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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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Project of Russian board game Kosmonauts was presented in Essen 2011:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/5412/new-projects-of-r...
Now the game will be released in ESSEN Spiel 2012 by MESAboardgames.
This is review from the author of the Kosmonauts Yury Yamshchikov
During the game players become captains of spaceships in the race around Solar System. To win players have to consider planet’s movement, choose right time for refuel and watch over opponents actions to complete personal missions.
It is not linear race and spaceships may pass checkpoints on the planets and comet in any order. Once ship landing, player takes token with the name of the planet or comet. If players came earlier than other player, he/she takes token with more victory points.
To simplify game play every turn is divided on 4 phases: Events, Orders, Flying, Planets Movement.
During phase I active player choose which event is played (from 3 available this moment). Chosen event affects on all players. However usually most of events could be better or worse for specific players, so it is better to choose wisely.
During phase II all players give orders (simultaneously, and if they would like, hidden). Every player have a Direction Rose with 6 directions. Each turn player may put up to 3 units of fuel from tanks to any of that 6 direction(s).
During next phase (III, Flying) ship will fly 1 cell for each unit of fuel, which was spend on chosen direction. If player spend fuel on 2 or more directions, ship will fly in every direction with fuel units on it (1 cell in every direction for 1 fuel unit, placed on that direction).
The feature of the game is that fuel units are NOT removed after every turn flying. Each new turn captain may produce additional acceleration to increase speed or to slow it down (if acceleration is applied in opposite direction). All that is done to simulate absence of friction and strong gravitation of outer space.
During phase IV (Planet Movement) active player moves all planets and then gives Active Player token to his neighbor on the right.
Game ends when one of the players came back to Earth after visiting all planets and comet. Players calculate Victory Points (VP) on Landing Tokens and add bonuses for completed missions. The one, who gets more VP - wins.
In follow parts I'm going to tell how game was developed and why we implement one or another mechanic or feature.
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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The English version of the Russian board game bestseller – Potion-Making: Practice was released and introduced in Essen 2011.
RightGames LLC doesn’t stand still; we’ve got lots of new releases planned for Essen 2012.
And so, we are happy to announce that 2 English expansions to Potion-Making: Practice have been printed, packed, delivered to our warehouse and are ready for shipping.
They are already available to order from Ebay – delivery worldwide.
And now more about each expansion:
Potion-Making: University Course
«University course» is an expansion for “Potion-making. Practice” boardgame. There are more spells, more elements and artifacts and therefore more opportunities in the expansion, and some new rules. NOTE that you need “Potion-making. Practice” basic set to play this game.
So the University course of magic and sorcery waits for students who know already how to mix simple elixirs and to make magic powders and who are not afraid of mysterious spells and creatures. Of course students of the University are not green beginners from primary school!
Besides the great number of new cards you’ll see some changes in the rules here. Now you’ll play 2 decks simultaneously (“Practice” + “University course”) but you shouldn’t mix them together. Each your turn now consists of 3 phases when you can take cards from any deck and play them. For example you can draw 2 cards and make a potion. Or you can put a card to the table as an element and use this element for a new potion at once (yes, we missed this ability while playing the basic “Practice”!) Thanks to the new rules it’s possible to make different sophisticated combinations.
There is a new element “Elementary granum” in the expansion. It may be used as any element when creating a formula and then can replace any other element. And you have “Elixir of Omnitude” in the University deck that can replace any simple (two-component) elixir. But if someone takes your completed formula made with this Elixir or with Elementary granum in order to make his own new formula you won’t get half the points – yes, we should pay for everything.
More news: four Lesser Talismans that give their players certain bonuses. E.g. Lesser Talisman of Usefulness gives you 1 point for any card you play as an element even if the desk already holds that element.
Then you’ll see a special artifact named “Scruple of Conscience”. It gives you a wonderful opportunity to keep your opponents down: just pass this card to any player who currently has more points than you! Now he has to add it to his hand and to lose 5 points. But be careful! This card can return to you like a boomerang.
New spells included in “University course” are very useful and helpful – of course if you put them to their proper use. So Haste Spell allows you to play two cards in a row. Or let’s play Magic Vortex: ALL ingredient cards of ALL completed formulas are placed to the desk of elements. Bingo! - now we have a really great choice of elements!
In conclusion we’d like to say that “University course” is designed for those players who consider “Potion-making. Practice” to be plain and simple. If you played the basic set before we recommend you to try the expansion and hope you will like the game. It is good both for quite evenings in a family setting and for funny parties!
Potion-Making: Guild Of Alchemists
«Guild of Alchemists» is an expansion for “Potion-making. Practice” boardgame. With this expansion you not only make potions and get points but you strain after a great goal: you have to create the Philosopher’s Stone. NOTE that you need “Potion-making. Practice” basic set to play this game.
So imagine that you are in a medieval alchemical lab. Use various magical ingredients to make potions and talismans and even fantastic creatures. Every player tries to get his own Philosopher’s Stone. How can you do it? There are three different cards of Magnum Opus and each leads to the Stone. In the beginning of the game you get one of these cards and try to follow the succession of formulas shown on the card. When someone creates the Philosopher’s Stone the game ends and that lucky potion-maker gets additional points.
Just like in the 1st expansion “University course” there are many new formulas and spells and some new rules. So you play 2 decks simultaneously (“Practice” + “Guild of Alchemists”) but you shouldn’t mix them together. Each your turn now consists of 3 phases when you can draw cards from any deck and play them as elements or formulas. It gives you new opportunities to think over your strategy and to invent ingenious combinations.
There is a new element “Elementary granum” in the expansion. It may be used as any element when creating a formula and then can replace any other element. And you have “Elixir of Omnitude” that can replace any simple (two-component) elixir. But if someone takes your completed formula made with this Elixir or with Elementary granum in order to make his own new formula you won’t get half the points – yes, we should pay for everything.
Of course the game with the expansion is not as simple as “Potion-making. Practice” but if you’ve already played the basic set you will learn new rules easily. We can recommend “Guild of Alchemists” for 3-4 players (you get a not very long, dynamic game) and unlike many other games the “Guild” is very good for 2 players too.
And one more thing: you can certainly play “Potion-making” using both expansion at the same time: “University course” and “Guild of Alchemists” this way the game will be played using all 3 decks.
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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Today I’ll be continuing the tales on the biggest board game events and convents in Russia.
My previous posts covered the winter board game exhibit in Krasnoyarsk and the autumn:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/9248/a-photo-adventure...
role-play convent ZilantCon:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/9208/report-board-game...
now I’ll tell you about the event that happens in summer on the last weekend of June.
One of the oldest events in the Russian board game life is the annual Games Day that’s been held for over 10 years by Alegris Ltd.
http://www.alegris.ru
It was Alegris, which introduced to Russia miniature board games in the late 90s; who brought the famous Warhammer universe to us.
And has been promoting miniature war-games ever since.
Alegris owns four stores in Moscow and has a vast retail dealer network throughout Russia.
Alegris sells a vast range of war-gaming systems: Lord of The Rings (also a Games Workshop war-game), Flames of War, Infinity, Kings of War, Anima, Warmachine, Warlord etc.; supplies and accessories for all those hobby needs, paints, tools etc.: Citadel, The Army Painter, Ziterdes, Springer Pinsel, Chessex, Vallejo and others; Alegris also sells board games.
And so, on this hot summer weekend, muscovites and visitors of the capital can expect two fun filled gaming days.
The event has taken place in many different places, and for the last few years is taking place in a separate pavilion at the all-Russia exhibition centre.
This used to be an event for warhammer fans only, but has now expanded and become a big event, where all leading Russian gaming companies are invited.
An annual painting tournament, similar to Games Workshops “Golden Demon” is held.
Warhammer fans aren’t forgotten though, as tournaments and games are held for all to see, learn and cheer.
In 2011 a huge Warhammer 40k dioram greeted the visitors of the event:
A little deeper into the pavilion a castle could be found:
In 2011 Alegris introduced a new war-game to the Russian market – Flames of War, dedicated to World War 2.
The Infinity universe of Corvus Belli is becoming more popular in Russia each day:
A new Russian design was also shown at Games Day – “Victorium” a miniature war-game.
The BTrain internet-store had a wide range of board games from all over the globe:
Another new war-game for Russia, that was introduced by Alegris is Warmachine from Privateer Press.
Brand parade:
Rulebooks and a Russian magazine about miniatures, published by Alegris:
The Kings of War universe:
The traditional quick-painting competition well on the way:
RightGames LLC presented their new game – Gobba: ReElection in Big Gobba, all about the difficulties of elections in a goblin country.
The author of Gobba: ReElection in Big Gobba and one of the administrators of the oldest gaming club in Moscow – “Portal”:
Selling counter:
Presentation of the second new release of summer 2011 – The Jam:
Here are some more photos from last year’s events:
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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A photo adventure through “MEEPLE-2011”. Russia, Krasnoyarsk.
The second specialized board game fair “MEEPLE-2011” took place in December 2011, Russia, Krasnoyrask.
Krasnoyarsk is situated in the geographical center of Russia, in the very heart of Siberia; the distance to both Moscow and Vladivostok is the same.
Most Russian board game companies attended the fair.
This is the second year, when awards in board gaming have been handed out.
You can view the official results of both the fair and awards for 2011 here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/9197/report-meeple-201...
The Jam by RightGames LLC was considered the best Russian game.
I’d like to thank Evgeniy Kuznetcov – the inspiration and organization behind “MEEPLE-2011”. Without his energy, his work and his love for board games, this event wouldn’t have taken place. I’ll make a separate post for this amazing person. Thanks to this man, the board game culture is developing in Russia.
The expo took place at IEC “Siberia” – the biggest exhibition complex in Krasnoyarsk.
To decorate our Rightgame LLC stand we used the banners that traveled with us to Essen, Germany this year.
The organizers of the expo were very creative in decorating the hall. You could see these posters on one of the walls:
These are slightly modified agitation posters dating back to USSR. The first poster reads: “Learn and play with the whole family”, the second one: “The light of board games – for the people”.
The slogan here is: “The skills to win are sharpened through play”.
Here is the whole poster wall.
They read (left to right):
Have YOU played Pandemic yet?
Time for you son to learn to play Puerto Rico!
We believe in our tomorrow.
“The skills to win are sharpened through play”
The exhibition hall was divided into zones where leading companies presented their products. There was a separate tournament zone at the center of the expo. Early in the morning’….
The official opening of the exposition:
Game-participants parade:
On the first day of the expo a tournament on Dixit, which is very popular in Russia, was held, it was sponsored by the official distributor of Asmodee in Russia – the company Lifestyle Ltd..
Michael Balandin, a popular Russian board game observer can be seen in the middle:
Tournament participants:
The expo had a big zone reserved for all those who wished to, look, touch and purchase board games. A real board game bazaar:
A separate section of the expo was reserved for “Best games of the world”:
An excellent idea of the organizers was – “Photo portrait MEEPLE”: During the expo, a few photographers went around taking pictures and added them to a gallery in real-time. All the visitors could find themselves on the photos. The gallery on the first day of the expo.
An employee of Zvezda – Anton Shumilin – teaches to play their latest board game :
A separate section was fully devoted the universe of Warhammer. Here experienced commanders explained and showed what it’s all about.
Ladies and The Thing behind one table
Seminars and lectures were organized at the expo, where leading board game developers took part.
Nikolay Pegasov – business planning director of Hobby World – is conducting a seminar on “Russian board game industry. How it all began”:
Status Belli – the Russian wargame developer also took part in the expo:
The new release from RightGames LLC – Zombie! Run for your lives! - was a big hit:
A team from the role-playing club “Talisman” took part in holding the expo:
Alexander Peshkov – CEO of Lifestyle Ltd. – handing out prizes at the “Each family get’s a board game” event:
Michael Balandin talks about the new Russian game – Brotherhood of Nine: The Hex Strategy Game
Here at the RightGames LLC section Zombies are attacking...
Potion-Making: Practice is as popular as always:
2011 new release – Gobba: ReElection in Big Gobba. It would seem that elections are the “thing” at the moment in lots of countries.
“Board games from Essen” – there was a separate zone at the expo where people could try out the new releases of this year:
A popular board game Jungle Speed:
A new release for 2011 from a new Russian developer - “Save the holiday”.
And now a little photo gallery provided by the organizing committee of the expo.
All photographers are from the children's educational centre photo studio of Krasnoyarsk (www.docentr.ru)
• Ganja Inessa,
• Savranenko Irine,
• Abduhllayeva Parvana,
• Buldegerova Irine.
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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A REPORT ON THE BOARD GAME AREA AT ZILANTCON 2011
What is Zilant? Basically it’s a crossroad of Worlds.
That is how I imagine it.
When in one moment of time you can meet angels, elves, knights, strikeballers, demons, masters, Ladies and Cavaliers, dance tutors, role-players, alchemists, mages, cats, bards, writers, minstrels, people, dwarves…
And all this can be seen for 4 days in one place – at the Lenin’s house of culture.
In this space and time ideas take life, tons of master classes are shown, concerts, balls and many more is planned for next year.
The main moving force here is Enthusiasm and Ideas.
The eyes of all iviving things here burn with inner fire and there’s always too little time for everything.
ZilantCon is held annually for 20 years in Kazan, Russia. This is the most popular and most attended role-player convent in Russia.
And in this unique atmosphere a board game area is held for 10 years now. It’s permanent organizer and ideological inspirer, CEO of the noncommercial partnership “Game Academy” – Alexander Mironov.
www.boardacademy.org
This year RightGames LLC is also supporting the board game area. Even though the organizers of the con did their best, there was never enough seats, with chairs and tables constantly being added.
Out of the new releases presented there were: The Jam, Gobba: ReElection in Big Gobba, Evolution: Time to Fly, the Zombie! Run for your lives! prototype. Tournaments on Magic: The Gathering, Evolution: The Origin of Species and Potion-Making: Practice were held. The hand-painted gift bag to store accessories left ZilantCon with the “Potion-making” tournament champ.
It was possible to purchase board games in their sections.
And now I propose for you to see the unique atmosphere of the Con for yourselves.
Mostly RightGames LLC, Magic: The Gathering and Munchkin were presented in the area.
Beautiful ladies visited the games collection in dresses:
For many years the Tournament Finals on Potion-Making: Practice have been held at Zilant. This year the prize for first place was a hand-painted gift bag to store accessories:
Choreography Hall:
There are always characters from parallel worlds here at Zilant:
The promo-version of Zombie! Run for your lives! was presented at the Con this year even before the original release:
Alexander Mironov in person:
Visitors of the board game area:
Here are a few more pictures from ZilantCon 2011:
Angels and Demons at play
Ladies at the fair
School of Wizardry
A casket for playing “Potion-making”
Wonderful Ladies and Cavaliers at the Ball
At the Fair
Potion-makers:
A Game of Thrones:
Power Grid
Munchkin Quest
Warhammer
Visitors of the board game area:
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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ABC (ABC Russia) continues to organize tournaments for boardgame fans in Russia.
In a joint effort with the publisher Hobby World we announce The Russian Settlers of Catan Championship.
This championship will be a part of the annual World Wide Catan Championship.
http://www.catan.com/eventnews/321-wwcc-the-world-wide-catan...
The tournament rules have been published, for more details check here.
This year Russia for the first time will participate in the preliminary round of World Wide Catan Championship.
Boardgame clubs from 10 major Russian cities will be able to send their champions to the final round in Moscow which will take place on May 27th. The winner of the Russian final will participate in the final games of World Wide Catan Championship which will take place in the USA in September, 14–16.
This is the first boardgame tournament of such scale in our country. The The Settlers of Catan remain one of the most popular boardgames for more than 10 years. This game has introduced to our hobby numerous players, becoming their "first ever" boardgame. We invite all boardgame lovers who can represent the Russian boargaming society at the final round in the USA to participate in the Russian preliminary stage for the World Wide Championship!
Hobby World, the publisher of Russian-language version of The Settlers of Catan, is the principle financial and information supporter of the Russian stage of World Wide Catan Championship. They will provide prizes for the first three places in each of participating cities.
Moreover, Hobby World will finance trips of participants of the final Russian round to Moscow and the trip of the winner to the final round of the Championship in the USA!
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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MEEPLE-2011. The official report.
The exhibit was available for three days.
The 1st day was a club-profi day: some tight packed lectures, tournaments and teaching club promoters’ new games.
Some interesting lectures were read by Ivan Tulovskiy, Nicolay Pegasov, Vladimir Tugarinov, Alexander Peshkov, Michael Balandin, Roman Uglev and others.
The best one was declared to be “Family games. The role of games for couples”, that was prepared by a group of authors and read by Anna Milenina, key client manager in Lifestyle Ltd.
The most popular tournaments were on Magic: The Gathering and Dixit.
The Q&A held with company administrators on the prospect of developing the board game market was very saturated. It was noted on how our games got through to the Western market. RightGames LLC project was awarded with a MEEPLE-2011 diploma on “For the progress and promotion of national designs to the Western board game market”.
An informal partnership party was held for all who could attend. Company plans on new releases were discussed and problems stopping full value work were addressed. A question arose on creating an Association of developers, but it was decided that the development stage of the companies isn’t in need of one at the moment.
A circular table was held on promoting board games. It was decided that a good way to introduce people to gaming would be to hold gaming events where lots of people could attend, including places of public catering.
Clubs and shops with gaming areas are also promising. The companies are willing to support projects that, one way or another, are connected to promoting board games. Hobby World was awarded a MEEPLE-2011 diploma “For active promotion and popularization of board games” that also remarked on its agreement with “Starbucks” to hold events at their coffee shops.
2-3 days – the consumer part of the exhibition-fair. All in all there were 156 game titles, 1900 boxes from companies and other developers: RightGames LLC, Zvezda, Lifestyle Ltd.,Hobby World, Status Belli, “Zany family” by Evgeniy Maslovski, Brotherhood of Nine: The Hex Strategy Game by Maksim Trofimenko.
Over 100 people worked on promotion at the fair from 12 clubs of Krasnoyarsk, Kansk, Kedrovii. There were also 40 animators from the Center of role-playing and historical modeling.
Around 3000 people visited the exhibition.
An event “Each family get’s a board game” was held together with Lifestyle Ltd., 58 families participated and each one got a set of games from company CEO Alexander Peshkov. Lifestyle Ltd. was awarded a diploma “For heavy support of projects, directed at popularizing board games in Russia”.
A Hall of Fame for Russian board games was presented, banners with participants shown. 3 banners were shown: Zvezda, Lifestyle Ltd. and Urii Tapilin.
Uriis’ blog http://www.boardgamer.ru was once again awarded “Best Blog”, while Alexander Gorshechnikovs’ blog 2fishki.ru was awarded “Discovery of the year”.
The hit of popularity and leader of sales at the same time became Geistesblitz by Jacques Zeimet. The game came out in 2010 and was localized in Russia by Lifestyle Ltd..
Geistesblitz is awarded “Hit-2011”.
Some of the games were only available as demos which didn’t allow for full expertise. This mainly concerns new games from Zvezda: Maya, Pharaoh, Star wars, Discworld: Ankh-Morpork. All these games will participate in 2012. The organizing committee noted the high quality of the board games developed by Zvezda. Zvezda is awarded a diploma “For high quality board game development”.
The remaining awards went to:
Best fillerZombie! Run for your lives! By Danila Goryunov, RightGames LLC Best expansionCarcassonne by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, Hobby WorldBest party gameGiftTrap by Nick Kellet, Lifestyle Ltd.Best development gameSkyscrapers by Christophe Boelinger and Andrea Mainini, ZvezdaBest 2-player game Dragonheart by Rüdiger Dorn, Hobby WorldBest adventure gameVan Helsing by Frederic Moyersoen, ZvezdaBest children gameMonkeyland by Reiner Knizia, ZvezdaBest co-op gameForbidden Island by Matt Leacock, Lifestyle Ltd.Best tactical gameBrotherhood of nine by Maksim TrofimenkoBest family gameAgricola by Uwe Rosenberg, Hobby WorldBest strategy gameCivilization by Kevin Wilson, Hobby WorldBest national gameThe Jam by Sergey Machin, RightGames LLC GAME OF THE YEAR - Agricola by Uwe Rosenberg, Hobby World
To be continued...
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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On the eve of women’s day – 8th of March, this is also an official holiday in Russia, ABC and RightGames LLC project have decided to hold a photo contest “Female boardgamer 2012” .
We all know that board gaming is mostly a man’s sport. The more we cherish those women, who share this hobby, submerging themselves completely or at least partly.
The contest was held from the 27th of February till 11th of March.
The judges of the contest were all men, all know in the Russian world of boardgames.
The main criteria for the photos were:
Emotionality,
Artistry,
Something out of the ordinary.
As prizes, the winners received boardgames from the RightGames LLC project.
There were 131 photos sent to the contest from all the corners of Russia. 20 participants made it to the half finals.
The judges:
Alexander Belyakov,
Timothy Bokarev,
Alexander Bulgakov,
Mihail Loiko,
Urii Tapilin,
Maksim Trofimenko,
Ivan Tulovskiy.
The judges had a hard time – there were too many good works presented.
But in the end they came to a verdict!
Without further a due (drum roll please)!
By the decision of the impartial and fair judges, first place goes to Veronika Uriievna from Severodvinsk with her photo work.
We congratulate Veronika! We hope Veronika will tell us about herself, her hobbies and about her club “Continent Ra”, how this work was done.
Second place (Keep those drums going) goes to Anna Pryalkova from Krasnodar, “It’s your move” club, with her photo work.
Third place goes to Anna Simonova. This participant is also from the Krasnodar club “It’s your move”
We congratulate all the authors of these amazing works!
But that’s not all.
Even though we didn’t announce this earlier, but everyone who looked through the photos pointed out their opinions with “Like”. And so the most “Likes” go to Pogodina Maria from Nizhny Novgorod.
Congratulations Maria!
You will also receive the game Underwood for being chosen by the people.
So once again, ABC and RightGames LLC congratulate all participants of the contest.
Playing boardgames with you makes it double the fun!
Here is a list of all the works sent to the contest.
There are many beautiful Women in Russia
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Ivan Tulovskiy
Russian Federation
Moscow
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Recently Russia received it’s very own game about Zombies.
Popular blogger and boardgamer
Yury Tapilin
Russian Federation
Unspecified
had an interview with the creator of the game.
We took it upon ourselves, with the permission of the author, to translate the Russian text to English for everyone to read.
A Multilanguage edition of the game will be available to order on Ebay starting February 2012 Zombie! Run for your lives!.
You may view the original Russian version of the interview here:
http://www.boardgamer.ru/intervyu-s-daniloj-goryunovym
Today we will be chatting with Danila Goryunov, known as the co-author of The Kingdoms of Crusaders and now for the latest release of RightGames LLC – Zombie! Run for your lives!.
U.T.: Danila, hello! Thanks for letting us have this chat!
D.G.: Good day! You’re welcome!
U.T.: Tell us a little about yourself. What do you do and enjoy apart from board games?
D.G.: I enjoy a lot of things; it’s hard to name them all. But most of my time goes on the functionality of social systems.
U.T.: If it’s not too hard what are a few of your hobbies? And could you also tell us what’s “functionality of social systems”.
D.G.: War history, material history, mythology, fencing, linguistics, volleyball to name a few. Well for example watching the behavior of people playing Zombie! Run for your lives! comes close to what I do most of my time.
U.T.: Wow! Who are you actually watching after? Maybe you could tell us what other games show functionality of social systems? Are there some criteria that can be found to categorize a game like that?
D.G.: I do watch gaming societies, but mostly just ants. Any game that has more than two players can be classified as social. The more people playing the more complex and full the system becomes. All those “MMORPG” like WoW are a perfect example.
U.T.: It’s been four years since the release of your previous game. Is Zombie! Run for your lives! the first project during that period or were you working on something else?
D.G.: Let’s just say that except for the expansion to The Kingdom of Crusaders: Ordonnance this is the only own that made it to the end.
U.T.: Why the only one? Where the others rejected or simply postponed?
D.G.: There were technical difficulties with some; some are being worked on to get them to playable condition, for some there’s just no time left and some will be making an appearance soon.
U.T.: We are talking about card games right? How difficult are these projects? Are they for newbies like in The Kingdoms of Crusaders and Zombie! Run for your lives! or will this be for hardcore players?
D.G.: Mostly card games but we have some others in progress. What do you mean by a difficult game? Are checkers a difficult game? If by difficult you mean one that has a very complex gaming mechanic and a 15 page rulebook then no – all the games will have simple rules. The main idea is to make the game for all players to be able to play but keeping in mind the more experienced gamers (like with Zombie! Run for your lives! where they can relax).
U.T.: How was Zombie! Run for your lives! born? Did you have an order on a certain card game? What came first the idea of the mechanics?
D.G.: We didn’t have any orders. The idea came first and to this idea we tried different mechanics.
U.T.: What did you try? Were there any other competitors to the final card mechanic during development? Was the game planned to be a card game without counters and a field?
D.G.: If by competitors you mean during “alpha testing” then we only did the final mechanic. All rejected ones will possibly be realized in future games so I’ll drop the details. Zombie! Run for your lives! was planned as a card game from the very beginning. You need a “gaming table” for counters and a field while we wanted to make a universal game.
U.T.: Where did you get the idea with zombies? How do you really feel for the living dead? Do you like movies, books or games based on zombies?
D.G.: The zombie idea appeared due to monitoring of flash browser games. I came across a great zombie game and couldn’t remember even one board game about zombies in Russian and you know the rest. I don’t really feel for the living dead. Theer are a few great movies about zombies – I like those.
U.T.: How long was the path from the beginning of the game to the first print run? How did the testing go? How many people participated in development?
D.G.: A bit over half a year. But it’s really summers fault we could have done it in a month. Testing was rather fun and fervent. The entire RightGames LLC team took part in development.
U.T.: Sergey Machin once mentioned that he wanted to make a game about zombies. Did you discuss any ideas, mechanics with him?
D.G.: Well since that was a long time ago the question is more philosophic, was it Sergey who said something about a zombie game or was it me who told him about a completed mechanic of “Zombies”. Mechanics discussed, I mean we discussed the mechanics, argued on some of the parts for a few days which in turn made the game what it is today.
U.T.: What did you argue about? Who won the argument?
D.G.: Oh different things, from the card design to how emotional the game should turn out to be. Unless we were arguing about the exact same thing just phrased differently, then a hybrid of our thoughts won the argument.
U.T.: Was the game originally planned as a social game? How did you determine the number of players? Why is the allowed maximum 7 people (why not 6)?
D.G.: No, first we wanted to do an ultramassacre of unlimited zombie hordes. Then the “social” mechanic came to mind. Test showed that it’s even better. We tested the amount of players, with 7 players there were enough cards.
U.T.: Were there any massive changes to the game during development? During testing? During your work with RightGames LLC?
D.G.: “Eaten” players were allowed to continue playing as a zombie. And we didn’t have the “roaches” in the beginning.
U.T.: Where did those “roaches” come from? How did you get the motivation to add them?
D.G.: Those cockroaches just came themselves! They make the game fast paced. And since only up to 7 people can play, they were considered useful and left in the game.
U.T.: As far as I understand the “roaches” are a rubbish card. Once a player gets it in front of him there’s no way to get rid of it. So the point of this card is to play it on your friend? Or is there more to it?
D.G.: It’s not rubbish. It’s actually a very stable card! Chuck on your buddy and his chances of surviving will be as close to zero as zero.
U.T.: Did you want to change anything in the game on the last stages? Are you satisfied with the results?
D.G.: The “last stage” was the one where we didn’t want to change anything else. There aren’t any results yet – let’s wait and see how popular “Zombies” can be.
U.T.: It may be a bit too soon to ask but do you plan on any expansions for Zombie! Run for your lives!?
D.G.: If they’ll be required they’ll definitely appear.
U.T.: Thanks for your time Daniil! It was nice talking to you! Could you spare a few words to our readers at BoardGamer.ru, wish them something.
D.G.: Likewise! I’d like to wish the readers a lot more good and more importantly Right games. And play Zombie! Run for your lives! – it really is fun!
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