From the Developer's Desk: Designing an Expansion Set For Lombard's Labyrinth

The Lost Isles

When coming up with an idea for my board game sets, I take a lot into consideration. The feel and aesthetic of the cards, the story I want to tell, the characters and their designs, the items and how it will affect gameplay, and how everything fits together at the end.

For this first expansion, I decided to tell the story of Roose, an explorer who discovers a way onto a mysterious island surrounded by an eternal fog. The island was always meant to have a lost-jungle aesthetic, so right away I knew it needed odd champions unlike those in classic medieval fantasy, large monstrous bosses, and primitive, ancient items that felt lost or forgotten, along with some useful items needed for exploring a dense jungle forest.

Concept sketches for the Lost Isles

With that idea in mind, I started thinking about the cover art for the deck box that would hold the cards. I reached out to a landscape artist I found on Instagram and gave them the idea of Roose standing on the edge of the island, looking out toward a massive volcano in the distance. Once the cover art was underway, I could move on to the set logo.

The logo idea was sent to another artist who also worked on the Lombard's Labyrinth logo, along with all of the card UI you see on my cards today. I gave them my initial concept ideas, and they absolutely took them to another level, even hiding some of the set's items within the logo in the final design.

After that comes the fun part: working on the playable Champions, Bosses, and Items.

My favorite part of making my game is always getting the artwork back. It really helps me see the world and game I've imagined come to life.

Champion & Boss Concept Sketches

The Champions were especially interesting. I knew I wanted a collection of unique designs, so we ended up with a Champion based around a lost child, a mysterious plant that disguises itself as a living animal, and a cat-human creature called a Fellex. We also have a protector woman who can transform into a powerful elephant, and, of course, Roose, our main antagonist.

With the five Champion concepts finished, I could move on to the Bosses.

The island was meant to feel completely cut off from the rest of the world—lost, forgotten, and almost mythical. Because of that, the Bosses needed to feel like mini-gods to the people who lived there: creatures that were worshipped and also feared.

Naturally, we ended up with a massive serpent sea monster, a huge red gorilla, a mysterious moth, a giant queen bee who rules over a dense part of the jungle, and a dangerous plant creature that can appear when you least expect it.

These designs all felt great and fit the jungle island vibe perfectly.

Now we get to the Items. Items are always fun to design because they need to be playable while also helping tell the story of the world.

Lost Isles Item Concept Sketches

In this set, we have poison berries that may or may not hurt you, but if you're smart enough to carry Jungle Medicine with you, you have nothing to worry about. There's also a water flask, compass, backpack, boots, special pelt armor, a bone club weapon, and more. All of these items are meant to feel like things you might discover while exploring the island or things you might pack to survive and venture deeper into it.

Then we get to the Gold Items: the special and rare drops from this set.

An ancient map and a campsite might seem like standard survival items, but in-game, they're incredibly useful. Then there's the Vine Whip, which is exactly what it sounds like: a whip that can help you fight enemies.

Finally, we have the two rarest treasures on the island.

The Jade Gorilla Skull can grant the player incredible power or hurt them simply for attempting to use it. Then there's the Mongogo, a mysterious relic from this land that empowers anyone who holds it.

It's so much fun to design and think about the cards in these sets, whether I'm coming up with unique Champion designs and abilities, creating Items that add fun gameplay while expanding the lore, or designing powerful Bosses that players dread having to face.

I think it's important to keep all of these elements in mind when creating a set. Finding the right balance between the characters, bosses, items, artwork, gameplay, and story takes a lot of time, but in the end, it's worth it. I hope the players will agree!

If you want to get your hands on my board game, Lombard's Labyrinth, and The Lost Isles expansion set, head over to Kromaticgames.com and sign up for our emails. That way, you'll be notified when the game officially releases in early 2027.

We're about to enter production, and in the meantime, we're also getting ready for our second art competition! Artists will redraw one of the game's Champions, and one winner will have their artwork chosen to become a promo card in the game. Follow our Instagram to keep up to date on that.

I hope you enjoyed this short look into the work that goes into bringing my game and world to life.

If you want to learn more about a particular Champion or Boss, leave a comment below. We might just make a future post about it!