Illumination is live (Marginalia battles)
Update: Illumination has launched on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 14 days. This is a joint campaign with The Road to Canterbury, so you may pledge for either of the games or both.
Our preview post below was published on January 11.
Illumination is a 1-2 player tile laying game in which figures from illuminated manuscripts representing the forces of good fight against those of evil. It will launch on Kickstarter on January 14.
Three different boards will be placed at the center of the table, each one showing the layout of a book. You will also have your personal board with a number of tiles arranged in rows and columns. Tiles in row and column one on your player board can only be played on book one. Tiles in row and column two on your player board can only be played on book two, and so on for the third book. On your personal board there are also spaces where you can store money and ritual tokens. On a separate central board which shows the monastery, the abbot meeple will move to a different location each round, allowing you to gain different bonuses accordingly.
On each turn, you will choose a row or a column on your board and transfer the tiles onto the corresponding book. You can place them on any quill spot, and if the colour of the tile matches that of the quill, you earn the associated bonus (e.g. ritual tokens or coins). Sometimes, the placement of a tile will result in conflict: angels fight demons, knights fight dragons, monks fight rabbits, and dogs fight squirrels. If any of these opposing pairs occur upon placement, adjacent tiles will join the fight. The battle is resolved by majority, and ties remain unresolved.
Coins can be spent to move a tile to another book, and scriptorium cards let you manipulate the tiles to your advantage. Ritual tokens can be traded for points. Tiles placed on books score points too. The game ends when all books are closed, and the player with the most points is the winner. In the solo mode, the AI rolls a die to determine its chosen row and column.
Athena, I liked the points you made in the 2nd half of your 1st paragraph. After reading them, and being only 1.6m tall myself, I realized I could relate to the not having to stretch to reach components. :^) Plus, having to read small print that's 3 feet away can be challenging. The "sense of intimacy..." was something I hadn't really thought about until you mentioned it, but now that I have, yeah, it can add to the overall enjoyment of the game. Once again, your observations are perceptive, and more eloquently put than my "I'm runnin' outta friggin' space" comment. LOL!
Hey, thank you both for your gracious responses! I appreciate it. You've both given me things to think about regarding the logistics of playing and displaying games, esp. those for 1-2 players. I'm with you all the way on the value of a neatly bound "magic circle" for a game. My game designs do tend to sprawl a fair bit (in fact the only one I can think of which doesn't sprawl is Dingo's Dreams).
The first thing that comes to mind for me when I hear "2-player game" is still the KOSMOS 2-player game series in those very tidy, very nice little boxes. I'd love to have a game of mine released in exactly that size sometime. I still…
How fun, a real game designer is here! :^)
Alf, I believe you're right, that 1-2 Player games don't have to come in small boxes, but as you said, people (including me) often do equate smaller player counts with smaller boxes. Illumination is a great example of a larger box for larger components, though. I wouldn't really want the manuscripts to be folded and have some ugly crease down the middle, so they could fit in a smaller box. I don't fold pages in my books, so I'm sure as Hell not wanting to fold a manuscript. :^)
My personal issue is I like to have my games on display, as opposed to being in a cabinet or closet, but…
Hi Alf, thank you for commenting. This is more a matter of personal preference than objective assessment. My ideal game size is that of the old Victory Point Games boxes with the puzzle piece boards. I am a small person with a relatively small table, and prefer to be able to reach all the components without stretching. :D There is a sense of intimacy and personal engagement when you have the tableau within your close visual perimeter.
That said, if you feel that the theme and the artwork needed to be 'true to size', I'm sure you know better and shouldn't compromise your plans. I wish you best of luck with the campaign!
Thanks for this writeup! I really appreciate it.
I have an honest question for those here in the comment thread -- I don't mean this defensively but I'm genuinely curious. Why should 1-2 player games have to come in small boxes? I can see objections if boxes are needlessly big, but what if the components actually require the space of a larger box? In the case of Illumination the box could not have been much smaller without being too small to fit the components, which were made as small as was viable for this specific design. For Rival Realms the box was small because it's a card game and it permitted that. But Illumination is a game about illuminated manuscripts,…