Burly Men at Sea
Illustrated StorybooksI wrote and illustrated a set of twelve hardcover books as an extension of our adventure game Burly Men at Sea. As the game's story is told in the form of a branching folktale, I created a unique storybook for every possible iteration of the story. Players order their book using one of twelve codes received at the end of a playthrough.
Each copy is hardbound in one of six cloth colors with blind deboss, and contains 50 full-color pages. Rather than reuse in-game art, I created stylized illustrations representative of the game but unique to the books. My goal was to create something that could exist inside the world of the game itself.
The books were exhibited in London with Now Play This shortly after their release, and later highlighted by Apple in a writeup about the game. From there, they continued to delight curious new players around the world.
All hardcover copies have long since sold out, but a digital edition may still be purchased here.
Roles:
Art, Story, DesignRelated Links:
- “End Where We Begin” (Process Essay)
A sample spread from the book. Each of the twelve open identically but quickly begin to vary.
I gave special attention to the design of the books, including details like drop caps.
The endpaper's wave pattern is a nod to one of the first pieces of art I created for the game.
I also created digital editions of each book in the set.
