In a weak moment I decided I would start working on a haunted house boardgame for my daughter who is turning 9. She loves all things creepy and likes playing boardgames so I just couldn’t resist. I call it a weak moment as it means I will need to take a little break again from working on the children’s book for my other daughter. This will be the last self-imposed break from that work. I swear.

The idea behind the game is that players explore a haunted house, fighting their fear all the way through. As they move from room to room, they encounter things that add to their overall fear and find objects that help them in their quest to discover and overcome one of the many ghosts in the house. I started working on the board in Photoshop, mocking up blueprints. I worked to scale so that I could make sure the spaces for the board would actually be correctly sized once I complete the board and print it on a 20 inch by 20 inch square.

Once I completed the Photoshop mock-up, I printed out on 8 1/2 x 11, letter-sized pages, taped them together and then used my light table to ink the plans onto cold-press Arches watercolor paper. I’m trying to use a hatched style in all the illustrations for consistency, including in the board. Defining the lighting in each room and the hallways proved to be a challenge.