Game plan: Architects of their own success
A board game devised on a dining room table in Lower Hutt is going into production after raising $500,000 from fans online.
Architects Of The West Kingdom, created by Sam Macdonald and Shem Phillips, raised $526,052 in less than a month through crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.
The funding campaign attracted 5083 backers, many of whom preordered the game, from around the world.
The concept was thought up by Macdonald, who began developing the game a year ago by himself.
He later looked to his mate, Phillips, a professional game publisher, for feedback and the two eventually began working on the project together.
This is Macdonald’s first experience of game development, having picked up the board game bug only in the past couple of years.
He was blown away when the crowdfunding effort began approaching $500,000. ‘‘I didn’t think it would do this well.’’
He put the early attention down to the fast and complex gameplay. "It’s really different each time you play. You don’t rely on the luck of dice rolls. The game is directed though the decisions you and other players make.’’
The ‘‘worker placement game’’ can be played solo or by up to five people. Players strategically ‘‘invest’’ workers to gather resources and points are scored by constructing buildings.
Morality also has a bearing on the outcome, with deductions for dirty deals and bonuses for being good. The aim is to have the most points by the end of the game.
More than 5000 copies of Architects have been pre-ordered through Kickstarter.
The game, part of a planned trilogy, is now in pre-production and will be shipped to backers by December. It is being published in a number of languages.
Phillips, who runs Garphill Games from his Ka¯piti Coast home, said Architects had had the most successful funding campaign of the 15 games he had produced over the past 11 years.
Phillips has been a fulltime game producer for just over a year, and said Kickstarter had been a vital part of his business.
‘‘If I didn’t do Kickstarter, I’d have to be travelling overseas a lot to conventions to promote the games. Kickstarter allows Kiwis to get on the map.’’
Despite the early success of the game, Macdonald said he wasn’t tempted to follow Phillips into fulltime design.
‘‘As long as people enjoy [the game] and each other’s company, I’ll be stoked.’’