Jeff Tidball, a 24-year-old resident of Minnesota, has two board games published and works for Atlas Games, handling Internet queries, most rules questions and general editorial inquiries. He's also a successful game designer, with two published games already under his belt and more ideas floating around his brain, waiting for the day he actually has time to work on them.
Tidball's two games, Cults Across America (from Atlas) and Thunder's Edge (from Fantasy Flight Games, co-designed with FFG's Chris Petersen), explore significantly different themes.
CAA, subtitled "The Game of Cthulhoid Domination," puts players in charge of "insanity-inducing factions of frothing fanatics." Thunder's Edge is a science-fiction boardgame of politics, strategy and giant mecha. Each player controls one of Earth's factions, each of which is trying to excert power over the planet Thunder's Edge.
When did you first think about designing board games?
Right after I first played Dungeons and Dragons in 5th grade. I've wanted (and planned!) to work designing games since then. I actually wound up doing it professionally much sooner than I would have thought possible!
Talk about the process of designing Cults Across America. When did you come up with the idea?
I was struck during my freshman year at Hamline with the idea for Cults Across America. I wanted to play something like Axis and Allies, but set in the Cthulhu Mythos, and with a seriously irreverant attitue. Call of Cthulhu's always been a favorite RPG of mine.
How long did it take you to develop the first version of the game?
About two days. I stopped doing school work while I designed the board, cards, rules and counters. I think I had the idea on a Tuesday night, and we played the first playtest game instead of our regularly-scheduled Shadowrun campaign that Friday.
How long before you had a finished version ready?
About four years. Cults Across America was actually originally to have been published by Pagan Publishing. They had trouble dealing with financial realities of boardgame manufacturing, though, and so the project remained basically in limbo between 1994 and 1997. It finally occurred to me to just publish it through Atlas in 1998, when I did some revisions based on playing it off and on in the interim. The final changes were made a couple of days before we sent the components off to be printed in the summer of 1998.
What was the most difficult part about the design process?
Playtesting and working out the final bugs was definately the hardest part. It's difficult to find a dedicated group who can spend enough time playing one game to find and eliminate all of the problems. We changed different rules of Cults Across America so much in playtesting that I occasionally teach new players old, half-remembered playtest rules by accident in demonstration games.
Most playtesters were friends of mine, or (earlier on) people at Pagan Publishing who made some suggestions and did some early development work.
How important was the playtesting process for this game?
Can't be overstated. There are so many inter-relating factors in Cults Across America that it would have been impossible to create a playable design without it.
What did you enjoy most about designing Cults Across America?
The initial euphoria and free-wheeling invention of the game's different parts: inventing new types of units, creating new cards, making up new strategy options. Each idea leads to others, branching endlessly. Sometimes it's hard to decide where to stop.
Where did you have the game manufactured?
All over the place. The board, tray, and chits were made by SVH of Holland, Michigan. The rulebooks were done at McNaughton & Gunn of Saline, Michigan; the dice came from Koplow. I think that's it.
How successful has the game been?
Modestly. Cults hasn't set the world aflame, but it's broken even and I get a reasonable royalty check every quarter. I'm happy enough with it's success -- and with the lessons it's taught me.
What kind of feedback have you received from players?
A lot of people come up to me at conventions and tell me how much they like the game, and that really means a lot ot me. Another things that I really get a kick out of is signing peoples' newly-purchased copies of the game at conventions.
Most of the negative feedback has been about the board's appearance/construction and the price point. The problems with those are economic rather than design-related, so I don't feel too bad about them.
Some reviews have noted that the game takes too long, or that it's too complex, but I don't see that as a drawback. The game wasn't designed to be a Settlers of Catan or Formula De. Really, it has as much in common with counter-pushing wargames as with the currently-trendy European games.
Do you plan to design any other board games?
You bet! I've recently co-designed Thunder's Edge, Fantasy Flight's most recent Hexplay game (after Twilight Imperium and Battlemist). As with CAA expansions, though, I haven't had time to work on any others. I'm applying to graduate school this fall, and have been quite busy readying my application materials and writing samples.
This article was originally posted on August 17, 1999.
