Sfruttando la gentile disponibilità offerta da Brent Keith ecco una intervista su Infinite City e sui programmi della casa editrice AEG.
First of all, can you briefly present yourselves (both as author and as a company) ?
I am Brent Keith, resident designer and developer for AEG. After getting a degree in Math and programming for a few years after that, I started playtesting various AEG games – notably Warlord and Legend of the Five Rings. As time progressed I sent in many card ideas for both games, became the official rules person for Warlord, and when the job of Warlord lead designer opened up, was offered the position. I served in that role for a while, then moved to lead design for Legend of the Five Rings for a few years, and since then I have been extremely active in the new board game division both with some of my own designs as well as helping develop and polish other people’s designs. These days I spend most of my time working in various roles on bringing games to press, ranging from doing my own designs to overseeing art and graphics to editing to layout – wearing a variety of hats per project, as tends to be true with anybody in a small company.
AEG, short for Alderac Entertainment Group, started in the early 90’s with Shadis magazine, which focused on many different aspects of gaming. Around that time, Magic took off, and AEG teamed up with Isomedia to jump on the CCG bandwagon with Legend of the Five Rings. Since then, AEG has produced many CCGs (notable titles include Warlord: Saga of the Storm, Doomtown, and 7th Sea), role playing games (7th Sea, L5R, Spycraft, and World’s Largest Dungeon are well known), and other occasional projects like Clan War (L5R miniatures game). Recently, AEG has started to dip into the board game market, as seen with such titles as Tomb, Adventurers, Thunderstone, and – of course – Infinite City.
How did you decide to enter in the boardgame market (as AEG) ?
There were two main factors involved. First, the market for both RPGs and new CCGs has grown extremely tight over the past few years, for a variety of reasons. While Legend of the Five Rings has done very well for us both as a CCG and as an RPG, if we want to grow as a company we need to branch out beyond that. Board games have been doing very well, so it was logical for us to try to step into that market. Second, within the company, many of us enjoy board games a lot, and have been itching to try our hand at creating some. Put the two together, and the way forward was clear.
How much time have you been working on Infinite City ? Did you pass through a lot of playtesting ?From the moment where I first had the core idea for the game to the day of release, it was a little bit more than a year. During early months there was a good amount of playtest, specially with regard to making sure the rules and text were as clear as possible.
Are there some rules you decided during the process of creation of the game to delete ?
I would not so much say “delete” as “change”. The biggest area which was changed was the scoring rules, which went through many incarnations due to early versions being clunky and difficult.
It appears that the game could be a bit luck oriented (maybe too much..?). Is it right ? I had this idea since the mechanism allows some’domino reactions’ and a lot could depend on having in your hand the right tiles … ( I even thought to some potential tweak to the rules,maybe allowing – during the initial setup – to the players to choose -one at a time, clockwise order – the first 5 tiles, from a common face-up pool) … Any comment on this ?
Some of our goals for the game were a different experience each time it is played (for higher replay value), ease of rules, and having a game which gamers could enjoy themselves as well as pull out for the rest of their non-gamer family and friends. Given the tastes of many in that crowd, I aimed for a game which was a blend of luck and strategy, with a lot of variety coming out in the randomness tempered by the tactical use of what is drawn. That being said, a variation which is catching on (enough that I may put it as an official variation in reprint rules) is to have a pool of five tiles face up, and when refilling the hand at the end the turn the player may pull from the face up tiles or from the face down tiles. (If any face up tiles are taken, refill the face-up pool once the hand is full.)
Can be correct to define this game (smiling) as ‘where Dominion meets Carcassonne’ ?
It is certainly a cousin to Carcassonne, in that tiles are placed with the intent of controlling area. It is also a cousin to Castle, where players put down tiles from the hand then follow the directions on the tile. Dominion seems a bit of a stretch, since to my mind the key feature of Dominion is building your deck as the game progresses. It does bear a common ancestor to Dominion, though: collectable card games, and other such games where a major part of the rules is carried on the individual cards or tiles. Given both my own background as well as AEG’s in CCG design, this is a very natural way for us to raise replay value.
Did you plan expansions ?
Assuming the basic game does as well as we believe it will, absolutely!
Graphic seems to be really awesome and a trademark of some of your last creations … Do you agree ?
I am a little biased here, but I definitely agree! One area where we have prided ourselves for many years is the visual appeal of our games, and we are very picky about letting a game out which does not look good.
With this particular game, I will go a step further and say that the game was inspired by the art – or at least the artist. We have been using Charles Urbach for a few years now with L5R, especially on stronghold cards which depict key locations and castles within the setting. I got to wondering how to do a game which would showcase his talent with painting buildings, and the basic concept of the game was born.
Is it one of your objectives to strike immediately the imaginations of potential buyers ?
Absolutely!
You’re free to express some good reasons for my readers to buy your game .. 😉
Reason 1: It is fun!
Reason 2: It looks gorgeous!
Reason 3: The complete rules are printed on a single sheet of paper!
Reason 4: Setup and packing up take very little time, so you can be
playing within just a few minutes of first opening the box!
Reason 5: The designer is so gosh-darned humble, and never overuses exclamation points!
What’s the intended target (kind of players) for this game ?
As mentioned above, I wanted this to be a game which gamers could pull and and have fun mongst themselves, and could also invite in non-gamer friends and family without the rules and game play being a barrier. This is not the game for people who want a long-term brain-busting strategy game, but it should be good for people wanting a very tactical game with a lot of back and forth move and countermove.
Is it planned a distribution also in Italy ? Maybe a translation ?
Yes, and I hope so. I do not know the status of any deals myself, as other folk in the company typically handle arranging such partnerships.
When and where interested buyers will able to buy it in Europe ?
Now! As to where, you should be able to find it and/or order it at the stores and venues which normally carry this style of game. (Sorry, I just do not know the European market at that level very well. When I have visited in the past, the only game stores I personally ran across were owned by a single manufacturer, and not a good example to base opinions on.)
Do you have other projects running (boardgames oriented) ? Can you tell something about those ?
Yes, I have a few in the pipeline. Coming out in a few weeks (depending on transit times and customs times) is Myth: Pantheons, a trick-based game in which each player takes on the role of an ancient deity vying for followers in locations all over the globe. Each deity has a special ability and a special hand of cards representing their powers and influence, such as Anubis with his scales of judgement, Thor with his hammer, Amaterasu carrying her sword and mirror, Jupiter and his lightning, and Athena with her owl and shield. As the game progresses players claim different locations such as Rome, Troy, Athens, Kyoto, Babylon, and other notable population centers of times past – each of which confers special benefits upon their patron deity.
Later this year, we will be releasing Tomb of Iuchiban, the next in the Tomb line. Like Cryptmaster, it can be played alone or mixed with the previous releases. However, Tomb of Iuchiban taps into the Legend of the Five Rings setting, using characters, monsters, quests, spells, items, and so forth from the L5R universe. In this, we introduce mechanics for clan loyalty (as the clans are very major features in L5R!), personal honor, dueling, and other setting-appropriate features.
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