Scythe artist Jakub Różalski on the sequel to his award-winning game

Board games were born. Scythe dates back to nearly a decade ago, after game designer Jamey Stegmaier visited Kotaku and encountered the world of 1920+, as depicted in Jakub Różalski’s series of paintings. Now Stegmaier and Różalski have teamed up once more for ExpeditionsThis is a standalone sequel to 2016, the strategy game. It tells the story about an alternate European land that moves north, after having been through a string of wars in order to reach the Siberia wilds. While we don’t know a whole lot about how the game will play, one thing remains consistent: Różalski’s powerful imagery, and its ability to evoke wonder and inspire storytelling.

While he’s dabbled in other subject matter, at the core of Różalski’s work is the exploration of pastoral settings seasoned with towering, almost alien weapons of war. It is a world filled with the bright blue glow of electrical plasma, steampunk engineering, and World War I ballistics — but also with young bathers, elderly farmers, and stout women in babushkas. Stegmaier and the other videogame developers have been inspired by these contrasts. Iron Harvest, and even Neill Blomkamp’s own experimental film studio.

In an email interview with Polygon from his home in Poland, Różalski revisits his body of work and reflects on how the world around him has changed so dramatically since his breakout board game hit.

This exchange has been formatted and edited to be easily read.

Image: Jakub Różalski

Polygon: I’ve been attracted to your work since I first encountered it. Even have One of your piecesIt hangs on the wall in my office and is a treasured keepsake. While playing, ScytheWe have always been a bit wistful when we eat with our friends. The world that you have created in 1920+ is so rich and inviting that we can’t help but tell its stories together as we play.

Image: Jakub Różalski

Your notes ArtStation, it sounds like you’ve had the chance to really dig in narratively this time around and flesh that world out of ScytheFor yourself. You have been doing your job for quite a while. The 1920+ SpaceIt was like looking back to a simpler time. You can see the beauty of rural scenes with people working hard. However, it was constantly compared to the towering warmachines.

Armed conflict is always seen in your work. It must be so very difficult now, with what’s happening to the east of you, to look back on your own work.

There’s clearly been a shift in what you’ve shown publicly Since a year ago. It also looks like you work on it ExpeditionsThis was before the invasion of Ukraine. What have you done with your time? ExpeditionsYou have been using your art from last year to investigate a postwar space.

How does it feel to live in that place? The world has quietened down after the sounds of artillery have died. ScytheWhat’s next? How are you trying communicate with your audience? What are you trying tell your audience through your work and yourself?

Image: Jakub Różalski/Stonemaier Games

Jakub Różalski:We are very grateful. The “White dress” painting is still one of my favorites, after all these years, so I’m very happy that you like it.

It feels as if it were in another lifetime, a decade ago. For me, storytelling through my art has been the most important thing. Art has been for me an escape from gray realities and a world in which I don’t fit. Now, I want to open doors to new worlds not just for myself but for those who receive my artwork. Begin this journey together.

The Soviet troop withdrawal from my homeland is something I have been able to recall since childhood. There were trains and convoys. This had an enormous impact on my life and the development of the world in 1920+. Yes, I’ve always been fascinated by the Tunguska event from 1908, as well as the early exploration of the Arctic and the wild vast expanses of Siberia. In my world of 1920+, I wanted to add a darker and more spiritual side. Also, I grew up in Sienkiewicz Street.In Desert & WildernessIt was one of the books I loved most in my childhood. It was also a great movie about Indiana Jones. The ThingAll these influences are visible to me Expeditions.

I still can’t believe that a decade after I started working on my alternative world of 1920+, my illustrations have become almost prophetic… with tanks roaming through the countryside, people dying and bombs falling, literally a few hundred miles from my home. It’s like my darkest nightmares come true! I also felt the impact of this war on my daily life. My wife is Tatarstani, and we are close to family members in Russia as well as many Ukrainian friends. It is an awful tragedy.

Image: Jakub Różalski

My first project was to create a website. ExpeditionsMy work and vision were not affected by the conflict long before it began. It was, instead, a way for me to escape the tragic and sad reality that we were living in.

Image: Jakub Różalski

My goal was to take viewers along on an adventure that would be similar to what I had always envisioned. The sounds of fighting mechs, artillery and other noises were gone. Life was back to normal. The heroes didn’t know where to go in new realities, or how to make their way in the new world. They were fortunate that the new world contained many secrets, as well as undiscovered and unknown places. You might even find something that is out of the ordinary.

You can read more about Różalski’s work on ArtStation, which includes detailed breakdowns and vivid work-in-progress images of his recent work. More details are available on ExpeditionsSoon, Stonemaier Games will be available on their website.