Naval Nexus

Art direction, board game design and print production based on an original student-developed maths game.

Context

Naval Nexus began as a board game designed by students and teachers at Naval Base Secondary School. Built around treasure seeking, pirates, maths and algebra, the prototype already had a clear idea at its heart.

Our role was to take their vision and turn it into a fully produced game they could proudly call their own.

Approach

I led the art direction and design for the project, working directly from the students' rough sketches and descriptions to develop the visual language of the game.

The theme centred on pirates and the deep sea, with the gameplay pulling players from the outer edges of the board towards a central treasure island by creating and solving equations.

The students had already conceptualised an abyss around the outer areas of the board. I developed that idea further by introducing kraken tentacles across the outer corners of the play area, reinforcing the sense that players were moving through dangerous waters towards the treasure. It also gave the board a clear visual structure that made its gameplay geography easier to understand.

Beyond the board artwork, I handled the box packaging and card designs, and conducted material research to determine the physical experience of the game components.

The meeples became 3D-printed ships, carrying the nautical theme into something players could physically interact with and giving the finished game a tactile quality that matched the care the students had put into the original concept.

The finished game kept their original vision intact while giving it the visual and physical system needed to work as a produced board game.