As our second vendor spotlight, we've chosen to interview Emmanuel Aquin, the Canadian Designer of the D-Day Dice which was published by local and loyal supporters, Valley Games.
Q: D-Day Dice, your first board game design, was a huge success on Kickstarter and now a huge success being nearly sold out after only a month in print. How do you feel about the reaction your first game has had in the board gaming community?
EA: The reaction was nothing short of amazing! When I first published D-Day Dice on the web, as a free "print-and-play", it was just to basically test the waters to see if my design had a leg to stand on (is that a mixed metaphor?). The amount of feedback I received was awesome, and so positive that I decided to enter my game in 2 different design contests. I was a finalist in both, so I signed with Valley, thinking things were pretty cool. And then we got that incredible Kickstarter campaign, and that totally blew me away! I am honored and humbled by all this success... and I can only hope that my future designs will have such a sweet reception.
Q: You attended the World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) in Pennsylvania recently. What was your experience like meeting people for the first time in person with D-Day Dice?
EA: I enjoyed WBC for many reasons: meeting people, discovering new games and seeing the enthusiasm of the community. Meeting people who had supported us on Kickstarter was just icing on the cake! It was quite satisfying to put faces on names. To actually see people playing my game in the open game area was extremely gratifying.
Q: You did an amazing job with the Kickstarter campaign and all of the bonus stuff for D-Day Dice. What do your eager fans have to look forward to as far as the game expansions planned for the future?
EA: The future is loaded with stuff for people to enjoy, and for me to design! I have a ton of ideas and I hope I'll live long enough to publish them all. And then, when I'm finished, I'll probably have more!
For example, this Fall, we'll have a Kickstarter campaign for the next 2 expansions of D-Day Dice: War Stories & Way to Hell. Of course, we'll also have a couple of mini-expansions in there, and exclusives, plus one of the coolest accessories a game can have (I'm not allowed to discuss it now, sadly). And then, next year, we'll do a stand-alone expansion for the game, called D-Day Dice: Pacific, which will come with its own slate of expansions (one for playing the Japanese, one with legendary units from the Pacific, more maps, etc.). After that, I want to explore the Dieppe landings (a big thing for us Canadians), and the Walcheren landings, and Operation Dragoon, and the Italian and Sicilian landings...
Q: Valley Games, a small company, offered to produce your game and they were interested in the whole line of games based on the mechanics of D-Day Dice. How has your experience been with those guys?
EA: I hate those guys! Kidding. I have only good things to say about them. The only downside to my working with Valley is that I know I will never find another publisher who is so open to my (sometimes crazy) ideas and who will let me have so much control over the published games. Oh yeah, for me, starting with Valley means that it's all going to be downhill from here :-)
Q: D-Day Dice was the runner up in the inaugural Canadian Game Design of the Year Award. I'm sure you can appreciate that the process of choosing winners in any competition is always tough. Your initial reaction was probably not what you were hoping for but if you could do it again, enter a contest with a design, would you do it?
EA: If I had the time and patience, I would do it in a heartbeat. The feedback you get from those contests is priceless. But I'm so swamped with future projects right now that I just don't see myself submitting for a while...
Q: As a designer, what do you think the Canadian Game Design of the Year Award is doing for Canadian designers?
EA: I think it's a great platform for young and aspiring designers, and I believe that, along with the Game Artisans of Canada (of which I am a proud member), this will help put Canada on the world map of game design (which probably looks like the Risk map).
Q: What are your thoughts on the level of Canadian Game designers and the quality of designs being created?
EA: I think Canadian designers are a force to be reckoned with! The Game Artisans of Canada members have published an impressive amount of games in the last few years, spread over a who's who of game publishers. I believe Canada, like France, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland, will become one of the great game design countries, maybe even rivaling Germany one day. And as any player of D-Day Dice knows, it's always possible to beat Germany if you put your mind to it!
Q: What can we look forward to from Emmanuel Aquin in 2013 as far as game designs? Anything you can talk about with us?
EA: "Airborne In Your Pocket" for starters, then it's on with "D-Day Dice: War Stories" and "Way To Hell". Plus a couple of variations of Franz-Benno Delonge's Tug-O-War game.
Q: Your latest campaign with Airborne in Your Pocket, another success on Kickstarter, what can people look forward to with that game in the future?
EA: More sets, more "Warring Nations" (a lot more, actually), which are expansions that are "country specific", and many more expansions, like "Lead the Way!", "Ships Ahoy!", and of course the big campaign book, which will actually be a book, with a lot of scenarios and campaign rules.
Thanks Emmanuel! Best of luck with your upcoming projects!
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