A couple of gems in the journal this weekend.

(1) When Business Is All Fun and Games by Julia Flynn Siler

“After buying the rights to a game, Mr. Hautemont and his colleagues begin by choosing the game’s title, atmosphere and rules. They then oversee the manufacturing of the wood, resin and plastic game pieces and the cardboard playing surface.

As avid fans of comic books and animated movies, he and his colleagues share a graphics culture that helps them to decide on the visual look of the game. After that, they move on to developing a bill of materials—a list of the various components they need, such as the bell for mass in their first game, from 2003, called “Mystery of the Abbey.” For that, they found a small metal bell that players can ring.”

(1a) How Novels Are Like Board Games (WSJ)

Originally Posted: Weekend 226.0 (‘Sincerity of Purpose’)

(2) Tale Told by a Modern Romantic by Sidney Lawrence

“The placement and gestures of the figures within the Munch-like composition, especially Jonah, clarify the tense narrative. Painted in an era when shipwrecks and whaling deaths were objects of public fear, this work could be read as a rumination on mortality. But as readers of the Old Testament know, Jonah emerges from the whale a changed man, redeemed and willing to carry on God’s work.”

Scan is from Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs 1851-1939 by Jason T. Busch and Catherine L. Futter