What is the best choice of visuals for your game? Many games could have had a completely different approach to the art and would it still be the same game experience? Control is a new strategic card game, designed by Mattox Shuler  and Kyle Key from Keymaster Games. The game art comes across as strong and bold with an graphic novel style wrapped in a sharp and elegant design. With its black, white, gold and silver colored cards – Control stands out as an piece of art itself. We asked the artist Kyle Key about the design and we discover that he does all the artwork on an Ipad Pro. He currently lives in Athens, Ga. USA with his wife Julie and their 11 month old daughter Emory.

A quick visit on your dribble and ink365 page shows a portfolio with strong graphical design items like logos and posters but also some traditional pen and paper skills. Do you think of yourself more as an designer or illustrator? And what was your role on the game Control?

If I had to pick between the two, I’m going to lean towards illustrator.I started with a fine art background and actually have a degree in painting. Design and working on branding elements came after I already had a traditional art background so I would have to lean on my roots. My work on the game Control from an art standpoint has been a great example of me designing and illustrating for the same project. My role included the creation of monoline design elements on the backs of the cards and box as well as the 50’s sci-fi style illustrations for the fronts of the cards. The layout of the cards and typeface was created by Mattox Shuler of Fort Foundry, who is also the game play designer. I served as an advisor to Mattox on the game mechanics since this would be the first game published under my board game company, Keymaster Games.

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Making a strategic board game around the karmic universe is a great idea. Letting Marco Bucci unfold the visual landscape is an equally great idea. Following the hemispheregames duo Eddy Boxerman and Dave Burke leads us to the upcoming card game Karmaka. Eddy and Dave has been praised for their digital game Osmos.

The art of Karmaka is vivid and captivating. Karmaka defiantly takes an untraditional direction in its visual landscape. This is what Marco Bucci from Toronto, Canada, tells us about his work.

Color and light seems like one of your passions. How do you find the Karmaka color’s and when did you decide on the card distinction with color?

Yes, you’re totally right: capturing color and light is the reason I paint! The paintings in Karmaka were interesting because they came with an inherent limitation.

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Glassworks – the third expansion for Kings Forge, look really great. Glassworks is designed by Nick Sibicky and illustrated by the Ukrainian artist Denis Martynets . Following the style of the original game, illustrated by Jonathan Kirtz – which also can be found on Table Topia. Denis is from Kiev and kindly agreed to share his story with us.

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When we recently awarded a golden hook to the Great Dinosaur Rush by Ape games I really loved the art. Its a great dust digging color scheme and cute characters that capture the Archeology and Palaeontology feeling in it’s essence. Actually we see the game is released on TableTopia – the online board game platform we recently made a special label for. The artist behind Bone Wars (which some call it) is Mr. Cuddington – that is one cool name that made me curious. GreenHookGames are happy to serve you this interview with Mr. Cuddington. Its a peek under the coat that, as some may know, reveals not one but two persons!

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