Kicking off Kickstarter

The screenshot right after we pressed the launch button.

That campaign countdown has officially begun, marking Phase II of the Meta Olympia project.

Looking back at the year, this isn’t the timing or the circumstances we’d imagined for rolling out the Kickstarter. In my head, it was far more orchestrated and deliberate. But the goings-on of the real world are stranger than fiction, so you really do need to just roll with it.

We have always had eyes-wide-open on the prospects, even had we launched it under the most perfect of situations and preparedness. This IS how we want to do things, so there are really no excuses worth mentioning on why and how we are doing this. It’s actually part plan, when you boil it all down.

On a personal note, the biggest and most important thing about our Kickstarter is, I’m really proud of where we got the game design, the components, the research on logistics, and just the fun and whacky time we had doing it all. A huge thanks to the project producers/designers, Alison and Michelle. They always kept this moving forward despite, well, everything that has happened and is happening in the real world.

We will keep you posted on the the campaign and our learnings from it. Stay tuned.

.chris.

Metabox 003 – Risk are part of the Reward

"Okay, your athlete suffers a broken leg, damaged life-support, dislocated shoulder, and mild concussion... Aren't you glad we don't play sports for real?"

For any sort of game, real or virtual, risk and reward are all part of the fun.  

A board game emulating sport and science fiction cannot be a pedestrian affair, so transferring that sense of consequence into Meta Olympia is a fundamental aspiration for our game.

Not only must athlete cards be at risk of potential injury to twist the fate of outcomes, but all the other heart wrenching dynamics of trades, suspensions and even off-field shenanigans that can sideline an athlete or send them down a scandal spiral.

The risk becomes that much greater when you are coming from a near-future where no one in the general population of Mars is a professional athlete, so you are starting from scratch! 

Buffs can counter, like genetic modification for enhanced resilience or rapid recovery; bonuses like natural resistance or adrenaline bursts can help to play through the pain; and get-out-of-jail cards to, well, get out of jail or at least have a good publicist to weather the media fall out...  all these tools can help fend off losing star athletes from your hand and keep you competitive for the next sport (whatever that might be), so you will have to use them wisely.

As the old ABC commentary used to go for Wide World of Sports “the thrill of victory... the agony of defeat”,  these are the same classic driving forces we hope to capture in our rendition of sports on Mars (the game).

Stay tuned!