As promised, today I’m talking about Clash of Blades – the eldest of all of Artemis Games projects, though one that is as yet unpublished. If you haven’t read it already, consider taking a look at my first post on the subject.

It’s taken a lot of work to get to a state in which I’m happy with it, but aside from the art it’s finally there. With the example of the Emperor’s Hand Kickstarter we now know that we, as Artemis Games, aren’t ready to source sufficient art, advertising and general graphical quality to run a proper Kickstarter for Clash of Blades, at least not one that will allow it to reach its full potential.

We work best in text, and our social networks are mainly on the roleplaying side of the tabletop gaming hobbies, so we need far more active marketing skills and push to bring a card game to bear, and while we all firmly believe the game is capable of selling itself, in the end that’s not enough – it’s a game that we feel could be great, rather than good, and we fully intend to ensure it is.

To that end, we’ve decided that we’re going to pitch it to publishers, rather than simply crowdfunding it. Depending on what publisher picks it up¹⁾While it’s possible that none will, I believe that to be rather unlikely it may still go through Kickstarter as a way to prove that the demand exists and to promote the game to a wider audience.

In order to sell the game to publishers, I will be attending UK Games Expo – and applying to pitch at both the Wyvern’s Lair and the Meet-the-makers Speed Dating

The earlier deadline is for Wyvern’s Lair – with submissions closing Wednesday – and for that I need to submit a <100 word summary of the game, with at most one image. Here is the current draft:

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Clash of Blades is a two player expandable card game that simulates the flow of a swordfight while maintaining a constant level of tactical play; using “time” as its only resource.

Players choose from a hand of five cards an Attack, Defence or Stunt that they wish to perform, and play it onto a time-track, with the two players moves ticking down the track together.

With their deck serving as their life total the players need just two decks and a time-track to play, while the discard-damage mechanic ensures they always have choice in how to act or react.

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Student Nationals in Nottingham

Speaking of conventions, we’re going to be trading at one next weekend – (April 21st to 23rd) the Student Nationals, a wargaming and roleplaying convention hosted in a different UK university each year. I’m sure we’ll see some of you there.

I make no promises as to the update for next Monday – we’ll be recovering from the convention – but we hope to have some interesting things to tell you by the Tuesday