All complex processes require a great deal of attention and time, and as that time relentlessly draws to an end, a natural question arises: what is it all for?
Perhaps a short personal reflection on the process will help answer that question.
It is no secret that at the moment, together with Physical Mind Games, we are preparing to release our second game, Turčius (Bougie), which we will once again fund through the Gamefound platform.
Preparing such a campaign is an entirely separate creative process, one I will not devote time to here, but I hope you will get to enjoy it very soon as well. But first, let’s take a look at how this game came about in the first place.
The main idea was sparked by the scandals surrounding the State Plant Service under the Ministry of Agriculture earlier this year, during which government officials connected to flower smuggling were detained. Although the specific goods being transported alongside the flowers were never publicly identified, the very fact of it affected me in a highly creative way.
The contrast between good (or perhaps beauty?) and evil always gives rise to interesting ideas.
I started thinking about how this phenomenon could be expressed and remembered: a game I played as a child called Liar. Its essence is very simple: you say you are doing one thing, while leaving everyone else to decide whether you are lying or not.
Within a few hours, I had come up with the core game mechanic and the first characters – the Policeman, the Amateur, the Nepo Kid and the Handsome Guy.
However, I decided not to put them into the game yet, as I did not want to overload an untested mechanic.
The first playtesting sessions with friends and colleagues took place at varying intensity for roughly nine months.
There were five iterations during that time, followed by one more in the summer and another very recently. However, the first real validation came when the game was tested at the Vilnius Board Game Guild Prototybe.
I saw that the game could appeal to a broader audience, as even experienced players were emotionally engaged by its clarity, simplicity and good pacing.
While searching for visual directions, I remembered my fellow artist Urte, whom I met a few years ago on the set of the short film The Falcon and the Ravenhair. Even then, Urte’s dark and expressive style caught my attention, while her consistent dedication to her work demonstrated her professionalism.
But it was precisely the authenticity of her graphics that encouraged me to invite her to contribute to the game.
After conducting some surveys, I decided to expand the flower-smuggling theme by adding counterfeit perfumes, such as Dance & Gabriel, Huge Bros, the Crocodile, and so on. People found the idea funny, and it also “softens” the darker side of the smuggling theme.
The idea eventually came together into a coherent whole: in the game, players try to get rich by selling counterfeit versions of luxury perfumes, while disguising them as flowers during transportation. Interestingly, this theme is still very much relevant at local markets – quite recently (I won’t mention the name of the market), I came across hundreds of counterfeit perfumes.
And although they smelled good, I didn’t buy any – I didn’t want to end up with a chemical burn.
For the past few months, the team has been working intensively on the visuals, looking for perfume names and character abilities, refining the mechanics, and dealing with product design, manufacturing, and logistics.
And while there is no telling how it will ultimately turn out, one thing is already clear: we have learned a lot.
I think we have created a very beautiful and fun game and, answering the question I asked at the beginning, perhaps that is exactly why we create: because at first there was nothing, and now there is.
There isn’t much time left until launch, and everything is going according to plan.
Support our crowdfunding campaign here: Bougie
Check out the nearest boardgaming events at Kaulas.lt
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