In late April of 2011, Leïa Tortoise and Anilori attended their first Wincanton Discworld Event, the Spring Fling.

Among other things, they saw a presentation of the « Ankh-Morpork » board game by its creator, Martin Wallace, and Bernard Pearson, the Cunning Artificer who owns the Discworld Emporium shop.

Here is a transcript of the presentation :

Martin Wallace : I originally wanted to do a game based on Iain M. Banks' books, but I could not get permission from the agent. While at the pub a friend of my suggested doing a Pratchett game instead? Fortunately I knew people who knew Terry, who were able to give me advice . So I had all my ducks in a row.

Basically, I read and read and read everything about Ankh-Morpork, which is the focus of the first game. It wasn't an easy process as the early versions of the game di not work very well. Chris Boote and Jerry Elsmore were an immense help at this stage by tearing the game apart and throwing it back at me. Time was against me as I wanted to present the game to Terry at the UK Discworld Convention. Fortunately, with a little twist, the game finally clicked. Another friend of mine, Geoff, came along to the convention. The pair of us sat in the foyer and grabbed as many passing people as we could. The game seemed to go down very well with thefans. I was a little cheeky and sat down next to Terry at breakfast and told him I was working on a board game. He was kind but blunt in his reply, 'There is not money in games'.

Another person that I met at the convention was Bernard Pearson. Bernard, Ian, Isobel, and Reb have been incredibly supportive. Without their help the game could not have progressed. They spent many hours working on descriptions for the characters for my regular artist, Peter Dennis, to work from. Ian also spent over three hundred hours working on the map. Peter Dennis is both talented and quick, which is a fortunate combination.

The final game will be produced in a number of different languages. Kosmos will produce the German language version while IELLO will produce the French language edition. Mayfair will be producing the American edition, while Treefrog will be producing the English edition. Treefrog will also be producing a collector's edition of the game. This will come in a different size box, with the original cover artwork by Peter Dennis (this was rejected for the standard edition, with the Paul Kidby A'Tuin image being used instead). The game will have a poster and a slightly different 12 sided die (no '8's will appear in the game). I'm also looking at having resin pieces made for a deluxe edition. Both the collector and the deluxe edition will only be available directly from Treefrog. The standard edition will probably sell for £30 while the collector's edition will sell for £40.

I am planning to allow people to register an interest in the collector's edition so that they will be notified when it is ready to order. In this way I hope to allow a fan to guarantee getting the game. You will be able to register an interest via the Treefrog website, www.treefroggames.com.

Bernard Pearson : For the cards, Martin put down what characters he wanted ; back at Clarecraft, they had characters and character files, so we went to Terry, bought him lunch and asked him what TV programmes he was watching when thinking about the characters. Some cards bear a passing resemblance to people (like Pat Harkin!) Isobel put together a brief document for Peter, who does not use a computer. He sent a rough sketch to Terry, and by the time Terry answered back, he already had a full colour artwork ! He's a craftsman, which is the best thing. Terry looked at this and said « This game absolutely oozes Discworld. I can see the thumbprint of the artificer » – he meant the Discworld artificers, all of them. And then : « Isn't it about time we redid the Ankh-Morpork map ? » He wants the streets to actually work, size-wise ; all 2800 of them. There'll be a name for each and every one : we'll have the Drunken Game alley, and the Clever Wallace pub !

Martin : There's another game coming out. I had a picture of an orangutan, even before I was involved with Discworld, and I thought, what can I do with it ? So it's a charity game with profits going to the Orangutan fundation. It's a little card game, designed to be simpler. We'll sell it at shows and conventions, there won't be any regular distribution circuit. It's called « Old Man and the Forest ».

This year we're doing every big Discworld convention, America, Holland, Germany, and Ireland. Fans will be able to try the game out at each of these conventions.

Many thanks to Martin Wallace for reviewing this transcript, and to both of them for allowing us to share it, and signing the Dedicacium!