Believe it or not, the creation of the StarArena board game was a fortunate accident. Back then, the original design was created as the home page and/or navigation menu for the Studio TBH-Q website. In short, this was the headquarters for the TBH graffiti crew, located in the city center of Amsterdam. However, it was also a place of business where me and my mate conducted design and comic-craft operations for various media. Although with ulterior motives through guerrilla marketing to place our Tags on Top in our pursuit of the Ultimate Bomb! The plan had always been, since the formation of the crew, that One~Day; …The Baby Hype Would Rule The World!!
That’s what happens when you combine the conquering spirit of a vandal with watching _too-many_ cartoons as you grow up? Anyway, back to the game… So there we stood, hunched over the color print resting on the table, and a sense of three-dimensional thinking emerged. With some amateur surgical skills, spray mount and mock-up in hand, these words were spoken; What if turn this into a Board-Game!?
We Name It: StarArena.
We were already working on the framework for The-Card-Game and knew that adding a Star Arena Battle-Platform would be Epic! With the Muck-Up in hand, I dove into the woodshop with ‘TIMBER’ and built the StarArena Tournament-Table in one day.
I will mention what follows only once, out of respect for the banners I held and graffiti-crews in my past. The Arena game was built on the foundation of Three-Baby-Heroes as saviors of the Universe with a hint of Crime-Time-Kings. In the images, you can see four levels, but soon after, they became five or six, depending on how you count.
Conceptually, there are five levels and the square later becomes an octagon named the Holo-Port. Powered by a mysterious energy source known as The Black Hole. Followed by three active rings, one must surpass Season (Past), King (Present), and Arena (Future) to reach the final-square: Sanctuary! The aforementioned levels are indicative of CTK influence and serve as foundation for the Battle-Classes (Minis) realized many years later…
This is why the King-Ring initially depicts the icons of Angel, Ice, and Arson, as well as the Buddha-Of-Beer, King-Of-Copy-Cats, and the Oracle Brew~Star!
When Studio TBH-Q closes its doors, the two company owners go their separate ways. Angel has decided to pursue carpentry instead and no longer offers his art services to corporate front-men and individuals he considers idiots! Baby-Ice takes a bolder approach and gets under one’s skin as a dermatological illustrator who runs his own Tattoo Parlor.
