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international publishers became interest- ed in Riftforce. For another, it was also the year without the Essen game fair. Of course, 1 More Time Games was present on SPIEL.digital, but in a virtual world it is much harder for a small, new publish- ing house to get noticed. This is far easier when gamers can experience a game’s ex- citement live and the word-of-mouth mar- keting gains momentum, with good rat- ings on BGG and other scoutings. In other words, without Kickstarter, the story of 1 More Time Games would probably have to be rewritten as No More Time Games.
I Party all night?
Agricola!
The story actually started decades
before Riftforce. Roman Rybiczka and Julian Steindorfer went to the same ele- mentary school. “But we only really got to know each other in high school,“ they remember. Playing games, of course, how else. Magic was the hotness of the day. They continued to play during their stu- dent years. Some parties were left early, to end the night with Agricola rather than dancing.
“I eventually ended up in advertising,“ Julian says. He moved to Berlin in 2016. And was determined to do something he was passionate about: become a game designer. “Uwe Rosenberg put me in touch with Edition Spielwiese.“ So, he became editor there from 2017 to the be- ginning of 2019.
Roman had studied food- and bio- technology, added a master‘s degree in food economics, and then felt certain an academic career was not for him. “I had this dream to work in the board gaming industry. I could easily see myself as an
editor.“ How convenient that he knew someone in Berlin with the best contacts in the scene. So, he too, ended up at Edi- tion Spielwiese. “It was crystal clear I had to have a shot at trying something on my own, with Julian.“ The two launched their publishing company at the end of 2019.
Of course, they could have chosen something lighter than a deck building game as their firstling, something less hard work that would also involve fewer playtesting sessions. In fact, they initially did have another prototype from Bortolini in the works, who they knew from their time at Spielwiese and the development of Memoarrr! But then the Italian intro- duced them to Riftforce. “It had exactly that magic touch we were looking for,“ Julian remembers. This was something they had always wanted: making truly out-standing games, games that made
Carlo Bortolini.
gamers demand another round straight away – one more time, please!
Quite an aspiration, and it can easily become a hurdle. It‘s not like they receive masses of prototypes with that special magic touch. Something they only re- alized a while ago, at a video chat pre- sentation of potential new projects to their international partners. “They were like: This isn‘t you guys, this isn‘t 1 More Time Games,“ Julian says. “And they were right.“
But it‘s not all about the magic. Ry- biczka and Steindorfer don‘t just want to stand for the promise that their games have that certain something with an addictive element; they also want to approach people differently than oth- er games have done in the past. “Many games may fail because they don‘t offer identification for non-male players,“ Ju- lian says.
In Riftforce they deliberately aban- doned the classic clichés. The Summoner of the Earth Guild is an old granny, gray- haired and wrinkled – but immensely powerful. The Summoner of the Air is quite agile, despite his BMI of over 40. “Of course we wanted archetypes, but we wanted to subvert their stereotypes and cut free from outward appearances.“ The Riftforce expansion is going to feature a character in a wheelchair.
Both of them are well aware they might provoke controversy. “Some gamers could feel uncomfortable because they think the hobby should not be political. But everything is political,“ Julian says. To address this issue, Calvin Wong Tze Loon was recruited as a consultant on cultural sensitivity. In a mentoring program they had learned how games are viewed dif-
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