Having already delved into the development of Skybridge, Franz Vohwinkel now lets us participate in the illustration process of Skybridge. Let's start with Part 1:
There are moments in life when decisions are made that one didn't initially know existed.
Fifteen years ago, I unexpectedly received an unusual commission: to design three fantasy puzzles, including box design, for a new puzzle series. Unbeknownst to me, I had embarked on a long journey that continues to this day.
September 2010
When I made this sketch for the first of a series of puzzles, I had no idea that I would be writing about it today. Back then, the Drakhen were still dragons, there were still visible sunbeams in Thraen (which was then simply called "Downworld"), and apart from the Queen, the Adlem, and the inhabitants of "Skyworld," Thraen and the Eye Star were completely unknown to me.
Although so much has changed in Thraen since then, the three original illustrations laid the foundation for what Skybridge is today.
From my perspective today, this first puzzle was certainly the most important of the three, because it already contains all the essential elements of the story: the dry, hollow world outside, the fertile, paradisiacal world inside, and the tower that will become a bridge connecting the two worlds.
Depending on the orientation, the construction site motif from the second puzzle can be seen as "standing" or "hanging".
Here, the idea of weightlessness is introduced for the first time: In the hollow world, gravity pulls outwards (for us, "downwards"), while the gravity of the world in the middle pulls inwards (for us, "upwards"). In the middle between the worlds, the two forces cancel each other out.
A heavily revised version of the first puzzle has become the cover of the game, and a reduced version of the second can be seen on the "Bridge Building" cards.
Unfortunately, only the third puzzle has fallen out of the story over time; too much has changed, or rather, it looks completely different today: Such a peaceful encounter between characters from both worlds in a central room of the world bridge is now completely impossible.
Work on Skybridge begins:
One of the first tasks was to completely redesign the cover to reflect the current state of the worlds. The World Bridge now shines in its hopeful white, and the Eye Star is much more clearly visible. The whole thing feels much lighter, almost like a vision. The publisher contributed some excellent ideas, such as the tilted image and the Drakhe flying towards the viewer in the foreground.
The 5 main characters
Besides the cover, I first further developed the 5 main characters, as these are important for the visual representation of the five ethnic groups on the player boards and the starting cards.
Some of Skybridge's maps were created as early as 2017, including this version of Queen Urcela, which always elicited the comment "She looks just like Tilda Swinton" from me.
That's right. I think Tilda Swinton's face is simply gorgeous.
To avoid this similarity, I unfortunately had to create a new illustration of the queen, which was really difficult for me.
However, the new illustration also received the crown of pain, which has meanwhile taken on a minor supporting role in the story.
As a first step, I revised the original sketch and drew a new face.
Parts of the background and the dress from the original illustration were retained during the revision.
Behind the layer with the sketch, I then colored and modeled the face.
After that, I blended the sketch into the background using various blending tools and then added the textures and details layer by layer. Finally, minor color corrections completed the image.
I must confess that I now prefer the new Guinn to the old queen.
While the game mechanics were still being feverishly developed, the illustration of the World Bridge, which would no longer be placed on a separate game board, but would instead be laid out as large individual segments next to the game board.
This original sketch dates back to 2017. At that time, the bridge still consisted of 12 parts.
The Playerboards This proved more difficult because the elements had to be changed several times during further development. At that point, the illustrations of the five main characters were already finished, and I adapted the illustrations of the player boards accordingly.
Furthermore, I had to ensure that there weren't too many high-contrast details behind the game elements. While the areas behind the text and at the bottom would be toned down later, less is more in this case.
The Schedule It was a unique challenge, as it consists of many individual parts that had to be combined into a cohesive whole. During the development process, a completely new area of the game board was also created, one that would not have existed without Moritz Bornkast and Peter Eggert of Deep Print Games: the desert map where rebels and legions face off.
However, before we got to that point, we had to overcome a whole series of more or less usable versions, none of which fit particularly well into the plan.
To keep the game affordable and producible, while simultaneously reducing the number of different locations, the actual game board was reduced to the size of a box-sized, folded board. The game board for the World Bridge was removed, and the Rebels board was combined with the Thraen game board.
The idea of depicting a section of the Sea of Winds desert proved to be the breakthrough. The rebels gather – as in the story – in Salthras Deen and attempt to fight their way to the World Bridge.
while the legions guarding the construction site approach them.
At the same time, the storage area for the game materials was reintroduced, after one space for a storage pile was removed and the other two were rotated to create space.
The illustration of the game board consisted of individual parts that were largely illustrated and assembled independently of each other: the illustrations of the symbols for the game material, the rolled-up Thraen map, the desert map and the forts.
(The small skull marking the discard pile represents the realm of the dead, the "Unseth". All cards, countries, cities, and characters that land here never return. And so, with each round of the game, Thraen dies a little more.)
Thanks for these insights, Franz!
On to part 2.
Those who don't want to wait until then can find information at https://www.theskybridge.de/ Read on!
