Mitropia in … Spring 2020

We had an amazing time at Spiel Essen (and the metaphorical hangover is only just subsiding!). We had over 100 playtests in four days and met so many great people, it’s hard to recall it all as more than a blur.

We had great positive feedback (more of which we’ll share soon) and it was exciting to see people really enjoy playing the game in its various variations. (Not least we had a super fun time playing as well.) So it seems Mitropia is good… and there are some really great ideas in it…

However, the feedback also made us realize we could do better. Apart from small cosmetic improvements, there were also core gameplay suggestions that make a lot of sense. These are things we could try to squeeze in doing before (or during!) a kickstarter campaign starting later this month…. the more we dug into this though, we felt that would not do the ideas or the game justice. Playtesting is needed, and the right decisions aren’t 100% obvious for each variation.

So with a somewhat heavy heart, we’ve decided to postpone the kickstarter launch until Spring 2020!

On the one hand this is very frustrating! We’d really like to launch NOW and start that part of the journey. It would bring us that much closer to making the game real!

On the other hand though, raising money through Kickstarter means asking people to pledge real, hard earned money. Given that, the game should really be the absolute best it can be so that it is worthy of that trust people put in us. So it feels like the right thing to do.

The other upside is also we can genuinely make a number of improvements that will really make the game fantastic. Examples here include:

• Better designed alignment of board and play direction with new player mats.
• Game play modes which allow for simpler play on smaller boards so people can on-ramp layers of gameplay over time (or just have a short blast game).
• Rebalancing the two types of cards we have into potentially one type or into “levels” to be used with different board sizes.
• Plus a few more radical exciting things (gameplay modes we never thought of!).

There are a variety of options and we’re planning to prototype and playtest to find the best.

So, it’s a bit frustrating to not be at the goal line after all (!) but we’re looking forward to more playtesting, engagement and making the game that bit better to make it really great!

We’ll be posting more on how to get engaged with this effort and we’ll be able to provide access to an online playable version and a number of physical prototypes. You can sign up for news on the game homepage (https://game.mitropia.com/– Kickstarter news only) or here (https://mitropia.us15.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=86c8ae8aa59658dedc0702664&id=fca5dce707 – blog posts as well!)

Thank you for your patience!

Exciting times ahead!!

From Team Timewarp!

PS: and no, we don’t think we’ll need to slip again :-). Part of the reason for going for Spring is that this way we can be sure we’ve really done it justice!