Board Games, Business, and Philip DuBarry Ep.41

Happy Mitten Podcast: Board games, business, and...

In this episode…
We are joined by game designer Philip DuBarry, who is currently Kickstarting his most recent game, Skyway Robbery! While Jeff nor I have played Skyway Robbery, we are impressed with Philip’s Kickstarter campaign. Notably, Skyway Robbery will ship US copies from the US, Europe copies from Europe, and Canada copies from Canada. This level of fulfillment coordination dramatically reduces customer shipping costs, thus lowering the barrier-to-entry for those interested in owning Skyway Robbery. We are excited to have Philip on the podcast to discuss this and more on Happy Mittens steampunk-filled, forty first episode.

It’s Philip DuBarry!

Introduction
Welcome to the Happy Mitten Podcast! We are proud members of the Dice Tower Network and with us today is Philip DuBarry, designer of Courtier from the Tempest series, Kingdom of Solomon, and most recently, Skyway Robbery!

Feature: Philip DuBarry Interview
What is Skyway Robbery all about?

Philip has had a great deal of success simply designing games. So why did Philip decide to partner with GameSalute and become more involved with Skyway Robbery?

Philip re-themed Skyway Robbery. What was the original version like and why did he re-theme the game?

Would Philip recommend re-theming games to other publishers?

Philip controversially decided to have absolutely no stretch goals in Skyway Robbery. Does Philip feel not having any stretch goals has benefited his project and his backers?

The art is Skyway Robbery looks terrific, but why did Philip decide to have eight artists?

To save backers on shipping, Skyway Robbery will ship to backers from USA, Canada, and Europe. Philip talks about what he went through (if anything) to get this set up.

Philip’s Kickstarter says that Skyway Robbery is for ages 12 and up. We were under the understanding that putting any age under 13 on the box requires additional certification and testing. What did Philip do to get that label? (If anyone can add to this in the comments, please do!)

On the “risks and challenges” section of Philip’s Kickstarter, he mentions that if his product doesn’t fund, he will sell the art for use in other games. Does Philip feel it is important for backers to prepare for worst-case scenarios?

What is Philip’s favorite part of Skyway Robbery and what does he feel players will enjoy most? Are there any easter eggs?

Twitter Questions

@HappyMitten What challenges are different when co-designing a game versus being the only designer?

— Nick Baker (@Nyobari) September 11, 2014

@HappyMitten Does he use a specific brainstorming technique, like the SCAMPERR method to keep creating such creative games? — Kevin Emmons (@KevEmmons) September 11, 2014

Philip’s Helpful Tip
Do a lot of play testing. It’s not simply doing the play testing, but listening to the play testers. When you listen to enough of them, you begin to notice the issues that are getting repeated. Maybe there are questions that seem self explanatory to you, but play testers keep bringing it up so you know you now need to make it more clear.

Company Updates
-Unofficially, it looks like all Aether Magic Kickstarter art will be finished by the end of October.
-Grand Con is approaching fast (Sept 19-21st!). We have several sessions of Aether Magic demo’s scheduled as well as a live recording of a joint, Dice Hate Me and Happy Mitten Podcast!*

*If anyone has any suggestions for what we could do to entertain a live audience, please comment below!

Mentioned Links
Skyway Robbery’s Kickstarter
Phantasio Games Website
Discussion on recommended ages
Another discussion on recommended ages
Super Duck Punch