http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2025-11-12
The first of a three-part series detailing favorite projects that I had a significant part in:
For the first 18 months that I worked for
Steve Jackson Games, I was solely a production artist. My earliest work was mainly
Munchkin reprints and marketing ads. My first "big" assignment was doing all the artwork for the
Munchkin Tavern(!!) at GenCon. After that, I branched into working on the design of other games and projects – the first of which was
Chupacabra: Survive the Night. Another company originally published this in a boxed format; we brought it into SJG with a bit of finessing of the rules, and we updated it to a cup format similar to
Zombie Dice.
Chupacabra was my first toe-dip into designing a game's look. Little did I know it would turn out to be one of my favorite games, and one I continually reach for when I want a quick pick-up game with family and friends. A bit about my personal gaming preference – if I can read and understand a game's rules within 5 minutes or less, it's likely just my style.
The lore of the chupacabra (the "goat-sucker") is something I've known since childhood, so I knew that blood-red would have to be a big part of my color palette. The original game box was mostly black with red eyes. My design ended up with glowing yellow eyes on the can because red eyes didn't pop enough on the blood-red background. Bonus fact: The red lid on the cup of the game is the same red lid we use on the
Zombie Dice cup. Since the chupacabra has been depicted in various ways over the years, there is no single interpretation of what it might actually look like. The silhouette of the chupacabra illustration on our version of the game was drawn in-house by
Alex Fernandez – and interestingly enough, is just a cleanup of his
first sketch. Sometimes you do get it right on the first try.
I do love that we kept the glow-in-the-dark dice from the earlier edition, but from first-hand experience, I can tell you that playing this chaotic dice-rolling game in the dark is not ideal. However, it is a super fun, quick-to-learn game that is suitable for most ages. My niece, at 5 years old, didn't really understand all the rules, but she enjoyed rolling the dice and constantly "winning" (cough, cough, cheating) every round. A couple of years later, she was waaaay better at understanding game rules, and she still brings this one out and plays with me every time we have a game night.
–
Sabrina Gonzales
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http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2025-11-12