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Question of Empire
 
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Question of Empire

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of board games from as long ago as the Early Bronze Age. There is evidence suggesting that board games actually predate literacy in some cultures. Even in today’s modern world of video games and Blu-ray movies, board games are still going strong. Part of the reason for their continued success is that there really is something for everyone. Toddlers and tacticians can all find a game to suit their needs.
 
There is a great deal of competition in the board game industry and a new game developer has a difficult task. They must come up with an original idea, painstakingly develop rules, and in most cases, find a publisher willing to bring it to market. In the case of Question of Empire, we were given the opportunity to stretch our creative talents to the extreme in order to develop a full-featured prototype for our client to present to potential publishers.

The premise of this game, and the knowledge and passion of the developer to make Question of Empire historically accurate, really gave us a lot to work with creatively, and added to our motivation to make this a great looking game. This blurb from the game's Introduction explains it all...

"Question of Empire is based on the historical time of 1850 to 1880, which was a period of unprecedented growth in the economic and industrial strength of Europe. However, it was also a time when conflict threatened at every turn. The fall of Napoleon had left many questions unresolved about who would control the various minor states of Europe. Questions such as who would dominate the German principalities, could Italy be unified, and would the great powers eat up the possessions of a fading Turkish Empire? These critical decisions are all set against a diplomatic panorama where alliances, and friendships between the great powers changed with the tides and minor events were used as excuses to loose the dogs of war.”

“Question of Empire is a game for 2-5 players who command the economic, industrial, military and political strengths of the great powers: Austria, England, France, Prussia and Russia. The players are challenged with resolving each of six major questions in a way that benefits their nation the most. When the dust of battle settles the questions of empire will be answered.“

 

Below are images showing some of the game pieces and playtesting sessions...

     
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www.cpanj.com




Introducing the newly redesigned Capital Public Affairs website. Capital Public Affairs is located in New Jersey and wanted to have a website that was both professional and welcoming. The rotating carousel grabs the visitor’s attention and invites them to explore other areas of the site. With Google’s newfound ability to index Flash websites, we were able to develop it completely in Flash, without sacrificing search engine visibility. Click on the screenshots and take a look!


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Every detail of the physical game as it exists today was produced by DesignPoint. Working from evolving drafts of the rulebook and conceptual drawings, we worked closely with our client to find intuitive solutions for everything from the playing cards to the game board, chits to markers, and even the box. It is rare to find a project that required so many different physical elements, and nearly all of them needed to be hand crafted by our studio. The one major exception was the game board.
 
Question of Empire has a very large game board, and it had to fit into a small box. Commercially produced games have intricately folding cardboard maps and play areas, but to produce a single one of these for the prototype would have been cost prohibitive. We needed to find something sturdy, that wouldn’t slip if bumped during gameplay, and would fit nicely into a relatively small box. We found the solution literally right at our fingertips. We divided the game board into twelve 11 x 8.5 inch panels and ordered custom mousepads. We informed the manufacturer of our purpose and they were able to perfectly trim each pad to our tolerances, so that they could be assembled in a grid pattern to play the game. The final game may not utilize this type of game board, but for our prototype it worked perfectly.
 
With a working prototype in our client's hands, Question of Empire is currently in the testing phase, and making the rounds to prospective publishers. While it may be a while before we see our handywork on game store shelves, it has definitely been a fun project to develop and play. We are really looking forward to seeing this grace the tables of many wargame enthusiasts in the near future!


We’ve Got You Covered

Considering Halloween just rolled by, we thought it would be appropriate to highlight these slightly creepy looking books we did for Baker Publishing Group and Presbyterian Publishing...

book covers

book covers


DesignPoint Matching Game: Celebrity Look-a-likes

Learn a little bit more about us by playing this easy game. Guess which celebrity we look like. While these may not be spot-on, various people have made comments that suggest these are our best likenesses. We'll go with it. Roll over each photo to see the match...

( IF YOUR EMAIL DOESN'T SUPPORT THE ROLLOVER FUNCTION, CLICK HERE FOR THE SERVER-SIDE VERSION )


factoid  

Factoid:

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was actually created by copywriter Robert L. May as a promotional figure for Montgommery Wards department stores.

       

Introducing:

We created this new logo for Shadya Commercial Services, a real estate company serving the greater Salem area with a smile
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Visit our website to see more design samples at www.designpointinc.com

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