Painting and illustrating games can be a tough job. In many cases overly detailed art on games are not necessarily for the best – sometimes simple and expressive visuals do not clash with the gameplay. My characters for Moogh are on the more detailed end of the scale maybe – I try not to use too much time on each painting but instead focus on color and expression. Below you can see the front and back image for a card – and over on facebook I posted a timelapse video of the painting process if you are interested.

Kai Bettzieche is working on a game for a singe page PnP game over at boardgamegeek. It is called Spider Chess. He called out for artist help to create a game cover and I took a shot at the challenge. I has been long since I used so much time on anatomy in a drawing – and thanks to Sycra on Youtube and to pinterest for the easy reference searching.

I (read Hook) just can’t stop those bubbling thoughts on fun game experiences. Participating in board game contests has several advantages:

• You feel obligated to give you project an extra effort if people are following your work. Increasing the chance of reaching a final product.
• You can get great ideas and confidence boosts from other designers.
• You need to follow contest rules – and that can actually stir the creative process and push you in new directions – even making you eliminate otherwise overcomplicated choices.

The 9 card nano contest game is pretty much ready – except playtesting and components and… well the game is called Moogh:

The dark night goes pale. Slowly thin streaks of light lift up like hair and splits the insipid sky. A drop of blue slowly bleeds out in the ocean from the center and out.“Moogh” said the male tribe leader. All others around him in the cave opening knew what it meant. Gathering the stingers they made from flint and sticks they set off in the now golden pink but cold morning.

Scuffling through the dense woods and out in the plains they could see their prey towering in the distance under the sun which had now shown its full face. “Ugh Moogh Oog” they exclaimed. A few moments later it was all a vortex of hairs and muscle, blood sprouting,
shouting and stabbing their shafts with flint spearheads into the huge beast. The Mammoth chase had begun – Will they survive the fight and who will be the one that finish off the big beast

An idea for this mammoth chasing game I can’t let go is to force players speak cave-man language. Oh that could be soo fun. (“ook moogh sok thjak cof cof”).

The other game

The 1-page contest could be awesome to enter. I just love the idea of a good game printable from 1 page. Do you think 1 page games cater simulation games? Or even solo games. Well my game idea is a 1 page 1 player simulation game where you play a space prison warden. You get daily shipments of prisoners from all over the galaxy in all kinds of alien races. Can you keep the business going or will you be closed down from poor management. I don’t have a title yet so feel free to chip in.

I curious if this could be fun. In the beginning the idea was that you should draw walls on paper etc. but now I think the prisoners should be tokens placed on vertical section view of the ship.

Welcome.  The Chinese new year 2016 is the Fire Monkey year. There are soo many traditions related to this festival – red clothes and firecrackers among many. There is an old story about a Monster called Nian that came every new year and killed villagers. One village discovered that the monster was afraid of the color red and loud noises. To celebrate this I made a card game for 2-8 players you may print and play with you friends or family. 

PLAY THE CARD GAME

Here are the game files to print and play for free. You will need 3 dice and some player tokens:.

https://goo.gl/M1Hvqu

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