After the success of their first Kickstarter for the Firespitter, Goblin King Games are back with the follow up, I caught up with them to ask them a few questions about how it was going.
The style of these models remind me of Labyrinth and the artwork by Josh Kirby and Paul Kidby from the Diskworld books, is this what was intended when you set out to design them?
GKG: Absolutely! All of us at Goblin King Games have a very strong appreciation for the aesthetics of superb artist such as Brian Froud and Paul Bonner, and growing up as children of the eighties and nineties both Diskworld, and The Labyrinth were heavy influences in our lives. It makes sense that as we grew up we pledged ourselves to following this artistic style forward with our own imaginations.
The game has some pretty interesting mechanics including picking the type of attack you are going to attempt and then both players revealing them simultaneously. I expect this has led to some interesting battles in development?
GKG: Ha! You are not wrong there! So many of our games have resulted in truly cinematic experiences, where one character, against all the odds is close to death sealing doom for that troupe. However, through careful tactics, and anticipation by the player, they have been able to swing the tide in their favour, parry away the incoming attacks and strike into the heart of their attacker, before quickly grabbing the fallen Moonstones and claiming victory, of course.
Bluffing is another great new mechanic in this game, can you go into any detail about all the cool things that can happen during the arcane actions?
GKG: the bluffing mechanics makes for extremely interesting interactions, why just the other day we had a situation where Firespitter, our Flamethrowing Goblin, was trying to pick off a Human healer. He lined up the shot and released a torrent of flame. The player tried to bluff his way to get a nice damage modifier to get rid of that pesky healer, but his opponent was having none of it, saw through the bluff and managed to turn the attack into a catastrophe! Instead of burning the target to a crisp, Firespitter’s fuel-line ruptured and exploded, dealing Firespitter a nasty amount of damage, and even killing Shabbaroon, a neighbouring Goblin who got too close to our beloved Firespitter!
Can you tell me about how you felt during the success of the first Kickstarter for the Firespitter? It must have been great to see your ideas come to life.
GKG: There are no words to say just how exciting, honouring, humbling, and terrifying it is to see that funding goal not only met, but broken and smashed.
We entered our first campaign having no idea if people would like our art direction, but to see the number of people who not only like your work, but they like it enough to put their own hard earned cash behind it… Well, as I said, there are no words to describe that feeling.
Do you have any advice to people who want to bring a dream design like this to reality?
GKG: This might sound a little hokey, but honestly, the best way of getting started is to do exactly that, get started.
It doesn’t matter what it is you like doing, be it creating a world setting or writing a rule set, get started and throw your ideas into the universe and see what sticks.
With social media and digital distribution the way it is, you will quickly find out if your ideas can gain traction, and if so then keep going!
But like with many things, it is always easier to shoulder a burden if you have someone else to share the weight with, so find someone who you can work with, the ying to your yang, the bottom up to your top down, and get working, and before you know it, at the very least you will have a game system that you and your friends can sit down and enjoy, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what we’re all here for?
Are these models painted in house or by a separate company?
GKG: Currently from our range there are two painted models that you can set your eyes on.
The first is Firespitter, the namesake of our first campaign. This paint job was actually done by our head designer of Moonstone, while his friend, Baron Von Fancyhat, the poster-boy of the game, was painted by Ben McIntyre of Brush Demon studios.
Do you have a favourite? If you could only produce one of the new models which one would you pick and why?
GKG: I realise this must sound like a cop-out answer, but honestly there are so many fantastic characters in our lineup including the renown Baron Von Fancyhat, with his overly flamboyant, and very fancy hat, to Doug the Flatulent, a Goblin who rides around on his loyal steed, which just so happens to be a large pug!
But that is not to say we have reached critical mass with our character designs. Within our internal development we have created plenty of additional characters which we can not wait to show off to everyone should the opportunity reveal itself.
What’s on your wish list to create if you had an unlimited budget?
GKG: With our current campaign we have two waves of models planned, this covers two boxes of Humans, two boxes of Goblins, a Giant, a Troll, two boxes of Faeries, and two boxes of Gnomes. If we were to grab that fabled pot of gold and be able to make the entire lineup we have planned right now, then that would be incredible and you would see many more wonderful and whimsical characters gracing your tabletop in no time at all!
Before we go, where would you like to direct people who want to follow you on social media?
GKG: Thank you! We can be reached at the following places:
Twitter – Facebook – Beta rules and the tools required to play the game
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