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.
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. Additionally I'm just naturally drawn to bright and vibrant artwork, so it was a natural choice to pursue this for the art style for the game.
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)
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!
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
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!
Jordi Roca: Art in Board Games #12
This project meant working on a game for the revered authors of War of the Ring, surely one of the best strategic games for two players that exists and a massively popular best-seller. For David and I, it was a challenge to accept and live up to the demands of this project..
Welcome to Issue 12 in my series sharing the stories behind board game art. Graphic designers' work isn’t celebrated enough. Illustrations bring theme’s to life, but good graphic design helps us comprehend what we are seeing, pulling everything together and making it work. This week, we have Jordi Roca, a graphic designer and art director who has worked on games such as Victus: Barcelona 1714, Verbalia, Enigmàrius, and Barcelona: The Rose of Fire and with companies such as Devir, Vexillum, and Saladin games.
Be sure to check out the interview archive for more great insights into board game art.
Hello Jordi thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi everyone, I'm 53 years old and I graduated in graphic design at art school and started working in 1986. Since then I have worked in different studios, graphic arts workshops and agencies, as a designer and art director. At the moment I am director of graphic services in an advertising agency, but have frequently collaborated in editorial projects related to the world of boardgaming for 12 years now.
At the same time, I've been a board games enthusiast from the beginning, although I discovered a new generation of games, taking my hobby in a new direction when (in 1979) I bought Kingmaker, my first game from Avalon Hill Games. Since then my passion and collection has never stopped growing and already exceeds 1,000 titles.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
My father's fondness for art and illustration surely predisposed me to my willingness to work in the graphic world. When I had the opportunity I trained for it and entered the professional field. After working intensively in the advertising world, it was not until years later, that my first works in the world of games arrived.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
My link from graphic creations to board games came much later than my work in design, when I became acquainted with Oriol Comas, a creator and promoter of tabletop games in my country. I started work with him in 2006 to carry out the graphic parts of several projects after we had met thanks to our common liking for board games, and we kept traveling together for years to the Essen Fair. In 2007 we worked together on a game funded by the University of Barcelona, alled Pompeu Fabra i el seu temps, a card game that was the first box format game I worked on the graphics of. Through Oriol I contacted Vexillum, who wanted to publish their first board game Patim Patam Patum and two years after that became the first collaboration with Devir, a brand with which I have already carried out many more projects on an ongoing basis. The first was Verbalia in 2010 and the most recent is Barcelona - The Rose of Fire published this past year.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
Depending on the type of game, the work plan may be slightly different between some projects and others. For example, it would not be the same when making a game based on a historical moment, than it would be when working on an abstract games theme or environment. Having said that, I can identify these steps in the creative process of the graphic part of a game:
The first step is to test the prototype of the game that the authors have, as many times as necessary. In this first step I begin to take notes and imagine where visual and graphical improvements could be implemented with which to enhance the player's experience.
The second step is a documentation and research phase. Keeping in mind what components and mechanisms the game includes, I start a data collection phase. In this part of the process I research for data through the network, but also in museums and libraries, or in places where I can trace information. A good example would be when I worked on Barcelona - The Rose of Fire, where I spent a lot of time collecting old objects and publications, mainly in flea markets and from antique stores.
The next step is to elaborate on the overall graphic proposal of the project, describing the approach of the different components to present to the authors and editors. This proposal will be studied in terms of gameplay, simplifying and improving the visual language of the different elements, rethinking formats, ergonomics and accessibility of these game components.
Once the proposals have been approved, we establish the graphic work plan with the rest of the team and the illustrator makes the first sketches and illustrations that will be gradually incorporated into the final art of the project, before eventually sending them to the press.
All this creative process, depending on the project, can take 8 to 18 months.
You were involved in the creation of Barcelona - The Rose of Fire so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
In April 2015 Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello were working on the development of Barcelona - The Rose of Fire for Devir. At that time, Victus - Barcelona 1714 had just been published, for which David Parcerisa and I worked together on all the graphics. Marco and Francesco liked the work we did for Victus and spoke with Devir about the possibility of us taking over the graphic part of their project. Two months later, the first playtest of the games prototype with the authors took place, in which both David and I participated.
This project meant working on a game for the revered authors of War of the Ring, surely one of the best strategic games for two players that exists and a massively popular best-seller. For David and I, it was a challenge to accept and live up to the demands of this project, and especially exciting as this game tells the story of our dear hometown.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on Barcelona - The Rose of Fire?
Barcelona - The Rose of Fire recreates a long period of time (from 1850 to 1930) where the city lived a real revolution in many aspects. From urban and sociological to industrial and artistic, this era brought about its definitive transformation from city to metropolis. This moment in the history of the city has multiple elements, of which, without a doubt, modernism is its greatest expression, encompassing architecture, painting, new construction techniques, mosaics, amongst many others. The biggest challenge we faced, both David Parcerisa and I, was trying to capture all those icons and visual elements and interweave them in the most harmonious way possible in the final aspect throughout the project.
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
As a fan of boardgames, I have always liked fictional historical novels, because of their resemblance to the What if effect. They propose alternative versions of history, with the same elements or protagonists as we have when playing historical games. Within this genre I am follower of the work of Matilde Asensi, and now I am reading his last book The Hall of Amber.
Related to games, I also find inspiration in Sid Sackson's books A Gamut of Games and Philip Sabin’s Simulating War.
In terms of art, I love books that compile contemporary art trends from the second half of the 20th century, applied to graphic design, for example 1,000 record covers by Taschen.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
If someone who wants to dedicate themselves to the artistic part of the game world I would recommend that they really immerse themselves in it, in order to understand the challenges they face from within. I think that they should play and know as much as possible about published games, existing forms and game mechanics. For this, the great events of the world of games like Spiel fair in Essen each year, can be extremely enriching.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
Lately I have rejected some proposals from a couple of publishers to better focus on personal projects, also related to the world of games. These projects will probably see the light next year.
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
You can see all my game projects in my profile in Boardgamegeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameartist/11896/jordi-roca-parse
(All images supplied by Jordi Roca)