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Gaming in a traditional world

"How I carved an escape using board game design"

By Aleko MitroudisPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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League of legends battle arena board game cocnept finalized - 3D model & turets

I must have been a kid, no more than 8 years old, when I first realized how great it feels playing board games with my friends. It was still, back then, an era of joy and comfort in simple things. Not the internet enhanced world of today, one "ENTER" away from being too late to realize it is 5:00 in the morning and you just spent your entire night awake, scrolling through media and platforms on your personal device of comfort.

We post pictures about our lives, no matter the time, the place, the people that surround us. We try to hide the thrill we get when the notification calls to us to announce that yet another human being has liked our picture on Instagram or post on Facebook. We've become addicts of ourselves. And as all addicts do, we realize sooner that may be, or later, that we need an escape from all that. That the life we live within any form of "-net" isn't a real one and that it simply isn't enough.

The "shop" -creature sitting inside the 3-D model of thre arena.

Health chart from L.O.L board game concept

I still recall back on the day, spending so many hours with my friends outside, playing in the sun (in Greece that is pretty much a weather formality) On the rainy days though, all the kids would gather up inside a house, in the discomfort to someone's parents and watch movies and play games. Not video games, quite the opposite in fact.

Board games!

Board games have been a huge part of my life throughout the years. I begun as a player before I realized the real fun started in designing them. I remember my first game ever was a recreation. We used to play "BANG!" and I came to realize that this kind of pattern would look great if it had vampires instead of sheriffs. Kindda like Pennsylvania instead of wild west. I spend hours redesigning the game to fit this pattern i had in my head. I drew the characters, the colors, the dice and the tiny carvings on them. That was my first game. I was roughly 9 years old.

Uncut files of cards drying out from "L.O.L board game concept" including runes, attack cards and magic cards. This process happened in the midle of the kitchen table to the great discomfort to my parents, so it has a special place in my heart.

The world out there can be a strange place, but designing always gave me a feeling of safety. That be with any artistic form, inclusing board games. When the world is up to you to create and bring to life you can set the boundaries as you like them. You have the final say on where all things begin and where exactly does everythign end. You set the rules, you make the dice, in a magical way you bend the essence of luck, by literally making a choice and inventing your own patterns. Patterns that be random, but still under control. Your own control.

"Baron Nashor" figurine sculpture from clay, in the middle of the 3-D model of the arena

"Baron Nashor" with specialized card, game dice, curency and coins

Later in life I fell in love with Dungeons and dragons. I was a teenage boy , about thirteen years of age, inspired by lord of the rings, battles with dragons, elves and dwarfs. To use your imagination, fantasy was a crucial element. An "uno-reverse-card" to the whole school deal. This boring and disappointing era in the chapter of any child that we call childhood. And what must have childhood felt like I just have to know by someone who would now be dead, because he lived his childhood 100 years ago. What must childhood have been like, when people let you grow up faster like you should perhaps, get a job and begin your life, even when brains are not your strongest asset. Even when life seems hard, it is nothing compared to the softness we have made ourselves used to nowadays. Everyone is soft and sensitive and although the good in change is great, problems are always bound to follow soon after the sun. A new cloud of self-hatred soars above the heads of people. To me, creating board games was inspiring, it was an escape from this world, a world I felt like I didn't want to belong to.

My friends and I gathering around a table, inside or outside that is. Even at the park, the neighbors yard or the street, surrounded by feral cats. Game was game and in my head it will always be exactly that. My mom was a doctor. It sounds weird to put this information in here but that's perhaps where the big problems begun. She was inspired too with what she did and loved her job. But it wasn't just helping others. She was raised in a different society my mother. She knew that a doctor got all the attention. She was not only smart, sadly she was cursed with a horrible self-awareness, she knew she was smart and that's what she thought made her better than others. As a kid the jobs of a cleaner, a fisherman, a farmer all made perfect sense to me. Imagining myself in their shoes made me happy, but not my mother. I loved her but she was a great big "snob". She would say things like "Study, or you'll end up cleaning houses like that lady over there" But I loved that lady over there. She cleaned our school and she helped me find my lost jacket. My point of view was different than my mother's and board games helped me escape from that too. If anything at least my mother hated computers. Silver lining, she wanted me to spend all my free time with my friends and that's exactly what I did.

3-D dragon sculpture made of clay

Even when I came across my first big games on the computer, Like dungeons and dragons and league of legends the feeling of playing was not satisfying enough to me. To play was merely a distraction from other things I wish I had done with my free time, like going out with my friends instead of meeting online and playing a game. Not a digital but a traditional, a board game. I wanted to hear people scream and laugh and play. People blame each other and then quickly forget. Forge alliances in the blink of an eye or stab each other on the back without a care in the world. It made us stronger and brought us all closer as a group. We were kids and enjoyed being kids. No make up, no media, no reason to grow up faster. Board games became to me a signature of real childhood, and a sign of true friendship. But studying game design didn't draw my attention, because nowadays game design is all about the online games. Even when you wish to be a creator for board your carrier has to start online, and that just breaks my heart. But I never gave up. My games, the ones that I designed were never known, neither by a company, nor by the masses. My talent, and I purposefully chose that word, was never discovered by anyone and that never bothered me. Spending days to think and months to create. Looking back all these hours for games unknown by the world will never seem like a waste of time. The greatest magic in my opining begins with an idea and the freedom you have in board game design, the freedom to use so many different forms of art, from sculpting figures, to coloring panels and writing a backstory for all the characters. The simple math, the failures and trials, leading to a brilliant finish, that as anything made by hand, looks traditional and scruffy, not industrial and dull. The quick sketch, the idea slowly coming to life amazed me and the endless hours keeping notes and switching things around until a game works.

My first big game was inspired by league of legends - the online game. After playing for years alone and with my friends my head was already establishing some new patters, gaming-wise how to turn this online experience into a game for tables and friends. Turning any MMORPG into a board game requires great understanding and knowledge of so many different things about the game, the world and the characters in it. But I nevertheless did it. The right word is actually I "attempted". My first version of the game was intense and overly complicated. It was done on a 2-meter long paper (I kid you not), mapped out with cells drawn by hand using a ruler (The result looked so bad and yet brilliant in my young mind) The movement pattern was bad and people had to use a pen and paper to keep the scores, the life points and all the stuff under their control like an early game of dungeons and dragons. It wasn't good, which in all fairness didn’t stop my friends from playing, and that be without serious complains. I didn't hate it. So, I tried again.

Sculpted model of the original shop creature from "L.O.L" *center* with item-cards around, hand printed and hand laminated. #1

The second version was better, the third was awesome too. I must have spent over 8 attempts and 10 years before I finally decided what looked best and which rules had to be removed. I bought my tools once more in the stressful time of final years in school, packed with examinations and tests. I would walk into the big arts and crafts store in my neighborhood and spend serious money to buy my much needed tools and ingredients for my creations. Cartons, paper, cutters, wood, glue, markers, colors in acrylic and powder and fake trees, grass, and measures. Rulers and colored clay, stickers and plaster cloth in gauzes by the meter. But most importantly my trusty scissors. The one tool to rule them all. To cut is to give form, to give form, is to create. From cutting the clay to equal sized pieces from arranging cloths and snipping pressed wood into the form of a tree trunk. Big scissors and small. scissors and paper cutters. Once I used my scissors on a big piece of carboard. It was so thick and rigid I couldn't cut through it without literally hurting myself in the process. The damage I did to my finger from holding against the scissor was so bad my thumb went numb for a week after, but the result as always worth it.

Long term project: 162 pages of imaginary world-building: history, concept art, tradition, location and characters included: concept and writing- side by side with mini world map

In my life I have made various games, and designed others still on the making. Unfinished projects and meaningless objects. Trinkets awaiting patiently for my return to turn them into something useful. In my head every time I create there is always this background of memories as playback, happy young people, a group of friends enjoying themselves, laughing and cusing. Connecting. I just want to recapture that emotion in my games, for myself and recreate it for everyone else to feel the same. Every time I add a new rule, I can almost imagine what havoc this will cause, what a great unexpected turn of events for my game, big or small. The thought of happiness surrounding the people around the table. Happiness enjoyed by everyone, regardless of their gender, complexion, or choice. No matter the money on their wallet or the day they had. Everyone coming together for the sake of company and learning about each other. Not like school! But instead learning the tones and emotions of the people around you, the inner most colors of any personality expressed and exposed out on the table. Among people you can trust... And others, you maybe shouldn't...

Hand-made- "Quick'gun" Final game outlook piece, laid out with all its components

Over the many years, I have become an artist of lots and lots of media. Acrylics, paper, cardboard, clay and the word. My trusty tools: scissors and hands. Pens and colors and even artworks in digital. My scientific artwork was showcased in the Artist lounge magazine of London recently. My first big step I called it (my olny step perhaps) . But it is maybe a baby step to what can follow. I tought myself a lot of things. What school and universtiy could never offer me, I got by studying on platforms online, like "Udemy" where I earned myself a certificate in children's writing, color theory and psychology, board game design and even Industry standart game design and game narrative, writing essentials.

"Quick'gun" Original design for special-card models
"Quick'gun" characters - original design #1
About me: I study zoology and this is my Artistic process- Personal portfolio on scientific illustration

A few last words from me on game design: "The mind invents, the scissors cut, the hands prepare. Every time someone wants to play yet another round it fills me up with joy. 'Cause it is then I know, that I have proudly succeeded in my works. Yet still. I should probably change a couple of things around :) "

table top
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About the Creator

Aleko Mitroudis

Friends call me Alek, I am 20 years old. I am a self-made artist.

I study zoology and marine biology.

In my free time, I mostly do designing work. Scientific illustration and hand-made crafts.

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