WiLD RAMBOz – Gold Fish Island

WiLD RAMBOz – Gold Fish Island is a visual demo that I designed for an asymmetrical 2–4 player tabletop board game project that focuses on developing players’ Cognitive Development, Family Engagement, Mathematical Foundations, Social-Emotional Learning, Language and Communication, with characters that have different skill sets for players to engage the game differently, but at the same time.

The project includes a puzzle-like map with over 100 pieces that can be placed together differently each time, two demo game boxes, dice, 3D-printed game coins, four 3D-printed boats for each character with matching colours, chess, character cards, and some game cards. All self-designed besides the dice.

This project draws its inspiration from my love of games, everyday life, and most of all, my pets and their one-of-a-kind personalities. Shaq inspired Sharkio—the wild, spirited one; Mocha became the basis for Mochako—the feisty, short-tempered one; and Lucky is the model for Rocki—the nervous, timid soul.

There’s also a mischievous little raccoon with sticky paws that keeps sneaking into my backyard to steal Lucky’s food. I named him Reiner, and he and his whole family inspired the character Ryno and the Bendys.

This project first began as a comic concept back when I was learning bookmaking. Every pet I have came from friends and acquaintances who could no longer care for them. Lucky’s previous owner had a young child who was terrified of large dogs, so they kept him locked away in the garage full-time—likely why he’s so skittish and easily frightened to this day. Shaq’s former owner moved away, and Mocha had been reacting defensively toward her ex-owner’s aggressive child; now she is defensive all the time.

Originally, this comic was meant to serve as the introductory chapter for a longer series. It would follow all three of them as stray animals navigating life outdoors, living side by side in the wild, going on adventures together, making new friends, such as the raccoon, and slowly healing one another along the way.

As I worked on this bookmaking project, I came up with the idea of blending my original comic concept with a board game twist. To flesh out the idea, I designed sample comic pages, a custom book jacket, and a one-of-a-kind book-shaped demo storage box to bring the concept to life. 

My original vision was for every board game to pair with its own comic chapter tucked inside the box, with each game’s theme directly tied to the story it accompanied. For instance, the opening introductory comic follows the main characters as they go fishing and stumble upon a mysterious magical island, while the accompanying board game revolves around all the adventures that unfold on that island. I also planned for future expansions to grow alongside the storyline—including new original characters with unique abilities (I already had a beaver and a crow in mind), fresh map layouts, and even entirely new standalone board games. That said, while I loved designing the concept, I had no intention of fully developing and producing the physical board games when I made them last year, until now.

Some map ideas that can not be fully accomplished due to time and budget issues, the idea is to make the map tighter together so they don’t move around as easily. Did make a few example demos for visual display. 

In the end, thanks for coming and taking an interest in my work!!! You are welcome to take some of my custom cards home if you like ( on the plastic holder, the cards have a barcode on the back). If you want to see more of my work, my contact and website are on the back of the card. You can also just locate them below.

Web – https://yakagui.carrd.co/

Ins – https://www.instagram.com/yaka.gui/

Mail – yakagui.fish@gmail.com