Unpub Preview: World Shapers

Unpub Previews are where we let the designer talk a little more about their games that are part of the Unpub Network.World Shapers, is a tile placement game about ancient magic and strategic manipulation. The game's designer is Derrick Vidal and he is supported by the team from Baked Fresh Daily Games (who also created Mecha Mayhem.)

Derrick took some time to answer our Unpub Preview survey, so let's hear what he had to say...

What was your inspiration for World Shapers ? Well I had a crazy dream one night about the Doctor, yes THE Doctor, manipulating the elements and from that I sort of borrowed the theme. Aside from that, I felt the need to create a game where people were actually building, or creating something without the complete threat of someone being able to block your plans. In a sense, I wanted to create a game where people were free to accomplish their own individual goals, while still being able to interact with each other at the table. I was looking to create a social experience out of a bit of a sheltered objective.

What is your favorite part of World Shapers? My favorite part of the game is its core essence: building your own island and creating big chains.

To your knowledge, What do other people find most interesting about World Shapers? By far, the most interesting thing about our game is its replayability. You can play this game multiple times and it always seems to be a unique experience each time.

What has been the most challenging part of designing World Shapers?  The most difficult part of designing this game is trying to find the right number of tiles to include. Either it's not enough of a variety for players, or it's too much and players feel overwhelmed, or the game drags on too long. So far, I think we've managed to find a happy balance, but it's a precarious one.

What advice would you give to players attempting World Shapers for the first time?  Well, I haven't won a single game yet, so I'm not sure asking for my advice is the best choice. If I had to give advice, I'd suggest people pay attention to other players' islands carefully. While I wasn't going for a "take that" focused game, it's still competitive and important to know what others are going for, so you can be sure to "keep up with the Joneses" while building your island.

What has surprised you most in play-tests of World Shapers? The thing that has surprised me the most about our game is how easily it has gone from idea to physical reality. It just sort of leapt off the paper at us. We also haven't had to fiddle around with numbers too much, they sort of clicked reasonably well. The scores were all very competitive right out of the gate without having to really scale anything, which was a very welcome surprise indeed!

People who like________will like World Shapers. Why?  People who like Castles of Burgundy, Hey! That's my Fish, Carcassonne, and Forbidden Island will probably enjoy this game. Why? Well, because we slammed them all together in one game, that's why!

What do you hope to accomplish in the Unpub Network?  We really just need to get some more play tests under our belt and hopefully find a person to break it and give us some much needed constructive feedback. Also, we really want to get some more feedback from people who aren't in our inner circle. It's greatly important to get some un-biased input.

Tell us anything else you want to say about World Shapers that I haven't asked or you haven't said already. I just hope that people have as much fun playing this game as we did baking it!

For more information on World Shapers and to find out where you can play it next, please visit the game's Unpub.net page.