Small World Designer Edition
One of the real delights of playing with Philippe Keyaerts’ first prototype of the game, in the fall of 2008, was the tactile feel and gratification of piling up your army tokens as you moved them across the board to squash your opponent’s own puny derisive little armies. Ever since those early plays, we’d been looking for ways to recapture this not-so-innocent pleasure; cardboard, once beyond a certain thickness, becomes ungainly however; it wasn’t until we could afford the enclosed wood tokens that we truly recaptured the beauty and appeal of Philippe’s initial, hand-made prototype!
Here we are, with a wooden box that weighs in at 40 pounds, 65 exquisitely sculpted resin figures, 6 purses with the coins to fill them all, and wooden components’ galore!
Philippe Keyaerts by himself
My gaming experience started a long time ago. I grew up with five brothers and sisters – almost a gaming club in its own right! – and a grandmother that played Black Jack for candies... I played chess and collected puzzles for many years before finding players for Full Metal Planete, The Settlers of Catan, and other games.
I went to the University where I obtained a Master’s degree in Mathematics, and also studied computer science, painting and drawing, which turns out to be very useful to create game prototypes.
I live in Brussels with my wife and my son. When I’m not playing games, I teach Mathematics to young foreign students, read (mostly detective novels) or cook.
The creation of a game always comes from the desire to play a game that doesn’t exist. I turn and kick it around in my head for some time, then I draft a first game prototype, which I play test alone by myself. Then I play test the game with friends – I always try to give them a game prototype that works. Then, I tweak, and test, and tweak again and again until I get a great game – it is a long and difficult process.
However, in the end, a new game sees the light, and seeing new players enjoying it is always a real pleasure!
Inside the Box
Contains all the components to accommodate 2 to 6 players:
- 3 oversized boards
- All the Races from Small World, Cursed, Grand Dames, Be Not Afraid and Royal Bonus (heat-printed wood Tokens stored in 28 individual boxes)
- 65 sculpted figures (Troll Lairs, Fortresses, Heroes, Dragon, Pots of Gold, Fireballs...)
- 27 race and 35 power wood banners
- Piles and piles of Metal Coins
- 6 purses
- 1 Small World Pocket Encyclopedia
- 6 helpers
- 1 game guide
- 1 metal Turn Marker
- 1 reinforcement die
Origins of a Treasure Chest
When we embarked on a Kickstarter campaign for the digital versions of Small World in the spring of 2013, we knew this would give us a chance to develop something we could otherwise never have justified doing: namely, going all out (figuratively) and all in (quite literally!) to deliver the mother of all games - The Designer Edition of Small World that graces this website.
To say we underestimated how expensive, time-consuming and arduous this project might be, would be quite an understatement: even for a company as known as ours for its lavish attention to details, focus on beautiful components and dedication to recapturing the sense of wonder you had as a kid opening presents, nothing could have prepared us for the work that lay ahead.
We dedicate this coffer and the treasures it holds to the 524 Kickstarter backers who pledged for it unseen, to the 6,520 additional backers who contributed to our campaign in some way and to the countless game authors, illustrators, contributors and employees with whom we’ve had the privilege to work with all these years.
