Lucky Duck Games – Interview

Time of Legends: Destinies Final Hours on Kickstarter!

Here’s an Interview with Lucky Duck Games to learn more about Time of Legends: Destinies and the great company behind the game!

• We encountered your revolutionary Scan&Play technology in your award-winning criminal investigation game, Chronicles of Crime. Now, you are introducing the Destinies system through Time Of Legends: Destinies. What’s new that the Destinies system brings to the table?
  We built the Destinies system to allow a great story-driven boardgame experience in a variety of possible themes. Chronicles of Crime is excellent system for the crime solving genre. With Destinies we wanted to create a game system centered around adventure, exploration and story. The twist is a competitive aspect, which creates a really unique value in the genre.

• Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is a game published by Mythic Games and known for its strong narrative and mind-blowing miniatures. What inspired you to bring the Destinies system into this world?
  When we created the Destinies system the first scenario we were play-testing was set in a generic fantasy world. We realized very fast that we needed an existing game world with very strong narrative, rich lore, and q fitting exploration-adventure game. JoA had all we’ve been looking for with an amazing team of friendly professionals from Mythic Games on top. It was a no-brainer.

• The game goes up to 3 players, supporting a solo mode as well. What pushed you to this design choice?
  Our main goal was to create a real story driven experience. By this we mean the game system where the narrative is a main part of the game, not covered by tons of random encounters and fighting monsters. Starting from this we came up with an idea of a game where the goal is a fully story related and each single part of exploration and all interactions with the world are strictly connected with the main plot and narration. In Destinies it is all about exploration of the world and player’s choices. To support this kind of experience we came up with an idea of a story triangle. In Destinies there are always three characters, each with two possible paths to fulfill their destiny. On each of your two paths you are in direct conflict with one of the other players. It creates great dynamics of the game. With a fourth character on top it would be much more difficult to create good scenarios. Though we have a 2vs2 mode call Bound by Fate where two teams of two players compete with each other to fulfill their common destiny faster.

• What kind of gaming experience do you want to create to players and for what kind of gamers is it suitable for?
  We describe the game as an RPG-like boardgame without the game master and our playtesters proved us right. It is suitable for everyone who enjoys story and strong narrative in games. It is important that its enjoyable for both gamers and non-gamers, similarly to Chronicles of Crime. The mechanisms are not very complex or difficult to understand. You can start the game in few minutes, though you will enjoy dozens of interesting choices which is what geeks love.

• What was the greatest challenge that you faced during the designing and development of the game?
  I’d say that the biggest challenge was looking for a fragile balance between the feeling of mystery and stepping into unknown, which makes exploration and story aspect shine, with a sense of purpose and pursuing of a clear goal – as a crucial part of a game system per se. We did not want to just cover the story with victory points or other gameplay gimmick. Destinies is really a sand-box game so catching the momentum where players explore the unknown but do not feel lost at the same time was a challenge.

• What is your favorite element of the game?
  I think the coolest part is how different it is. When I see players who really feel like during the RPG session and are completely immersed by the story, while actually playing a boardgame it is great!

• What scares you the most and what do you enjoy the most in the crowdfunding experience?
  Working with the community and seeing the live feedback and reactions of backers is amazing! I am also grateful for many ideas our backers have. We always listen to them and try to address all their concerns and use their creativity to make our games better. At the same time it is challenging and when we launch the campaign we all work really hard to keep good relations with the backers and communicate about our game properly. The fear of course is connected with the funding aspect. Each campaign is the fruit of many months of hard work and investment, so each launch is a very emotional moment.

• What else can we expect from Lucky Duck Games in the future?
  Of course we are working on new games in story-driven, app-augmented genre like Chronicles of Crime and Destinies. But we do not forget about fully non-digital games intended for a wide audience like the upcoming Paranormal Detectives. In 2020 you can expect both types of games coming from our studio.