Sébastien Pauchon designs boardgames in his humble abode in Vevey – and with success.

Written by Christophe Boillat (January 30, 2006)

Winner of an international board game design competition in France, and of another in Germany, Sébastien Pauchon’s boardgame designer career is certainly well underway. Add to that the fact that his first design will soon be released to the public by French publishing house Ystari with 7000 copies to be distributed simultaneously in France, Germany and in the United States. “We should be able to find it in Switzerland as well, in specialized game stores,� says the game creator.

Caliph and Merchants, or Yspahan, as the official game name has not been decided, will be publicly available in October after its release at the Essen Fair (Germany), the German Mecca of games. The boardgame is a tactical one, designed for family settings with kids 8 and older. In brief, the game centers on the acquisition of goods based on supply and demand, on the purchase of commercial property, on the construction of store fronts and on the settling of accounts at the caliph’s palace.

By the time the game is released in October, only two years will have passed since Sébastien Pauchon’s original idea for the game. “I’ve had a good deal of luck since I’ve been able to meet the right people, likely as a result of the awards the prototype received.�

Contacts are indeed key in this industry, especially if one considers that over 200 games are published every year. The public is demanding yet discriminating when it comes to games.

Ystari, a fairly new French game publisher, immediately liked the concept of the game. “Professional playtesters examined all the game mechanics to ensure that the game worked well throughout, to make sure there weren’t any major faults.�

From concept to distribution

While Sébastien Pauchon has yet to receive any royalties from his creations, he awaits to hear news regarding 7 other games of his design currently being reviewed by various editors. And in order to keep everything in order, he’s decided to startup Game Works, a turn-key game production company, with friend and pianist Malcolm Braff. We knew Malcolm Braff as a great jazzman but we had no clue this Veveysan was a gamer as well. Bingo!

In the works at the new company: game development, editing and distribution. Remarkably, everything seems to be working well as the two game buddies have already received orders. A didactic course on energy for an association from Geneva, a boardgame for a German company, and 2 other games for Swiss firms are all well under way. With the luxury of having Bruno Cathala as a gaming consultant, with 15 published games under his belt, the 2 Veveysans sometimes partake in 20-hour long brainstorming marathons. In the coming week, Braff et Pauchon will make the trip to Nuremberg where game designers meet every year. There they will be able to market their new company. And who knows, perhaps they will sign a few new contracts.

Yspahan is a great game, a majority game with very Kniziaesque twists. Not as heavy as Caylus, but definitely a gamers game.

Yo can have a look at Cafile & Marchand on Sébastien web site :
http://www.pauchon.com/calife.html

Nice, isn’t it ?