by Leonard Boyd (Concept & Design) & David Brashaw (Development & Promotion)
The beginning
After reading the first few Discworld books Leonard came up with the original game idea in 1991 played it with me and other friends. In May 1995 he showed it to Terry who described the game as one of the better ones he had seen, but advised we needed the backing of a games company before we could secure a licence.
That was the start of a long process to get interest from existing board game companies where there was no market for a game like this. In 1999 Colin Smythe advised a game was never published and the position re: securing a licence had not changed.
The middle bit
In May 2006 Gary Wyatt (Green Games Company) advised me that our game sounded great, and that since the board game industry had dramatically increased since 1995 he felt we should pursue a company to publish our game. He referred me to Alex Green of Esdevium Games who agreed our game had potential and has kindly directed us to games company contacts ever since.
The Toy Fair (our first breakthrough)
On 6 June 2008 we had a real breakthrough. Jay Tummilson of Rio Grande Games was very keen to see us at Speil Toy fair in Essen, Germany. Sadly on arrival and after five minutes with Jay, he advised "It's a great game, but not the type I do. You gotta get somebody to produce it for you."
It felt like a bomb had been dropped on us. I suggested to Leonard "Let's show it to other companies." At the end of a tiring day we rendezvoused with Alex who introduced us to Keith Blume of Fred Distribution and Zev Schlazinger of Z-Man Games. Both liked our prototype and requested copies for play-testing. This was the breakthrough we had hoped for.
Another interested company
On Wednesday 5 November 2008 Wolfgang Ludtke of TM-Spiele/Kosmos Games in Germany contacted us with the possibility of working 'with them' to produce a game based on Terry's books. We subsequently sent them a prototype too. By December 2008 we had feedback from all three companies and it was felt by all, and Terry that we should redesign our 'fun' game for the 'hobby' market.
The Birth of Guards! Guards! (MkII)
Eventually by 8 June 2010 and five redesigns, we agreed new play-testing with the same three companies. Colin arranged for Discworld fans to play-test our game at Wincanton, where there was a very positive response. By November we secured backing of Z-Man Games, a licence from Sir Terry and through Bernard Pearson, the artistic support of the Discworld illustrator Stephen Player.
The first advanced copies went on sale with the Z-Man at the North American Discworld Convention 2011 and should be officially on release by September 2011.