I regularly visit ‘art & graphic design for tabletop gaming‘ on facebook – mostly to learn from the different feedback on art. I cam across the works of Shirin Rafie from Singapore on the game Jumpship. The kickstarter for Jumpship has gone under my radar and was apparently cancelled. It seems on the backers that they look forward to a re-launch. The game is available as Print and Play here. But the state of the game does not change the fact that the artwork on it is really incredible and personal. Enjoy the interview.

Tell us a little about your artistic background and how you got into making art for board games like Jumpship and March of Ants?

I got most of my art background from studying Animation in University, where back then I was very interested in developing my skills under pre-production and concept development.

I got into board games through a contact who eventually became a good friend of mine where he engaged me to work on art for various educational board games for schools. Having more familiarity with job scopes like these, I took my chances in finding more work over at Board Game Geek in order to find more opportunities!

Sometimes the style you think you have is great until you fit them all together and realize that they don’t work well together with other nitty gritty things, like the font or the graphic design.

Shirin Rafie

Continue reading “Art with a vibe from Shirin Rafie” →

I recently posted an Instagram with the incredible box cover of ‘Between Two Castles’. The creator is the same polish artist that made the fantastic illustrations on ‘Dream Home‘ and ‘Spy Club‘ – Bartłomiej Kordowski. So I am happy to share his story here. enjoy.

Tell us very shortly about your artistic background and how you got into making art for board games?

In short, I always like to draw. As a kid, my parents and friends kept my passion, so I started to educate myself.

Continue reading “Skilled and modest polish artist Bartłomiej Kordowski” →

Surrounded by beautiful forests in a town called Murphysboro you will find Daryl. He is a board game artist that broke into the industry with a personal passion project – The Dobbers. With his recent wonderful contribution to the game Freshwater Fly ( Only a few hours left on the Kickstarter) – I knew that we had to pick his brain and feature him here. Enjoy.

Tell us a little about what you do, your artistic background and how you got into making art and now board games?

I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. My passion to draw really ignited in the late 80’s and 90’s when I fell in love with Marvel comic books. I have a full set of the original Infinity Gauntlet comics sitting on my desk with me as I type this. I later went to the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, majoring in Sequential Art. Sequential Art is basically comic books. There is a heavy emphasis on Illustration and Graphic Design, particularly for the purpose of story-telling. After college, I independently published a comic book, The Dobbers. It was a light-hearted tale of gnome-like, forest creatures who stumble upon a quest involving a great deal of treasure and a magical sword.

Continue reading “Storyteller and artist Darryl T. Jones” →

The board game industry is flourishing with great game ideas but I must say I did not see this coming – a plantable card game . German Sebastian Sattler that recently moved back from Barcelona to Berlin is the author and designer of this wonderful innovative board game project where you can play a game of cards and afterward grow plants from the game. The game is very pretty and stylish and I am happy to speak to the designer about it. If you want to jump into the world of spider solitaire but are still unsure of the rules, then there is a handy guide on “how to play spider solitaire step by step” here for you to read through. You can also play the game in the same place too.

Tell us a little about your artistic background and how you got into making board games and graphics for board games?

Continue reading “oh/crop – a plantable card game” →

Welcome back Snorre. I have asked for another interview with you because you and Asger have just launched the Kickstarter for your fast-paced character driven fighting game – Combo Fighter.

 

 

Give everyone that doesn’t know Combo Fighter the quick rundown.

 

Combo Fighter is our take at the classic arcade fighting game as a board game. We really wanted to keep it simple, intuitive, fast-paced and engaging. Asger has played a lot of Tekken and I remember being really fascinated by the original more comic book art style of the arcade games. During our development of the 10 fighters, we focused on giving each fighter a unique feel and fighting style so the characters feel and play very differently.

 

 

Following your progress on the sideline, I know that the game has undergone radical changes. Can you tell us a little about this?

Continue reading “Combo Fighter Card Game: From Sketchbook to Kickstarter” →

I did not know about the cabinets of curiosities called Wunderkammer before I read about this little Kickstarter gem from the Canadian designer Phil Glofcheskie. In the detailed and harmonious card frames he beautifully captured the feeling of this particular Rennesaince activity. I am thrilled to have Phil on the GHG to tell us about his new game and process.

Tell us a little about your background and how you got into designing and illustrating your own game?

My educational background is in fine arts, illustration and design, all pre-digital. Much of my study concentrated on traditional media like painting, printing, bookbinding, paper-making and woodworking. I also studied art history.

However, professionally my background is largely in digital media. I have worked in the video game industry, digital marketing, web development, educational entertainment and even emerging technologies like VR, AR and IoT. I am also interested in electronics, and have built or helped build functional prototypes for products.

Continue reading “Wonderfull World of Wunderkammer” →