by Jérémie Fleury

Dear lovers of the gaming world,

What a pleasure to meet you again on BGG! Seven years have passed since my last diary on Fertility, and it is truly an honor to open the doors of my studio to you once more.

Through this diary, I invite you to discover the behind-the-scenes process — the creative journey that brings a board game to life. This approach is especially close to my heart, particularly in an era when artificial intelligence threatens to dehumanize our beautiful industry.
More than ever, let's celebrate creativity!


So put on your finest calavera viviente costume and join me behind the scenes of Viva Catrina, my upcoming game created with authors Frédéric Boulle and Grégory Grard and published by The Flying Games.

How It All Began

Originally, this game had several lives. When David Perez from The Flying Games approached me, the theme was centered on the Aztecs, with a "Cities of Gold" vibe. This was already an evolution from the authors' first prototype, which was...an amusement park!

When the direction finally shifted to El Día de Muertos, I was thrilled. I have a strong affinity for the rich and colorful aesthetic of this unique Mexican celebration.

As with every project I illustrate, I'm keen to test the game. I had the chance to meet the designers at the International Games Festival in Cannes and play their prototype, which left an excellent impression on me. It ran very smoothly, a simple game, yet with real gameplay depth.


Immersion into Día de Muertos

As a Frenchman, my relationship with this time of year is shaped by All Saints' Day and Halloween, with its spooky side that I really enjoy — but to illustrate Viva Catrina, I needed to go further and dive into the heart of Día de Muertos. My first instinct was to do some research, to understand the spirit of this event before even picking up a pencil.

I discovered a celebration that is the opposite of our Western view. Far from being a somber commemoration, November 2 in Mexico is an explosion of colors, music, and flavors. It is a festival that doesn't mourn the dead, but celebrates their lives and memories.

Of course, films such as Pixar's Coco and The Book of Life unconsciously fed my imagination, but my main source of inspiration was reality: I immersed myself in hundreds of photos of this incredible festival to capture its authenticity.

Mood board to set the atmosphere
La Catrina: The Icon of Día de Muertos

At the heart of our game is an iconic character: La Catrina. Players must honor her by celebrating their deceased loved ones in the most beautiful way in order to create the most beautiful village.

A key figure of Mexican popular culture, La Catrina is a female skeleton dressed in rich clothing and wearing an elegant hat. Her face has become so iconic that it is now inseparable from Día de Muertos; it is the first image that comes to mind.

I was already familiar with this universe, having created an illustration in this style a few years ago:


I drew some of my inspiration for the game from this representation. Here are the steps in creating the first player token:


Game Elements

The Visitors
In Viva Catrina, the visitors who populate our village earn us points. Although the characters appear small on the tiles, my professional bias as a Character Designer made me want to pay particular attention to the details of their costumes.

My intention was to represent the diversity of the procession, so I chose to depict three generations — children, adults, and elders — because Día de Muertos is above all a family celebration. Each character tells a little story, even within a few square millimeters.

Here are the character creation steps:



Shops at the Heart of Tradition
The initial prototype already featured shops selling hats, piñatas, maracas, guitarrones, and more. Everything was closely linked to Mexico, but there was no specific reference to Día de Muertos.

To refocus the theme, I asked myself: what offerings are placed on the altars for the dead? These altars, dedicated to ancestor worship, are the heart of the celebration. Families arrange specific objects around the portrait of the deceased.

This became my guiding principle. I drew inspiration from this iconic place to completely reimagine what the game's shops would offer, transforming "Mexican shops" into traditional offering shops.


The illustration shows all the items available in the game's shops. In terms of gameplay, these are point multipliers (for example, all blue balloons earn you 1 extra point).

Driven by a desire for authenticity, my first version of the altar was extremely detailed. I wanted to faithfully recreate every element and every symbol. The result was a rich illustration, but it proved far too complex to be used on a small game tile.


This is a classic challenge in game illustration: balancing detail and readability. I had to start simplifying, transforming this realistic altar into a clear and immediately recognizable icon. The second, more refined version was born.


Alebrijes
Mexicans hold parades where you can see Alebrijes, colorful mythical creatures representing the creatures of dream and the realm of the dead.

These are the elements I had the most fun illustrating. I wanted to bring as much diversity as possible to the colors and shapes of the creatures. The goal was to bring a lot of satisfaction to the players once they place a chimera in their village.





The Balloons
Balloons add color to the game, and they are also a way to earn points. You gain majority tiles as soon as you place three balloons of the same color that are connected to your village. I designed them in the shape of a skull to add more diversity and originality.


The Tiles: The Technical Heart of the Game
We are now at the most technical stage of the project as the tiles are central to the gameplay. Like Carcassonne, Viva Catrina is a placement game in which each tile must perfectly fit with its neighbors.

This is a real puzzle for the illustrator as the challenge is twofold: not only must the connections be logical, but the information must be absolutely clear to facilitate player decisions. Each element must be visible at a glance.

For the atmosphere, I immediately imagined a night scene. My first proposal was therefore bathed in a deep midnight blue. But after a first version came a second one that was completely reworked as it became obvious we needed another solution to ensure perfect readability.

My authors were behind this change during production, moving towards this stronger and less dark version. Here are the steps involved in creating the tiles:


To give the starting tiles a more personalized touch, I designed a fountain featuring La Catrina.



Replacing Rails with a Path of Souls
The original game's connection mechanism relied on rails and trains. To fully integrate it into the Día de Muertos universe, we needed to find a more thematic and poetic alternative.

I chose a central element of the celebration: the path of cempasúchil flowers. These bright orange petals are traditionally used to create trails guiding the spirits from the cemetery to the altars.

To symbolize the journey of these souls, I added monarch butterflies flying above the flowers. This is no coincidence: in Mexico, this butterfly is famous for its massive migrations from September to November. Their arrival coincides with El Día de Muertos, and popular belief holds that they carry the souls of ancestors. This thematic coincidence was too perfect not to use!

© Luna sin estrellas/WikiCommons/CC BY 2.0
For the record, I worked closely with the publisher, holding regular video conferences to find solutions to various issues with the game. One detail that required particular attention was the creation of a "base" to hold the Alebrijes. In the prototype, it was just a "lawn area", but we agreed that it wasn't the easiest to distinguish.

Box Illustration + Logo

For the eleven years that I have been working in board games, I have striven to give my best to every box illustration. I want to convey the story behind the game and draw players into its universe.

Viva Catrina is no exception to this rule. It was obvious that La Catrina, the central and majestic figure, had to occupy the center of the cover. To frame her, I created a richly decorated border, a sort of portal that integrates and presents all the elements that players will discover in the game.



The cover illustration features all the elements that compose the game:


And there you have it, this illustrator's diary is almost finished.


I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Viva Catrina. It was a real pleasure sharing the secrets and inspirations of this universe with you. Please feel free to leave your impressions in the comments section; I always look forward to reading them.

How about we meet up? I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be at SPIEL Essen 25 on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25 to sign boxes of the game! Don't miss this opportunity as my last visit to Essen was...nine years ago!

In the meantime, if you would like to try the game, Viva Catrina is already available for free on Board Game Arena (BGA).

You can follow all of my artistic adventures and chat with me on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook.

Thank you for reading, and see you soon for more gaming and artistic adventures!

Jérémie Fleury