Exclusive Interview With the Creators of Land of Zion

Land of Zion is back and is relaunching on Kickstarter on January 24th! Here is the interview that the BoardGame Stories team had the chance to get with the creators of the game.

Theofilos: Let’s start with what everyone is eager to know about; Land of Zion will be re-launching on Kickstarter January 24th 2017! But what was the factor or difficulties you faced that made you pause the campaign and design a re-launch?

Eric: Hey Theofilos!

Back in October, our team was excited about launching Land of Zion on Kickstarter. We knew we had a great game on our hands and we were looking forward to sharing it with the world. We had anticipated that we may receive pushback from a TCG design, but we thought our unique approach to no-duplicate card packs and less cards to play would counter that critique. We were wrong.

Feedback was overwhelming from every source that we needed to adjust the format of the game and make Land of Zion into an expandable card game. No one wanted to purchase additional packs and not be sure of what they would get. We listened and learned from the community and made the decision to cancel our campaign to do what was best for the gamers and the game itself.

Now after a few months adjusting the game, we are proud to announce that Land of Zion ECG will be back on Kickstarter on January 24th. We can’t wait to show everyone the new design and new content.

T: Great approach, I think your audience will appreciate listening to them, trying to deliver the best possible game and format. Can you go over the changes briefly, so everyone can see what is new and what one gets in the basic game? You got me intrigued!

E: Sure! Land of Zion comes with the following:

1 Land of Zion Game box – contents below:

1 Playmat (25″ X 35″) – 6 Panel foldout

140 Card Resource Deck (Speaking Stones Deck)

140 Card Character Deck (70 Character Cards and 70 Ability Cards)

1 Character Stat Pad – 50 Sheets

110 Status effect tokens

2 Pair of D10 dice

1 Land of Zion Rulebook

There may be some added content in addition to what’s listed above, but we don’t want to give out any surprises we have planned for the Kickstarter!

Land of Zion now has 3 unique ways to play. Players can choose to play Constructed (Standard) Play, Draft Play Or Free Play.

Free Play actually has a couple of different options that we will detail in the Kickstarter campaign.

We have also worked on enhancing team play and adding the option of having up to 8 players instead of 4. We think larger gaming groups will appreciate this change.

T: Surprises are always welcome! Looking forward to them.

Raising the game’s player count is always a good choice, as long as it can support it.

Apart from the game’s format, what will you do different in this campaign, taking advantage of your first campaign’s experience?

E: We learned much from our first campaign, and are grateful for the awesome gaming community that supported us throughout the process. Because we’ve had a few more months to prepare and know more of what to expect from the Kickstarter platform; we are excited about using the live video feature within Kickstarter to interact with our backers and answer questions throughout the campaign. We also have tons of new artwork and gameplay videos. The feedback we received back in October from our backers helped us greatly packing in even more amazing content for Land of Zion.

T:This will be a powerful comeback.

Our last question will be about the main reason behind this re-launch. Can you tell us more about the ECG format of the game? What comes after the base game?

E: Land of Zion is just the foundation for several expansions and content that we have planned in the next couple years. This title introduces players to the world and lore as well as the battle mechanics of the game.

Our vision is to continue expanding the storyline of Zion by releasing a solo and cooperative storyline driven campaign next. This next chapter will include various scenarios that players will need to work together to complete. It will also introduce the Tenebris which is the force that sent the world of Zion into darkness. We will introduce enemy type characters and bosses all driven by a robust AI ability deck that will require no GM to administer. We’re very excited about the future of this ‘series’ so to speak, and that’s really why Land of Zion is an ECG. All of the content in this base game will be used in the future releases as well.

T: I am pretty hyped myself now! The fans of the game will have many cool things to look forward to. It’s also reassuring to know that a company will keep paying attention to a game.

Eric, thank you a lot for your time and for filling us in with the latest and most interesting info about Land of Zion!

E: Thank you Theofilos! This is a project that’s been worked and invested into for years by a pretty passionate group of gamers. It’s something that we want to continue working on for years to come.

To get notified when the campaign launches, sign up here!
Also, to read our previews Interview and get some insights about the game, click here!