Which board?

I'm making a Star Wars-themed edition of Magical Athlete as a Christmas gift. In Repulsorcraft, you play as a Hutt. Leader of a powerful criminal enterprise, you will wield your considerable influence to bring famous podracer pilots into your stable and rely on both skill and subterfuge in the races to slither home with the biggest pile of credits. Work in progress; components pictured below. The "race" side of the board will use the realistic desert texture everything is set against, and I need help deciding whether to use the illustrated or blank version of the "draft" side of the board. I just can't tell whether it's too busy. Thoughts appreciated!

Looks sweet.

I'd say go with the illustrated version, but consider changing the blueprint parts in a greyish direction.
Also, the yellow tokens on a foto of sand might be hard to see, maybe if they were a little darker or more orange?

The parts conveying game information should pop.

Thanks for the quick feedback! I can't change the color of the tokens (they're acrylic X-Wing tokens I found on Etsy); luckily, they're a bit bigger than I expected and they don't go on either side of the board at any point during the game. I'll play around with the rest.

Here's the original board:

Per Nodens' suggestion, I switched to full-color artwork and then desaturated the hell out of everything. Still have to make a couple tweaks, but this part is essentially finished.







The Micro Machines Podracers were about the size I expected - not quite small enough - so I staggered their heights to make sure you can still fit all five in a single board space. I unscrewed the wheel mechanism on the bottom of each podracer (these vehicles are supposed to fire out of a Hot Wheels-style launcher) and went to work with Arkham Horror Bases and X-Wing flight pegs. I'm amazed by how perfectly all the different pieces slotted together.

Oh, the acrylic Credit/Influence tokens blew me away too. Outstanding quality.

First project involving chipboard and linen tape. Learned a lot, but I think it came out just fine. Fairly certain the recipient will appreciate it.

This is truly amazing work. Thank you so much for sharing!