Modern Snakes and Ladders
I liked snakes and ladders ever since I was a kid. I first played it at elementary school and it was fun. But I've never encountered a nice looking board (despite how fun it was). The snakes and ladders, colors were just all over the place like a big tangled mess. So I took the opportunity in an exercise during my exchange program to straighten up that tangle. Marrying the old with modern aesthetics was a thing for me back then.
Snakes and Ladders originated from ancient India, teaching about karma and luck. The snakes symbolizes what brings you down in life and ladders boosts you reach your goals fasters.
For the pawns I chose to do stilations of guardian sculptures in Balinese homes called Kekarangan into modern minimal illustrations. These sculptures are placed in corners of the walls of their houses to ward off evil spirits and invite good ones to your house. I thought it was fitting for this Hindu inspired game.
Made in 2018 | Class Exercise
I used one of the boards I used to play as I was little and followed it's layout. I wrote down which square goes down or up to which square and arranged them into a straight line vertically. Some squares can't be kept a square so some, especially in the corners, had to do a fancy bend to the next row, or be a long rectangle to compensate.
