SPACE MOUNTAIN GAME
Assignment: Back of box, rule book, other
Getting to work on a game based on one of my favorite rides at Disneyland was a blast. I got to create the rule book, design the back of the box, the fuel tracker component, and come up with a concept for the dice tower.
Art direction for this project was provided by Jake Breish, who set the overall look and tone, designing the front of the box, the board, the cards and tokens.
The Fuel Tracker
One of the components in the game is what we called the “fuel tracker,” which is a little gauge that tells you when it’s time to head back to refuel your ship. Part of the adventure in the game is pushing your luck, deciding whether you should explore more space or head back.
I designed the fuel tracker to look like the signs in the queue on the ride, something that would fit in with the environment of the ride. Stands that slide onto the sides of the tracker are shaped like the spires on top of the mountain - and the bright white and neon colors fit in perfectly with the retro-futuristic look of Tomorrowland.
The Dice Tower
Space Mountain uses a dice tower to randomize the action every turn. Dice are dropped in, and when they come out, they tell a player where to move their space ship – this makes the game’s twists and turns as unpredictable as a roller coaster.
When it came time to design the dice tower, I came up with the concept of making the tower look like Space Mountain itself. Since the actual mountain wasn’t represented on the board, I wanted to bring it to life on the table. I created a 3D mockup of the tower base in Blender, which we sent to the factory who made it a reality.
The top half of the tower was designed by Jake Breish and pays homage to the sign out in front of the Disneyland ride, with the spires on top referencing the ride’s architecture.
The Back of the box
The back of the box aims to capture the feel of the ride and the excitement of the gameplay all in one panel. Using dramatic neon lighting and lots of diagonal angles, I created a huge render of the game in Blender.
Sci-fi style frames and text containers are taken from the game cards designed by Jake Breish. For the text, I took Ravensburger’s “1-2-3” format (which explains the gameplay in 3 easy steps) and flipped it, turning it into a launch countdown.
This is one of my favorite box designs – I love the way it just screams “space mountain!”
The rule book
For the rule book, I used a color scheme that felt like it would belong in Tomorrowland - bright whites, blues, and warm contrasting oranges for section headers and callouts. Diagrams were based on the screens seen in the queue, and concept art from the original ride designs were converted to vectors and used as a subtle background texture.
I think this rule book layout was successful, and was a nice departure from other “sci-fi” themed rule books I had either worked on or seen before doing this one.
