More Media for After the Empire!

Hi, folks! Just some more updates if you’re still on the fence or looking for more content regarding After the Empire! Also, check out these channels listed below as there are some amazing reviewers and shows down there that you may really click with!

Did you know After the Empire is on Tabletopia now!? Check it out here!

Here’s a quick recommendation from Grant’s Game Recs! These are hilarious if you haven’t seen them before!

Here’s Rahdo recapping his experience with After the Empire @43:27. Thank you, sir! We’re definitely hoping to be able to create a great fantasy version for you and Jen to enjoy in the future! It’s on our list of expansions that we’ve got lots of ideas for and we’re very excited to work on! He said lots of very nice things like “This game is a fantastic super atmospheric worker placement game,” “The game was a blast,” “The combat in this game is phenomenal,”. and noted the beta version of solo mode was “a great solo variant” that “works fantastic.” Thank you so much!

Here’s a great overview and review from Board Game Perspective, who declared “I love this game. It’s so good.” Thank you so much!

Here’s Alex and crew on the Quackalope Podcast. Thanks for all the kind words, Alex! We’re definitely hoping to bring you some expansions! He says, “This game is amazingly fun!”

Here’s Alex mentioning his upcoming review @25:56, and calling After the Empire “so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so good.” Thanks, again! Looking forward to that review, Alex!

Here’s an overview and review by Two Sheep One Wheat. Thank you for making it through a difficult first play and I liked your suggestion for a learning game on one side of the player boards!

Here’s an extensive review with Analises Paralisis, who I don’t think really enjoyed their experience, but if someone speaks Spanish, please let me know! Thanks for giving it a try!

Here’s I believe a Polish channel, Gierkowo Express, discussing After the Empire @52:16. Hopefully, they said nice things! Let me know if anyone can speak the language!

Here’s a video about catch up mechanisms by Jamey Stegmaier, in which he briefly mentions @0:54 the thematics of your gold also being victory points in addition to bringing additional threat from the invaders, calling it “really, really clever.”

Here’s a link to the BGG page where Bill Koff made some sweet background playlists for After the Empire! Check it out!

Thanks everyone for all your support! If you missed the kickstarter and want all the goodies or upgrades, keep your eyes out for a Gamefound campaign very soon! It will feature the new solo mode, which you can order seperately!

Hitting the Scene!

Hi, everyone!

Just putting out of a few cool updates on After the Empire: reviews, unboxing, playthroughs, etc!

Here’s Tom Vasel @7:12 giving us a 9/10 rating! We’re glad to hear he’s still enjoying it and saying nice things like it’s “a great, fun, terrific game.”

In other news, we were on the BGG hotness for about a week solid, capping at an astounding #2 on Tuesday, February 16th!

Ryan and I were invited on as guests on this local podcast called Spellstorm Miniatures, where we chat about gaming and After the Empire! Thanks for having us!

We were tipped off by Tom Headington and his friend, who found and 3d printed these awesome flame minis from thingiverse that fit nicely in the towers and replaced our flame tokens.

Our friend Rodger Moore did some awesome painting of the wood and stone castle pieces!

Here’s an unboxing and gameplay video from our friends at Board Game Gumbo!

We were mentioned in the BGA potcast @14:00 here!

Liege of Games covered After the Empire @14:55 here!

Here’s a setup and gameplay video from Jeff. Thanks, Jeff!

The Board Game Rundown did an unboxing here! Thanks guys!

Here’s an unboxing video from Lance Kirkman! Thanks, Lance!

Here’s an unboxing video from SoCalSabre

Thanks everyone for all your support and patience! Let’s keep it going so Grey Fox will have us make some expansions!

After the Empire in Action!

Hi, Everyone!

Folks are starting to get their games and we’re starting to see After the Empire pop up in exciting places! Here are some highlights:

Tom Vasel and Roy Cannaday had some very nice things to say about ATE during this recent playthrough for their Dice Tower kickstarter happening RIGHT NOW! Go check it out and pickup promo pack C if you want 2 new cards for After the Empire, plus promos for other great games like Lost Ruins of Arnak, Reavers of Midgard, Summoner Wars, Isle of Cats, and Robinson Crusoe. Thanks for the kind words guys and best wishes!

So, what’s in the box!? Check out this very helpful unboxing video by Zatu Games.

Dustin Staats and Rodger Moore of the Board Gaming with Education podcast had some very nice things to say about ATE (and our friend Tim Eisner’s March of the Ants) in their list of Top Board Games that Taught us Something in 2020.

We also made it into our local news! Nolan Good at Willamette Week reached out to us and ended up publishing this very nice article about our game.

Let us know if you see any other recent news about this game that we missed!

Thanks everyone for your patience and support! We really appreciate it! If you’ve had the chance to receive and play After the Empire, please go rate it on BGG!

After the Empire at Origins!

We were busy this past weekend in Columbus, OH demoing After the Empire! It’s always a fun convention, as it falls on the same weekend as the Pride Parade, which runs right past the convention center. We got a another chance to hang out with the awesome Grey Fox Games folks and do some more development work with them. Check out Alex from Grey Fox discussing ATE here at about minute 7:00. The timeline for the kickstarter is still not set in stone at this point, but sometime in the next few months is the plan. Here’s what our demo setup looked like:

While we were there, we also had the opportunity to sit down with a few other publishers to take a look at our zombie game, a fishing game, our hex map adventure combat game, and moved things forward with the likely publisher of Mountain God’s Revenge, which is getting close to being our second officially signed game!

A Surprise Quasi-Interview

We were recently contacted by a group working on a game creation centered story-telling project for a large sporting goods company. They had lots of questions regarding the creation of games. I’m modifying the format to fit this blog, but here’s generally what was asked and answered if you find such discussions interesting:

1) Take us through what you think makes a great game and perhaps some key considerations that you make.

Maybe I'm pigeon holing your company here, but I'm assuming they're looking more for a physical game, like basketball or hopscotch, whereas we create tabletop board games. I've never created a more physical type of game and don't see myself as a great story-teller. That being said, there are inevitably some overlaps between the two disciplines. Off the top of my head, these might include:
- must balance excitement of possibility with frustration of randomness
- must reward skill and practice while not turning away new players (unless high level competitive)
- minimize 1 off rules and exceptions for smoother and more consistent common sense gameplay
- minimize player elimination or waiting times in longer contests (games lasting >15-20 minutes)
- setting limitations and parameters up front is important

I'm sure there are many more, but I'm not sure I quite understand the specifics of what you're looking for. Also, some games are quite popular despite breaking 1 or many of these rules, so they're more general recommendations rather than game design commandments. So, hopefully that helps.

2) What brings people together and allows them to bond around a set of arbitrary rules?

This very much differs depending on the game. You'll notice the sort of folks that come together to play a heavy Euro board game do not have high cross over rates with folks who come together to play basketball. So, the answer is game and genre specific. The only common denominator is perhaps exactly what you said...something brings people together around a set of arbitrary rules. Depending on the game and genre, these might include: drive for excellence, competition, community, finding tribe, interest in game subject or theme, enjoy physical exertion, enjoy mental exertion, tradition and history, drive for notoriety, drive for money, healthier alternatives to other activity choices, feeling able to express self in the game's context.

2) Why do people continue to invent games when, surely, there must be enough out there already?

I would ask in return, why do people keep writing books? Surely, there are enough books. Your real question is, why do people create when we have everything required for living? For us it started with a basic knowledge of what was out there and the desire to play something a little different, the whim and will to try to make it ourselves. Our first game was initially just for us to play and a fun exercise to accomplish, but eventually we realized others might really like it, too. Many other reasons could include: money, notoriety, sense of accomplishment/acceptance, a need to express oneself in a medium of preference, a feeling of duty or pleasure as it may improve the lives of self or others, sense of purpose/meaning, desire to shape self-identity.

3) What drives game development - culture, environment, beliefs?

Yes, plus self.

4) How do you take action and test an idea?

Again, this will vary greatly depending on the game. General rules are: set intention, ideate, shape to restrictions, make sure it answers or fulfills intention, update, start with the minimum work/money necessary to create a working prototype, test it with self to find flaws, update, test it with trusted groups to find flaws, update, repeat until it's the best you think it can be, test with outside groups, update, repeat until it's the best you think it can be. There are more specifics depending on genre/game and whether you intend to just play it yourself at home, want to sell it to the public, want to sell it to another company, etc.