DESIGNER'S DIARY: Evolution of Art

DESIGNER'S DIARY: Evolution of Art

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Early on we had the idea for the storyline of worlds coming together as well as the starting three bosses,Cthulhu, Mecha Bot, and Grakthar. With the original idea focused on cuter characters we worked with artist Rob Ingram who did the art for our first game "Super Party Battle" for the orignal concept art.  As the game became a little more serious over the last two years, our art direction evolved getting us into a look and feel you see today.

Grakthar (2).jpg

Grakthar began as an oversized Ogre Bully with aggressive game play. As we moved towards the more realistic look, version 2 was shaping too much into a human sized Orc design. Wanting to move back towards the Ogre inRob's original art, we exaggerate Grakthar's head and shoulders, enlarged his signature Machete, while giving him a bit more thematic personality, with a necklace made up of swords and shields from villages he's pillaged to show scale.

MechaBot.jpg

Mecha Bot started with an energy and upgrade focus. Overloaded with weapons that each represented a different upgrade. We saw the concept and loved having a hero themed mech with saw-blade and gun arms. The first major revision had a war feel that we felt was too gritty for the shiny, Futropolis City protecting, robot.  For the final revision we decided to go with the less "evil" take and bring the color scheme and feel from our initial concept back, creating the best of both worlds. If you like the look of War Mech, Mecha Bot's Evil Doppleganger, don't worry! It will be showing up in a neutral camp as one of the Neutral Monsters in Battle Bosses Arena Mode!

Cthulhu.jpg

Cthulhu, the plotting, Effect focused boss, was a pretty straight forward concept. We liked Rob's rendition but since we were going away from the more cute designs, we revamped Cthulhu to match our other pieces. 

Ryu (1).jpg

Ryu was the first Boss added to the game after the starting 3. Meant to be a Boss focused on upgrading her Samurai minions, we wanted her look to be of an asian dragon. to match. The first sketches received had a more western focus, but with a the second revision we got closer to the eastern design.  The big issue with version 2 was that we wanted her to be less of a primal force and more mystical and god-like. We wanted details in her outfit to match the lore and her minions, while giving her the look of a worshiped deity in her world.

DocSplosion.jpg

Doc Splosion started with a sacrificing upgrades for value theme. This lead to us designing Mecha Bots Arch nemesis, the Mad Scientist Doc Splosion. She was a bit tricky since we wanted a mad scientist vibe but still keep things futuristic. Scale was also something to focus on, since we wanted to portray the fact that she had enlarged herself to be the size of skyscraper. Finally, things clicked when we began leaning into a “50s pulp science fiction” look, death blaster and all.

CaptainBoat.jpg

Captain Boat was a direct hit. We told the artist they needed to create a pirate ship with an arm for a cannon, gaping mouth and treasure flying everywhere. With what we thought would be the most difficult piece, the only changes we made were to make him more menacing and adding his trademark eyepatch sail matched with his irradiating blue eye. The artist loved the concept so much that he kept adding details into the piece, making the good Captain an early fan favorite.

WHAT'S TO COME

We have a lot of exciting things to show you with each update, from lore, to gameplay, design and bonuses to look forward to. So let's spread the word of Battle Bosses to friends and playgroups and be sure to like us on Facebook page and thumb us on Board Game Geek. With a great start of the campaign already, funding is just around the corner.

Please make sure to check out and share the Battle Bosses Kickstarter, live NOW!!!