❖ Version History ❖

28th of October, 2021 – 29th March 2022
Before we get into today’s tale, I once again want to thank any and all of my faithful followers and friends on the Librarium Games journey with me. I thank you for your patience as I develop this company and this brand. It is a very endlessly confusing and crazy experience making all the puzzle pieces come together… but sometimes… just sometimes… there come these moments where problems meet potentials and incidents create inspiration. It is because of these moments and the way that they are revealed after the matter of already being solved that I have never done well with constant internet posting and keeping up to date every day (also why the design journal dates are a cryptic mess, sorry…). I cannot deny that social media styled journaling is a wondrous way to build hype in the moments and attract attention to them as they happen… but I also find it wonderful to tell a story once it has a firm and concrete conclusion.

To this end, anyone who purchased The Great Chase through our Kickstarter will probably have seen that there are some bonus promotional cards coming along side the first print run of the game. If you’ve read previous posts about The Great Chase in the Design Journal, you also probably saw that we ran into some real trouble regarding the designs of many cards in the game because of international political issues, especially regarding our game board deck of map cards. In case you didn’t read those posts or participate in the Kickstarter though, here is a nice quick summary:

The International Borders problem summary:

1. There are twelve map cards that depict two time zones each. The cards GMT+8 and GMT +10 feature Asia, with a focus on the areas that include China, and its borders by land and by sea. The original art for these designs was developed using an internationally accepted time zone chart according to the United Nations as reference.

2. The company that we are using to print The Great Chase refuses to print the cards according to the original artwork. They hire someone to alter my designs and change several details about the art to be representing how China sees itself in the world.

3. We are forced into a position of struggling for 6 months while disputing this forced change of my art against my consent until we inevitably concede and let them do what they want with the maps (as well as a few other mission cards later as well). The game then very quickly gets approved, goes through manufacturing, and ships to America.

So… of course… this is very depressing.

And..

There’s something very wrong feeling about the art being changed like this…

So…

Of course we have to develop an evil plan to bypass the issue right?

……Right?

The International Borders Solution:
‘This is a top secret report from the fictional NTSB’
‘Rumor has it that our game has been tampered with as it has passed through international territory, so we are going to have to set things straight!’

How are we going to do it you ask? Here’s the plan:

1. The Great Chase was manufactured and shipped from China on its way toward our distribution center in Tacoma with altered documents. If we time things just right, a secret package can be made to arrive in Tacoma at the same time.

2. This secret package will have to contain important original documents of the world as we once knew it. Please see the included photos:

3. Once we have the original documents, we will have to make thousands of copies. But. we will alter the back side of the cards to reveal the tale of what has taken place here to help differentiate between the old and new cards quickly, see our prototype below:

4. Finally, once we have all of our documents aligned, we will get them to arrive at the distribution center together. Here, and only here, can we manage to slip our ‘promotional’ gift package to the hands of the players, and it will allow everyone to enjoy the original game… saving the day from altered art and forgotten lands!

Though the concept of it seemed crazy at first, our plan was a total success. The original designs had a new back added to them to become promotional cards that come in their own secret bonus package when anyone purchases the game from our distribution center. Additionally, every copy of the game that will be distributed to stores will also be coming with these same special promotional cards, which will be great fun for anyone who grabs a copy in person!

In addition to these promo cards, there were one more set of cards needing to be designed, so be sure to tune back in to the Librarium Games Design Journal soon to see what else we’ve been up to in the background these past couple months!