Greetings,
as you know, chess and checkers are the most popular board games in the world. They share one common trait: two armies aligned into battle and clashing together. Is it possible today to make another enjoyable game, with different but still simple rules, which follows the same principle? And if someone makes up such a game, is it destined to reach a big popularity?
I am asking because I have made such game. And have already proposed it to three publishers one after another, but was rejected each time. The common reason was, the game is too chess-like, too classical to attract customers.
WTF? My game really does LOOK like chess at the first sight, but the rules and the gameplay is completely different from any other known board game, still more intuitive and battle-simulating than chess.
Am I and my friends blind to think the game is so fun, while it actually isn't? Or it simply doesn't matter that the game is fun and has a strategic depth? Do I need to make it look more fancy, more exotic, more complex in order to draw publishers' attention?
And one more question. I have already asked it here but didn't get a decisive answer. I have made this board game as Flash application. So it can be played online by anyone if I make the link public. But what happens when I launch it and spread it through the internet? I am afraid that if then someone likes the game and wants to publish it, they will not ask me for permission, still less offering me royalties. Am I right or not?
Thanks for the answer. To express it more clearly, my possible plan is to launch the game online and wait if someone likes it, wants to publish it AS A BOARD GAME, and contacts me, offering me an agreement. But I am afraid it's too idealistic, and that's why I am hesitating. I am not afraid of the idea being stolen in another online game (have made a lot of them), but in a real board game.
The reason why I am so immodest about my game is that the idea behind it is in fact very simple. It can be also played just with the chess set. So telling the rules seems like saying a password to a treasure room :) (Well the amount of the treasure inside is unknown.)
As for the abstract battle theme: I too prefer games that make my mind flee to a fantasy realm for a while. But such games have small replayability. There are situations where one prefers to draw a simple game like good old chess or backgammon. Do you know Arimaa? That game makes me optimistic about my plans (though I have never played it). Adding an unnecessary fancy stuff into the game seems to me like corrupting its clear and simple idea.