I've been blogging for a while now about Codename: Monster a submission I received from another designer. Yesterday I received from that designer a signed copy of the contract I had sent him a couple of weeks ago, so now it's game on.
The designer is Yehuda Berlinger one of the most prolific board games bloggers, and the submission was The Menorah Game a set collection and auction game themed around collecting candles to light a menorah. While I liked the theme and loved the game I didn't think that the theme would help me sell the game in the UK (where most of my customers are), which is a largely secular country and where Jews are in a minority.
I played around with the game for a while and came up with a different theme which I thought would be more appealing to the UK market: It's Alive! - collecting body parts to build a monster that you are trying to bring to life. It's pretty macabre. After play-testing it quite a lot and getting Yehuda's permission to re-theme it we're now go for launch.
I'm hoping to have it ready for early June, but that may change as I have to do the graphic design, get the artwork done by the artist and gather a bit more cash from Border Reivers sales first. Anyway, it's available to pre-order now, from my website.
Those of you who have played it please rate it on the Geek, but as ever, please do it fairly - I'd rather have a mediocre rating than an obviously biased one than people will ignore.
This is a big step for me, from board games designer, self-publishing his own game to board games publisher, publishing on behalf of someone else. Exciting times - here's hoping it works out...
2 comments:
Great News. You can count me in for a copy once you start up production.
Shame the religious theme was lost, but as you say, this country seems to be getting ever more secular. Although I must admit, with the right graphics, a Frankenstein theme will look nice (and the two pictures up on the website do look nice).
Hiya Andy,
Great to hear from you again. I'll put you down for a copy :-)
I had to make a choice about the theme that I though would tweak most people's interest, and I thought the Frankenstein-esque theme would attract more interest than the religious theme - it's a shame, but I need to sell copies so I've got to think about the bottom line.
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