by Eloi Pujadas

We are Anna Lucini, Pau Moré, and Eloi Pujadas — three friends and board game designers who, from time to time, decide to embark on slightly crazy projects together. One of those wild ideas ended up becoming Red Carpet, our most glamorous game to date, and today we'd like to tell you how it all came to life.

We've known each other for years and have worked together on creative projects, but we're also the kind of people who never waste a long car ride — it's the perfect time to let our imaginations run wild.

It all started on a six-hour drive from Cannes to Barcelona — a ride that turned into one of our favorite creative traditions. In 2023, as we left the Festival International des Jeux in Cannes, we came up with Boule Rouge, a small game inspired by French pétanque that ended up being published by 2Tomatoes in 2024.

The experience was so much fun that we decided to repeat the experiment the following year. We packed our bags, our excitement, and a notebook in the glove compartment, and once again, the road back to Barcelona became our creative studio on wheels.

What started as a one-time idea quickly became a tradition. Spoiler: 2025 gave us yet another game on the road.

The Spark: The Drive Back from Cannes 2024

In February 2024, we were on our way home from Cannes, our heads still buzzing with games, prototypes, and ideas. Cannes always has that special charm — it's an intense festival, full of energy and packed with meetings, friends, and fellow designers.

Poster of the Festival International des Jeux de Cannes 2024
But this time, what truly captured our imagination didn't happen inside the festival halls — it happened just outside, on the construction-covered streets.

The city was full of fences and scaffolding, and to dress them up, the organizers had hung vintage photos from past editions of the Cannes Film Festival: red carpets, camera flashes, celebrities, outrageous dresses, and dozens of photographers fighting to get the perfect shot. Pau had just started the car when he threw out the magic phrase:

Anna and I looked at each other and barely needed a second to say yes. We had six hours of road ahead and an idea that already made us smile just thinking about it. We didn't yet know exactly what shape the game would take, but we were sure something was there: a red carpet, photographers, celebrities...and lots of competition.

The more we thought about it, the more excited we got to figure out what form it might take.

The Revelation: Taking Real Photos with Your Phone

In the middle of that brainstorm about photographers, angles, flashes, and celebrities, we started asking ourselves basic but essential questions: Who are we in the game? What are we actually trying to do? Could we be the celebrities? The event organizers? Or... what if we were the photographers?

Brainstorming on the go — creative session at a French highway rest stop on our way back from Cannes
That last idea immediately sparked our enthusiasm: We would be photographers competing to take the best shot on the red carpet. But there's a big difference between playing as a photographer and actually being one...and that's when the idea hit us, the one that would change everything.

Anna, with that look she gets when she's about to turn the whole game upside down, said: "What if we took the photos with our actual phones?"

Eloi instinctively replied: "No way! There's no way players can take real photos in a board game..."

...Silence. Three seconds later, all three of us knew: yes. That was exactly what we wanted to do. What had seemed "impossible" at first turned out to be the perfect core idea. Taking real photos not only made sense thematically; it gave the game a physical, memorable, and completely unique experience, unlike anything we'd seen before.

From that moment on, everything in the design started revolving around that idea: building a red carpet and placing physical figures that players could actually photograph, with characters strategically positioned and a gameplay system that would reward well-composed photos and penalize poorly framed ones. We turned the smartphone — that usual intruder at the game table — into the central tool of the experience, and that changed everything.

Building the Heart of the Game

From the beginning, we knew that Red Carpet wasn't just going to be a game about taking pictures. It had to tell a little story with every play. We wanted each session to unfold as a visual and tactile micro-narrative, simple yet powerful: an awards ceremony, a red carpet, a parade of celebrities, and a crowd of photographers fighting to capture the perfect moment.

One of the early prototypes of Red Carpet, with cardboard standees, homemade components, and a real fabric runway handcrafted by Anna
We imagined everything beginning with the arrival of a limousine, dropping off a movie star accompanied by screenwriters, agents, and other members of the entourage. All these figures would walk along the red carpet in a single direction: toward the entrance of the gala. During that brief journey, the players — professional photographers, with just a hint of chaos — would jostle and elbow their way into the best positions and angles. That vivid image was, for us, the beating heart of the game.

But turning that scene into playable reality was no easy task. One key question we had to answer was whether taking real photos of upright figures would be technically viable. We were familiar with the game Picture Perfect, which also uses standee figures and allows players to take a photo at the end of the game. That gave us a useful starting point for our own tests.

Anna conducted a series of photo experiments using those figures: From what distance should the photo be taken? What zoom level worked best? At what angle should the phone be positioned so that the image would look like a close-up shot from a real red carpet?

Anna verifying whether taking real pictures with the phone is viable
Meanwhile, Pau — who handles the world of 3D printing like a pro — designed and printed several molds and prototype stands to hold the phone in place. We needed a support that would fix the camera at the perfect distance and angle, and after plenty of trial and error...bingo! We found the ideal stand: comfortable, stable, and angled just right so the figure would appear centered and in close-up. That day, we all breathed a sigh of relief. The idea worked. The core of the game was viable. And, honestly, it looked great, too.

Early prototypes of 3D-printed phone stands, each with a different angle, to determine the ideal perspective for in-game photography
Cards, Actions, and Keeping the Focus on the Photo

From the start, we knew the game had to be played with multi-use cards. We wanted to give players flexibility while keeping the pace quick and the gameplay accessible. We identified four essential actions to help players get the best photo:

• Place your tripod in a strategic position.
• Make a celebrity turn to face the camera.
• Move a figure forward toward the gala.
• Move a figure closer to the photographer.

These actions perfectly captured the kind of scene we wanted to create: a photographer moving around, adjusting position, waiting for the perfect moment — and maybe calling out to get that celebrity to turn their head.

At first, we experimented with a programmed action system in which players would plan out several moves in advance. This was tempting since it added layers of planning and chaos, but we soon realized it didn't fit the essence of the game. It felt like players were acting "blind", and the outcomes often depended more on luck than on meaningful choices. The game was drifting away from what we truly wanted to emphasize: the act of taking the photo.

We also ruled out the idea of players taking their photo during their own turn. While that might have made sense thematically, doing so broke the game's rhythm. Stopping the game every turn for a player to take a photo would have made things feel disjointed. Instead, we decided to concentrate the "photo moment" at the end of each round — and make it simultaneous for everyone. That not only kept the game moving at a good pace, but it also added a sense of shared tension: everyone snapping their shot at once, like a real burst of camera flashes.

On the left, the initial player card used for testing; on the right, the finished version designed by Meeple Foundry and illustrated by Albert Monteys
In the end, we landed on a simple and satisfying structure: each player plays one card per turn, chooses one of the possible actions on it, and after a few turns...click! Time to take your shot. The focus — pun fully intended — was once again back at the heart of the game.

Votes, Awards, and Photobombs

One of the questions that really made us think: How do you evaluate a "good" photo in the game? We knew that taking real photos was a standout mechanism...but how could we tell if a photo was good or not? Or more importantly, how could we score it in a fair and simple way?

We started discussing possible criteria, and some ideas came to us naturally:

• If the celebrity is looking at the camera, that's good.
• If the celebrity is in the foreground and clearly visible, even better.
• If the face of a random anonymous figure shows up in the frame...

And that's how we landed on an idea that made us laugh from the very beginning: the photobomb. That everyday, hilarious moment when someone unintentionally crashes a photo felt like the perfect addition to our game. Taking a great shot wasn't just about what you did; it also depended on everything happening around you. This concept added laughter...and interesting tactical decisions.

Caught in the act! Ginger Rogers gets photobombed right before the perfect shot.
After trying out several scoring systems, ranging from simple to rather complex, we finally settled on a system that was clear and accessible. No scoring charts, no edge cases to memorize. Scoring had to be quick, intuitive, and true to the experience. The heart of the game was taking the photo, not interpreting a rulebook.

Left: early helper card with raw iconography. Right: the final scoring summary, polished and fully in theme.
But we still felt it was missing something...and that's when we introduced the voting system.

We loved the idea that not every celebrity who walks the red carpet ends up winning an award, so we thought: What if the players were also the judges? What if, besides being photographers, we also got to decide who wins the award? This little twist added a new layer of strategy since award-winning celebrities gave you double points if you'd photographed them, so you'd vote with your head, or your heart...or based on the photo you'd managed to snap!

To keep voting from turning into chaos or leaving some celebrities out of the spotlight, we added an Honorary Award that's always in play. That character always gives double points to whoever manages to photograph them. Each round, this creates a sort of shared spotlight — everyone trying to capture that one VIP, like the Leonardo DiCaprio of the gala.

The final result? A simple yet meaningful scoring system in which taking the right shot — with the right angle, at the right time, with a bit of luck — could win you the game...and the audience's applause.

The Runway: Choosing the Celebrities

During that drive back from Cannes — somewhere between winding roads, wild ideas, and gas station sandwiches — we started putting together our first list of characters. We jotted down around twenty fictional celebrities inspired by the collective imagination of Hollywood and the world of cinema. We had a great time laughing over names, styles, and personalities, but it quickly became clear during early playtests that we didn't need that many stars. Cutting the list in half was an easy call; better to have a few memorable characters than a long list of forgettable ones.

Early prototype cards showcased a wide range of celebrities, although in the end, we had to narrow it down to just ten
We did allow ourselves one exception, and it still makes us smile to this day: Alfred Hitchcock.

Yes, we know — he's a director, not an actor. And yes, he technically competes in the same award category as stars of the screen, but we just couldn't leave him out. Hitchcock is a living icon of cinema (well...you know what we mean), a figure so unmistakable and with such stage presence that it felt wrong not to include him, so even though he didn't quite fit the mold, we snuck him in as an homage, a kind of cinematic good luck charm from a golden age of film that all three of us deeply admire.

And just between us, whenever he shows up on the red carpet, he always inspires a certain reverence. It's like the spirit of another era has entered the scene — and no one wants to miss their chance to snap the perfect shot.

Early prototype version of Alfred Hitchcock — the only non-actor in the cast, but simply too iconic to leave out
From the Table to the Publisher

Once we had the foundations of the game in place, we entered a phase of intense, 100% in-person playtesting, trying Red Carpet with different player counts. We wanted to make sure the game worked well with two, three, or four players; that it maintained tension and interaction; and, above all, that taking a great photo remained the core of the experience.

Eloi, who usually tests most of his prototypes using Tabletop Simulator (TTS), quickly ran into a surprise: Red Carpet simply couldn't be adapted to any digital platform. The paradox was clear. Even though the game uses a technological element (your smartphone camera), it works only as a physical experience. You need to play it in person, with the red carpet laid out on the table and your phone in hand. Without real figures, without real movement, without that moment when you actually take the shot...there's no game.

During this in-person testing phase, we made constant tweaks: the number of rounds, card effects, movement rules, distances, scoring systems. But even as we iterated, one thing became increasingly clear: the game was working. When we finally felt it was ready to show someone, there was no doubt in our minds about who the first publisher should be: Devir.

One reason is that they’re based in Barcelona like us, which makes meetings and communication easy. Also, Eloi had already published a game with them: The Lie, co-designed with Eugeni Castaño), a unique and unconventional pocket-sized title. We knew that Devir appreciated games with strong personalities, unexpected themes, and bold, original mechanisms — and that was exactly what Red Carpet had to offer.

Eugeni Castaño and Eloi Pujadas proudly present The Lie at the Devir booth during SPIEL Essen 24
We also had in mind the quality of Devir's productions. We knew that if they believed in the game, they would take it to the highest possible level.

We spoke with David Esbrí, Devir's lead editor, and his reaction gave us a huge boost of confidence — he loved the idea. From that moment on, everything started rolling...

Art with a Capital A

When we were told who would be illustrating Red Carpet, we had to ask if we'd heard correctly. Albert Monteys? THE Monteys?

Albert Monteys
We couldn’t believe it. An artist of his caliber — internationally recognized, with such a unique and expressive style — was going to bring our characters to life: the celebrities, the anonymous bystanders, and of course the red carpet itself. We were over the moon, and in the end, the reality surpassed all expectations.

When we started seeing the first illustrations, we were completely blown away. His take on Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich had an undeniable elegance and charisma. Alfred Hitchcock, with his loyal raven perched beside him, was simply iconic. Every celebrity in the game had their own unmistakable personality, as if they'd stepped right off a classic film screen and onto the red carpet of our game.

Three of the final celebrity illustrations featured in Red Carpet: Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, and Alfred Hitchcock
But the best was yet to come: the cover.


What a cover! That red carpet stretching across the image horizontally, and in the center, a female figure turning ever so slightly — caught at the exact moment when we, the players, are about to take her photo. It's a stroke of visual genius, a cover that invites you to play instantly, as if it were handing you a phone and saying: "Now's the moment."

The graphic design didn't stop there. The visual identity of the game was handled by Meeple Foundry, with whom Eloi had previously worked on Take A Seat (co-designed with Ferran Renalias and published by Salt & Pepper Games). Working with them was a true privilege: they're meticulous, professional, and above all, incredibly talented at transforming a game into a cohesive and elegant visual experience. During the Dau Barcelona Festival 2024, we had the chance to sit down with them in person, share a play session, and exchange ideas — an experience that added a whole new layer of depth and insight to the project.

The three designers of Red Carpet together with the Meeple Foundry team at the DAU Barcelona 2024 festival
And none of this would have been possible without the vision and leadership of David Esbrí as editor. The choice of Albert Monteys, the collaboration with Meeple Foundry, and every single production detail reflect his careful attention to each and every project.

If you ever get the chance to hold the game in your hands, don't forget to touch the central board: the texture is literally that of a red carpet. A tactile delight that draws you even deeper into the experience.

The big reveal! At Devir Show – DAU Barcelona 2024, where David Esbrí presented Red Carpet to the public for the first time, joined by the full design team.
Epilogue: A Red Carpet That Starts in a Car

This project has given us many unforgettable moments: the first sparks of inspiration, the camera tests, the laughter during playtesting, the awe of seeing the illustrations...but if we had to choose just one, it might be the first time we held Red Carpet in our hands, complete.

That day, we remembered where it all began: six hours in a car, driving home from a board game festival, with a half-filled notebook and heads bursting with ideas. A silly conversation that turned into a real game. In fact, it's becoming something of a tradition: every year, on the way back from Cannes, we lock ourselves in the car with wild ideas, a craving to play, and end up creating a new game. What started as a joke has now become one of our favorite creative rituals of the year.

When you hold a game that was born this way — so modest and so delightfully mad — you can't help but think: "Maybe this is all just a dream." But it's not. Here we are, with Red Carpet in our hands, ready for its spotlight.

In a world increasingly blended between digital and analog, Red Carpet stands out as something truly curious. Even though it involves a technological element, it's a game that can be lived only in person. Its very nature makes it impossible to adapt to virtual platforms like TTS or BGA, and maybe that's why we love it so much: because it makes you get up, move around, look people in the eye...and capture the perfect shot in real life, as in the good old days.

Now that the red carpet is rolled out, all that's missing is your grand entrance. Set up your tripod, find your focus, and remember what that legendary director — who just might be walking through the game — once said: "It's always better to take a good picture than to end up in Psycho."

See you on the red carpet!

Pau, Anna & Eloi


P.S. We challenge you to take a close look at the front cover of the Red Carpet rulebook. Can you spot the Easter egg that Albert Monteys has hidden in his illustration?