This makes two Spewgies in a row for Eye-Level Entertainment. They won last year's Game of the Year for that killer card game, Nature of the Beast. This year, it's Best board game for Estimated Time to Invasion.
But enough of us, let's hear from ELE.
SPEWGILIST.com - Congratulations on your award for Best Board Game of 2007. Can you share with us your latest news?
Eye-Level Entertainment - Our biggest news of late is our second Spewgie! Aside from that, we’re just gearing up for the summer convention season and tinkering around with prototypes of our third game.
SPEWGILIST.com - Give us a 15 second overview of your Estimated Time to Invasion (ETI).
Eye-Level Entertainment - In ETI, humanity is racing to develop the technology needed to repel an impending alien invasion. This is complicated slightly by the fact that one of the players is an alien co-conspirator and will betray humanity in the end.
SPEWGILIST.com - If you had to pick one thing that sets ETI apart in it's genre, what would that be?
Eye-Level Entertainment - Reviewers have mentioned a couple times about some pretty original game mechanics we’ve set up for researching new projects. There’s an element of ‘press-your-luck’ along with the ability to customize your game experience depending on how you choose to upgrade different traits in your research facility.
SPEWGILIST.com - Talk to us a little about how ETI has done versus your expectations.
Eye-Level Entertainment - We’ve been pleased so far. We’re moving through our print run at a steady pace and garnering mostly positive reviews along the way. We’ve see a growth in international interest in ETI as well, with sales in the UK, France, Italy, and Germany.
SPEWGILIST.com - How can people buy your award wining product, ETI?
Eye-Level Entertainment - Check with your Friendly Local Gaming Store first! If you don’t have one close to you, then we invite you to order direct from us at our website (www.eyelevelentertainment.com). We’ve got some good deals on shipping for both our domestic and international customers, as well as a SWEET ‘Bundle’ deal if you’re new to Eye-Level and would like to try out our whole product line at once. (And since our other game, ‘Nature of the Beast’ won GAME OF THE YEAR from Spewgilist last year, who wouldn’t want that one too?)
SPEWGILIST.com - Any update plans for ETI? New edition, special edition, expansion, etc?
Eye-Level Entertainment - We’re tweaking some rules and hope to release a revised rule set within a couple months. Mark has also been working to give each company a more distinctive artistic identity. As we near selling through the first print run we’ll have to study the economics of a second printing (more on that below!).
SPEWGILIST.com - What's been the biggest surprise in 2008 about ETI?
Eye-Level Entertainment - We’ve been surprised with unsolicited compliments we’ve been hearing about ETI from some big designers in the industry. Andrea Chiarvesio, the Italian designer of ‘Kingsburg’, sent a nice little e-mail about ETI. Bruno Faidutti, French designer behind ‘Citadels’, published a very complimentary review of ETI and inducted it into his ‘Ideal Game Library’. It’s like what they say about the ‘Screen Actor Guild’ awards – it is always nice to hear positive things from others in your field.
SPEWGILIST.com - Tell us about the biggest challenge in 2008 for Eye-Level Entertainment.
Eye-Level Entertainment - Keeping profitable in a changing economy. A couple years ago, a small-press company like us could publish a small run at a reasonable cost. However even since the initial printing of ETI at the end of 2007, costs have increased significantly between shipping, materials, and a weak dollar. Since we’ve printed our last two games overseas, all three of those are crimping our style a bit. Not a deal-breaker, but we have to be very aware of the economics of any new project we’re going to pursue.
SPEWGILIST.com - Where will folks be able to see you next? Convention, event, play-day, etc?
Eye-Level Entertainment - In June, we’ll be splitting up the same weekend for double conventions: Mark will hit Origins in Ohio and Matt returns to Anthrocon here in Pittsburgh. In August, Mark and Matt will both be off to GenCon Indy.
SPEWGILIST.com - Can you share with us any plans for Eye-Level Entertainment?
Eye-Level Entertainment - We’re knee-deep into development of our third game. Interested folks can see how we’re coming along this summer at Origins and GenCon! We plan to be running some play-test/demo sessions and hope to see some ‘Spewgilist’ readers in attendance!
SPEWGILIST.com - You'll certainly see some staffers in attendance both at Origins and GenCon and where there are staffers, there are readers following closely behind, hoping some of the inherent brilliance will pepper them not unlike Stardust. Yes that was a Neil Gaimen reference purely for our own benefit.
Eye-Level Entertainment - In closing, we’d like to thank Spewgilist.com for honoring our company for a second year in a row. You can be assured, we’ll take our Spewgie with us on the road with us! (Legend has it if you rub a Spewgie three times counterclockwise at the start of a convention you’ll be busy with sales all day!)
SPEWGILIST.com - Wow, and we'd thought that was a company held secret. Now everyone will want to win a Spewgie even more. We may have to start to hold a ThunderSpewgie contest. Two games enter, one game leaves.
Thanks for your time and congratulations again on another terrific product.