Chevee greets me today in a very unique way. He says something like: „We have mistake on cards! There is wrong wording on 10 cards! How did all of us miss this? Is it too late to correct?”
Just to put this in right picture – all cards are already in print. We sent them to manufacturer about 10 hours earlier. That is not a greetings you want to hear, when you open Skype.
'I’ll check what we can do’ I say. Actually I know two things. I know we can do nothing. And I know that such things just happen. You have a game, you have hundreds of pieces, you have cards, tokens, boards and all that crazy stuff. Once a while you’ll miss something and – bum! – you have a mistake. BGG is full of corrections, FAQs and updates for various games.
In video industry you download an update. In board game industry you download PDF from BGG.
Anyway, I call Ralph, who sent files to manufacturer.
'Hi. We have a situation here. There is mistake on 10 cards. Can we abort printing and update files?” I ask.
'I doubt it. We can call manufacturer tomorrow morning, but I think it is too late.”
Yeah, I knew it. Anyway, I don’t give up.
'OK, just in case can you update files and call manufacturer tomorrow first thing in the morning?’
'Sure.’
So I explain Ralph what sort of mistake there is.
'Ah, that! There is no mistake then. We corrected it already. I forgot to tell you. Everything is…’ I hang up.
He forgot to tell. Very funny.
I strongly believe that good board game is the one that tells a good story. You play it and suddenly you are sucked into it, you feel chills on the skin. Emotions grow. In a moment you defend castle. You hear roar of warriors. You smell boiling oil. You are into it.
That's how I design my games. I always want to tell a good story. I want players to be into it. As deep as possible.
