It's a long way to the top

It's literally been ages since my last post regarding my main game Gods & Minions. This little behemoth is a long-term pet-project of mine thats all about warfare in a fantasy
world. Few of you might remember that the game originally started as a collectible dice game and even fewer know that the background world dates back to my pen-and-paper RPG sessions.

So, yes - we are still working on this and the project is bigger and better than ever before! We switched to a customizable (non-random!) card game a good year ago and since then all the tiny bits Gods & Minions is made of fell into place. This being said - Gods & Minions is still a hobbyist effort and our way has not been without errors.

I for myself am located in germany and as a fulltime working person, there is only time in-between to work on the project. My artists and co-designers are distributed all around the globe (Austria, Canada, Ukraine, Philipines etc.) and we all work on- and off on Gods & Minions - the best we can. Despite being a hobbyist effort, we are looking forward to a great new year 2014, as we have lots of new and exciting stuff in store - stuff that indicates that this gargantuan of a game is finally shaping up quite well!

But first things first, the past year has not been without failures and errors. I am writing this to primarily share my experience with other game developers, not to teach anyone or do marketing for my project.

The first blow that hit me, was the change from collectible dice to cards. As we where not aiming for "gamecrafter dice" (we wanted something better, for example unique dice from Q-Workshop) the production cost blew my socks off. Not to speak about the impossibility of distributing such a game all by myself. It took me a long time to re-define all the rules aspects and turn them from dice to cards.

After this hurdle was taken, I made my first experiences with artists on deviantart. I dont want to speak bad about deviantart in general here, as there are many brilliant artists who offer their services for reasonable prices. But two individuals (Alonzo E. and Jeff W.) ripped me off and took my prepayment without delivering anything in return. I strongly recommend that you carefully investigate the people you are working with. At best you should establish a friendship via email/facebook first and then talk about business. As deviantart is all without a contract (this is up to you), you quickly find yourself in a dilemma similar to mine.

This second blow hit me hard, Im not just speaking about the money that i literally flushed down the toilet. Its the motiviational crisis that threw me off balance and stopped the whole project in it's tracks. First the dice - and now being ripped off!

It took me a good while to financially and emotionally recovering from that kind of experience. But my vision for Gods & Minions is too old and too carefully cultivated - i just could not stop.

Now, almost a year later - im looking forward to a bright future for the project. 2014 will be choke full with previews, updates and a possible release date. Altough i cannot tell yet, as this game is "done when it's done". Several people from all over the globe joined my vision and we are working hard to make it come true! I now not only have two relieable co-designers at my hand (Eric P. alias Larienna and Andreas Probst, who are also active here). But a very talented and dedicated artist (Evgeni Maloshenkov from the Ukraine) who is pushing his skills to the max in order to my visualize all the fantastic creatures found in the game.

As of today, we got the final rules version ready and tested. The layout is also completed. In addition, we have artworks for 33% of the core set ready, and the same amount of tested, checked and double-checked cards (compromising three tribes to start the game with).

Finally, we got our Twitter, Facebook and G+ accounts up and running and our new website plus blog just got finished (to be published on 1st of January 2014). And last but not least, our final logo and cardback are currently being created and will be finished within a month.

This all being said, I want to invite you to take a closer look at the Gods & Minions project. As this is a burning passion of mine since a very, very long time. If you can't wait until our new website goes live (in less than half a month - you are welcome to check out our facebook account (you can access it even without being registered) and take a look.

This project is epic, but its not another cash-cow or someone trying to jump the CCG bandwagon. Gods & Minions is a passion - made by gamers, for gamers - and we are closer making our very own dream coming true than ever before!

PS: Please excuse any typos or errors, as english is not my mother language

Yours sincerely
-Tobias (alias Fhizban)

http://www.godsandminions.com
http://facebook.godsandminions.com
http://twitter.godsandminions.com