What a Journey
Sigil goes live on Kickstarter today! The game has been in my hands for over a year (we signed it in February 2021).
In future articles I am going to go in depth on the process of bringing a game through development. We were pretty good about tracking our tasks, using SmartSheets to map out how graphic design, illustration, rule book editing, manufacture querying, video editing, content outreach, and everything else flowed through our pipeline to make an awesome game.
But, Sigil didn’t start with me. It wasn’t my brain child, and while I helped tighten the game up around the edges, the design fully belongs to Andy Voellmer.
15 Years in the Making
If you were near Montreal's Parc LaFontaine in summer 2009, you might have seen a couple of college aged kids playing a game with maple leaf pennies.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of those first plays – and I’m not sure that those first iterations would even be recognizable to someone introduced to the game as it stands today. The rules were a bit different, spells weren’t even modular, and that’s not even getting into how the game looks.
But, the spark of it was there.
That spark stayed with Andy through a PHD, from Canada to California, and to New York City where we met.
While I don’t have pictures of those first plays, I do have a picture of one of my early plays with Andy.
I’m honored that I was able to take this game on the latter leg of its journey. That I got to tweak the rules to make it more accessible (although we keep the advanced variants in the rulebook), that I could bring on some great people to help develop a brand around the game, commission artwork, get a digital version up and running, and today hit that launch button on Kickstarter.
Sigils’ journey is inspiring to me, and I hope it will inspire you to keep working on those old designs. To find what is fun and beautiful in them and polish it into something that others will love.
And while you’re at it, check out where Sigil is today.
Do you have a design that you’ve been tweaking for years and quite can’t get away from – what is it?
