Say hello to the pawn—the figure that will represent the player as they navigate the world of Walk of Life.
Our previous game didn’t have a pawn in the traditional sense, but instead used floating disembodied heads to mark each player's movement. A bit ghastly in retrospect.
For a game that’s as board game inspired as Walk of Life, the importance of a good pawn cannot be overstated. A well-designed pawn makes it easier to follow movement, track actions, and understand what’s happening in the game. This might seem minor, but it can make a huge difference.
Since we want players to embody all sorts of characters in Walk of Life, the pawn needed to be versatile—a blank slate that could represent anyone. To achieve this, we once again looked to No Time to Relax for inspiration, this time drawing from our weekend event cards.
The cards in No Time to Relax featured highly expressive yet amorphous figures—perfect for delivering humor while remaining abstract enough to represent anyone.
Our first iteration for a pawn in Walk of Life was quite similar, but with some alterations to better fit our new art style.
This new pawn was simpler than the one in No Time to Relax, but we felt the pawn needed to be even sillier and funnier so we could really crank the wackiness up to eleven.
In the end, we went for a design that was even simpler yet more expressive. We went with a cartoonier style with wobblier lines, maximizing potential hijinks.
We really like where we landed here, so much so that we threw the pawn into the game’s logo, hoping for it to be an iconic part of the game’s image.
You can expect to see these little guys moving around the game board, as parts of event cards, and in the icons of various actions you’ll be performing in Walk of Life.
And here we have the pawn on the game map, ready to face whatever fresh hell life has to offer. In addition to being your token on the game board, the pawn will also be featured in the icons of various actions that players will take in Walk of Life.
Here’s a couple of icons for actions you’ll be able to perform at the gym.
We can’t wait to show you more of the pawn - stay tuned!