Guild Wars Kickstarter - An Interview

So I mentioned that I'd become intrigued by a Kickstarter that I'd stumbled across called Guild Ball...

Both the art-style and game concept caught my eye and I thought I'd try and get in touch with the two gentlemen responsible and see if they'd answer a few questions. As luck would have it they turned out to be the kind of wonderful people ready to give up their time to chat with annoying bloggers such as myself...

My questions are in bold and their answers are in italics and links are included where appropriate.

Can you give us a brief overview of both your backgrounds in the hobby world on a personal and professional level?
So I (Rich) have a big competitive background in the Hordes/Warmachine community. I was the #1 Ranked player in the UK for some time along with being the first UK Hardcore Champion. Most recently I have been best in faction at both the UK Masters and UK Nationals with Circle. Along with this I have done a lot of high level organising of tournaments - the two big ones would be the European Team Championship and one of the initial organisers of SmogCon.

Mat has had great success in the painting arena - having placed highly at Salute and won various trophies throughout the years. He is a long time gamer of many systems - from RPGs to board games. He also has a professional background in computer games - being the production manager on games like Remember Me, DMC and Heavenly sword. He is use to AAA budgets and making sure products are delivered on time.

For the more lazy amongst my readers can you give a brief summary of the world of Guild Ball?
Guild Ball is set is a medieval football game set in a pseudo historical world. It is steeped in conflict and intrigue along with a unique flavour in the Guilds that make up a lot of the warring parties. Think 'Game of Thrones' with footballs and your half way there.

and the game itself?
The game is played on a 3x3 tabletop and comprises of 2, 6 man teams (3 normal guys, a captain, a big guy and a mascot). The first to 3 goals wins, or the first to wipe out the opposing team. It is asynchronous model activations in play and is all about combinations and synergy that take your team to victory.

There's a lot of interesting and original game-play concepts you've come up with but what aspect of the Guild Ball game-play are you particularly proud of?
Its a hard question to answer - a lot of our systems meld together so nicely. Personally my favourite is the momentum system. This is an ongoing resource that is generated throughout the turn - when something goes good you most likely will get a momentum point for it. This can be spent to counter enemy actions or to boost your own plays. Its pretty versatile and knowing when to keep or when to use your momentum is the key to victory.

There's at least three other 'ball' games with Kickstarter projects on at the moment...what makes yours different?
Ours isn't a board game. Its played on a 3x3 as mentioned before and plays far more like a skirmish game. It allows a lot more freedom to the mechanics and we are sure traditional board game players will love it once they have the hang of it. We are also based in the medieval setting, compared to sci fi for the other two. The big one is that we are based around 'real' football (soccer) - a fact that gets forgotten sometimes  So we are pretty different.

Game balance is a big issue for me and though I'm mostly in it for the 'fun' there's nothing fun about knowing you've lost before you started. How have you gone about (or are going about) testing the game so the more competitive amongst us don't ruin it for everyone else, lol?
We have spent a huge amount of time play-testing this game with some of the best gamers in other systems around. Due to my background I am fortunate to have a great play-testing group of incredibly talented individuals I have met over the years - this has led to an extremely balanced game with beautifully simple mechanics at the base. try it yourself, the quick play rules are out now via our Kickstarter page!

I best put those links here then now you've mentioned them...

Quick Play Rules Available Now

Butchers Guild Cards

Fisherman Guild Cards

Most games in the 'sports' genre also have campaign or league rules. Is this an aspect of the game you've given much thought to?
We will have a basic league system out of the blocks. However we would LOVE to reach some of our further stretch goals post 100k. One of the ideas for this is to release a set of 'bodies' that would enable you to make 4 team members (generic grunts). You could then add a mascot and star player from a guild and do a complete campaign. Its a lofty goal but we want to do league/campaign properly when we attempt it - whether we reach it in the kickstarter or not remains to be seen.

Were there always just 4 primary guilds you were planning as the 'starter' ones, or were there some teams which ended up on the cutting room floor?
There are so many guilds we are losing count. We wanted the initial 4 to be highly contrasting and broad in their coverage of game styles. The butchers represent your beat sticks, your fisherman represent movement tricks and speed. The Masons are all about buffs and synergy and the morticians are about enemy manipulation and positioning. You get a great flavour from the initial 4.

Here seems like an ideal place for a brief interlude to show you all the aforementioned 'Initial 4'. 
The Butchers, Fisherman, Mason and (my personal favourite) the Morticians Guilds...

These concepts are amazing but we've seen through various Kickstarter updates that they're still developing and improving the models in question as this recently posted update to the Mason's Captain render shows us...

The early resin models look delicious. Will we get to see any early shots of the metals for those of us who have had an overall bad experience with resin?
Metals and production resins are literally being produced as I type this interview - expect to see them sometime this week.

Here's some shots of a few of the resin versions to keep you going...

The artwork is really nice, would you ever consider a hard-copy art-book as a stretch goal/add-on?
We would love to put an art book in as a hard copy - stretch goal for sure and we are currently talking to a printers about this.

I'll leave this last bit open for you guys...anything in particular you'd like to add?
Check us out at Kickstarter - we are a pair of indie developers bringing our idea of what war-gaming should be like to the masses. The initial response has been incredible and we can't wait to see where we end up! Thanks again for the interview!

It was great to talk to you...I suppose I should link to the actual Kickstarter at this point...

Here's the all important Kickstarter link to Guild Ball.

and here's the promo video...

This is an amazing looking project and is well deserving of as much support as we as a community can muster up. There's are (after all) the sort of projects that Kickstarter was designed for ;-)

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.