W. Eric Martin: Profile: Gozer Games & Collateral Damage

Obsession fuels board game design. Matthew Duhan, president of Gozer Games, knows that from experience, from the ten years it took to bring his first game, Collateral Damage, into existence. While his favorite games are Iron Dragon and Settlers of Catan – “the 10th anniversary set has a place of honor in our home” – Collateral Damage was inspired by a non-game source: anime.

"The genre lent itself well to a game of this type,” says Duhan, whose first anime experience was with Rumiko Takahashi’s Ranma 1/2. The idea for the game developed when he and a roommate were watching a romantic comedy anime series. “He turned to me and commented about how all these characters have amazing martial arts abilities, but couldn’t ever tell each other that they liked each other. Thus, we figured, their abilities must come from their repressed libido. We banged out an early version of the rules that night, and it developed from there.”

No, the game doesn’t involved Freudian interrogation and examination of the subsumed id. Characters use their special powers to bash each other all over the gameboard, a grid of cities with the size based on the number of players, but they also have the unfortunate habit of falling in love with one another – unrequited love, naturally, as that fuel drives comedy and action in anime.

Duhan says that the ten year development time resulted from refinement of the game itself as well as learning how to be a publisher. “I’ve been a consumer in the industry for a long time, but producing your own game is quite different from buying one,” he says. This included finding anime creators who would be willing to have their characters used in the game. “We are very pleased to have been granted licensing for the characters from Project A-ko and Dominion Tank Police. Doing that, and finding our wonderful artist Shannon Townsend took some time.”

Putting the game together took time as well. “While the core concepts of love and combat were there, cities and the way you dominate them were not fully fleshed out in the first draft,” says Duhan. “I really wanted the game to have a lot of balance, and several strategies to win, so there was a lot of playtesting and tweaking.”

Now the number of cities scales from two to six players, putting your characters into constant contact with others. As Duhan warns, though, “You only see the really big battles, with 9 or 10 characters in a city, when you have four or more players.”

Each character has a set of stats and a special power, so your strategy during play will depend on who you’ve recruited, who’s on the board at the same time, and how they work together. “You can play the game strongly offensive or more on the defense, use large attacks or small – each has their advantages,” says Duhan. Chance (through die rolls) plays a part in both combat and love because you never know who’s going to connect.

“The game is definitely silly,” says Duhan, “but it’s geared more for a gamer than an anime fan. While anime fans will likely get more of the in-jokes and references, gamers will enjoy the different strategies that can be used to win more.” If you’re going to be at Origins in Columbus, Ohio next week, you can give Collateral Damage a try first-hand.

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