movie fan and I love movie soundtracks, so while working I often turn on a list of different soundtracks, also those from computer games. Most commonly on my list is Bladerunner, music from Gothic series or Machinarium. But recently youtube is successfully giving me a whole gallery of lo-fi hip hop/study/chill/homework music radio that put me in a good mood for the day. From time to time I also listen to the board game video reviews such as Dice Tower, Rhadho, and local things like PoGraMy, GambitTV to find out a little more about new games. After work, in my mind there are only my children.

Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?

There is one project which me and my wife just finished late last year called Wodny szlak (Waterway) by FoxGames publishing and it should be in store this year in Poland but I believe that in time this will be also released in other countries. It's a family game known as "My first tile drafting game" in which you build a river path, gather resources like wood or wheat and ship them to lumber mills and water mills. We love tile games and it was an obvious fun to illustrate those small landscapes with snaking river. On another recent project we have also had tiles to illustrate but this time it’s about building sandcastles. As part of our research we grabbed a bucket and shovels and moved to the beach.

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

You can find my work here at ArtStation website.

Thanks for taking the time to chat to me Bartłomiej Kordowski.

All images supplied by and copyright of Bartłomiej Kordowski.

Ross Connell 23/06/2019 Ross Connell 23/06/2019

Untamed - Feral Factions: Art in Board Games #60

I think that the downfall of a lot of high fantasy themed media is that you either love it or you're indifferent to it at best. However, everybody knows what a Tiger, a Panda or Rabbit is and a lot of people have some sort of connection with animals. I think this automatically lowers the barrier of entry and allows people to actually look further than the theme…

Welcome to Issue 60 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. I’m a big fan of board games with anthropomorphic art. When I saw Untamed: Feral Factions on social media, I was reminded of my favorite cartoons growing up. I had to know more. I hope you enjoy this conversation.

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Hello there Jeremy Falger, thanks for joining me! For our readers who aren't aware of your work could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Hi Ross, thanks for having me! I'm a game designer living Utrecht, one of the bigger cities in the Netherlands. If you ever have to chance to visit, Utrecht is great place for board game lovers, as we have 4 board game shops within 50m of each other! I also work in one of the aforementioned shops part time. After my bachelor degree in History I realised that what I really wanted to do was make games. I had been designing games since I was about 14 years old, and though I had put it on the backburner during my studies it came back in full force a few years ago. That led me to pursue a master's degree in Game Design at the University of Amsterdam and this is also where I met some of the guys with whom I eventually started our company: Grumpy Owl Games. Within Grumpy Owl Games I'm (obviously) involved with the game design side of things, alongside our other designer: Milan Lefferts. Additionally I'm responsible for the art direction and visual design side of things.

As my master degree also focused on applied (or 'serious') game design, before I became a Grumpy Owl, I worked on games focused on children's healthcare and wellbeing, at the University of Turku, in Finland. And while we've always been working on our title, Untamed: Feral Factions, for the general, tabletop entertainment market, Grumpy Owl Games also continues to develop games as training tools for the healthcare and educational market. Aside and not ever sleeping because I'm always thinking about games, I enjoy riding my road bike (sorta) fast, spinning obscure funky house tracks as a DJ and checking out traditional tattoo flash.

Can you describe your Kickstarter game to us and what makes it interesting?

So Untamed: Feral Factions is a card battle game, think Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone. There's lots of games out there in that genre and I love the genre. However a lot of them require a significant buy-in, in the shape of time, or money, or both. I just wanted a game that's quick to setup and dive into, but still offers a level of agency as you choose your deck and your play style. Additionally I wanted a fairly balanced experience. In my opinion the shuffle-building mechanic is a perfect fit to accomplish this.

I don't claim to have reinvented to wheel together with my co-designer Milan Lefferts, but I think we took familiar elements and combined them in a package just feels really nice to play. There's a bunch of small mechanics that improve quality of life (or play?) I think. In addition to these smaller elements I also feel the 'bigger' Support mechanic adds a nice new twist to the genre by introducing a second, finite resource. It adds depth to the design without adding a bunch of extra 'stuff'. You're essentially using components you already have anyway and turn that into a second resource which you'll have to manage to get the most out of your cards and abilities. Furthermore I think the theme, artwork and graphic design is different from a lot of other games in the genre.

How long have you been working on this game? What made you launch the campaign now?

Work on the game started in early 2017. We hadn't set many limitations on ourselves except that we wanted to make a card battle game that was quick to set up and didn't have the traditional style of (fun yet time-consuming) deckbuilding. Still, this left us with a wide range of options.Thus we started experimenting with a wide range of mechanics and frameworks, most of which didn't work out in the end.

After realising we needed to set clear limitations and design goals, the design process actually progressed fairly quickly. We received loads of great feedback at Spiel 2018 and other playtest events and we kept tweaking and streamlining the design until we felt we couldn't streamline it any further. That's was when we felt confident enough to start prepping the Kickstarter.

What were some of the main design changes that took place?

We had a totally different resource system for the longest time which the whole turn structure and deck construction was built around. It was pretty novel with two sided resource cards but in the end it proved to be too limiting so we scrapped it and opted for a different combat system. I think we were actually pretty good in killing our darlings. I wrote down all mechanics we ever came up with, for future reference, but I was never really married to one particular idea, though I do love multi-use cards, so I tried to put that in anywhere possible. That's also what I enjoyed in designing together with Milan, I have a tendency to make big sweeping changes and Milan is way more conservative, so that balanced each other out nicely.

The art in Untamed: Feral Factions is anthropomorphic in style, why this theme and at what point in the process did this develop?

While we didn't really have any limits to the mechanics, we did commit to the art style and the theme early on. We felt that for a game in this genre, but without traditional deckbuilding, a different look would help distinguish itself and help communicate that this was intended to be a bit more of a casual affair yet still pique the interest of veterans of the genre. A fair amount of thought went into the theming as we wanted it to be recognisable and something that people could identify with.

You worked with a variety of artists on this game so how challenging was it to keep the style consistent throughout?

It was a challenge at some points, but I do think that careful selection before hand helped a lot. I spent a lot of time looking at portfolio's as well as creating a mood board up front. This made it easier to refer to what I had in mind. Also a lot of artists I worked with had the same 'artist idols' (e.g. Jesper Ejsing, Paul Mafayon) as I had, so that made everything a lot easier as well. And as soon as you have an established body of work for the game, it's easy to just refer to that for new artists coming aboard with regards to color palette and styling etc. Though I also think that it helped that we had different factions in the game, so it's okay if there's a little difference between the factions themselves, it just helps set each faction apart.

Where did the concepts for the card art come from and how much of that came from you and Milan, and how much came from collaboration?

All in all, it was a pretty organic process. Practically speaking I probably wrote the majority of the briefs but Milan and myself bounced ideas off each other, sometimes based on the name of the card or the mechanics we were doing for that faction. Other times we'd try to figure out what aesthetic would logically fit with this particular animal by looking at how a certain animal is perceived in popular culture.

Foxes for example are often seen as sneaky and sly in many (western) children's tales, therefore it just made a lot of sense to portray them as thieves and spies in Untamed, as that naturally connects with many people's expectations. After the concept for the card, the first piece I'd commission to an artist usually had a pretty detailed brief. However if we'd already done some pieces then sometimes we'd also have a bit more of a back and forth which was really fun as well.

It's safe to say clear graphic design is a must to keep any card battle game flowing. Were there any games you took inspiration from and how did the graphic design evolve during your playtesting?

For sure, during testing at Essen for example we saw people putting their Power and Support cards in all sorts of different places. We wanted to streamline that and facilitate an easy to read play area, so we added 2 little icons within an arrow shape on the Stronghold cards to help organise the player's playing area by having the Power cards always on the left, and the Support always on the right. These icons double as reminders to help players understand the iconography in the text box (mainly the paw symbol we chose to symbolise support). We also added the hexagonal icon to the back of each card to help players realise that each card can be played face down as a Power resource.

For the card frame we took a look at all the other card battle games out there. We saw a small trend towards the card frames and graphic design becoming cleaner and more simple (a trend found in every other industry as well). While the first drafts of the card frame for example had a very '3D stone skeuomorphism' vibe to them, in the end we settled for the much cleaner, more modern look we have now. It's not only easier to read, it gave us more space for text as well as providing the art with as much real estate as possible.

What made you choose Kickstarter and how did you prepare for your campaign?

As a small company and for our first game Kickstarter just made the most sense. We feel like it's a good way to gauge interest in the product and to get a community going as well as help with production costs. We analysed countless kickstarter pages of similar (and completely different) games and made an overview of what we should absolutely include and do (and not do). Additionally we also read loads of articles and blogs on how to run a successful kickstarter campaign, for example Jamey Stegmaier's blog proved to be super helpful (thanks Jamey!).

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

I've recently finished reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, which I really loved. Looking to get started with his Stormlight Archive series during my holiday. I'm also halfway through Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of Fallen series, though I suspect it will take me a few more years to finish it due to the sheer volume, not only of the books, but also due to the huge amount of characters introduced and which I keep forgetting about.

I mostly read fantasy nowadays, though I also try to read some literature every now and then, most recently I finished Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, which was interesting. Music wise I listen to a lot electronic music, mostly funky house and melodic techno (Jesper Ryom for example) but I have pretty varied taste, so I also love me some American Sharks (really sweet punk rock) or Foals (indie). I haven't seen that many movies recently, though I'm looking forward to Jim Jarmusch's zombie movie The Dead Don't Die, I'm also really excited to binge watch Stranger Things season 3!

Finally, if we want to find the game and more of your work online, how can we find you?

There's a BGG page for the game here. The Kickstarter can be found here. You can also play on Tabletopia here or on Tabletop Simulator here.

I'm on Twitter (@CardbConspiracy)sometimes and I scroll through a lot of Instagram , though I don't necessarily post a lot (I just always forget to take pictures of stuff), the Grumpy Owl Games Instagram feed is a lot livelier though. If I ever have time in the future I want to start posting some more stuff on UX design in board game design, but that's still up in the air.

(All images copyright of Grumpy Owl Games)

Ross Connell 18/06/2019 Ross Connell 18/06/2019

Atommix: Art in Board Games #59

Art shouldn't be in a museum where you need to go especially and pay money if you want to explore aesthetics, it should surround us…

Welcome to Issue 59 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. It should come as no surprise that I’m a big fan of street art. I’ve walked around countless cities, marveling not only at the talent of the art but also the location and scale of some pieces. I was intrigued when Rafi and Tutti got in touch about their card game based on street art. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Today I'm being joined by Rafi and Tutti creators of the card game 'atommix'. Thanks for joining me! Before we find out about the game itself could you tell our readers a bit about yourselves and what you do?"

We are a duo of street artists from Tel Aviv otherwise known as Extra Crunchy. We’re creating murals and traveling together around the world for 3 years, nomadic lifestyle. Recently we’ve settled down in Costa Rica. We painted at street art festivals and music festivals. While traveling, we got to meet some of the guest artists (on the game) and thought it would be rad to form a project with them. Rafi also has a background of 3d modeling and animation and we both love creating art and finding new sources of inspiration.

Let's talk about your art collaboration, Extra Crunchy. When did it start and what have been some of your personal highlights along the way?

We’ve been doing Extra Crunchy since we started traveling three years ago. We both come from different artistic backgrounds. Rafi’s artistic style is more 3d because of his background and I’m more illustrative and flows. It seemed like going on an adventure together and combining our styles was the most obvious thing to do. We started in Panama and continued to about 10 other countries on this planet. Basically following opportunity, wherever we could paint and had good friends and vibes. We got influenced by each other’s style throughout this journey, and shared different kinds of inspiration to create Extra Crunchy. It’s always fun to check art together and zoom in on techniques.

You’ve now collaborated to create a card game 'atommix'. What inspired you to create a game and what do you think makes it interesting?

It started with an illustration we decided to call ‘Helium’ and slowly continued to grow. We thought it would be fun to learn science by illustrating the elements. Later on we realized a game would be the perfect way to engage with the cards, so we started creating the gameplay. Most of us have long ago discarded the periodic table from memory. But in order for it to genuinely stick we have combined the Elemental properties with visual language, which is immediately interpreted by the brain. Our brains are far more engaged by storytelling than just plain text, so by placing powerful and beautiful images next to words our brains create an immediate connection between the two - just like in advertising - the same manipulation can be used for a better purpose.

You're working with artists from a variety of backgrounds on this game. How did you decide who to include and when it came to directing the artists what kind of brief did you give them?

While traveling we had the opportunity to meet many great artists from different fields, street art, visionary art, character design and whatever in between. We feel art is a high form of communication and big ideas should be shared through them. It felt more accessible to refer to them first. We were looking for artists who also resonated with the project and could express that. Some of the artists had a clear vision for the element they wanted, and some wanted us to pick for them. We sent them the characteristics of the element and let them tell a story from their point of view.

What kind of characteristics would you give for the elements?

We did a lot of research about the properties of elements and what makes them magical, and decided to focus on the most interesting chemistry information we found. For instance, if it’s magnetic or diamagnet, metal or nonmetal, high or low reactivity, electric conductivity, energy levels and families. We wondered what we would like to learn about the elements and what would be fun to translate into a symbol. The symbols ('or special effects') are serving different purposes throughout the game. They are inspired by actual Alchemic symbols.

So how did you get started as street artists?

We're both inspired by street art. We love the idea of large scale art on the street. Art shouldn't be in a museum where you need to go especially and pay money if you want to explore aesthetics, it should surround us. We started with our first piece three years ago in Tel Aviv central bus station and we've both been hooked ever since. It took us some time to learn to work together, how to give and receive critique and create for the being that is Extra Crunchy that allows us to deliver our message better.

What do you think are some of the differences between street art and that of other mediums?

Street art in our opinion has raised the bar in the last few years. Pieces being made these days are such high quality, we believe it's made by some of the greatest artists ever lived AND they are not dead yet :) People are doing 12 story building murals with super high skill and often it's a one man band. You can see how different styles are merging together on buildings in international cities; hyper realistic with calligraphy, graphic design with portraits and so on. It's a strong effort of one to communicate a message.

Looking back on our first piece, it was actually two separate pieces one next to the other also designed separately. We would definitely do it differently today, nowadays we just move the sketchbook/sketch pad back and forth fixing, correcting, and creating the story as we go. Large scale mural open and shut different options in terms of size. It's best to have a rough sketch, see the wall and shape it accordingly. We never really know how a final piece is going to look like exactly.

When it comes to the game itself, how has it changed as you've been developing it?

Creating the gameplay wasn’t easy for us, we’re more visual artists than gamers. But we love learning new trades so it saw it as a challenge. When researching other card games we saw mostly what we DON’T want it to be like. It started as a Uno/Taki type game, a well known casual game that would be easy to catch up with. Naturally we kept finding ways to make it stand for itself. After we perfected the rules we found out that writing it down as a rule book was yet another challenge. We’re getting as much feedback as possible from reviewers and gamer friends, and using their high standards to make extra special.

What lessons have you learned about game design in this project so far? Have there been any surprises?

Everything is a learning process and because it's our first time running a Kickstarter we have to learn who our audience is and what they’re looking for. We wish to use this platform to allow an open communication with the backers, so we can use our collective intelligence to perfect the game.

As creators we are really enjoying the process of developing the gameplay. We had the idea of creating multiple levels and unlocking them during the campaign. Looking back it might have been better to reveal all of the levels at launch, because we figured that many potential backers that wanted to see the whole game might not return later on.

How has your perception of tabletop gaming changed?

Since we're more gamer creators, or let's say 'experience creators', we want to communicate with the gamer audience and elevate the game experience. We have some gamer friends who have reached out to design a higher level of game. It's important for us that it will be engaging in many aspects. This way the chemistry and the art will be memorable and THIS is what we want.

Do you have any advice for anyone looking to become an artist?

Be consistent. Make yourself spend around half an hour a day and draw shapes for fun, no expectations. Collect three favorite artists and study them, take note of the details you like and try to apply that in your work. Make your tools accessible for you to keep them in sight. But most of all - practice.

What are some non game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

Tekkonkinkreet, Paprika and Ghibli films are favorites. recently watched Kung Fury for the third time and also loved Hereditary and Jordans Peele's work, Get Out and Us. (Ross, if you haven't seen these yet, we recommend you to). In the video (on the Kickstarter page), the music is by Symbolico. These days we mostly like electronic music we can paint or work with, like Symbolico, Ott, Man of No Ego, Clozee, Hypnagog. Also we both look forward to the next Tool album.

Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?

You can find atommix on Kickstarter here until July 10th. You can also find us on social media: Facebook / Instagram. Our website is: goextracrunchy.com

Instagram accounts for the artists featured in atommix:

Deih: https://instagram.com/deih.xlf
Thoth: https://instagram.com/t.hoth36
I AM EELCO: https://instagram.com/iameelco
N30: https://instagram.com/n30n3
Dragon76: https://instagram.com/dragon76art
Lubomir Arsov: https://instagram.com/lubomirarsov
Sermob: https://instagram.com/sermob1
Emily Ding: https://instagram.com/_emilyding
Hobbes Escrew: https://instagram.com/hobbesescrew
Otis Chambelain: https://instagram.com/otis_chamberlain

Ross Connell 14/06/2019 Ross Connell 14/06/2019

Kwanchai Moriya: Art in Board Games #58

I was turning 30 without a clear path, and absolutely buried in loans paid for private art school, and going through quite a bit in my personal life. I unsuccessfully applied for job after job on my college’s job board for anything art-related…

Welcome to Issue 58 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. While this website is a personal curation of board game creatives, I don’t tend to throw around terms like “favorites” very often. However, Kwanchai is, in my humble opinion, one of the absolute best in the industry right now. His name was at the top of my list when I launched my site, and I’m so glad we finally got to chat. Enjoy learning more about his work!

For more great insights into board game art, be sure to check out the interview archive.

Thanks for joining us, Kwanchai Moriya. For readers unaware of your work, could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Hi, thanks for having me! I'm an illustrator and painter, working mainly in board games and children’s books. I was born in New York to a Japanese father and Thai mother, both emigrated from their home countries.

I mostly I grew up in the ‘burbs of LA and Chicago, in the 80’s and 90’s. Did some schoolin’ and ended up with a degree in history before sayings ‘oops’ and going for my BFA in illustration in Pasadena, California.

I popped out the other side: nine years, lots of debt, and many part-time jobs later. I’ve been freelance illustrating for the past 9 years, though I’d say the last 4 years have been markedly different in terms of the growth and opportunity I’ve had.

I currently live in Los Angeles with my wife and like to spice life up with board gaming, backpacking, travel, woodworking, etc.

So how did you first get involved in making board games?

My first real gig illustrating board games was doing 11 half-inch counter illustrations for a little-known wargame called Heroes of the Gap. The publisher contacted me through Boardgamegeek, since I was quite active doing my own fan redesigns of games and posting the art there.

In fact, my next two freelance gigs came through BGG’s Geekmail system: Catacombs 3rd edition and a game called Twin Tin Bots. The Catacombs gig I was offered specifically because I had done a fan redesign of the game with my own whimsical art and had posted it to BGG.

In 2010, I also started going to all the big conventions (Essen, Origins, Gen Con) with my portfolio and the widest grin I could muster. Back then, I’d bother every publisher booth on the floor and hopefully fly home with at least a project or two in tow. The first handful of games I illustrated were equal parts, nerve-wracking and thrilling.

I feel like I’ve grown a lot as an artist since then, and it’s hard to look at early projects without feeling squirmy. With my scant experience, publishers were apt to pay very little and over direct a project to death. Definitely a lot of stress in those early years was because I was learning the business side of freelancing on the go, while butchering my work/life balance, and flexing relatively weak artistic muscles.

For example, Catacombs 3rd edition was the first time I’d ever done something in that cartoony whimsical style, as I was primarily doing figurative oil paintings at the time. But, one thing that hasn’t changed is how exciting board games are for me, both playing them and being invited into the process of making them. I love being an illustrator in this industry and having a hand in so many varied and interesting projects.

Having worked in the board game industry now for a number of years, how has your relationship with clients changed as your reputation has grown?

It's awesome! In general, I get a very warm reception from folks working in this industry. Sometimes, just wearing my name badge at a convention will get me a sit down with someone important I wasn't even planning on meeting. That's nuts!

Compare that to a couple of years ago, when I had to plead with people for a few minutes to look at my pitifully scant portfolio. The warmth I get is definitely attributable to the kind-hearted folks in this business, but I'm sure it also has something to do with the growing list of games I've been a part of.

With my clients now, there's more trust that I can get a project wrapped on time and it can look good. Earlier projects did tend to be over-directed, with a lot of hand-holding. But I don’t blame publishers, as choosing an artist is one of the many risks they take on in the process of making a game.

A brand new illustrator thinks they are hot stuff, with a unique style and vision. Or at least, I did! And it takes a few projects to smash that down, and learn how to collaborate well and flow with others. Nowadays, I do get more say on what a project should look like, but of course it varies wildly from project to project. Some clients know exactly what they want, and some take me to the park and just want me to run and run. I like the ones that take me to the park.

The negative side of an increased reputation is an increased expectation from people. Or perhaps I have an increased expectation that other people have an increased expectation? For sure I’m harder on myself now, and more scared to make mistakes. I feel like I have to constantly hit home runs, even though I just learned how to play. Moreover, I feel like I've made a lot of different plays on almost all of my projects, visually, conceptually. Dinosaur Island looks totally different from Flipships, which looks totally different from Catacombs or Capital Lux. So I'm stressed, Ross, I'm stressed all the time.

When you're presented with illustrative work that is outside of your comfort zone, where do you start?

I love a challenge, though often I end up over-challenging myself. I try to pick one big project a year that I'm going to totally just throw myself off a cliff with. Either something that challenges my command of a medium or trying a new style or type of art. For example, one year that project was the thick paints and stylization in Flipships, another year it was the crazy colors and line art in Dinosaur Island. Those styles I'd never really tried before. I'm also a sucker for weird themes and new concepts.

I have a running 10-item list of themes, or styles or kernels of ideas that I want to try at some point: a bucket list of 'style-cliffs,' if I may.

Tantamount with any project, in or out of my comfort zone, is doing good research. Looking at what's been done before for that particular theme, or making sure there are facts in the factual part of a project. I feel out of my depth all the time, and oftentimes I am. Really being a freelance artist means being in your own head all the time, and a polite nudge or two from the art director or graphic designer is sometimes just the ticket to a solid piece of art.

Alright Kwanchai, you got me, what's currently at the top of that your art creation bucket list and will we see this soon?

Okay, I'll give you a few off my list.

1. Classic Gnomes. I really want to do a project that features little mischievous gnomes in red hats. You know blue shirts and tiny beards, the whole thing. I would just get a kick out of illustrating tons of little gnomes just going about their day, tormenting the house cat, stealing food from the fridge. I don't know why, I love it.

2. Really Creepy Ghosts. Have you seen Nate Hayden's games (Cave Evil, Psycho Raiders)? It's unsettling and weird and I love it. I've been jonesing to do a theme that is about ghosts or some kind of creepy supernatural thing, but not done in a cutesy style at all. Just straight terrifying and dark, with lots of heavy paint and scratchy ink lines. I have a lot of bright colors and friendly themes in my usual work and it'd be fun to throw that out the window.

3. Illustrative Type. So this would be illustrating components using only hand-drawn type and fonts. Like if a card is supposed to have a Man-eating Squirrel on it, I would hand-draw the words 'MAN-EATING SQUIRREL' on the card and illustrate the letters in a way that is thematic and immersive? Hah, I have no idea what this would end up looking like, but I've been thinking about it a lot.

4. Women's Baseball League. "A League of Their Own' the board game, or something akin to that. Love the history there.

On another note, a goal of mine is to design and illustrate my own game. I have two or three game designs that have I've been puttering around with for years. I think it would be really fun to do all the design work, play testing, pitching to publishers, graphic design, and artwork.

Of course, everyone and their mom has a game design, and I'm sure anything I design would be mediocre at best. But I think going through the whole process would be a very valuable experience for me, since I've only really experienced one particular side of this industry.

You've illustrated some of the most distinctive and original board game box art in the industry, so tell me, what's your process when you come to work on a game cover and how is it different from creating other art?

Box cover art is usually the priciest line item in a project, and for good reason. It's the thing that wraps around the outside of all this important stuff. That stuff being: the designer's hopes and dreams for their baby, the publisher's investment in components, wrangling printers and scheduling, etc. So yea the cover is a big deal because it needs to speak to all the important things inside in one solid punch.

I usually begin planning a cover by looking at all the covers from any games, comics, or movies that share the genre. Then I try to cut sideways from the norm and try to come up with a concept that feels fresh. Sometimes that means using colors or a composition that atypical to the genre, or maybe using subjects that bend the stereotypes that genre. Most importantly, in my thinking, a cover needs to exude energy and investment.

For example, on Bosk, a recent project with the theme of forests and trees, the publisher really wanted the forest itself to be the subject of the box cover. So I thought okay let's make the trees huge, and have a few tiny hikers in the composition just to exaggerate the scale of the trees.

Or in Gorus Maximus, a game about gladiators, I wanted to make the covers just bonkers-level of dumb gore: brains popping out of helmets, crocodile sliced up like someone was playing Fruit Ninja.

A composition needs to feel full of liveliness and thought. And although I don't always succeed, I think it's a far worse crime to deliver something that looks boring or typical.

As someone who started out as a figurative painter in art school, one of my crutches has always been to just throw a well-painted person on an illustration to give it that 'wow.' Lately I've been trying to get away from that crutch, wanting to see I can still do an awesome cover without a person, front and center.

So for example, my recent cover for 'In the Hall of the Mountain King', it's three trolls marching into caverns on it. And I've only ever really drawn really cartoony trolls, like in Catacombs, so trying to do realistic ones was a really scary and I think it really paid off.

Or in my redesign of 'The Game' for Pandasaurus, it was all just paper cut-out of shapes and abstract objects, no humans at all. I finished up the cover for Gil Hova's 'High Rise,' which is a cityscape with towering skyscrapers looming in the background. No hoomans, but still much wow I hope!

I've found success when I try to paint towards a feeling. For the cover of Bosk, I tried to assemble reference material and choose colors and a composition that reflected that feeling I get when I pass the trailhead sign on my way into a national park.

For the cover of Dinosaur Island and its expansion Totally Liquid, I tried to tap into all my love of dinosaurs and growing up in the 90's: neon-dinosaur toys, Trapper Keepers covers, Capri-Sun, Disneyland, and Saturday morning cartoons.

For the cover of Dual Powers, I tried to tap into the sadness of that last scene in Doctor Zhivago, a man drowning against the onward march of history and conflict.

Sensibly, publishers and game designers often want a cover to arithmetically reflect the contents of the game. They want to show every faction type in the game, the landscape, etc. This can crowd out the potential of a well-composed, beautiful piece of art.

No publisher is that blunt, but given all the risks that a publisher takes on to make a product, the last thing they need is a cover that doesn't make sense or causes Kickstarter backers to form a mob, etc. But building a box cover illustration by just adding up what’s in the box and the rulebook is a total bummer for me.

We poke fun at Euro box covers that have a merchant in the foreground gesturing back at a medieval city, but man there's still a lot of that going around. Just not for me. At least as an internal starting block, I believe it's crucial for an artist to paint towards an emotion, a feeling, a nostalgic moment. What comes out the other end might still end up just looking like a typical genre box cover, but I think those lofty, flamboyant inner goals are what keep me chugging along happily.

There's a lot of technical things you can get good at, the longer you work in the biz: like friendly but pointed email writing, nailing deadlines while keeping buffers for personal life, etc. But I feel like the box cover is a tabletop artist's flagship product. It's the ship of the line, the cream of the crop. So you better enjoy it and you better make it sing.

The greatest critic is said to be ourselves, but are there any projects you worked on where you think you really nailed it?

Let me just point out that I'm not necessarily always pushing myself as an artist, though I would very much like everyone to think I am. I always try to try hard. But any given painting is a mix of blood, sweat, and tears; as well as whatever I ate that afternoon, how full my inbox is that morning, or if I've been outside more than usual that week.

Moreover, the final product that sits on shelves is a larger mix of: how tight the project deadlines were, what the graphic designer did with my raw art, and how supportive and/or collaborative the publisher was during the whole process. So I can't really take credit for an amazing looking product, there's often a lot of hands that are in there and they all matter.

Frankly, I always look back on the last three projects I did and am usually the happiest with those. Anything further back, and I tend to cringe at some of the inexperience I can see evident in the artwork. So currently the last three projects are Bosk, High Rise, and In the Hall of the Mountain King. I’m really proud of those, in fact. I think they represent a good jump in my confidence and abilities that wasn't there before.

In some past projects, I would approach a piece of art and truly not know if there was light at the end of the tunnel. I don't know if that makes sense, but there were illustrations early in my career, with which I felt like I was drowning near the end and just couldn't get a face or a scene right no matter how hard I tried. I feel more confident in my recent work.

If I had to pick all-time favorite projects, I'd say any of my large-scale figurative paintings are probably the most objectively impressive things to look back on: Overlight RPG cover art, Galaxy Trucker poster, Capital Lux/Rebel Nox, Dual Powers etc.

With my history as a figurative oil painter, I tend to lean heavily on those skill sets and the experience has some shine to it. I should mention that I happen to really like my earliest project, Catacombs. I still find the composition and colors of the box cover and components really appealing and fun.

Board game art can often play it safe, sticking to known themes or visual styles. How important do you think diverse styles are in board game art, and how would you like to see the industry change?

That's a big question! I think there’s a lot out there that looks same-y and homogenized, especially your 'European merchant trading something' game, or your 'lots of miniatures in oversized black box' sci-fi game.

I am not the artist needed on a game like that, nor do I feel compelled to take on those projects when they show up in my inbox. But that's not to say that those publishers and designers don't know what they're doing.

They are mainlining their target audiences with exactly what they want, and it's great that the board game world now has different mini-worlds that can argue and bicker and have opinions about who’s best. When I got into board games years ago, there were maybe a few dozen games you “had to buy” and that was it. So the glut is awesome.

As far as diversity, I think that's an even bigger question that I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer. From an art point of view, I think an easy way to add diversity to a project is to simply represent as many ethnicities, genders, or cultures in the world-building or characters.

The more compelling way I've seen diversity approached are in games that delve wholly into specific niches of culture or history. For example, there was a game that came out a few years ago called Navajo Wars from GMT Games, and it was about the historical journey of the Dine (Navajo) peoples, from a specific era in history. I thought that was awesome, shining a light on a lesser-known part of history, rather than just another 101st Airborne game from a war game publisher.

I think having a diverse cast of characters in a game is very cool but I think having a whole game be about something specific and unique, elevating something up and shining a light on lesser known corners of our world, is even more compelling. I'm not smart enough to come up with how that would work as a board game, but I'll definitely wax poetic on the subject!

How much do you think Kickstarter has changed the landscape when it comes to board game art?

Having worked with both Kickstarter projects and regular distribution publishing, I don't know that it makes much of a difference when it comes to doing the art. I think Kickstarter has given more opportunities for smaller publishers to get products to market, which in turn means that there's more opportunities for illustrators to get projects. So that's always good.

A downside to Kickstarter, or any publishing presence on social media or BGG for that matter, is people's propensity to skewer art in a public forum. I mean, even some of the best covers I've seen get a few inane comments like: "eh, hate it" or "liked the old art better." Kickstarter is particularly bad in this regard, where some backers feel empowered to judge the art harshly.

As an artist, it's crushing to see comments like that, after spending time and thought on a piece of art. Of course a piece of art should be judged on its discrete face value, especially one that is gracing a product meant to be sold. But, man, sometimes it's hard.

The people behind a lot of awesome games are often just a tiny ragtag team of: publisher, designer, artist, and graphic designer. It's easy to demand a lot from publishers and condemn failures.

But I've found that overwhelmingly creators in this industry are thoughtful and emboldened to create fun things, often leaving other careers to do something they feel passionate about.

I don't know what my point is there, or what I'm being defensive about. I guess, just please be nice to me all the time, is the moral to learn here.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work as an artist?

I went to a traditional art college. Let me be depressing for a moment. When I graduated from Art Center College of Design here in Pasadena, my program (like many other traditional illustration degree programs) was essentially grooming me to be an editorial illustrator.

As in covers for books and magazines and the little illustrations in the Op-Ed section of a newspaper. Professors encouraged us to fly to New York and schedule meetings with print media agencies in order to drum up work, which I did twice. I didn’t find success by any metric.

One book publisher did give me a pamphlet for their summer intern program. I was also taught to send out mailers using expensive databases of art director info. I sent out hundreds of mailers twice a year, punching out my cards with a corner rounder on the floor of my one-room studio, piles of letters all over my bed. Nothing shook loose for me, and it was very disheartening.

I don’t think those methods are wrong, and I do think I had a very weak portfolio. But, those traditional methods now look very antiquated in the current world of illustration. It’s a wider world that includes everything from Pixar to Patreon.

At that point, I was turning 30 without a clear path, and absolutely buried in loans paid for private art school, and going through quite a bit in my personal life. I unsuccessfully applied for job after job on my college’s job board for anything art-related.

The last one I tried for was an Archivist position at Yul Brynner's estate, scanning and digitizing photos. "I'm fascinated by the opportunity to work with photos from the Golden Age of Hollywood!" and "Can begin immediately!" I wrote. It was crushing after all the effort and hope I had drummed up in myself and my family and friends.

There were other graduates from my college that got work or hired by studios. They were better artists and made smarter choices during the program. But I gave up trying to be an illustrator and ended up working as a tutor at a Chinese after-school program nearby. They're a dime a dozen here. To go to work, I'd slap a laminated sign on the side of my car (Michael's Fine Art Classes!) and pick up kids from elementary school, and then help them with their homework.

There was a ray of light during that time, I had managed to get into a handful of gallery shows in LA and Seattle. So I was still doing some art. They're awesome to be a part of, but I don’t think I was good enough, and it was unsustainable as a single source of income. In fact, I was still working at Michael’s Fine Art Classes two years later when the opportunity to illustrate Catacombs, my first big game, fell in my lap.

My point here is that I feel like I barely made it, and every step of this process has been jumping from one lily pad to the next. I don’t know what I’m doing. I think that’s important to say before I give any sage advice. So here goes, my five-step method to becoming a tabletop illustrator:

Step 1: Get loaded with debt at art college, and then work at a Chinese after-school program for two years.
Step 2: Go to lots of board game conventions and walk around bothering people with your portfolio.
Step 3: Hide your poor grasp of anatomy and perspective by adding tons of color and dialing up the composition to eleven. Empty space on the canvas? Here’s some geometric shapes for no reason! Magenta!
Step 4: Feel guilty about how hard your parents worked their blue-collar jobs and then transform that guilt into valuable energy. Harness energy in a myriad of ways like: trying to stop watching that Youtube video, or not napping at noon.
Step 5: Be old. Your poor choices and bad luck means you don’t have as much runway left as your youthful, smiling competitors.

But less sarcastically:

1. Explore a multitude of paths, and work whatever side jobs you need to. But when it’s go-time, make the jump and bring all your time and resources to bear.
2. Go to where the warm bodies are in this industry. Shake hands, meet people.
3. Bring energy and boldness to your art. Nuance and subtlety easily translate as boring in an industry where shelf appeal and table presence is important. Solid command of composition and values will win the day every time.
4. Treat your freelance job with integrity and respect, suit up and punch in every day.
5. Don’t waste time. A year can pass by and all you’ve done is illustrated two good pieces and checked how many likes they’ve gotten. Move and shake now, when it’s important to carve out a space for yourself.

What are some non-game related creations (books, music, movies, etc) that you’re currently enjoying?

I’ve been reading a lot of RPG books, stuff for Delta Green and OSR RPG stuff specifically. I run two RPG groups and of course a health amount of board gaming, so I’m often reading rulebooks, RPG stuff, and the like. Also, just finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s Buried Giant. Finished “The Caliphate” podcast series, very enlightening.

I’ve been re-watching Parks & Rec for the zillionth time when I take breaks, since they’re quick fun bites. None of this necessarily fuels my work. As a freelancer, there’s just a ton of time spent totally alone in a room. So there’s always something I’m doing besides work, little projects, something on in the background.

Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?

I usually have between 3 to 6 projects running concurrently. And there’s always a handful of wrapped project that haven’t been announced by the publisher yet. Fun stuff!

But I can definitely mention High Rise, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Complexcity, Kodama 3D, and Pret-a-Porter that will be coming out in the next year or so. I’m particularly jazzed for Pret-a-Porter, because it was a big leap for me in terms of theme and working with a new publisher, Portal Games.

Finally, if we’d like to see more of your work, where can we find you?

I’m on all the social media at @kwanchaimoriya, and my website has a full portfolio at www.kwanchaimoriya.com. I also frequent a lot of board game conventions and meetups, doing signings or panels or just walking around. I really like it when people say hi!

Thanks for joining us, Kwanchai Moriya. For readers unaware of your work, could you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

So how did you first get involved in making board games?

Having worked in the board game industry now for a number of years, how has your relationship with clients changed as your reputation has grown?

When you're presented with illustrative work that is outside of your comfort zone, where do you start?

Alright Kwanchai, you got me, what's currently at the top of that your art creation bucket list and will we see this soon?

You've illustrated some of the most distinctive and original board game box art in the industry, so tell me, what's your process when you come to work on a game cover and how is it different from creating other art?

The greatest critic is said to be ourselves, but are there any projects you worked on where you think you really nailed it?

Board game art can often play it safe, sticking to known themes or visual styles. How important do you think diverse styles are in board game art, and how would you like to see the industry change?

How much do you think Kickstarter has changed the landscape when it comes to board game art?

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work as an artist?

Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?

Finally, if we’d like to see more of your work, where can we find you?

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