by Darryl
I have had a fascination with pop-up books and cards since I was a little kid and it always struck me as strange why board games didn't incorporate pop-ups into the board design. Not only are pop-up models on a board a visual treat, they are conveniently set up as they assemble themselves as the board opens. Mythe recently caught my attention because it has a pop-up board and looks like a pretty good game. However, it's out of my reach (physically and financially) for now.I decided to embark on a project to create a simple pop-up city for King of Tokyo even before I realised the existence of Mythe. I'm not sure what possessed me to do so, but watching Pacific Rim was probably the tipping point for me.
This here's my initial prototype for the board:
A few more unglamourous shots to give you a better overview of the board:
The board, when opened, is A4 sized. This card inspired the base design for the city. Illustrating buildings is hardly a strong point of mine and I googled for the images of the tallest buildings in Tokyo for help. (I always revert to simple blocks when drawing buildings. Thanks goodness I never took up architecture.)
This is however, still a prototype. When calculating the ideal height of the buildings, I used Gigazaur as the average height of the model without realising that its model is the tallest of the lot. As a result, shorter models like Cyber Bunny can't clearly be seen once placed into the city. I'll probably add in some flames, smoke and debris to create the look of devastation. My modest goal is to make a printable version of the pop-up available on BGG, together with a short tutorial on how to assemble the board.
If you have any criticisms or have some ideas on what you'd like to see added to the board, feel free to comment below!