Galileo Games Newsletter #8
It seems fitting somehow that the 8th newsletter was meant to fall on the 8th of the month, a Solar Eclipse, and the New Moon all at the same time. Especially as Galileo has been undergoing it's own cosmic shifts during these times as well...
It seems fitting somehow that the 8th newsletter was meant to fall on the 8th of the month, a Solar Eclipse, and the New Moon all at the same time. Especially as Galileo has been undergoing it's own cosmic shifts during these times as well; shifting our focus a little bit, moving from one commerce platform to another, and adding new contributors to our lineup of designers and giving ourselves space to create the art we want to make as opposed to just "fulfilling a brand promise" which is a big-company way of saying "don't surprise your customers." It's important for big companies to fulfill expectations, but small businesses have a very different kind of flexibility on that front. While we're going to continue to create beautiful high quality RPGs, we've also been working on a number of experimental projects that don't fit nearly into the same category and The Old Ways Must Go is a phenomenal example of this.
Old Ways Must Go x Negocios Infernales
Samphire and Tim managed to schedule some time with close friends Carlos Hernandez and C.S.E. Cooney, the writers of Negocios Infernales, to create a beautiful mashup of our two games. They wrote about their experience in their own (backer-only) KS update, quoted here:
The Old Ways Must Go is a very intimate kind of game—at least, the way we played it, it was—and I could at once see how the game could be a tool for worldbuilding the myths and religions of one's fantasy world, be it a gamic or a fictional one—especially if one did it in character!
As it was, we answered The Old Ways Must Go's prompts using mostly our own personal community ritual histories. This gave the game a more reflective, philosophical, even biographical aspect. Indeed, there were more than a few moments of revelation, approaching catharsis!
And I'm delighted to announce that we've now got the digital edition available for pre-order now! (The physical edition will be available once they've been printed.)
Galileo Games
Upcoming Projects
We've just ordered a proof copy of a trick-taking game that Tim designed a number of years ago, that never got published for various reasons. It's called "Kung-Fu Kittens" and is based on a slightly modified traditional deck of cards that adds a few extra symbols that support mechanics specific to this game. We'll announce availability soon!
The backstory...
At some point between the the original cartoon of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it's follow-up, The Legend of Korra, I designed this game. I'd originally plotted to investigate a formal license, but in the process of playtesting this game I was showing it to another publisher friend who had access to a different IP and was interested in not only this version, as well as additional versions with different variant rulesets, that ended up with interchangeable suits for wildly varying games. This was a very cool and fun project to develop, and I ended up coming up with three additional "faction" decks all with unique variation rules that I felt really represented the IP. Sadly, this publisher wasn't finding the success in board games that they'd hoped and canceled the project. This was around 2014 and its been shelved since. I'd already bought this delightful artwork by Sara Goetter, and I'm thankful to finally get it out of the archives and make it available! At a future point, we may even figure out how to rework the other faction decks and make this work pan out into something real.
Until next time, friends. Stay super!
