Switch: Secrets of the Temple is a boardgame that's taken some 2 years to finally go into production. I was involved quite early on since one of the developers of the game is my cousin, Dean. Yes, nepotism is alive and well. Sue me.
a visual of the box
The cover art was done by Milx, who also designed a few of the characters in the game. There are other characters and other designers involved - namely Remy "Eisu" Mokhtar, Alan Quah. The title design is by Teng, my colleague. I designed the box.
a page from the rulebook
The gameboard was illustrated by Erwin Jaabar. The current size of the board is about 20" x 26". The early prototypes were almost twice the size, until it dawned upon the creators that most folks don't have tables big enough to accommodate our game. Hahaha. Click here for a bigger picture.
another page from the rulebook
The game cards were partly illustrated by May Lew, who also colored Remy's characters and monsters for the cards. I did the rulebook design. Dean and I sat in my office one Friday evening and continued work till Saturday afternoon to get the damn rulebook to the printer. Unfortunately, we had been burning the midnight oil over the last couple of weeks and nobody could function well with so little sleep, and the bloody rulebook got sent back for revision of all those mistakes we made. If the game makes it, this first edition will be a collector's items with all the typos and other mistakes! Go big.
the flyer we did for Spiel08
Anyway, the game premieres at Spiel 08 in Essen Germany. It's a pretty big deal for us, since Spiel happens to be one of the biggest Game Board trade shows on the planet. People say that if a board game is destined to succeed, Spiel will be the place to do it. Also, Spiel has an annual award thing to give accolades to the best game, best design, best whatever, etc. And like the geeks we are, we fantasise about actually winning something. And despite Switch's quickly-dissipating budget, a lot of folks chipped in here and there to help bring Switch to Germany, and then to glory. Hey, this is about national pride. And scoring one for the home team. So yeah, no pressure there, whatsoever. Heh.
In any case, the job is done and delivered. And as I blog this, a couple hundred boxes of Switch: Secrets of the Temple are making its way to Dean's house where friends and family await to assemble and pack the game. The people involve other than myself and my collegues at Mantra are the artists I mentioned, other artists who drew sketches for us - Ageha, Kok Man, Takara. Also Uncle and Hafiz from Comics Corner SS17, and the fellas who hang out there, testing and refining the game. Our childhood buddy, Jimmy Boyle who actually wrote a score for the game. (Imagine that - a musical score for a board game. Hah!) There's also Steven the printer, who's also doing this out of love. And then there are the two clingy freaks - Ming and Fabian who hang around making lots of noise. (Take that, bitches! Hahahah!)
So yeah. Wish us luck. Also help us decide what color buntings look best. See picture below? Should we do White? Or Black? Or both? (No you can't say neither, dammit!)
click here for a bigger view
Spiel 08 starts Thursday. Doubt if I'll sleep well till then. Meanwhile, more details of the game at www.outplaygames.com. Dean leaves for Germany on Monday with Hafiz, while I shall sit at home twiddling my thumbs.
Bastards.
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