Rose Hammer didn’t have much of a choice if you ask her.

About a year ago, the third-year art student was debating whether to take a break from struggling with her studies at Australian National University or work with a friend from school who was developing a board game and needed illustration work.

The decision, she says, was obvious: The 23-year-old Australian picked the game, Dragon Racer, and her friend, Myles O’Neill, and she’s not regretting it. Recently, Hammer posted a gallery of her completed artwork in Reddit’s Gaming community. Dragon Racer, a drafting strategy board game, hits stores in December and can be preordered on its website, according to O’Neill, who designed the game with another friend, Luke English.

“I hadn’t initially planned to take a whole year off, but I wanted to finish the job without cutting any corners,” says Hammer, who goes by the nickname Rocky. “My family supported me, and I’d secured a place at university in case things really fell through, so it was a fairly low-risk move. I’ll return to school for my final year in 2016. I figure that if I am to succeed as an artist and designer, real work experience is just as valuable as a formal education.”

O’Neill—who moved from Australia to San Francisco nine months ago to work as a software designer at a startup called Kaggle—established Thylacine Games as a way for English and him to publish Dragon Racer.

“Making board games is awesome, but not many people in this field make it their full-time job,” O’Neill, 24, said. “It’s hard to make a living out of it. Making Dragon Racer was a passion project. We are basically making no profit on it, but it’s fantastic to see it in stores around the world.”

Although the creators are still adding the final touches to the game, O’Neill has been encouraged by the response so far.

“The reception for the game has been extremely positive so far!” he said. “I think people really love how easy it is to play and the surprising amount of depth to the gameplay. The artwork always gets a mention. People just love seeing the awesome dragons bringing the game to life.”

Upvoted got the chance to chat with Hammer and O’Neill about working together on Dragon Racer Racer.

How Did the Two of You Get Together?

Rose Hammer: I’ve known Myles since around 2012 or thereabouts. We attended the same university and are both into gaming and science (though he’s a pro and I’m an armchair enthusiast), so we had a lot of friends in common. I think we met at a school club event of some sort.

Myles O’Neill: I’d been watching Rocky’s art for a number of years. I’ve always been a huge fan of her work. When we ended up with a business development grant, we knew we had the money to pay an artist to work with us, and working with a friend with such great talent seemed like an obvious option. Rocky was involved deeply in the development process, helping Luke and I with play-testing different versions of the game throughout our process.

What Went Into Making the Game?

MO: We set out to make a board game back in early 2012. It seems like such a long time ago now. The project started when [Luke] and I entered a business planning contest. We ended up winning a business development grant, and we decided we wanted to use it to make a game. We brought Rocky on board and started working on a game we then titled Adaptation. Adaptation was a game about evolving magical creatures.

Developing a board game takes a long time. Over the course of two years and hundreds of play-testing sessions, we eventually got the rules into a place where we thought the game was super fun for all types of players. As the game’s rules developed, so did the theme. Eventually, we decided that our original theme wasn’t going to match the game mechanics we wanted, so we decided to switch—and that’s when we got the idea to make it a game about racing dragons.

RH: I love designing creatures and have always wanted to work on a game. … When brainstorming for a new theme, we kept in mind my strengths and interests as an artist, and dragons were an excellent fit.

How Was It Working Together?

MO: Working on the artwork for the cards was a very back-and-forth process based on the requirements of the game. I tried to keep the original specification open—things like “a fiery volcanic dragon”—giving her lots of room to stretch her creativity and come up with the great artwork you’ve seen.

More input was needed to make sure the art worked really well in the context of the game. Since the art sits on playing cards, we wanted each piece to have a really strong color theme. I pushed Rocky to make sure that from a distance on a table any player could see which color any card was. These constraints definitely added another challenge to the art, but I think she really rose to the challenge.

RH: The biggest challenge was the fact that I’d planned too little time to finish the game’s art. We extended its release date, but the second deadline was still very tough to make. I managed to meet our new goal by improving my work habits, planning my time more carefully, and bringing a second artist [Stephanie Lee] onboard to help.

What’s Next for Both of Them?

MO: [Dragon Racer has] been a massive project. For now, I think we’re going to focus on finishing up getting the game out to the world and then taking a break. We have plans to make an art book detailing the behind the scenes of making the game and showcasing all the amazing art from the game. After that I’m not sure yet, working with Rocky has been amazing, so we will see what the future holds!

RH: I received a lot of freelance job offers after Dragon Racer‘s art hit Reddit’s front page, but ironically, I’ve had to turn them down in favor of school preparation. I’ll be exhibiting at a local art show called RAW:Canberra in February next year and will resume freelance work toward the end of 2016. …

I’d definitely enjoy making a new game with Myles—he’s a clever designer and has been wonderful to work with—but there’s still a little more to be done on Dragon Racer, so we’ll think about potential new ideas once we’re out of the woods. Gotta finish what you start, right?