This project has come in between other projects we had in 2015. This is the first time we have to work this way, with tight specifications and a short timeline.

The target, mainly children and families, is quite different from our usual audience. this is a challenge for Ludonaute.

However, even if this project has turned our plans upside down in the past months, we have no regret at all to have seized this opportunity. We are very proud of the game we’ll finally release next summer.

In early November 2014, we learnt that an animated feature film about the Little Prince was in production. We contacted the fil company and tried to know more about it.

Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala were in from the beginning. We watched some sequences of the movie and we all were seduced by the quality of the story and the pictures.

In mid-December, after a few work sessions with Antoine, Bruno presented us a prototype inspired from one of his unpublished games: Barback.

The theme of a journey in the stars (one of the strong sequence in the film) seemed us great. The point to point mouvement mechanism offered by our two designers perfectly fit.

We made some settings along the playtesting sessions: we dropped the dice, change the cards.

In mid-January, the game’s mechanic is settled. Players, the film company, the distributor like it. A great part of the job is done!

But the graphics are still to be created. Since the film is not finished yet; we have a limited amount of pictures.

In the movie, there are two kind of graphics: 3d animation mainly when it is about the little girl’s story, and stop motion pictures during the sequences about imagination and the Little prince’s story.

We want to use this two graphic settings. Our challenge is to have them coexisting in one playing area. On Antoine’s advice, we decided to use the stop motion pictures on contents related to the scoring and the 3D graphics in the « mechanical » contents such as cards or board.

We started working on a squared board, with a spiral path. despite all our efforts, we couldn’t come to something satisfying.

Then we thought about a lengthwise board, more coherent with the idea of a journey from the Grand-father’s house to the Little Prince’s planet. This game board was the one played in Cannes’ festival in February.

At this moment, Ian, Maëva and Christine, three graphic designers, came into play. They offered us to work on this project, using their experience in such works.

First change they did: creating a modular game board made of 3 tracks and 2 start and finish tiles. Setting up the contents become playful, and the games are now all different.

Second contribution from them: Maëva and Christine designed a stared background in which the planets arose as diamonds. An amazing art making the  journey enchanting.

We are now close to the end. We make children play on this last version. Each time, they really live the story and enjoy the game.

The box remains the last content to do. It is a big deal. We can’t miss it. The question is: should we keep the dark blue tones as the stared track is, or should we use the golden graphics standards from the movie? Shall we show the Little Girl and her plane (as she is the heroine of the film) or rather the Little Prince? You can see the final choice opposite. What do you think?

We learnt a few days ago that the film will be presented in Cannes’ festival in May. We are pretty sure that the audience will be touched as we were. The trailer has just been released. You can check by yourselves.

Today, the main part of the files are ok to print. We have just received the sample of the wooden plane, and it is cute!

The rules are still to be translated in 11 languages, and we’ll be fine !

We shall make them available on the upcoming page of the game very soon.

The ceremony of the As d’Or rewards started at 5:15 p.m., with the presentation of the game « Les Poilus », that had been illustrated by Tignous, just before he was assassinated with other journalists of Charlie Hebdo. E thrill homage.

Then was a dull gibberish by a NPD group analyst about the Games market.

Nadine Seul, then, started the presentation of the 12 nominees, with Marcus and Monsieur Phal. One by one we came to the stage to give some words about our game. Short speeches, jokes, laughs, this is a cheerful moment.

On the Friday, Christophe and Jordi were asked to sign or talk in TV. They are the stars of the day!

At our booth, we made people play Discoveries. Cédrick listened to the players, their feedbacks, their feelings about the game. He doesn’t need to worry anymore: the feedbacks are good, VERY good ;-)

Christophe set up play tests of the possible expansions of Colt Express. Various « module » were played, we gathered feedbacks. We know that for sure the first expansion will contain horses and a stagecoach.

On the Sunday afternoon was the final round of the League of The Little Prince organized by la Boutique d’Oren  during the last 6 months.

It was a contested game, and the winner was Romain with his amazing 50 points-planet.

To sum up, this Festival was extraordinary. All the Thank you and congratulations we got gave us peps and energy for the next 12 months.

Can’t wait the next one!

We felt very moved by the hearty applause when we came on the stage. Christophe Raimbault (the designer) and Jordi Valbuena (the artist) were by our side to receive the prize that rewards our team’s work. We, Ludonaute, are thankful to the jury for the acknowledgement of our commitment and our passion.

You can watch the ceremony here:

http://www.trictrac.tv/program/192

The As d’Or giving is at 97:00 :-)

What is going on now?

We are honored to get this reward and we have to make it valuable.

In France, we’ll see in the next few months if there is an the impact on the sales.

Colt Express will benefit more visibility in the media. It is already distributed in more than 15 countries world wide.

And its first expansion!

Colt Express will be presented in Cannes at several booths:

– on the As d’Or booth, with Ludocortex team

– on Asmodee’s booth, in a over-sized version and in Real life :-)

– on our booth (at the end of the line 16, in front of tric Trac booth) with the prototype of the first expansion.

The designer of the game, Christophe Raimbault, will be there all the fair along for signing sessions and testing sessions.

If you are there on the Friday, you may have the chance to meet Jordi Valbuena, the artist, who will sign your box with pleasure.

An expansion? What is it about?

In the prototype you will test next week at our booth, you can find:

– horses, because riding next to the train, this is fun!

– prisoners and a new car

– hostages and a stagecoach

– the way to play the Marshall, alone against all the others :-)

This expansion will be released in Essen Spiel ; thus we are still adjusting some rules and we need your feedbacks to make the game better.

Another version of the story of the Corps of Discovery!

If you read the designer diary of Lewis & Clark game, you know that we had to leave a large part of the story aside.

A year ago, Cédrick Chaboussit  showed us a new game, with the same background as Lewis & Clark, the Expedition, but with dice this time!

This is a shorter game than Lewis, but that needs brain too ;-)

That special game will be released at GenCon next summer, but we’ll have a playable prototype next week in Cannes, with the first drawings from Vincent Dutrait.

A new game by Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala !

Yes, it is! A NEW game about the Little Prince, more specifically about the animated feature film, due to be release this summer.

This time, no need to build a planet but rather go for a journey into the stars.

You can click to watch the trailer of the film.

The game aims casual gamers and families, but with some clever switches (you know Bruno, right? ;-))

You can play it in preview at our booth.

Regarding The Little prince – Make me a planet, we shall settle the final round of the « Ligue ». It will happen on Sunday the 1st of march, from 2:00pm to 3:00pm, at Asmodee’s booth.

« Ligue Petit Prince » finals

The first months after signing the contract with Greg, we worked a lot, with countless exchanges with the designer. We were looking for a story and the way to justify this story with the mechanics. We were not satisfied  with the way the shelter (the individual board where each player had his survivors) worked.

Between March and August 2014, there were so many versions of the game that we were lost. We did not find the feelings, the great impressions we had first anymore.

Discouragement and despair were close. We were not happy with what we had done, nor the author. Of course, we had put away lots of gaming options that did not work, but there was no pleasure anymore.

We decided then to let Greg take the lead again. By our side, we had a lot to deal with Colt Express imminent release. Thus Madsteam was pushed in the background.

A month ago, greg called us back. He had a new version of the game he was happy with.

We plan a meeting then tot est it. For us it is the last chance because, to be honest, both Greg and we are ready to throw in the towel if the game is not what we are expecting.

The first game of the new version brings the same feelings as at the beginning:

• The tactical moves on the board are back: Greg uses almost the same board as one year ago, with the bridges removed.

• The bullying tactics work well in a fast-pace: there is no order in arriving anymore. Every meeple can be bullied.

• The cupboards are new with a great search system.

But a problem raises: the unlimited stocks lead to a winner every time strategy Cedric soon plays.  fair enough, stocks must be limited to 1 resource maximum at the end of each turn. The second game is played with this new rule.

In the evening, Seb, Ju and Philippe playtest the game. For a year they have played the various versions of Madsteam. The game goes well ; Seb and Philippe’s scores are close at the end, each of them having played a different strategy.

The night goes on talking a lot about the shelters (again ;-) ), the bullying system, the need to introduce a third way to score…

The next morning, Cédric and Greg revise the shelters, making something simpler but more open.

Two new games finally convince us that the game is on the right track. After lots of shifts, it seems that we are happily going towards the end of the world…

Of course, it is not over. There is still a lot of work.

The idea now is to create a different shelter for each player, to make the game even more open. It will need lots of tests you can follow on the Facebook page of the game if you wish:

https://www.facebook.com/MADSTEAMgame?fref=ts

It started with a 5 hours travel by plane, via Amsterdam, tiny snowflakes welcoming me and mingling with a cosmopolite crowd, men in suits and women wearing high heels.

At Asmodee’s booth, Colt Express featured prominently next to the upcoming hits Loony Quest and Elysium.

Some thoughts……

The year 20015 will see the wave of Star Wars. Each corner in each booth of the fair showed by-products of the blockbuster to be release in December.

Game industry is not outdone. Asmodee for instance will make a Star wars version of Bombyx’ Timeline.

Regarding other licencing products, let’s name Marvel and Frozen. Olaf will stand next to superheroes on the shelves in the next few months.

For me, those two days ended with my first Asmodee Gaming night.

An upper-class hotel in Nürnberg’s center was the meeting place. Champagne and « petits-fours » were served to the guests: Asmodee’s partners, subsidiaries and publishers.

Then was the test: the presentation of our upcoming games Discoveries and The little Prince. Eleven tables with 6 or 7 potential buyers and only seven minutes each time to convince them.

At the end, it went well thanks to Christelle, Estelle and Alexis.

– The Colt express is here!

– From now, every man for himself!

– Oh Ghost look! it is shining in here !

– I am not here…

– I am Ghost…

– Let’s go!

– I must carry this suit case during the whole day. What rotten luck! I’m gonna let it in the locomotive, it will be safe here.

– Guys, what are you doing up there?!

– When you have to shoot, shoot,… don’t talk!

– Hep, Django, don’t mind if I stay in your back?

– I’m gonna shoot someone! He won’t see it happen.

– Come on Marshall, we could deal with this…

– No one will be above the law, and I am the law!

All change now!

As you have noticed, the over-sized copy of Colt Express is ready to be played.

A big Thank you to Dominique for his work and patience with the miniatures. You can have a look at his website here:

La petite Boutique de Zeblate

This is a major event for all game designers, publishers and distributors. It is only for professionals, no gamers there. You cannot find any stand with people playing on the ground as in Essen. All goes in displays and closed rooms with smiling hostesses.

Ludonaute has no booth there. I just occupy a table from time totime on Asmodee’s booth. Meetings, talks about the upcoming games with business partners.

To make it going well, we need to present prototypes as finished as possible.  Crafting has been keeping us busy these last days: printing, sticking, cutting :-)

Graphic demonstrations below

 We are so happy to see our game  to be thrust into the limelight, all the more since it is with 11 other great games. Some special mentions:

• for Bruno Cathala, nominated twice with two gems : Abyss and Five Tribes? Year 2014 is his year!
• for Perlin Pinpin, a game from Cocktail Games. I know that Matthieu enjoys this situation right now.
• for Le Lièvre et la Tortue, a new game in « Tales and Games » series. After The 3 Little Pigs nominee last year, Purple brain has launched a wonderful collection!

The list of winners will be disclose during the ceremony on Thursday 26th of February at 5 p.m. If you are not onsite, you can watch it on live on trictrac.net.

As with Lewis & Clark lest year, we shall support Colt Express during   the Festival International des jeux de Cannes from 27th of Febraury to 1st of March. The game designer Christophe Raimbault will be there to make you play to the game with its prototypal expansion.

Testing night Tuesday 21st of January – Seb is playing the Marshall

Colt Express can be played on Asmodee’s booth too, with an over-sized version.

And some lucky people (maybe you ;-)  may play life-sizedColt Express games .  

If ever you know nothing about Colt Express yet, please have a look at the two videos below.