Queen By Midnight is one of the most interesting board games to launch this year. Turning princesses into warring warriors, working with Darrington Press as a rare non-168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Critical Role venture for the ꦏcompany,✃ and all held together by a 3D clock tower/dice tower in the centre of the table, there is a lot to be fascinated by. Recently, I sat down with game designer Kyle Shire to explore all these elements.

When Queen By Midnight was first revealed, I wrote that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:it could occupy a gap in the market - there are plenty of games with princesses, but few that have them as characters with agency, as fighters and heroes, rather than damsels in distress or merely pretty things to be admired. I ask Shire about this, and he tells me the ideals of female strength bor🀅row from his own experience.

Related: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Best Co-Op Halloween Board Ga⛄mes In 2023

"I grew up the son of a single mom with two older sisters, so I like to say that I literally just grew up looking up to women. And then that translated into every single cool female character in every TV show or comic book. I immediately was like, 'that's my favourite'. It was Kimberly, the pink power ranger, and then it was Jubilee and Emma Frost, and then Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have just never really been all that interested in male heroes."

Queen By Midnight game spread components

However, Shire explains it wasn't just the family members he looked up to who shaped the game, but also those he wanted to set an example for. "I initially was thinking a lot about my nieces and about how one of my youngest nieces was going through a little bit of a phase where she was not thinking princesses could be cool, she thought they couldn't be strong. One of the little sparks of this idea kind of came from this conversation that I had with her where I was like, 'you know, these princesses are fairy tales. And fairy tales can be whatever you want to make them'," he says. The characters in Queen By Midnight borrow heavily from existing tales, and that comes from Shire telling his niece, "if you want Cinderella to be a badass, she can be a badass in your story".

While the narrative aspects offered a curiosity, most eyeballs on Queen By Midnight (at least initially) came via Darrington Press. In a showcase where the company revealed two new mechanic systems that Critical Role will be using in the near future, Shire and Queen By Midnight were front and centre. It seems like a lot of pressure, but as Shire would have it, that's not really the case. "As far as pressure from working with Darrington Press, there was almost none. Because literally everybody that I worked with over there is not only an uncommonly kind person, they're also all exceptionally good at their jobs. They automatically will know what's best for the products, but they also are just really easy to talk to."

One person that Shire repeatedly mentions as a key factor in Queen By Midnight's success is Alex Uboldi, credited under 'additional design' on Darrington's website. "[Uboldi's design] is like a breath of fresh air," Shire tells me. "It's like you're looking at something and you're like 'I think this is good. I think it could be better but I'm pretty sure this is as good as I could make it'. Then someone comes in and just nudges it just a little bit, and you're like 'oh my god, the throw rug ties the whole room together!'"

The clock tower, which is built by the player themselves - as I note in my review, it's a surprisingly simple process - is the most standout part of Queen By Midnight's visual presentation. As ever, Shire is quick to credit Uboldi for that one. "When it comes to the clock tower, oh my gosh, I wish I could take credit for it. But no, that is all Alex [...] For a while I was genuinely trying to create a product that would be easy and cheap to produce. Because it was my first game and I thought, best case scenario, I'll be able to Kickstart it. And as I'm sure you know, Kickstarting something is a full time job. You need to set yourself up for success as best as possible, so I was trying to design it in such a way where the materials, and the design process would be as cheap as possible.

queen by midnight board game on a table

"My original intent was to just have it all be cards and mats. The clock tower would still be in the middle, but it would be two dimensional, and it would just be a little dial you turn. That was the way it was going to be until Alex Uboldi came in and was like, 'this game needs a table presence, what if we made this clock tower three dimensional?'. Not only was his idea to make it three dimensional, but then to put it on the Lazy Susan - sorry, Energetic Susan - then have the actual slots for the bazaar right there. So no matter where the clock tower returns, you are always seeing what time it is, you are always seeing your current round. And when it is your turn, you can turn it towards you and see what's available in the bazaar for that round."

Queen By Midnight is out in the wild now, and with so much intrigue, may have some lofty expectations to fulfil. But according to Shire, it has already gotten the best review it could get. "There was a moment at Gen Con where I was walking through the main hall, and there was a mom sitting with her daughter - she was maybe 10 or 12. And the daughter had the rulebook open and was excitedly pointing to her mom, showing her how the game works and showing her all these princesses. I just kind of stood there awkwardly watching for like, a minute and a half before I was like, 'Okay, you're just a giant bearded man watching this now, you need to leave, this is creepy'. I had to step outside and have a little bit of a happy cry for myself. That felt like the biggest win, just seeing that one interaction. So if, if that happened once or if that happened twice, I consider that to be a very lovely golden gem of a review."

Next: Cyberpunk 2077 Wouldn't Let Me Buy Gamer Girl Bathwater