What started as a prop for a photoshoot has now turned into a real board game from The Decemberists and Keith Baker. Baker, the creator of the games Gloom, Eberron and Phoenix: Dawn Command has teamed up with the musicians for Illimat, currently raising funds (and crushing it) on Kickstarter.
The Decemberists have always had a distinctive style, largely thanks to the artwork from collaborator Carson Ellis. In a photoshoot to promote the album The Hazards of Love, the band and Ellis created a mysterious-looking board game to use as a prop. Years later, the band returned to the board, wondering how it would actually work as a game.
Baker had previously taken inspiration from game components before, but had never designed a game by starting with the artwork. “When I started working on Gloom, I began by looking at a transparent card and thinking about what I could do with it,” Baker told iDigitalTimes. “So a similar case of starting with a game component and building around it, even if that component was far less specific.”
While Baker may be the one with the game making experience, members of The Decemberists were still integral to the creative process. “Working with Carson and The Decemberists has been great,” Baker said. “Colin Meloy [vocalist], Carson Ellis and Chris Funk [guitarist] have been especially involved with the development, and we've spent a lot of time playing the game together.”
When designing Illimat, Baker and The Decemberists wanted to make a game that felt like The Hazards of Love, but wasn’t directly inspired by it. “Colin and Chris laid out some very clear goals at the start of what they wanted the game to be,” Baker said. “Something that felt as though it could be an old, forgotten game that's just resurfaced. A card game, but also sort of a ouija board.”
Baker continued, by saying Illimat is “not "Hazards of Love: The Board Game" - but rather a game that felt as though the people in the world of HoL might play it. In a way, it's sort of a tarot deck for the world of Hazards; the eight Luminary cards reflect the iconic elements of HoL, such as The Rake, The River and The Forest Queen.”
As for how it plays, Baker says it reminds many who have already tried it of classic card games, but with a twist. Illimat is “a fun flashback to playing older games like Hearts or Gin... but with a new set of challenges to master,” he said. The game accommodates two to four players, and a hand can be finished in 15 minutes.
While Baker was a fan of The Decemberists previously, it was the band that approached him to help design Illimat . “I'm a long-time fan of Picaresque, though I hadn't actually listened to Hazards of Love - which I love - until I started the project,” he admitted.
While the collaboration with The Decemberists happened organically, Baker wouldn’t be opposed to working with other musicians on board game ideas. “As long as we're dreaming, I'd love to come up with a zany game for They Might Be Giants or Flight Of The Conchords, or something gloomy with Aimee Mann.” A Flight of the Conchords board game sounds like a brilliant idea to me.
The Illimat Kickstarter still has a few weeks to go, but has already vastly surpassed its target goal. The project has also revealed its first stretch goal, with a few more planned out based on the number of backers, not total money raised. All of these goals will also be exclusive to backers, so if you wait until the retail release, you could miss out.
Illimat has a scheduled shipping window of June 2017. Due to all sorts of development delays, this could be pushed back. That’s just the nature of board game manufacturing. That being said, Baker has experience releasing games, so this is a safe Kickstarter to back if you are unsure.
So what do you think? Are you interested in checking out a board game from the minds of The Decemberists? Have you played any of Baker’s previous games? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
