Let’s just pick up right where we left off yesterday as I was talking with Alan Emrich, the man behind Victory Point Games!
Jeff McAleer: The tag line for Victory Point Games is “The Gameplay is the Thing.” I was wondering if you’d like to elaborate a bit regarding the motto?
Alan Emrich: That’s called, “marketing.” Seriously, VPG must establish its “brand identity.” Everyone thinks of something when they hear company names like Hasbro, Fantasy 
Flight, or GMT – some words, phrases or images instantly leap to mind and that is their “brand identity” with the gaming public. We want our customers to think “great gameplay” first and foremost.
The reasons are simple: that’s where Victory Point Games really competes in this business. We know that we’ll never satisfy the lusts of gaming’s so-called “component whores” who live only for the excessive package weight and distinctive rattle of the game box. Nor are we the best fit for “monster gamers,” for whom size and complexity are their xanadu.
Where we choose to compete and hope to have our comparisons made, is to be known as the company that publishes games on fresh, innovative subjects and/or approaches as accessible, small-format products. Just as there is a market for fast food, we can supply the “fast fun;” not as “junk,” but with amazingly substantive and clever games that rate well and have their own followings. Victory Point Games are ones that you can pick up and learn without an excess of “study;” they are games that are easily taught your opponent, games that you can set up on the dining room table and finish playing before dinner, games that you’ll play multiple times (with no problem finding players, space or time) and really have a chance to explore them deeply. Those are “Victory Point Games.”
JM: I also see that the focus at VPG is on design and playability. Or am I wrong?
AE: 
And large quantities of great little games. Here’s some trivia for you. Since the company started selling games nearly 3 years ago, we’ve released a new product every two weeks without fail. We plan to continue on that aggressive release schedule through the foreseeable future, and maybe even improve on it and get more game out a little faster. We’ve added some in-house talent to help out, and things are really starting to roll around here.
JM: Every two weeks?!?!?! That’s insane! Are there future plans to ever publish games in boxed versions with different components – with a much higher price point as well?
AE: Oh, sure, we can fantasize about that, but we have an address in Orange County, California, on Harbor Boulevard no less, and warehousing a bunch of boxed games here is not really a practical option. We’ve built this small business by not “chasing” or “sitting on” our money. That is, we have no “accounts receivable” (everything is cash-and-carry) and no warehouse full of inventory that’s tying up our money in printer bills and monthly warehouse costs. Going the “big boxed” route would run counter to that on both levels, as we’d need wholesalers, 30 day payment terms (that might take 90+ days to get paid, who knows?), while we sit on stacks of printed games and warehouse mountains of components printed by the Chinese.
That’s not to say we won’t “take it up a notch,” perhaps putting some or our games in those cool little “plastic tray” type boxes where you see the cover through the front, but that would be only for our bigger games and way down the road. It’s certainly not on our short-term to-do list, but that doesn’t mean that train will never come (you can faintly hear its whistle blow, if you listen).
JM: 
Alan, I really have to ask if you think it’s unfair that a certain segment of gamers may overlook the quality coming out of VPG simply because you aren’t producing $70 games chock full of detailed components? Some people just don’t understand the value of being able to play a $30-40 game fifty times while the $80 behemoth, from another company, collects dust on some gamer’s shelf.
AE: Perhaps, but who has time for that? We’ve got some of the finest gamers as customers already and more discovering us every day. We’re sort of a “new discovery” for a lot of gamers every month. Many are watching us from the wings of the hobby, lurking over what they read about us, and every so often another one takes the plunge, placing their first order and trying out some of our games that interest them the most (and there’s always a few of those). My favorite part is when they reorder and wonder why they waited so long to try them out. And because we have such a large back-catalog, and add more to it at a very speedy clip, there’s usually something there for them to order when they’d like to treat themselves to another great gameplay experience courtesy of Victory Point Games.
Look, life is too short for bad games, and investing too much time or money into bad or even “archival” games (i.e., the one’s you bought but still haven’t opened or played) heaps insult upon the injury of owning it. I cannot imagine another game company matching our passion for game-making here, as we’re a group of new faces and first-time published designers who are being taught by and working with some of the best “old hands” in both the board and video game industries. We’re working with everyone who will work with us, out in the open for all to see, to make the future better for gamers, games, and gaming.
JM: Let’s talk a bit about the games that are out (or coming soon) from Victory Point Games. I’ve noticed that VPG produces a large number of solitaire games with the States of Siege line coming directly to mind. In my opinion, solo games are underrepresented in the hobby and we can always use more of them. What is the thought processed involved in creating a great solitaire game? Would you say they are easier or more difficult to design than multiplayer games?
AE: Hey, we caught lightning-in-a-bottle with Darin Leviloff’s Israeli Independence game and, frankly, have never looked back. Interestingly, we had our solitaire monster game,
The Barbarossa Campaign, in development even before releasing Israeli, because we’ve always liked solitaire games, too. They are a lot more work to design, because there is an artificial opponent and a strong narrative element that must be presented, but playtesting is a lot easier in most cases.
JM: Speaking of solo games the latest release from VPG is Astra Titanus. From the press info I’ve seen so far it looks like the game pits the player’s forces against a single massive enemy starship (known as a Star Titan) bent on destroying humanity. Is there anything in particular that really sets Astra Titanus apart from other solo efforts from the company?
AE: Well, this game is designed by Chris (Nemo’s War, Forlorn: Hope) Taylor, whom computer games will remember as they guy designed the original Fallout game from Interplay. Chris loves all kinds of games, and he’s a great and patient teacher to the new guys. With Astra Titanus, he created what you might call “Ogre in space.” We all loved the old Steve Jackson Games’ Ogre, but this situation of the one versus the many (a classic “hunt” style game), has lots of cool little Chris Taylor twists. How the Titan ships move, fight and display their data is really neat (with big kudos to Scott Everts, the artist for this game, who is another saint among game developers). Their artificial intelligence is a particularly clever bit of design, and managing your fleet to stop them with the interesting vectors of movement and planning missile strikes is almost a game-within-the game.
This has all the markings of a VPG game. There’s something clever like in every design, every package, and it was made to be played, not marveled at.
JM: Ah ha! I knew I was scratching my head trying to remember where I had heard Chris’s name before! Fallout has to be one of my all-time favorite computer games – Dogmeat lives!
Do you feel there are currently any titles that aren’t receiving the recognition of which they deserve? I know most company owners come back with something along the lines of “all of our games!” but is there a particular title or two that gamers out there truly need to be made aware of?
AE: Oh, boy… Well, you’re only getting my personal opinion here, and everyone at VPG would argue their own favorites. One of our “unsung heroes” would have to be Crisis 2020, an amazing Joe Miranda design about asymmetrical military, political and cyber warfare in an America divided – there’s some really neat decision-making in that game.
JM: I’ve seen Crisis on the VPG website and I have to say it looks mighty interesting! I better start doing some “singing”.
AE: I’m currently playing Lance McMillan’s Star Borders: Humanity to death and teaching it to everyone I can. It’s not creating a lot of buzz, but I assure you that it is “my kind of game” with the best of everything I like in it. Fast, tense, super-tense decision making and just enough luck and storyline to hang your hat on.
JM: I do have a copy of that, and I won’t let the cat out of the bag yet, so you should see the review in the next week or so.
AE: We have others, too, that deserve a closer look, like Allen Doum’s The Great Divide, which is an awesome 2-player tile placement game, or Tenka, which is the office favorite as a multi-player card game “screw you” fest.
JM: Another game on the horizon that really has my interest peaked is The World Will Hold Its Breath. I understand there was an open playtest earlier this week, at the VPG offices, and the public was invited. What was the reaction to the initial presentation of the game and how close is TWSHB (my acronym) to being finished? Any projected date we should mark on our calendars when we’ll be able to pick it up?
AE: We do not write down release dates in stone, particularly that far in advance. (We prefer to write in Jell-O.)
JM: Breath really does sound like it’s going to be big! Are there any other projects that are coming down the pike you’d like to share with our readers? I see that Gettysburg: The Wheatfield is currently in play testing and will the first of a proposed three game Tattered Flags series with an intended Kriegspiel/miniatures feel brought to a board game. How is that project shaping up so far?
Some of the other “big” games in the works include Carl Paradis’s No Retreat 2: North Africa 1940-42. This is the next game in our No Retreat! series and Carl has outdone himself presenting many new and interesting facets to this campaign for gamers to explore. Also, Lance McMillan’s Leipzig 20 will be a huge new addition to the Napoleonic 20 series of games and present that battle in a way that gamers have never seen it before, being much more extensive and presented very much in context with the larger 1813 campaign. And our first sports game, TC Tennis, is soon to appear, designed by Terry Coleman with art by Tim Allen – we have very high hopes for this game, as it is an under-represented gaming topic presented as a novel, first-class sports game with everything the hard-core sports gamer loves in a package that is accessible enough for them to teach to non-hard core sports gamers.
JM: Any final thoughts you’d like to include regarding something we may not have covered about VPG
AE: Just that we welcome everyone’s participation. If you have ever wanted to make games, starting with us might be a very good match. Production, design, development, business – we can keep all hands busy, teaching the art, science and craft of game making in the process. If you want to know more about us, our story, and our games, we’ve put it all out there on our web site, from how to make them, playtesting for us, and more.
Our game company was designed from the “Welcome” mat inward, so please come by our site or our address and see what we do!
JM: Thanks again Alan for taking time away from putting together all of these awesome games to share your thoughts. I know a lot of us will be eagerly awaiting what VPG has coming down the pike!
Great interview – thanks for posting it! I keep meaning to pick up a Victory Point Game, but I’ve been too lazy thus far.
You really should give them a try! The price point is really nice and if what matters to you is the game and not just the little shiny parts you will be very happy. I think Zulus on the Ramparts is excellent and, rumor has it although I haven’t had a chance to get my hands on it yet, Nemo’s War is an awesome play. Some folks have told me it’s VPG’s best game. I have a few VPG reviews coming down the pike so stay tuned!