Dear friends,

happy welcome to our second Deep Print Games newsletter!

We hope you are fine at health and seize a relaxing summertime like happy Juicy Fruits do. As summer slowly passes by here in Europe, excitement grows daily as international gaming conventions are just around the corner. 

Something to look forward to is really nice.

We can’t wait to meet you live at Berlin Brettspiel Con and the world`s biggest board game fair Internationale Spieltage (SPIEL `21) in Essen to celebrate board games, friendship and fun!

This issue invites you to a journey into precious artwork of wonderful animals, mysterious inkblots and clever engineers who already catapulted Corrosion to #1 of BGG`s hotness list. Full steam ahead! Machines run hot to offer you this electrifying gem exclusively at SPIEL `21.

Feel free to join us on our social media channels, have fun reading and experience joy at your gaming tables!

Your team of Deep Print Games

Manage your old-time factory in Corrosion

Hot steam fills the air in the midst of rattling engines. Corrosion guides you to an exciting place of inventive power and fascinating technology. Your task is to build up a well balanced chain of production. Deploy your engineers cleverly and keep an eye on your older machines as they rust away in the wheel of time. Discover a challenging temporary engine builder by Stefan Bauer with stunning artwork by Dennis Lohausen. Take your wrench and prepare to open the doors of your machine factory at SPIEL `21 in October. 

A herd of elephants relaxes under shady trees while giraffes enjoy their view into endless expanses of the savannah. Welcome to a beautiful place of nature in the midst of a fascinating wildlife. In Savannah Park, developed by the successful game design duo Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling, you take care of animals and try to gather them in large herds, lead them to watering holes and protect them from bush fires. Discover a charming tile laying game with tricky depth. Curious meerkats communicate its release this September.

Hi Annika, thanks for joining us again. Let`s delve into your journey of creativity for our upcoming release Savannah Park. Creating art for board games seems to be a dream job for many people within this community. 

What talents do you need being a board game artist?

I think it’s more skills you can learn than talent. It helps if you’re an experienced player yourself to understand what is important when illustrating and designing a game. It also helps to be able to see the bigger picture and not focus too much on the way you want the game to look like. In the end most of the players aren’t artists so you should be able to accept and integrate feedback you might not like. It’s also useful if you like to communicate and play a lot because with every test round you attend you get a better feeling of what is important. You can’t compare illustrating a game to drawing individual images. 

What is the most important part of artwork for board games?

The artwork should support function and mechanics, in the best case without people noticing it. Every little part follows a function. If you play a board game and the artwork doesn’t annoy or distract you, the artist has done a good job in my opinion. You can get a bit more creative on the cover and in certain parts of the game, but I think good artwork strengthens the work of the author and makes the game even more pleasant to play and look at.

How would you describe creativity? 

That is a difficult one! I believe creativity is a very personal thing and a struggle for every artist. Creativity to me personally only flows when I have time and the headspace to really let my mind wander and create things without pressure. For me, nothing kills creativity more than pressure and deadlines, but as a full-time artist you have to find a way to deal with it. So whenever I start a new project I like to have some time in advance to create as many sketches and collect ideas before any deadlines come in sight. 

Do you have a personal style of art?

I think the term style is difficult because it suggests that every artist has only one way of picturing things. A good illustrator is able to do different styles and match them to the game, the author and audience it is made for. It’s also always evolving and not a „once you find it, you stick with it“ thing. Currently, when I’m drawing just for myself I would describe my style as fun, I like adorable characters, vibrant colors and a bit dreamy. But I also enjoy a realistic portrait study on a big canvas.

Savannah is an endless beauty, perfect for canvas.
What are your associations with it?

Since I’ve never been to Africa, all my associations came from documentaries. I thought of huge animals, heat and wilderness, but when I started my research I was surprised how much green, water and all kinds of plants and animals can be found in the Savannah. I was also surprised how many Savannahs there are in Africa and how different they are from each other.

Please draw your favorite animal from Savannah Park… 

Do you have a favorite color?

I like autumn colors, dark green, warm yellow and rusty red. 

I admire the light and colors in the drawings for Savannah Park. 
Please tell us more about your ideas and process creating the artwork…

Thank you! I really wanted to find a color scheme that isn’t the typical „that’s how we imagine Africa“ combination. So I looked at documentaries and endless pictures and created color palettes. And added them to my cover sketches until I found one I was happy with. When we first started out, we thought about creating abstract animal patterns. The idea didn’t work out so we went back to a more realistic approach, with vibrant colors but without making the animals too cartoony.

Do you have any current board game projects you are working on?

Yes, quite a few actually. I’m working on a game about psychology and preventing burnout for my master thesis in illustration for games. I’m also eager to finish a family game I started in 2020 and we’re working on several prototypes as a small team. And the next big game is also in the pipeline! So no time for rest and boredom.
 

Many thanks Annika for taking your time, we are really looking forward to future projects with you!

Hi Kristian, many thanks for being back to dive into your brand new board game around association with inkblots. In 1921 Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922) published „Psychodiagnostics“. 100 years later in the history of this controversial test, your party game Rorschach offers great joy with a fresh mix of historical motifs along many exclusively created new ones.

Let`s give the readers a fun try of association by finding a matching word for an image. Unleash your creativity!

What do you see, reader?

What do you see, Kristian?

I would choose the word card Berlin as I see a cheering meeple under Brandenburg Gate.

It's funny how many different associations come along with a single inkblot image.
What fascinates you about the mysterious Rorschach topic?

It is the detail. Sometimes people see the Rorschach test and what they think is: this looks so easy, so obvious. But what they do not see are the thousands of hours of work that makes it look so easy, so mysterious. If you read about Hermann Rorschach’s path creating his test, you may even more appreciate his work. He wasn’t the first who used inkblots as a psychiatrist. But compared to his predecessors he put so much more time and effort into his work perfecting it.

Please share the funniest moment along your creative journey…

A moment that made me smile happened on a journey of my family and me. We were on a four-hour boat trip in the North Sea heading to the German island Helgoland. Halfway my 7-year-old niece was bored and grumbling. I asked her if she would like to play the prototype of a game of mine – it was "Rorschach". Unsurprisingly she wasn’t interested. So I told her that I am going to show it to grandma instead. Five minutes later my niece stood in front of our table – still in a rather bad mood. Two hours later we had to stop the game, because the ferry arrived. And I had to promise my niece to play it again with her on our way back.

This sounds like Rorschach is a perfect gateway game… 

Yes, definitely. This game is for any generation to share fun with. And you can learn it by watching it being played. It really addresses your creativity to explore matching associations.  

What is your matching association with Berlin Brettspiel Con? 

Anticipation and excitement. It is not the first time I am attending a board game con. But it is the first time I am sitting on the other side of the table – at your booth to have a fun time with people of all ages and experiences playing the same game. This is what Rorschach is about.

Many thanks Kristian, what a great chance for gaming fellows to meet you live and test their mental connections with friends, see you!

BGG contest 

An exciting giveaway contest awaits you at BoardGameGeek around the beginning of October. Be sure to drop by!

Friends meet friends!

We are very happy to attend both Berlin Brettspiel Con and Internationale Spieltage (SPIEL ´21) in Essen to join an amazing friendly boardgame community.

Feel invited to stop by our booth 7-B-9 at Berlin Brettspiel Con (September 17-19). Meet us for a talk, some fun and try and buy our newest hotness.

At SPIEL `21 (Hall 1 E-114) you`ll have an exclusive chance to catch your copy of Corrosion, deluxe metal gears and a mysterious Rorschach secret. Stay in the loop for more news.

We look forward to seeing you live and among our readers again.
Stay safe and enjoy gaming!

Your team of Deep Print Games