Mike Doyle

Mike Doyle is a graphic artist. His blog can be found at mdoyle.blogspot.com. He also happens to be an avid board gamer. He has teamed up with (among others) an up and coming game company called Valley Games to produce new and highly sought after out of print games. And the results are largely breath taking.

Check out what he's done with the classic Avalon Hill game Titan on his blog. I love the way the board looks like it's made of semi-precious stones. Glorious.

One of the new games he's got in the works is Supernova. I've played the prototype of Supernova and it's an innovative expand and conquer styled game. Mike's work on the game can be seen here.

The problem with game art is that there is traditionally only two sorts. First is art aimed at the family crowd. This art makes games look fun and interesting for the whole family. The other is "genre" art, or cheesy over-the-top art depicting space marines, women in chain mail bikinis and, of course, zombies.

I'm not saying traditional game art is bad, per se. It's just been done to death and there is no sign of letting up. Mike Doyle is the only game artist who's really shooting for a refined, beautiful and adult look to board games.

I hope he keeps it up.