Sunday, March 4

Codename: Monster Is Go!

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:

Anonymous said...

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).

Jackson Pope said...

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.