The Fountain War Kickstarter failed to galvanize the Eve Community and resulted in a tremendous amount of drama. (To say the least about it.) But there are consequences to that effort and the results that you may not be familiar with. One of those is a project that I've been working on for almost a year, in fact I brought early game design concepts with me to last year's Fanfest to discuss in private with several people. The concept is called Blood of the Empires and it is (or was) intended to be a new Card Game based on Eve Online.
In talks with CCP I was told that it would have to wait, as "other" projects were being prepared for launch during the same time-frame. So BoE was put on the back-burner and myself and my development team of volunteers (Marc Scaurus and Xander Phoena are two of them) waited to see what the results of the other projects would be.
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| Sample Card Designs |
The BoE Card Game would feature my spaceship art on the cards. With 142 pieces already done, the majority of the work on art is already completed. The game itself is rather simple and brilliant in its execution. Using the Alliance Tournament system for ship values, each player builds a Fleet using no more than 100 points. Then each player does battle with a selection of Action Cards featuring typical Eve related items, tactics, lore, history, trolls, and other actionable items. In this way each player conducts PvP with the other fleets until only one player is left standing. Depending on the number of players, a typical game session should run about 30 minutes.
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| A Sample Player "Hand"
The goal all along was to make the game fun to play even if you know nothing about Eve Online. And to build in game play that could make it easier or more difficult to play, depending on the skill level of those involved. In addition we also had plans for additional services, such as Mobile support, if the KS warranted it. The Mobile version would provide yearly point value updates, as well as additional functionality. Plus things like a Battle Arena play-mat, Pirate and Faction Expansion Packs, over-sized Collector Cards, skinned rare cards, branded sleeves, famous FC modifier cards, AT Winner Decks, etc. All depending on how well the community supported the idea of course. Imagine wooden or metal Deck Boxes engraved with the BoE logo. Every time a new ship is added to Eve a new card is added to the deck. The long-term potential of the game is staggering.
I've had experience with building card games from scratch before. I was involved with game-testing and development of a card game back in the mid-1990s for a small company you may have heard of called Marvel Entertainment. I was the Creative Director on the Marvel OverPower Card Game, which also became the DC OverPower Card Game and more. Not only did I help to develop the game, I also designed it. So I've successfully done this sort of thing before.
I'm bringing all of this to light right now because I'm a tad frustrated. My original plan, in light of the Fountain War failure, was to construct "test" decks and bring them with me to Fanfest for play-testing. Perhaps holding a Player Presentation and presenting the game at the event, having some buttons or cards to give out and generate interest in the game there. The idea was to create a grass-roots demand for the game and to help generate
some energy to use to convince CCP to support another kickstarter. This was my plan.
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However, as many of you well know, I'm not in a financial position to outlay thousands of dollars to build test decks for something that may or may not happen. I strongly believe in the project, I think the game will be amazing, but I have enough trouble making my mortgage every month. Much less bankrolling concepts that use someone else's IP. An IP I've had enough trouble with over the years I might add.
So, as usual, I'm turning it all over to the Eve Community. Anytime I have problems I can't solve I turn to you. I don't like keeping secrets and it is time this project became public. As I said many times in the wake of the Fountain War Kickstarter, the community can decide for itself what it wants to support and what it doesn't find worthy. And I believe in the power of those words enough to let this project come to light.
There are those at CCP who might be upset at me for publishing this post. I can't help that. I'd hope that they would understand the reasons why it has become necessary. I simply can't invest the time and energy needed to complete the card game, play test it, build test decks, all on the "maybe" of something happening down the road. With the potential fear of yet another "modified" Fountain War KS in the works, that raises its own concerns. If my original timeline had held, all of that would have happened already, the KS would have launched this week and we'd have completed decks finished in time for Fanfest.
So what now? I would like to see this game see the light of day. But I don't know what to do at this point. So I'm laying it out there for the community. What happens next is anyone's guess. If this is something you'd also like to see happen, then make your feelings known. If you can help in some way to make this happen, then please let me know. If you have suggestions, advice, or other comments, then I'd like to hear those as well. This community of ours is incredible in so many ways, we tend to figure things out for ourselves eventually. So maybe something positive will happen and we can move forward together.
And maybe, if we're lucky, one day we can play Blood of the Empires together. I'd like that.
PS: Let me say this clearly. Anyone who wants to get personal should not do so in the comment section of this blog. I will delete your comments.
Comments
As a standalone, I'd definitely put money into Kickstarter for this, and I don't back many things on Kickstarter.
I sincerely hope you get some traction with CCP off of this post. If not, please do not let it die, I and many others will happily contribute to a kickstarter based on the concept as an entirely new IP. Yes, it would mean new art, but given your portfolio of past work if you adjust the KS goals accordingly I think you would still be able to hit your targets.
Still, a few things :
Exploding kittens was an expensive game. 56 cards and about ~25$. The rules are kinda crappy, but the art is funny.
You talked about a deck creation, with 100 points. Assuming the "base card" would be 2 decks, each having at least ~15 ships (that's more of an AT team and must be over the 100p limit, but you need to have some spares to play with a few different rosters), action cards (20 for each player) and a few items (10), that's (15+20+10)x2 = 90 cards. So probably not that cheap, which may be a barrier for a lot of people.
I can see 2 different base decks (calamaris vs gallente ; goldido vs minmatar, for example), maybe some kind of more expensive pack with less cards, but higher paper quality, for a specific pirate faction. And with rules to be able to mix any race in a deck.
A mobile version is something very different. It's a lot more expensive, and CCP may not allow a direct "competitor". They are already making video games, after all.
Also I would ignore ccp and eve related stuff, they can't even put together a store that sell baseball caps and tshirts with logos they already have on them.
Unfortunately the EvE IP doesn't seem to be getting much love outside of the game itself. I haven't seen too many out of game items, which is a shame, because I would love to put things like this in my collection.
Cerv
I do disagree with your premise, though. I think EVE themed items would be wildly profitable, especially taking into account the advancing age of the player base for a game firmly into its second decade. I'm sure there's a lot more discretionary income available to players that started 10 years ago and would like nothing more than immortalize their conquests in the real world. Just my opinion; feel free to ignore.
Money upfront is what I'd be willing to offer, perhaps as a stocking filler a small gift of appreciation to all the bros in Vendo.
In case anyone from CCP reads this:
As others have said you guys don't seem to know how to manage your IP in a way that lets the fans have what we want and makes you money whilst protecting it. There is a lot of pent up demand for Eve related products that goes un-tapped.