SNOHOMISH – Jesper Myrfors is betting on poker chips.
The 40-year-old Snohomish resident was the art director for Wizards of the Coast, the Seattle-based company behind “Magic the Gathering,” a fantasy card-playing game that revolutionized the genre.
Now he’s back, with many of his former Wizards partners, in a new venture called Hidden City Games. They’re promoting a new game, “Clout Fantasy,” which combines the role-playing strategy of the Magic games with physical dexterity: the game pieces – decorated poker chips – are tossed onto the playing surface.
The game debuted last week at a convention in Las Vegas, and it’s due to hit U.S. stores in July. The early buzz is good, Myrfors said. “The forecast is looking incredible – better than our best-case scenario.”
And working with his former Wizards colleagues is a kick, he said. “It really feels like putting the band back together.”
The band of Wizards broke up in 1999 when the company sold its holdings – including the rights to “Dungeons &Dragons” – to toy giant Hasbro for “a half-billion dollars,” Myrfors said.
That led to an early retirement, Myrfors said. “A lot of us played.”
But his idea of fun was to create more games. “When you retire young – it’s boring,” he said. “You get to do what you want to do, and then what?”
“Clout Fantasy” grew out of Myrfors’ brother’s love of flicking beer bottle caps. He thought that could be the basis of a great game, but not everyone can master the trick, Myrfors said. “I can’t.”
But he liked the idea of a game based on throwing game pieces. He said he always liked pitching pennies, and “I also really enjoy war games and card games.”
Combining the two resulted in “a new kind of game that involves physical skill,” Myrfors said.
But what to throw? Myrfors said he experimented with a whole bunch of things: “margarine lids … rubber coasters, anything that could achieve any kind of accuracy and that would be cheap to produce.”
The solution was poker chips, which had the right size and weight. He began making mock-ups on his computer, which he printed, cut out and pasted onto chips by hand.
Myrfors was excited. “I knew the game was good. I knew it was really, really good.”
He got in touch with former Wizards colleague Paul Peterson, who helped him fine-tune the rules. They then met with a patent attorney – the patent is pending – and then began talks with a major game publisher.
But the negotiations stalled, so Myrfors tried a new route. “I knew I had to approach my old boss, Peter Adkinson.”
Adkinson was the founder of Wizards of the Coast and remains a force in the gaming industry. Even though they’re friends, it wasn’t easy to pitch the idea to him, Myrfors said. “He gets approached once a week.”
But they met once, and then again, and “essentially the meeting ended with him being CEO of my whole company,” Myrfors said.
That was a huge step forward, he said. Adkinson brought huge credibility to the project. It was like, Myrfors said, starting a record label and having Madonna come on board as both artist and administrator. Adkinson’s involvement meant Hidden City was able to raise $1.5 million from interested investors in just three days.
With that seed money, Hidden City was able to further develop the game, and to line up publishers to produce and distribute the game worldwide.
The best part about the arrangement is that “it leaves us free to just develop the game,” Myrfors said. “We don’t have to concentrate on marketing. We don’t have to worry about all those little details that took the fun out of being a startup.”
The key to success will be getting players to keep buying chips – that’s what led to the success of games such as “Magic the Gathering” and “Pokemon,” he said.
The plan is to sell “Clout Fantasy” in two-player starter sets – 15 chips for each player – and also sell two-chip booster packs, which will allow enthusiasts to upgrade the strength of the pieces they’re playing with.
That adds an element kind of like fantasy baseball – if you’re not winning, you can upgrade your stack, and you can assemble stacks to specifically to counter the strengths and weaknesses of specific opponents.
There will also be lures for collectors, Myrfors said. “Every once in a while there’ll be a golden chip – like Wonka’s golden bar.”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
