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Did the game change during the playtest process?
ARM: Very much so. In fact, how the game got published is a little unusual. I first showed the game to Amigo. The card mix in that version of the game had mostly area cards and very few Transfer Cards, only a few Doge Cards, and no Banishment Cards. The game played well during my presentation, but it wasn't exciting.
That night back at the hotel near Frankfurt, I changed the card mix quite a bit. When I played the game again a few days later, it was hugely improved.
I next showed the game to Schmidt Spiele. They playtested it quite a bit but in the end decided not to publish it. Markus Ruether was in charge of Family Games at Schmidt at that time. In his letter accompanying the returned game, he suggested I add more action cards. My immediate stubborn reaction was that I'd already done that. But several days later, I was still thinking about this comment, so I again changed the card mix, adding in lots more Doge and Transfer Cards, and adding a few Banishment Cards in too.
When I showed this version to Ravensburger, ten minutes into the game, I knew it was sold. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank Markus Ruether for his contribution towards making San Marco a successful game. Markus, I owe you one.
San Marco's map has six regions. How did you arrive at that as the best number? (You could have made a decision, for example, to divide each of the six into two for a total of twelve.)
ARM: I don't really remember, but I have the feeling six was the number we thought would inspire enough competition but also allow players the opportunity to focus on a few areas. This is usually a tricky balance in games. It is made even more difficult in games using cards. Getting the balance of the different types of cards and the balance of players (and their pieces) within the areas can be challenging.
I do have to add something here though. Many times people ask me why are there are a specific numb er of pieces in the game. Why 18? Why not 20 or 25? Sometimes my answer surprises them because the only real reason is that was how many of those pieces I had in my "bits" box. So in these cases, the mechanics involving those pieces were designed around the number of pieces, and not the other way around.
These days, I'm not usually limited by my "bits" supply, but it can still just be easier to take the number of pieces I have and use those. You gotta start somewhere.
ARM: Aaron and I talked quite a bit about adding another layer onto the game. Instead of just one type of building, there would be two or three types. The different types would have effected the scoring in the areas and possibly even what buildings could be built in what areas. But we never actually incorporated this into the game. I don't remember any cards that were rejected.
What inspired the Solomon-like mechanic of having a distributor and a decision maker?
AW: It was just something I remembered from being a kid.
Why did you decide to use a series of die rolls to start the game?
ARM: This mechanic comes from Frank Weiss who was the Developer at Ravensburger. Aaron and I used a more fussy system of dealing out the area cards, but this required you to separate these cards and then reshuffle. Frank's system is better.
Why did you decide to use a die roll for banishment cards?
ARM: We just thought a few die rolls, which can have significant effects, makes the game more exciting. Some people may think this element adds too much luck, but I think luck elements in games are necessary to keep a game from being too dry.
How long did it take you to move from concept to prototype to finished game?
ARM: Well, that depends on when you consider the game done. I would say from our initial conversation about the game till the time I showed it to Amigo was less than two months.
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