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From Creation...
It all starts on a day in June 2016. After several months of designing for fun an expert game on the great explorations of the early twentieth century ("Terra Explorare" not to name it), I'm stuck on some game elements and cannot find any ideas or satisfactory solutions to fix them. I decide to put the prototype on hold and attack the development of a new one.
I've had an idea for several days already. I love games with resources, so it's tempting to develop one, but it is not necessarily obvious how to renew the genre or to find something innovative or at least not current. I then have the following idea: What if players have to get resources from other players' boards instead of producing them? And if in addition, the other players could not refuse?
That's how "Kulkan", the prototype that was to become Last Heroes, is born quite quickly. The actions of players are easily defined because I want a simple game, with few possible actions but strategy. There will be the action of providing resources to the community and the action of consuming them. It remains only to find ways to "force" the players to participate in the collective effort — perhaps through the loss of victory points — and to manage possible blockages in case of resource unavailability, maybe through a third action that brings in a joker resource. I also quickly got the idea of dual-use cards that could be either a resource or a resource-consuming objective. Apart from the mechanism of the third action, everything is still present in Last Heroes today.
For the theme, I layer the concepts of giving, offering, and sacrificing on the three actions — I like when the actions have a meaning — which leads me straight to the choice of an ancient civilization: the Mayans. Once the theme is set, I use the internet to illustrate my cards and my trays.
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The first version of the Kulkan prototype and the first festival outing
That's it! I created a prototype and can now return to my playful delirium of archaeological foundations and excavations on legendary sites. That was the idea anyway, but I did not count on my wife pushing me to show "Kulkan" at festivals and board game clubs, including the brand-new Cannes Protolab.
A few weeks later, after I learn that "Kulkan" will not have a table at Cannes, I discover that the Ludonaute team — Cédric and Anne-Cécile Lefebvre — is looking for someone to help them in Cannes. After a few exchanges, I'm selected, and we agree to meet a few weeks later at the Istres festival to get to know one another. I had planned to go there anyway to present prototypes, and Cédric tells me that he will test them there.
...To Signature
Chance goes to those who get up early and are daring! So here I am on the road this Saturday morning of January 2017, starting at 7 a.m. with an idea behind the head. Arriving first on the spot, I notice the Ludonaute stand and install myself right next to it. Upon their arrival, I introduce myself, then go back to my tables to let them install their booth. While waiting for players, I suddenly see Cédric and AnneC coming to test "Kulkan". I cannot go back.
And here is the drama! I'm just beginning to explain the basic principle of the game — constrained co-operation — and Cédric throws me off by saying, "This type of game never works!" A little bit destabilized but encouraged by AnneC, I continue my explanation and we attack the game. Everything goes well (except for some squeaks from Cédric). The next morning, we chain four games! From the second one on, I can see that Cédric is trying to stress the prototype, but "Kulkan" passes the beta test. Cédric and AnneC talk to each other. They are interested and really enjoyed playing. When leaving in the evening, we make an appointment ten days later to prepare the Cannes journey. I take the opportunity to ask AnneC for a debriefing on "Kulkan".
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Discovery of "Kulkan" by the Ludonautes on Saturday...and new games on Sunday
The following week, I receive a puzzling email. AnneC asks me to send her a print-and-play version (rather good news) to test two defects of the game that seem at risk to them (rather bad news): the importance of the starting hand and the replayability.
Fortunately, the Grenoble festival arrives the following weekend and I take advantage of it to focus on these two problems — but the same issue of the starting hand is put forward: A player with a majority of valuable 1 cards at the beginning of the game cannot win because the victory points are linked to played value cards. The return home is hard as I can't see how to solve a phenomenon suffered by card players since the dawn of time: the bad luck of the starting hand. I go to sleep on Sunday night telling myself that "Kulkan" is stillborn and will end up on a shelf.
On Monday night, when I leave work, it's clear I can't stop there, especially since I'm due to meet the Ludonautes the following Wednesday. I then analyze the problem in due form (via professional distortion) thinking that I shall not be the first to face it. I remember a prototype game played with Bruno Cathala himself during a festival — the Istres festival in 2016! A sign? I remember that low value cards brought power. I hold my solution. Each player already has three powers that can be used only once in a game, but since the start of playtests only one power has been systematically used in each game: the power of exchange. The value 1 cards will bring this power that allows a player to improve their hand.
On Wednesday, I had barely discovered the Ludonautes' lair and drunk a coffee when Anne and Cédric offered to start with a game of "Kulkan". I explained the new rules, then we started. At the end Cédric is wallowing in silence. Even AnneC is surprised! He seems interested but does not say more. AnneC congratulates me on the changes made. For her, the game has taken on depth.
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"Kulkan" at the Cannes and Ludinord festivals
A few months later, when Cédric and AnneC come to my home for a game night, they give me a red box. When I open it, I immediately recognize the "Kulkan" cards. After a few seconds of interrogation, I look at my guests and understand the message: My first game will be published by Ludonaute!
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Do you see I'm on another planet?
The Development Phase
Before signing, I knew that the Ludonautes were considering changing the universe as the sacrifice of animals is not necessarily a big seller. We started brainstorming on a new theme, but also on a new objective of the game as the realization of card combinations is a bit too mechanical.
After much back and forth, Cédric calls one day to tell me he has found the idea: Players have to fight the guardians of a fortress to save a hostage and the "resources" will be ammunition to load the weapons. I am skeptical at first glance because it adds elements to the game and new mechanisms that could take precedence over the basic one that attracted people at festivals, but the first playtests sweep all my doubts aside and open up beautiful prospects for development. Moreover, the prototyped version with monster pics gives plenty of ideas to revisit the bestiary of fantastic creatures.
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First version after signature
The first working session is scheduled for June 2017, and it will be intense. Starting from the "Fortress" version, we chained games and ideas fuse, are challenged, rejected, enriched, or declined after each test. The principle to kill monsters is kept. They shall receive a set of predefined shots (the combinations of "Kulkan") represented by the "weapon" cards collected by players, but instead of just having to fight the monsters, we quickly agree that we must strengthen the false collaborative side of the game.
We decide to add a common goal to be achieved by the group: an "end of level" boss, with a bonus to the player who causes the fatal blow! To then further accentuate the "I must help others but I'll do it for me" side, we insert the breach concept. Monsters are organized into a three-level army, with the number of moves to defeat them increasing with levels. When a player eliminates a monster, they weaken the monster of a higher level, so fewer weapons are now required to kill it.
At the end of the day, we have the impression of having made a huge leap. The new concepts work well and add strategic depth — but after a few playtests at festivals, the idea of the boss turns out to be a false good idea. As the game is not collaborative, players may not agree to kill or even reach the boss.
We then think to add artifacts owned by the level 3 monsters, artifacts that will generate two possible game endings. Either all the artifacts are recovered by players, then the game stops immediately and each artifact earns its owner 5 points, or players have used their ten cards and the artifacts are not all recovered, in which case artifact points are not counted. We also inserted the following rule: If a player has opened a breach below a level 3 monster that is killed during the next turn, then they will gain the artifact instead of the one who kills the monster!
The playtests continue over three months. We review the balance of victory points and the distribution of card values per color; we add one-shot powers to each artifact, but everything else is maintained. During one festival we have the chance to play with Ludovic Maublanc and Théo Rivière, and at the end of the game, Ludovic feels there is too much token manipulation, especially with the ammunition to be taken on other players' cards. Cédric and I feel disappointed, but we immediately start thinking to design a solution, which is how the magazines were introduced to Last Heroes.
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Different game versions
The development is then finished. I am very happy with the result. The game has taken on new dimensions. It can be played with a purely strategic approach as well as in "I annoy my boyfriends" mode. The game remains simple, with only two possible actions each turn (share ammo or load a weapon), and the attack is optional. The false collaborative side has now taken on many facets, and I love that!
The Publishing Job
A passionate game player for more than 25 years, I realized only then the real work done by an editor. The number of small details to think about is simply monstrous. I'm not going to list them all, but many have marked me. For example, when it is necessary to give a look to the characters embodied by the players, it raises the question of people representativeness and gender equality, with the risk of falling into clichés. We have therefore opted in our soul and conscience for two women, two men and one unidentifiable person, with representatives of Asian, African and European origins.
Other details are fortunately less subject to controversy, but also participate in creating the harmony of the game. How to choose the different weapons available to players? It's stupid, but if players have to load weapons, it excludes everything that is a blunt and sharp weapon. Farewell lightsabers, two-handed axes, and shuriken...
Which names do we give the characters? During a brainstorming session with Ludonaute, someone suggests that the initials of the characters should form a word. I propose BEAST as "Beast Hunters" is one of the game name options, so we start finding names to stick with the anagram (forced collaboration?). After multiple exchanges, we agree on Blind, Echo, Ace, Silent and Tank. B.E.A.S.T. team is created!
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Finally, some details can become fun, such as the choice of monsters as we have made a few winks to the fantasy world with a succubus, a vampire, a stone golem, a hydra, and (for role-playing fans) an eye of the beholder and a Cthulhu, of course!
The game is still full of other details, and that's what makes each game unique.
The Hardest Challenge of All
This would be finding a name for the game. When the first illustrations of monsters arrived in early January 2018, our choice stopped on "Fantasy Hunters". It sounds like heroic fantasy and explains what the players incarnate. We like it. But as we discuss this title in Cannes with a Canadian distributor, we learn that the fantasy term sounds more like monsters wearing pink tutus dancing to Swan Lake. Do you see the image of Cthulhu in ballerinas carrying out the beholder? In short, we must change.
What follows is a long time in which we brainstorm, but no name is unanimous: "Beast Hunters", "Beast Squad", "Night Hunters", "Hell Squad"... When Ian decides to go for a design reminiscent of DC Comics, we focus our research on names like "Guardians", "Defenders", "Watchmen" — and then arises "Sentinels". We repeat it several times, with different intonations; it sounds good! We take a look on the internet to check that no game has the same name. We find Sentinels of the Multiverse, but the gameplay is not the same, so we validate "Sentinels".
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Then arrives the Paris festival where the final version of the "Sentinels" prototype is presented with large tarpaulins highlighting the beautiful illustrations of Romain Gaschet. The game is well received. We will be able to launch production.
Ludonaute then starts to communicate about "Sentinels", with BoardGameGeek including it in a post presenting new games planned for SPIEL '18 — but a comparison with Sentinels of the Multiverse is made immediately. The comments on the forums are quite virulent, some even accusing Ludonaute of wanting to take advantage of the game's notoriety in the U.S. Others even compare fonts, which are alike of course since all DC Comics styles have been applied. To avoid any controversy, Ludonaute decides to change the name.
What a mess! The game no longer has a name at the time that production must be launched. It's urgent! We spend a whole weekend, each of us in the four corners of France, calling one another to find a name. We run through all the names, fuse some of them together, but we cannot agree. We decide that everyone must propose a name — only one! — and we will choose from this list. Not an easy exercise!
In the end, Last Heroes was chosen unanimously!
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•••
After writing my author diary, I wanted to talk about the work done by Romain Gaschet and Ian Parovel to give life to Last Heroes. I proposed interviewing them, and they accepted without hesitation.
Hello Romain, your name is not known in the world of the board games, at least not as much as Ian. Can you start by introducing yourself? What is your background? How did you land in board games?
Romain: I am Romain Gaschet, I also sign under the pseudonym of GeyseR for my comics and my paintings. I draw and paint permanently, but my other passion is board games. I started with comics at Bamboo Édition (Omnopolis), then worked at Soleil Editions with 42 Intergalactic Agents and Android. I also worked in the video game industry (Silverfall for Monte Cristo). I made my first illustrations for the board game world on the game GOSU, which is where I met Ian.
Ian, by what criteria did you choose Romain?
Ian: First, I enormously respect his work, his rigor, and his flexibility. Second, he is known for his talent that sticks perfectly to the desired atmosphere. He is a simple and attentive guy who understands perfectly the graphic and cinematographic language. Our shared love for Michael Turner's work was a rapprochement that would necessarily facilitate our common understanding of the work to be done, the rendering to be done, and the graphic constraints that such a game imposed and deserved.
Romain has a crazy talent that is complicated to exploit as it is particularly hard to take on a media other than the one for which it is predestined (comics). But I knew that by exchanging a lot, we would be able to seduce players attached to this graphic style, lovers of strong visuals who will appreciate original and neat illustrations.
Humberto Ramos, Frank Miller, Scott Campbell, Jack Kirby, and Stan Lee not being available (and the last one having never drawn), I had to send a word to Romain Gaschet.
Romain, how did Ian present the project to you? What attracted you?
R: I did not have much choice; he told me it was a question of survival for the universe as we know it. If I did not participate in the design of Last Heroes, Ragnarok would be on us and we would all die...and that it would be my fault, besides. As I still have two dreams to achieve in my life, I had to accept to save time.
More seriously what attracted me was the possibility of drawing a varied bestiary. I had a blast drawing all of it: the werewolf, the succubus, the beholder, and so on.
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Ian, why the choice of a DC Comics theme?
I: The theme is not DC Comics, but American comics. One is a registered trademark of an American publisher, the other a graphic style.
In Last Heroes, players "steal" ammo to load weapons to destroy monsters. It is important for me to tie a theme to what the game offers so that players do not feel disoriented, and they know what's in the box before buying it. Although it is possible to thematize the "feeling", I usually prefer to do research before getting into a too-pronounced style. The magazines with the counting wheels were already there, but they needed a visual justification. The idea of using skulls as belt buckles came first. It's a strong, symbolic image and very oriented toward "U.S. action movies at the end of 2000", so it needed a global package that could feel like this nostalgic point of a bygone era. Since it was out of the question to compromise with a parodic style, it was necessary to make the game live through a graphic appearance perfectly sticking to this atmosphere and the requirements of the Ludonautes.
Like many other graphic arts enthusiasts, I discovered comics through the Top Cow publishing house at the end of my adolescence. It was at this time that I discovered Witchblade, Darkness, Fathom, and the very original graphic style of the late Michael Turner, who inspired a whole generation of illustrators (Keu Cha, Francisco Eduardo, David Finch, Marc Silvestri, etc.). He was one of the first to create a style linking angular lines with strong perspectives and curves of phenomenal strength but always in a "just" manner (while knowing how to play graphically with the charm of the book's protagonists).
It is a very particular and marked graphic style, but it has a charm that sticks perfectly with the narrative mechanisms of the game (at least for what happens around the table between the players). It seemed obvious to me to go in this direction. The concern was to find someone who would paint with his agile fingers the heroic fresco that appeared during our test parties.
Did the theme come early in the game's design?
I: I would say it came after two-thirds of the balancing of the game once the final material was decided and we had to put to picture what we had in our hands. Previously, there were several tests of environments and scenarios.
Romain, did you ever work in this type of universe?
R: The creatures composing the universe of Last Heroes are archetypal, and it allowed me to give my comic version of each one. I have always evolved into heroic fantasy or SF universes, so it was blessed bread for me — and it was even better when Ian gave the artistic direction of the comics as I've worked for Marvel and DC as a colorist.
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How did you work? Did you need to set a framework, guidelines, markers before starting?
I: We have, of course, defined the technical imperatives before starting. The briefs of the cards and the elements were precise: what counted above all was to transmit the intentions to Romain and to verify that he had understood well. After this first brief, the rest quickly became clear because we were talking about the same desire, the same result, and the same vision, even though there have been adjustments after.
R: The more that the brief is precise and clear at first, the more likely you are not to have too many retouches on the illustrations. Afterwards, there is always some randomness in the final rendering, but the goal is to control the best part.
Has a particular element been a problem for you, has it required several tests?
I: No problem but tests have been requested. It was necessary to develop overlays and iconography at the same time as the visuals, and therefore it requires a series of round trips between game tests, graphic tests, and reading tests.
Ian, did the goal and play of the game influence your artistic decisions? If yes, which elements in particular?
I: Obviously. The game is the basis of inspiration for the theme. A mechanism always tells something: in its course, in its beginning, its end of game, a way to win or lose. Although it is often possible to go in any direction, even to keep an abstract theme, it is necessary to find the best visual axis.
So it needed enemies and a cloak of resources. The element that has most influenced the dressing is the magazine. The fact that holsters are often worn around the waist quickly defined this "belt buckle" element. The shape of the skull allowed us to bring a justified visual for its use, but its presence was such that it seemed logical to us to derive the rest of the visuals from it. This belt in the skull is the adage of an era, a prelude to films like "The Expendables" that perfectly correspond to this caricature.
In its progress, Last Heroes plays with the classic codes of the "fight" games while proposing a forced co-operation, an unprecedented mechanism that can divert more than one. But after a few games and some crazy laughter, the obvious takes over: It's a rich expert game requiring some plays to be fully apprehended and offering all its potential with a group of regular players because of the conversation triggers. The visuals were made in order to allow this replayability with increased pleasure, so they are full of details that players will notice over their games.
R: Yes, it's always better to know in what context my illustrations will be used. It helps to better stick to the subject.
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Ian, Romain, what are the commonalities and major differences between working on a cartoon/comic and illustrating a board game?
I: Working on a game is a very different exercise than a cartoon or film. It is a work of adaptation in the service of a mechanism, an idea, an atmosphere and a work that involves a multitude of constraints, whether technical or financial. The main similarity with cinema is in having to serve a purpose, a story, or an experience in the most effective way. The approach may seem more complex in that it requires building consistency with gameplay, rules, and material where for a film or a series, the construction of the visual universe is done on an entirely narrative writing, a precise script which defines all the narration of the work. In a game, the players write the scenario. We must therefore bring a coherent but open universe, allowing everyone to appropriate and build their own interpretation of the game through visuals and components adapted to the sensations of gameplay.
Illustrating a game is a more complex process than simply immersing yourself in a universe; it is defining, for the players, a support to their adventure and their imagination, so that they write their own stories.
R: In a comic book, the drawings form boxes, these boxes form boards, and the set of boards tells a story. All the drawings are linked for this unique purpose. In a board game, each illustration is independent and must serve the mechanisms it illustrates. We cannot compare the two as they're not the same media.
•••
There you go! You now know more about the genesis of Last Heroes. Hope you enjoyed this article and that you now look forward to discovering the Last Heroes world and gameplay!
Eric Jumel
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