The Lord of the Ice Garden
It was Pionek con when I first heard about this prototype. The guy brought it there and run few demo games. The game was set in a fantasy world from some Polish novel I have never read. It didn’t sound interesting. I wriggled out.
For the next year or so I met the guy dozen of times. I met him always at convention. He was running play testing, spending hour after hour at the table with new players and I was consequently avoiding to play it. Let’s face it – long heavy euro game not finally playtested. Sounded like a nightmare. The guy invited me few times to play it and every time I politely refused.
Months passed.
The guy finally decided to take his chances – he offered the game at Polish crowdfunding page. The game is heavy. The game has so many components that it costs like a big FFG box. The game is set in a world of novel which not too many board game geeks read. The guy has no publishing experience. They guy is not famous game designer. In Poland there was no single game funded so far.
There were so many cons and no pros at all…
OK, there were. There were two things that stood against all problems this project could face.
1. The guy was determined and ready to work very hard. For the 4 weeks of campaign he visited every single convention in Poland and run demo games over and over fighting like a lion for the heart of every single gamer he met.
2. And what is even more important, the game turned out to be damn good.
4 weeks later the game was funded. It was first Polish board game successfully crowdfunded. It got more than 200%. Great success.
The game will be published this year. That is true story that sounds like a fable. That is dream come true. This is the guy who design a great game and have the people making it real thing. This is amazing.
***
I tell you this story, because this game is now on Kickstarter.
And the story for you is quite the same.
You don’t know this stupid fantasy novel.
You don’t know this bloody fellow.
You don’t want to pay 90$ for a board game from Poland
You don’t…
Yeah, there are so many cons again.
But again, there are two pros.
1. The guy is a great guy, hard working designer worth your trust.
2. And the game is damn good.
Give him a chance. Let the pros win…
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.
Fist: It isn’a a stupid novel – it’s a great book series 🙂
Second: It’s a damn good game for sure 🙂
Third: Wasn’t Beer Empire the first fully craftfunded Polish project? 🙂