In the game there are three types/sizes of fish. I wanted them to be based on real fish from the Antarctic that were actually eaten by the seals and penguins. So I grabbed a book out of my book case (Frozen Oceans by David N. Thomas) and found a few possible fishes.

I found that the diversity in Antarctic waters is pretty low, because not many fish can live in sub-zero water. They have to have special mechanisms to keep their blood from freezing: an anti-freeze substance in their blood. But I did find names of several species and google helped me find images.

For the smallest fish I chose the Antarctic Silver Fish (Pleurogramma antarctica), the medium fish is based on the Broadhead fish (Pagothenia borchgrevinki) and the big fish is called the Antarctic Toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni).
In real life the Toothfish is actually much too big for the Adelie penguins, even for the adults, but there have to be some sacrifices to reality in a game like this.

Speaking of reality, there has been a point during the process that we thought about adding krill to the game as smallest fish, or extra. That is actually what the young penguins eat, so that would have been perfect. But it proved to be confusing for the test players, so we stuck to the fishes.

In the game penguins and seals are trying to grow up from little cubs/chicks to big fat adults and the players job is to make sure they catch enough fish, don’t get caught by hunters or drown because of melting ice. I really loved drawing all the different stages of the animals ages.

The penguins are Adelie penguins who are among the smallest penguins on Antarctica. I chose them because I just fel in love with their liveliness and cuteness. When researching what the chicks look like I found a hilarious *bad hair day* photo.

The seals are based on Weddell seals, a common species on Antarctica. I had fun drawing the adult one. I had to make him fat, to make clear that he had eaten all and was now fully grown. But the seals look pretty fat of themselves already (protection against the cold) so I had to really overdo it.

Animals are so much fun to draw.

An important part of the game are the ice tiles that the players can move across, but that can also melt after every round. It was difficult to find the right image for them. They had to be ice, of course. There are two kinds. At this stage one is flat and one has an ice mountain.  But because the tiles can be turned the perspective didn’t work too well, so in the end we decided to have one kind have cracks and the other just be flat.

The most difficult part however was to make clear to the test-players (children) where the animals could enter the water and where not. In this version I tried to keep them away from the edges with jagged lined, but the bays were still not very hopitable either…

Three version later we had the right form. But that’s for another time.

I’m the new illustrator at Sunny Games! My illustrations were picked out of a big group of applicants and since then I’ve been working on a new board game, Antarctica, that was made by Jouke Korf. Together with the producer Steven Rijsdijk and many other people we made something really beautiful and I’m sure many children will love it. It will even be sold not just in the Netherlands, but also in Germany, France and England and maybe even Canada and America. I’m very excited.

The game is now in print and will be officially presented at “Spellen aan zee” in The Hague in the weekend of September 3 and 4. If you’re in the neighbourhood, drop by!