Hi Guys.

As many of you know there have been changes in management and ownership with ProLudo. The company will now go back to solely distributing games and ceased it's publishing activities. When this was announced I assured you all that this would not affect Age of Piracy as this was what I was told. The producer from ProLudo simply went to another company and spearheaded the project from there. I was told that everyone loved the game and it would be ready in time for GenCon (and I kept working to finalize things). However it turns out that this company also got a new manager and Age of Piracy was not the kind of pirate game he was looking for. So after wasting a year of jumping through hoops to please everyone I was informed about the games cancellation in a brief email (a day before my deadline to finalize all the content!).

Obviouslt this both saddens and angers me to no end. I have spent an enormous effort, time and finances to see this out the door and to have it shelved due to random changes in management is heartbreaking.

What all this means is that we are now actively seeking out new publishers. However realistically it will be very hard to get a publisher to do such a component heavy “semi-ameritrash” game – and even if we get one it will take quite a while before the new publisher will have it ready.

I want to sincerely thank you all for your interest and support and hope that you will be playing this game some day. I still honestly believe that this is the pirate game that is missing from the lot.

Kind regards,
Christian

Sad news indeed!

Good luck on your effort to publish the game!

Good luck. I think many people here will keep watching for news and hope you can succeed in a large distribution for the game at some point in the future.

Very sad, indeed!

It was (still is) in my whishlist! I believe you'll get someone to publish it, if it's a good game!

I hate to thumb this thread, as it means I have to miss out on THE game I've been looking forward to most (hopefully only a while longer), but I want this thread to stay on top, so as many people as possible in the gaming community can see it and hopefully chip in with advice, contacts or whatever else they might come up with which helps Christian make "Age of piracy" real.

I am sorry to hear this news Christian. I must say that you are acting very valiantly and not letting your anger and frustration affect your obvious appreciation of the support you have got here at the Geek. That is comendable, although that won't really make you feel better, it would be much better to be gracious and humble about having had a great game published I am sure. I wish I new some publishers so that you could be helped out, as it seems to have generated alot of interest. All I can say is good luck and hope to see Age of Piracy published soon.

Just wanted to add my name to the list of the disappointed. I have hopes that it will see the light of publication somewhere. Best of luck to you.

I am sorry that it didn't turn out the way we all hoped. In retrospect I find it quite funny how aggressive the Pro Ludo people sometimes answered the threads here, when someone asked about publishing dates.

Christian, please remember: if your game is as good as everybody says it is (and I have no doubt about it), then you will find a publisher sooner or later. I sincerely hope it will be sooner. Any chance of reviving Bloodline Games and self-publish it? It seems to be working for a company like Flying Frog.

Dude, that just sucks. I can tell you put your heart & soul into this game. For your sake, I hope you find a way to make Age of Piracy a reality one day.

*Arghhhh* - I hope this is just a temporary set back and some publisher steps up to the plate. On the geek, there's been a lot of interest in this game and surely that's got to give a leg up when trying to find a new publisher.

BTW, I'm especially sad because I was slated to get a copy of the game when published (as the winner of the name the game contest). My daughter was even kind of impressed, sort of, maybe a little bit, I think, when I told her that I had named a Pirate game.

Valley Games
135 Woodglen Place
Okotoks, Alberta, Canada
T1S 1L2
Phone: (403) 819-6996
Fax: (403) 290-2207

info@valleygames.ca

INDEED!!!! Good game + Good company!

Well, this is disappointing...but I do believe that this game WILL one day be published...please keep us posted.

Man, does that suck. I really hope Valley Games or FFG (or some other company) picks this one up.

Oh no! I remember the days where you would pop into geekchat and talk about the game with us. I hope you do get this printed!

Bummer. We need good pirate / sea games hope you can find some one willing to help you pick up the ball and run with it

huge bummer specially when so close to the finish line

As an amateur game designer, I can't even begin to imagine the excitement of having a large game that you've spent countless hours working on picked up by a publisher and professionally produced. And I cannot remotely fathom the extreme heartbreak that would result from seeing the whole thing get tanked just as it was on the verge of being released. If it feels like a crushing blow for us, I don't want to know what Christian must be feeling.

Like many users on this site, I've been waiting for the "definitive" pirate game to be released, ever since the phantom Sid Meier's Pirates!: The Boardgame was first announced (and as some of you know, that was a LONG time ago!). A year or two ago, a small group of piratey games appeared on the horizon and looked like they held a lot of promise. One by one they arrived, I read reviews and some rulebooks, and they promptly fell off my radar. Winds Of Plunder looked like a far too abstract, Euro-style game. Blackbeard, on the opposite end of the spectrum, bears far too much of a resemblance to those terribly complicated hex-and-counter war games that I've discovered I don't enjoy, and even SeaRovers, while an absolutely stunning-looking game, seems to employ too many of those Euro-style elements. This left the most promising candidate of all, Merchants & Marauders, as my final hope for the swashbuckling, sailing the high seas, game of piratical adventure that I've been yearning for.

Do you know what this means? I am now going to have to sit down and spend countless hours designing my own pirate game. While I had started to do so some time ago, I was hoping that all those new releases would save me the trouble.

I am sad, disappointed, frustrated, a little angry, somewhat gassy, and I have no idea what to say to Christian other than, if another publisher decides to pick up his game, you've got one future customer right here.

And as "the bored gamer" pointed out, it is very difficult to thumb this post because I don't want to in any way imply approval for the decision to cancel this game, but I've done so as a show of support for Christian.

Hold it together, Josh, real pirates don't cry. There, that's better.

Thanks for updating the status of this game, even if it's bad news.

Don't give up, Christian! The game is surely well-polished by now and it looked to me as though it would fill a niche in piracy games in a fresh way.

Valley is a good suggestion; I'd preorder this one in a minute. Consider also FFG, which has recently published several out-of-house designs and is fearless when it comes to 3D components.

DO NOT GIVE UP! Someone will surely come along and break the logjam for us.

Drat, I was very much looking forward to this game!

What a bummer, Christian!
I had hoped ProLudo would have been able to pull it through - but they have made a lot of wrong decisions when looking a their catalogue, so maybe it is for the best!

Now we just have to find you another publisher.
I still have full confidence in the project!

Good luck. This game had been on my list too. Here's hoping that a new opportunity presents itself for AoP.

When I first read that PL will publish this game, my first thought was "This is bad, wrong company for a good game".

Unfortunately I was right

I hope you will find a good publisher soon and I promise to be one of the first persons to purchase your game !

Good luck

I was wondering when a game like this was going to come out. I don't know if you have contacted Fantasy Flight Games but they seem to be always looking for new ideas.

As long as this game gets published I will be happy and yes I will buy a copy as soon as it comes out.

Christian,

Really sorry to hear about the drawback. Take it as a turnaround for the better future. Maybe one port was closed but there's plenty of new ones waiting for plundering.