LOK and load

I first heard about Letibus Design when Shut Up & Sit Down covered their puzzle book LOK in the Three Great Word Games You Should Play video. It looked really interesting, so I got the print-and-play version of LOK and started playing it immediately.

It has since become one of my favourite puzzle games (even including videogames), although I’ve yet to actually finish it - the later puzzles are really complicated… I proceeded to get the physical version of LOK, gifting it to anyone who might enjoy it. There is also an amazing digital version of LOK that has come out since then.

A page from LOK

A herd on the horizon

Later, in September 2023, I got their newsletter titled “Herd - A new puzzle book demo”, which looked very intriguing, and included PnP files! I printed out the book pages (it might have been using the printer at work - don’t tell anyone!), but didn’t have any figurines to play with - the demo planned to include some figurines for 3D printing, but they weren’t ready yet.

The original figures included in the demo.

I didn’t want to wait, however, so I opened up Autodesk Fusion (my CAD program of choice - they have a free hobbyist version available!), took a couple minutes to design the planned figurines (based on the included blueprints) and printed them out.

A 3D print of the demo figures

They were usable, but I felt they didn’t really fit the theme of the game - they didn’t look anything like the cute creatures from the book, which caused a big disconnect for me.

Original drawing of the characters

But it seemed that making ones based on the characters in the game would be a fun challenge, so I spent a couple hours designing them, trying to immitate their look from the book as well as I could, including the cute faces of course.

And they actually turned out looking pretty good!

First prototype of the figures I made

I didn’t want to hoard them all to myself, so joined the Letibus Club discord to show everyone the results. And that got me talking with the designer and artist, Blaž Urban Gracar, who seemed to really like them! We continued chatting about boardgames and all kinds of stuff, tweaking the design, and getting the figures to be usable while looking the way he imagined.

“Digital” playtesting with LEGO pieces

A big part of the game is a stacking mechanic - a Shepherd (the black piece) can be stacked on top of the Sheep (white pieces), but also on top of another Shepherd. Getting this to work neatly, without the pieces getting “stuck” on one another also required many redesigns.

A diagram of the stacking of two Shepherds

From zero to hero

Some months later, Blaž asked me what I’d think about having my designs in the final game. I said yes, of course! That led to a host of other tweaks. We even went through a full redesign of the “faces” at one point, making them possibly even cuter?

Deciding on the size of the new eyes

I also got a prototype, and was playtesting the game while at the 2024 Future Gate festival merch shop, and everyone who walked past was immediately curious about the game and wanted to try it out.

Friends playtesting the game

I think we’re both really happy with the final result :-)

I even got to work on the 3D renders of the figures for the box and rulebook, which was a fun new challenge for me.

A test render, trying out realistic shadows (we didn’t go with them in the end)

The final stretch

Herd was supposed to come out in the first half of 2025, but that didn’t work out because of an issue with the manufacturing of the figures (you can read more in their devlog).

Originally, they were supposed to be made from epoxy resin using silicon moulds, but in the end, the figures are being made using injection moulding. This is honestly still a strange feeling for me, somehow makes it all feel even more “real”.

The final book and figures

The final figures are shiny, which wasn’t how I imagined them, but Blaž (who’s seen them in person) really likes them, saying they look like pieces of shiny candy :-)

Click clack

Blaž has already received all the figures from the manufacturing, there’s so many of them!

Sea of figures

I honestly can’t wait until I get the final game in my hands and see all the tiny details and easter eggs that Blaž was able to put into the book.

If you’re interested in Herd, you can subscribe to the Letibus newsletter, to get notified when it comes out this in the coming weeks. It will be available both as a physical game and as a digital print-and-play, so that you can print both the figures and the book at home, or play on a tablet screen.

Thank you for reading!

Thank you so much for reading the first blog post on my website, I hope you enjoyed it! If you have any feedback, have a project you think I might be interested in, or just want to chat, feel free to reach out at vojta@karen.plus!

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Notes:

• Some photos in this post are ©Letibus design and used with their permission.
• I have a working relationship with Letibus Design, but haven’t received any compensation for writing this.
• Gif link