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The south of Germany is home to a colorful mix of board game publishers. From a fairy tale character to two blue heavyweights to a mythical creature, you can also meet the king of the raccoons here. King Racoon Games offers imaginatively designed games, detailed game worlds and diverse game mechanisms together. In the interview with Felix we talked about the publisher.
The fact that board game publishers don't always look for big cities can be proven with many examples. One of these examples is King Racoon Games. The publishing house, founded in 2016, is located a few kilometers north of Stuttgart in Ludwigsburg.
Although the cityscape of Ludwigsburg is shaped by its history as a former residential city, historical themes cannot be found in King Racoon Games. The games are about imaginatively designed worlds that score points with humor and diversity. You can read here how the publisher and the games that have been published so far came about, what is currently available and what innovations you can look forward to in the future.
Time-traveling monkeys, petrified angels and a shepherd's hour
King Racoon Games released the first game in 2016 Shepherd's hour founded. The history of the publisher's name is very beautiful. Felix asked his wife which animal she would associate him with. From the answer “raccoon”, Felix quickly made himself king of the small bear species, even if it was a raccoon.
King Racoon Games co-founder Felix Mertikat studied film and sees the development of board games as an equivalent to directing. Here you are the director of a game night. In the meantime, directing the “hobby” of board games has replaced the medium of film and is, for him, a more attractive and artistically sustainable activity.
Back in 2008, he developed the role-playing game “Opus Anima” in collaboration with friends. The comic book series “Steam Noir” based on it, which also includes a card game, won an award at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012.
From Axis & Allies of Settlers and Pandemic up to Twilight imperium Board games have always been an important hobby. That's how the idea came about at some point Shepherd's hour, which was then published “just like that” and was successfully presented at SPIEL with its own stand. The financial risk was manageable for a small card game and publication without upfront financing was possible.
The second game started with the same attitude All hands on deck. Just one year later, the new game was back at SPIEL. Unfortunately the timing was a bit bad here. There were many games with a pirate theme this year and a stand decoration in the shape of a ship was not a unique selling point.
The first crowdfunding title is on a completely different scale than the first two titles Tsukuyumi. A big advantage was that Felix had already worked as an artist a few years before on a game that was also financed through crowdfunding (Dark Empire: Revolution) had contributed. He already had experience with the process and support of crowdfunding.
The game's large world is inspired by an IP that was created in a company where Felix worked until he left in 2011. After the game so inspired was not adopted by this company, development continued. The game grew into something entirely of its own and so the post-apocalyptic world of was born Tsukuyumi. As always, there is more about the game in the second part of the article.
Involuntarily slowed down
It is no longer a secret that the corona pandemic also had an immense impact on the production of board games. King Racoon Games were one of the first to do this Kickstarter for the miniature edition of Tsukuyumi had to find out painfully. The resulting delay would hardly have been worth mentioning by today's standards, as people have become accustomed to the unpredictability of individual production steps. Back then it was an extreme setback.
But a publisher doesn't just depend on one person and, especially with board game publishers, the hobby is usually very close to the hearts of everyone involved. Graphic artist Maxine created the game at the perfect time Witchcraft: Magic of the Night which was released as a novelty in 2022. This made it possible to close the small gap in publications. Similar to Felix at the beginning of the publishing house, the motivation here was simply the joy of developing games.
Already presented with prototypes at SPIEL in 2021, it is just in time for this year's SPIEL EOS: Island of Angels published and delivered. The creation of the game was in some ways the reverse of that of Tsukuyumi. The game mechanics came first and the specific theme, the general direction of which had been decided for a long time, came later.
The idea for the topic was inspired by the song “The Host of Seraphim” by the band “Dead can Dance”. Angels should not be portrayed in a clichéd way in the game. So they now have to be freed from their petrification.
During the Corona period, Felix and his wife tested the game a lot as a couple. Afterwards there were of course many games in larger groups, so that the game works very well with both two and five players. More on this in the review that will follow soon EOS.
The feedback on the new product was very positive. The “damper” Corona was at the latest EOS successfully overcome and the next projects also make you want more.
In the raccoon's den
Because both Shepherd's hour as well as most All hands on deck are hard to find new, we will limit ourselves to a rudimentary overview of these two Tsukuyumi, Witchcraft and EOS in more detail.
Shepherd's hour can be played with two to six people. The players have a role as a bandit or villager. The goal is to collect the most sheep alone or as a team. It's not a highly strategic strategy game, but rather focuses on the fun of annoying people.
All hands on Deck is also a card-based game in which the focus is again less strategy and much more chaotic and not always entirely fair fun. In real time, players in their roles as pirate captains select one of three crew cards to form their crew. Whoever voted first can choose which piles they want to draw from in the next round. You can choose your own stack or those of other players. You can carry out actions with the crew, for example to poach crew members from the others.
Tsukuyumi: Full Moon Down
The publisher's next title is much larger in scope than its two predecessors. Therefore, it became the young publisher's first crowdfunding project.
In Tsukuyumi the moon fell to earth. It turns out that it is not a soulless piece of rock, but a “kami” (Japanese deity), the white dragon Tsukuyumi. Humanity is on the brink of extinction while animal species evolve under Tsukuyumi's influence, becoming larger, stronger and more intelligent than ever before.
From a variety of asymmetrical factions, players can choose one to lead. As an area control game, Tsukuyumi's victory point focus is primarily on controlling and conquering areas. The moon is similar to the factory Scythe a special role. You can also complete your faction’s own goals and missions.
In each round, players choose an action card. All cards not chosen are passed to the player on the left for the next round.
The action phase is made up of four color-coded phases, which are always completed in the same order. The action cards played show different combinations of actions from the different phases, which can be carried out in any order in the respective phase. In the last (red) phase there can be a fight.
At the beginning of the game you decide whether there will be three, four or five rounds. The playing time varies between two and four hours. The many expansions available add new factions to the game. The game can be played with two to four people. With an extension, up to six people aged 14 and over are possible.
Witchcraft: Magic of the Night
The card game goes back to its playful beginnings Wightcraft. As one of two to six witches, the players try to buy the right ingredients for their spells and thus collect magic points. The goal is to collect twenty magic points first.
Ingredients can be purchased from a 3x3 grid of face-up cards. Crystals are usually spent for this. In addition to purchasing cards, there are four other promotions. You can take a companion or a spell, collect new crystals or perform the action of your own companion.
The companions are each worth one magic point and either grant permanent effects or provide an additional action option on your own turn.
The spells are cast immediately as soon as all the required ingredients are on them and are then added to your own point pool.
The witch who first reaches 20 points with her companions and spells wins the game. Witchcraft Plays in about twenty minutes with two to six people aged 12 and over.
EOS: Island of Angels
The time had come, just in time for the SPIEL EOS: Island of Angels could finally be launched. As already in Tsukuyumi Here you take on the role of the leader of one of the seven possible asymmetrical factions.
In the world of EOS The players travel across the sea and want to fill the chronicle of EOS with their heroic deeds. The angels who once watched over the seas are petrified after losing in battle against the demons. These are now present in many sea areas and the demon lords influence the game with their curses.
The game lasts until EOS's timeline is filled with enough impressive deeds. On each turn, players have the choice between two actions. You can either place a worker on a crew member and activate them, or you can recall all workers.
They all have the same crew members, but their improvements and rewards on the morale bar vary greatly to give each faction its own unique character.
If you call your workers back, you receive the rewards that are visible under the free spaces. The more workers you have previously used, the more and greater the rewards will be.
There are three promotions worth adding to the EOS timeline. These are heroic deeds to perform, demon lords to defeat, and angels to free. If you are in an area with one of these three elements, you can use the chronicle action instead of a crew member and record your heroic deed for posterity.
EOS: Island of Angels can be played by one to five people aged 14 and over in around two hours. In addition to the five factions of the base game, there are two additional factions in the expansion with which you can travel the sea. To EOS There will be a detailed review from me soon. The first impression after playing solo, with two and with five players is excellent. The game is currently the hottest candidate for my personal game of the 2023 calendar year.
The raccoon comes into play
Two new crowdfunding projects are already in the starting blocks. Tsukuyumi will receive a new extension and with TDO (Titan Defense Organization) is also the next new base game nearing completion.
On the one hand, the new extension of Tsukuyumi, which contains four factions, serves to equalize the number of playable factions between miniatures and standee editions and, secondly, it brings the game world closer to completion. In addition to the Chronomasters (12 time-traveling monkeys) and the “giants of the past” (dinosaurs), Felix has 26 factions “on the shelf”. In the standee version, 20 of these 26 have been published so far, so there is potential for further Kickstarters to be able to publish all factions.
The other new feature that has already been announced is the cooperative boss battler TDO. After there was already a fight against the titan Gaia, the titans are now attacking again. The problem is that the heroes of yesteryear are either dead, retired, or unwilling to risk their lives again.
The players now take on the role of new “super” heroes who want to save the earth together. In each game round, one hero or heroine is the “captain” and rolls three dice. Everyone else only uses one die. Together they plan their actions based on the results of the dice. The Titans' actions are determined by their own deck of cards.
If the Titan is defeated, the TDO wins. If the Titan first defeats three heroes or destroys all TDO bases, the group loses the game. The accessible cooperative game can be played with 2-5 people in under an hour. The illustrations and the diverse characters promise a lot of fun in the game. You can already crowdfund the game . bookmark
The raccoon will also soon make an appearance in a game from King Racoon Games. Trash King is the name of a 2-player game currently in development. This is a worker placement game in which the workers have different values from 1-5 and are assigned face down to one of the eight worker spaces. Only those who have used the higher value (also as the sum of several workers) may carry out the action of a location.
There will also be “Mobster cards” that bring a take-that element into the game.
Even if there are other ideas (for example for a 5X space game), the energy will first be focused on this trio of innovations and the final delivery of EOS bundled. With the approach with fun, implemented themes and coherent game mechanics, it will be exciting to see which blockbuster King Racoon Games will direct next.
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