Shell Company

Game Box

Card Designs

Most of the game’s content is cards, and they come in three types: Shell Companies, Items, and Turtles. For the titular shell companies, I had a lot of fun coming up with corporate-looking branding based on turtle puns.

Zoe Amaral did the item illustrations for the game, and since they function like card suits for the tax write-off set collection mechanic, we decided to make three subtly different templates for each one. The lowest value card is plan, the middle one has sparkles, and the highest value version has a glowing gold aura.

I also got to work with the amazing illustrator Suzy Spooner, who totally delivered on the turtle “dating sim profile” artwork. My goal here was to be minimal as possible with the card design to let the personality of the artwork pop.

Wooden Tokens

Each shell company has a corresponding bidding token, which marks which pile of sand dollars (ones and fives) belong to which player. A bidding paddle, first player token (the heart shell), and a calendar token round out the set.

Rulebook Layout

The game has a relatively short rulebook, but some of the phases like donations and audits are complex enough to warrant longform examples with step-by-step pictures. The back cover of the rulebook doubles as a large player aid, though each player also receives a smaller reference card for a couple key rule reminders.