Only a few months after Western Empires was released in late 2019, COVID-19 struck the world and people were not allowed to come together, no conventions were held… Well… You must have read something about the situation in the world….
This also proved a big struggle for the promotion of our game, which has a minimum number of 5 players, but preferably is played by the full 9 players. This situation lasted at least 2 years, in which our game could hardly be played when following the Covid restrictions. It remained invisible for a long time due to this…
We decided to postpone our 2020 release of the follow-up and keystone Eastern Empires and took our time to develop new features. The number one request of the worldwide fanbase that love the game, but not always has 5 players available is: Make the game accessible to a smaller player count.
So we worked hard on the additions that support 3 and 4 players as a minimum for both editions. Since our game was always developed to support larger groups, and the game system is based on geopolitics, we had to invent new rule adjustments as a variation. We have spent a large part of 2020 to do so, with a strong online testing team, which came from all players sitting at home due to lockdowns. Dozens of players worldwide helped us test the new features.
This resulted in a nice feature that can be implemented in both versions. The two piece Western/Eastern Empires was concluded with the release of Eastern Empires in 2021 through a very successful Kickstarter Campaign where we achieved 500% of the eventual goal. Funded in 2 hours.
Summary Made by Flo: design, Project management, development, creation of testable prototype, testing, writing the rulebook, editing the rulebook, theme development, art direction, production briefing.
Read the full designer’s story on BoardGameGeek.
Made by Flo
Flo de Haan
Maria Rutgersland 31
1705 MA, Heerhugowaard
Netherlands
KvK/CoC: 37164412