By Michael Schacht
March 6, 2010
The Beginning
When I redesigned my website years ago, I incorporated an element of Valdora as the game was already “finished” at that time, several years before its actual release. The book in the background of most of the pages of my website was an exciting reference to the coming game, which just a few people recognized.
The development work on Valdora was actually completed back in 2006, and I started to offer the game as a prototype to publishers. I quickly found someone who was eager to release it, and the game was scheduled for the Essener Spieletage 2007.
After Zooloretto became Spiel des Jahres – Germany’s Game of the Year – in that same year with the same publisher, we decided to postpone the project. Too many other things now needed our attention and energy.
So Valdora was delayed, which led me to start work once again on a game that actually was already finished.
The Revision
Modifying a game is part of a designer’s basic responsibilities, and usually it doesn’t present a big problem. More tricky is finding an endpoint in the development. When is a game really finished? Is there anything that I can make better? Or more elegant? Perhaps there is still a nice idea for a special material to find. Or a good variant for pros. Or, or, or....
Frequently, it is quite easy for me to decide when something is finished – but as the saying goes, the better is the enemy of the good, and so Valdora eventually received several small modifications that finally justified the really big investment. That said, I’ve sworn never to go into that much detail again as I had some other time-consuming projects under development at the same time :-)
The Concept
The starting point for Valdora was to make a game of the complexity of a Puerto Rico as easy as possible, so that even families might have a chance to get in the game.
Another precondition for me was that the possible winning strategies should be implemented as organically and inconspicuously as possible. Personally I prefer, as I’ve often mentioned before, not to be forced by the game to play well. I like game systems in which you can discover things by yourself, game systems with simple methods and without helpful constructions.
Also very important for me was the simplicity of the rule set. Here I continuously threw interesting elements out of the game. At different points, I replaced already working good mechanisms to have a more simple solution. It was a real challenge not to noticeably thin out the game.
So what was first: the mechanism or the story? In the beginning there was only a conceptional outline: I wanted to make a so-called “pick up and deliver” fantasy game with quest-like exercises.
The very first mechanism was then the simple movement idea, with provisions already included as a special ability. The original board concept got discarded. The same with the possibility to recruit persons with special abilities. In those early stages, the players could buy castles as part of the game end conditions. Also, the horses had a different and more important role.
The books were also part of the first ideas to appear. How did they come about? When thinking about unique card drawing mechanisms, the idea was – as is often the case – simply there. It already worked well, and I didn’t need to change it a lot. Later, I developed models of the books with different materials; the wooden version was my favorite, and luckily got taken by Abacus.
The Name
The prototype was initially named “Quest,” but as the game lost more and more of its fantasy aspects during its development I renamed it “Legend.” This name was very close to being the final one, but together with the publisher we searched for something different: a sensible and good-sounding made-up word.
The final name of the game Valdora comes from the English word “valley,” the corresponding French word “vallée” and the French word for gold, “or” – all together meaning something like “valley of gold.” This fits very well because gold has an important role in the game.
I also appreciate the connection to Die goldene Stadt – The Golden City – which was developed around the same time. You can even think of playing both games in the same world.
In the prototype that I am working on at the moment, gold also plays a role – perhaps this will be part three in a little series. As I’ve said, I like these small connections.
The Graphics
After a long break, my fellow student Franz Vohwinkel finally illustrated one of my games once again. And this came after he had made himself scarce on the boardgame scene – still with a lot of projects, mind you! – in order to concentrate mainly on American trading cards. I appreciate his work very much, so it wasn’t a surprise to me that Valdora looks great!
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