Game Preview: Revolution!

By W. Eric Martin
March 6, 2009

Designer: Philip duBarry
Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Players: 3-4
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 60 minutes
Release Date: April 2009
Price: $40
Links:

Revolution! is something of a departure for Steve Jackson Games as the title fits squarely in the Eurogame camp, with the players’ actions being driven by blind bidding and area control. Your goal is to end up with the most support – something which generally involves having the most support in the seven parts of town, although points are available in other ways, too. Each round, the three-to-four players secretly bid for control of different characters; three types of currencies are used for bidding, with Force outranking Blackmail and Blackmail outranking Gold. Each character provides a unique set of benefits: support (i.e. points), gold, influence markers, blackmail, and so forth.

Philip duBarry says that he’s been designing games since he was a child, but ”Revolution happens to be my first game other people have actually enjoyed playing. I got the main idea from reading a Patrick O’Brien novel about revolutionary activity in early 1800s Peru and Chile. I really got into all the political intrigue. I soon started trying to figure out how to make a game where you could do some of that (blackmailing and bribing, etc.). I drew a few rectangles to represent the various people to be influenced (General, Admiral, Viceroy, etc.) and a map of the city where they lived. Then I was stuck. Finally, I figured out a way to use various forms of currency to influence them and also win more points and more currency. After this everything began to fall into place.”

After winning over friends and family members with his prototype, duBarry started to research ways to have the game published in order to bring it to a wider audience. “I stumbled onto an amazing blog: Creation & Play by Jackson Pope (It’s Alive, Carpa Astra),” says duBarry. “He was talking about cutting out little pieces of cardboard and selling homemade games out of his house. That blew me away! The more I read, the more I wanted to try it. The do-it-yourself model avoids some common pitfalls of board game publication, such as paying a ridiculous amount of money to have someone else make your game. This can often result in a basement full of games no one wants to buy and a significant financial setback. Alternatively, you can submit a prototype directly to big-name publishers. Unfortunately, this is a good way to get ignored and fiddle away your dream. I wanted to do something immediately, but I wanted to start slowly and for much less money.”

“So I wrote out a budget (another of Pope’s suggestions) and ordered some nice, thick coverstock,” duBarry continues. “I got my printing on the cheap from a friend and figured out how to do everything myself: the box, board, pieces, rules, everything. Then I opened up a website with PayPal and a blog. I ended up selling about 30 copies – twenty more and I would have been close to breaking even.”

Before that happened, though, duBarry stepped up to the big(ger) leagues courtesy of Phil Reed from Steve Jackson Games, who had purchased a copy. “I got this cryptic message from him on BoardGameGeek about having done a ‘great job’ and asking whether he could call me. I thought, who is this guy? I’m glad I gave him my number because he made me an offer soon afterward. Had he not called, I don’t know how the story would have ended. I’d like to think that I would have kept going and figured out a way to make them faster (and cheaper).”

DuBarry has done an excellent job of marketing his game – both his homegrown version and the forthcoming publication from SJG – by creating a blog to talk about the game’s development and his self-publication efforts and a Flash demo to show how to play the game in a couple of minutes.

“My advice to other struggling game designers is to just keep at it,” he says. “Don’t give up. Be very honest about the quality and limitations of your game and always strive to make it just a little bit better. If it’s as good as you think, other people will notice. Keep reading articles on the Internet and business/marketing books. Meet new people. Take your game to all the cons. Make a website and a blog. Try not to pay other people to do things you can do yourself. Don’t spend too much money too quickly – but don’t give up. That’s my best advice.”

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