All about us, our mission, and Elements
By "us", I actually mean me! I'm just one person here, and have been working on Elements for a few years now actually! It may seem like a small game, but with the game design, testing, rulebook design, graphic design, website, and manufacturing, it's a lot! Thankfully, I'm almost done though!
I'm Justin, and it's been my goal to release a card / board game since middle school! In middle and high school, I dabbled on various game designs with my best friend, Vince, but in college is when things really started. I roped in six other friends, and we worked tirelessly for a year or two on a game called Ignite. We went to Kickstarter right at the end of college, raised a few thousand, but failed to fund. I learned a lot from our mistakes, and I decided to work on a much simpler project...
In high school, a friend from physics and cross country showed me a game his friend Doug made, which they called, "Doug's Game" (a great title!). It involved a standard deck of 52 cards, and up to four players could play. Players started at 20 health and would damage each other with spades and clubs, use hearts to heal, and use diamonds to purchase face cards, which were powerful cards that each had unique effects. See where I'm going with this?
After failing to fund on Kickstarter, I worked on a few different ideas, but I wanted to make "the ideal party game." It's an ambitious goal, but I wanted the perfect game for anyone to play in any situation. Two people looking to pass time at lunch? A family of five looking to game together with something fun for young and old? A party with seven or eight friends that want to play something simple yet exciting? I wanted to make the most convenient, all-purpose party and family game, kind of like what Uno is today. My goals were ambitious, but I wanted a game for up to 8 players, you can learn in 10 minutes, play in 10 minutes, can fit in your pocket, and I wanted it to be affordable and good looking.
I drafted up a game I wanted to call "Spell slinger" or "Spellbook," which was a 60 or 80 card deck, loosely based on Doug's Game. I imagined the "four elements" trope: fire, water, earth, air. Fire spells deal damage and water spells heal, but what do the others do? I wanted a "shop" system and powerful spells, but I also wanted simple gameplay. I made earth into gems, which can be used to purchase Greatspells (which originally cost 10). I made electric spells to counter other spells. I actually initially had a few more ideas. Some electric spells would "reflect" others, which would invert the targets, and some gem spells would steal gems from other players. I simplified the game as much as possible, with one exception: I kept Greatspells. In fact, I expanded them. There used to only be fire and water Greatspells. I envisioned one Greatspell per element, and limited each player to one. The first playthrough of the game was rough, but it was at least lots of fun, just not balanced. Vince gave me three simple tips, and I followed all three, and the game was already halfway to what it is today. I don't actually remember all three, but I remember that one of them was increasing or decreasing the power of a type of spell, one of them was decreasing the frequency of water spells, and the last had to do with the mechanics (which today are combining and overpowering).
I knew I had something special, when I played an early version of the game with my friends Brandon and Romeo. Neither of them cared for any of my other games, and usually when they came over, we'd just play video games. I tried to sell them on playing a test game of Elements, and they were hesitant, but agreed. After we played a game, I released them to join in video games, but they wanted another match. And another, and another. We ended up playing a lot of games, and several hours later, it was dark out and they had to leave. We never turned on the switch that day. It reminded me of a similar experience I had with Ignite when trying to get my friend Peter on board, and it meant I knew this game had potential.
I still get a lot of feedback to this day, and some of the feedback makes for great variants.
Elements evolved a lot with over two years of testing and feedback, but the goal has remained the same: the ideal party game. I hope that I've finally achieved this goal today, but you can be the judge of that. I'm always open to any sort of feedback; just email me below! Thank you for reading, and I hope your next Elements experience is fun and memorable!
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