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A new setting please

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Anonymous

I need some ideas about the settings of a mechanism.
My publisher refused a game of mine, only because of the setting, and I now need to find a new.

My setting was trains in the US. I do agree with him, this setting sucks.

The mekanism is about moving things betweent places, both ways.
(Not from-to, but back and forth, like... trains?... no, that was boring..).

Any ideas of a fresh setting for the game.
I would prefer a setting with connections to reality.

Pls help
Jepson

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Re: A new setting please

Jepson wrote:
I need some ideas about the settings of a mechanism.
My publisher refused a game of mine, only because of the setting, and I now need to find a new.

My setting was trains in the US. I do agree with him, this setting sucks.

The mekanism is about moving things betweent places, both ways.
(Not from-to, but back and forth, like... trains?... no, that was boring..).

Any ideas of a fresh setting for the game.
I would prefer a setting with connections to reality.

Pls help
Jepson

Hmmm. I don't have a really good answer to this at the moment (the first thing that comes to mind is conveyor belts in a factory). However, your comment about the publisher refusing the work based upon theme struck me as odd. I have heard of several occasions where publishers have completely redone the theme on a game they thought was good but the theme was questionable (Immediately Stephen Glenn's Balloon Cup comes to mind). Also, there are new train games coming out EVERY Year (Moon and Weisblooms Ticket to Ride is a good example). Perhaps you should just try a different publisher or perhaps you should reevaluate the honesty behind their rejection.

Just a thought.
-Michael

Dralius
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A new setting please

Did the company you are dealing with specifically say they turned it down because it was set in the US? Does this company have other train games set in the US? If this is the case it might be that they don’t want that much product overlap, either set it in an entirely different location like Africa or do it under a region of the US, like the coal trains in the southeast. As long as it’s not copying what they already produce they might reconsider it.

nosissies
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A new setting please

Like Michael said it seems strange to me that it would be rejected based on the theme alone, unless perhaps it is a very small company that doesn't have the resources to re-theme the game, or they are so big that they didn't even look at the actual game and just rejected it outright based on the theme.

back and forth... hmm

This reminds me of the chore of moving firewood. ... that might not fix the boring problem.

peace,
Tom

Anonymous
A new setting please

Well, this isn't really all that different, but maybe you could do a Space Trader type thing where there are Jump-Gates instead of rail and space-ports instead of stations etc...

Anonymous
A new setting please

Or what about WW1 Messengers running through the communication trenches - back and forth between the front line and the commanders?

Anonymous
A new setting please

Along the lines of WWI messengers, what about the Pony Express? I'm not sure how famous they are outside of the States, but they were a private mail carrier company before the US Postal Service was in the West.

sedjtroll
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A new setting please

Pony Express is a great idea. Another (similar) would be something like messengers in ancient greece- call it Marathon, and have runners carry messages to neigboring towns (+/- 26 miles away) on foot.

I like Pony Express better.

It would help if we knew the mechanics or a little more about the game.

- Seth

jwarrend
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A new setting please

From a marketing standpoint, probably "marathon" would work better -- games about ancient Greece are more popular than games about the wild west (or so I think).

But I agree with Seth; I understand that you don't want to give away any of your ideas (since your game is in review), but it's very difficult to suggest a theme without having some idea of what the particulars are with the shipping process; for example, are resources being converted into other resources once they arrive at the destination? Or are players trying to find the most efficient routes?

I'll also echo Michael and say that while I'm no expert, I'm also very surprised your game was rejected simply because of the theme; it sounds like perhaps the publisher was a bit shortsighted, and perhaps not someone you would have really wanted to work with anyway (but...probably not....)

Good luck!

-Jeff

Anonymous
Re: A new setting please

Jepson wrote:
My setting was trains in the US. I do agree with him, this setting sucks.

Don't sell yourself short. If you thought the setting sucked you would never have done it in the first place. I agree with the others, rejecting the game because of a train theme seems shortsighted, but maybe they felt the market is saturated already?

Quote:
The mekanism is about moving things betweent places, both ways.
(Not from-to, but back and forth, like... trains?... no, that was boring..).

If you are moving stuff back and forth you could do ships - port to port or airplanes - hub to hub (both people and freight). You could also use semi-trucks to move product between cities.

Just my two pence.
- Geoff

Verseboy
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A new setting please

Another possibility would be a network of canals, such as dot the English countryside, and probably numerous other countrysides. I doubt that anyone can argue canals have been overdone. As with trains, it represents a fixed track used for hauling goods, usually farm commodities. The canals in a place like Amsterdam exist for another reason, but I assume there is a lot of back and forth on them. You could transport tulip bulbs.

I, too, am surprised that a publisher would turn it down based on trains. However, it should be remembered they are footing the bill, and they can base a decision on whatever suits them. Good luck, whether it is with this publisher or another.

Steve

Anonymous
A new setting please

I am new to this site, but I want to say that I am really impressed with the lot of you. Not only did you come up with some clever ideas (Marathon, Pony Express, Canals, etc), you generously gave them to another. You folks are very cool, and I look forward to interacting with you even more.

Captain_Sky

Nazhuret
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A new setting please

what the...?!?! 8O

trains rule!

this is exactly what is wrong with the world today!

Anonymous
Thanks guys and a few answers

My publisher is a person i know well, so he will not fool me.
for moment beeing I do not plan to turn to another publisher.
We work well together and we are in the process of publishing a game of mine to this x-mas in sweden. (Might leak a bit into europe).

The thing is that this game is kind of a baby of mine.

He is the only employee of his publishing house, so he do not have the resources to change the setting. Or more exactly, thats me, if any..

He is a "flavour" guy. (or whatever the english word is) Thats the way he approaches a game. He was quite specific in his rejection:
(Something like this:)
"US map and trains, it is not commercially interesting. I am sure you have a fine mechanism."

Regarding mechanism i was mabe a bit unspecific.
The idea is to set up "routs" between places where you have a "transport contract". There is a review of the game at hippodice from 2000 if anyone wants to see what they think it is about. (I do not agree with them)

I think the ideas of trucks, boats, planes and canals could work.

The question is if there ever where a canal system big enough to be entertaining to play in anywhere.

I got a personal letter suggesting post lines in germany.
I found this odd enough. Anyone knows anything about the story of post lines in any country?

Regarding the other transports what setting to use is interesting.
I liked Africa.

Thanks for your input this far and keep talking.

Jepson

Anonymous
A new setting please

I was a bit too quick in my reply above so I am at it again.

I am looking at the european market for moment beeing.
Therefore the pony express is not "optimal".
Therefore the comment about german post offices.

Regarding openness from my side there are a few things with this game that is quite unique and those I am not willing to share with you yet, since they are the only unique selling point i have for this game. I do not want to be a person not charing with the rest of you, but I hope you forgive me in this case.

The idea is to set up unidirectional routes and earn transport contracts, what the route transports is of no intrest to the game mechanism.
It is a beauty of simplicity!

Regards
Jepson

Verseboy
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Re: Thanks guys and a few answers

Jepson wrote:
He is a "flavour" guy. (or whatever the english word is) Thats the way he approaches a game. He was quite specific in his rejection:
(Something like this:)
"US map and trains, it is not commercially interesting. I am sure you have a fine mechanism."

Regarding mechanism i was mabe a bit unspecific.
The idea is to set up "routs" between places where you have a "transport contract".

I'd ask him what settings he finds commercially interesting. Even if he lacks the time and resources to retheme it, you could once you're armed with this knowledge.

Personally, I find almost any map to be evocative (or flavourful). Since what is being transported doesn't matter, you have a lot of freedom to set your game anywhere. What about the river systems of Europe (or any other continent)? You have to haul goods down the Rhine, Seine, Tagus, etc. to the North Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic, etc. It could be about supplying goods to outfit New World colonies.

Anyway, the area could be as large or small as you want, from the entire world to one continent to one country to one city. The map scales accordingly.

Good luck. It sounds like the hard work is out of the way already.

Steve

Scurra
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Re: Thanks guys and a few answers

Jepson wrote:

He is a "flavour" guy. (or whatever the english word is) Thats the way he approaches a game. He was quite specific in his rejection:
(Something like this:)
"US map and trains, it is not commercially interesting. I am sure you have a fine mechanism."

Weird. In the last couple of years, Transamerica has been a commerical success, and Ticket to Ride seems to be doing pretty well. Age of Steam hasn't exactly been slow off the shelves either. (And Union Pacific wasn't exactly a failure now, was it?) And none of them have anything much in common, mechanics-wise, whilst being award-winners (well, OK, so TtR hasn't won anything yet, but it will ;))

"US map and trains" seems like a fine combination to me! Then again, maybe there have been too many of them recently...?

I'd have a look at English canals certainly: the vague description of your mechanic suggests that it would be a decent fit.

sedjtroll
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A new setting please

Jepson wrote:
The idea is to set up unidirectional routes and earn transport contracts

I'm afraid I'm not fully understanding this...

So players somehow set up or own uni-directional routes between 2 points, and then earn some kind of income (money/points) when that route is used?

I think postal service probably can't be considered unidirectional no matter where or what time period. Unless you call the game "Kill The Messenger" and say that once something gets delivered, the messenger can't return! Haha...

- Seth

Anonymous
A new setting please

Hmm.. contacts and "setting up routes". Sounds like smuggling to me!

Anonymous
A new setting please

Simple -

Instead of trains, it's...

Rollercoasters!

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