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Jordi Gené and I started to design games some years ago, founding a creative partnership called Piu Con Jocs. We sent our games to a couple of design contests. And then, by chance, we happened to meet Stefan Stadler (co-designer of Cuba and The Pillars of the Earth and an editor at Kosmos Verlag) at the Festival de Juegos de Córdoba 2008. He and his design partner Michael Rieneck tested two of our games. They liked them, and we were really excited!!
After a year of testing and very good feedback, we got our first two refusals. What a slump! Amongst the reasons: The games were too strategical, too heavy.
Lesson learned, we now check the games in each catalogue and pitch the correct games to the correct publisher – at least we try!
So when Spiel 2010 was on the horizon, we had to decide which game to show to Stefan again? Take That Landscape was one of our candidates; they tried the game in Essen, liked it, and forty days later sent us greeeaaat news: confirmation from Kosmos that our game would be published by them and presented at the Nürnberg Toy Fair in 2012. Wow! Yeah! We made it!! Much champagne ran that night...
Hmmm, wait – Take That Landscape? What are we talking about? Well, barbecuing was not the game's theme when we first thought of the design – come to think of it, landscapes weren't the theme either. Let's go back to April 2010....
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Many tests and many changes after that we had our game – finished! (Heh, well, we thought so.) The game then was Take That Landscape, with the players being photographers who were trying to finish a book of landscape shots. They have to take twenty photographs of landscapes, but they are tricky and through clever composition (wink, wink) can add a lake to a shot or clear out a tree.
All in all, we had a fast light game with few components but quite a few strategic decisions for players to make, so we pitched the game to Kosmos and received the publishing confirmation. Then the communications really started and so did the polishing!
Second lesson learned: Themes can change, and rules can be tweaked – and we are very glad we took an active part in the changes.
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The grill with fish, corn, steak and wurst – yummy!
The theme changed to the definitive grilling thing and the name changed to Grill Party, and some changes in the rules have made it more strategical. That's pretty much the story. We are really looking forward to seeing it in our hands – and in yours. We hope you like it!
Gregorio Morales
No steaks – score!
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