The Warlords Origin Story

- By Randy Desmarais

We have all spent countless hours playing our favorite games.  But have you ever wondered how they got invented?  This is the story behind how Warlords was created.  Hope you enjoy it.

It’s Alive!

It was an innocent December afternoon in 2018, while on a family vacation in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, where Warlords got its first jolt of electricity.  But its creation cannot be credited to a single moment of inspiration.  In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

In order to truly understand the series of events that began with such a small idea and metamorphosed into an actual product, we have to time travel back to 2007.

Sequence Extreme

My wife Terry and I had a young family at the time, so we spent many nights at home playing games like crib and a board game called Sequence. We loved this game, but just like crib, the strategy part of the game was limited.  We often commented that it could use a bit of tweaking to improve the gameplay.  So eventually, we did exactly that.

Sequence came with 2 standard decks of 52 cards along including 2 jokers and an instruction card in each deck.  Well, the 2 jokers and instruction cards were not used in the game so we saw an opportunity to introduce them into the game.  We came up with some ideas and then assigned these 6 extra cards with a strategic function to see how they changed the game.  The impact was instantaneous, and we were ecstatic about our ingenuity.  

After a few months of perfecting the function and gameplay of these cards, we decided to make our own custom decks of cards, which included our new additions.  We called our game - Sequence Extreme.  As far as we know, it is the only enhanced version of Sequence in existence.

Since then, I have managed to take part in many game enhancements when the opportunities presented themselves.  Bocce and Ping Pong certainly come to mind, but those are stories for another time…  When it comes to creating Warlords in particular, an innocent yet critical spark happened 6 months earlier on a Golf Trip in Panorama BC.

European War

It's now summer 2018, and the fellas have all gathered once again for our annual golf trip. After a great day on the links, we were sitting around the table having a few drinks and playing cards, which is customary on such adventures.  During a break, my high school buddy, John Wakulich, who is a card game mastermind and a walking card game encyclopedia, showed me a different version of the traditional game of War.  He called it ‘European War’, and this version had a few different rules that I had never seen before, which made it a lot more interesting.  We spent maybe 5 minutes on the game, and that was it.  We resumed our Texas hold 'em game, where I once again lost all my money.  But for whatever reason, the memory of that version of War nestled its way into a corner of my brain, awaiting a timely revival.

Well, we can do better than that

Fast forward to the family vacation in Mexico, when my brother and I were killing an hour before the family gathered for dinner.  We were sitting around with a deck of cards discussing different versions of crib, when I demonstrated the version of War I that was shown 6 months earlier.

After a brief demonstration of the rules, he uttered these infamous words: “Well, we can do better than that,” and in the next 20 minutes (that's how quick it was), we created 90% of what Warlords is today.  

The first new element that we came up with was based on the fact that in the traditional game of War, there is no choice of what card can be played.  You simply take the next card from the top of the deck, and that is the card that is played.  Our idea was to give players a choice, so we created a rule where both players start the game with 3 cards in their hands.  Now players can choose what card they play next, and when a player uses all three cards, they pick up 3 new ones, and so on.  This simple rule change opened the floodgates, where ideas came pouring in.  

In traditional War, to win the game, you have to capture all your opponent’s cards. So what if we change the objective to only needing to capture 1 or 2 specific cards?  How would that work?  Well, we had to figure out a way to create a valuable card that could fight battles but not win every battle by always being the highest-ranking card.  

Since the Ace is the highest card rank, we wanted to create a card with an even higher value that would become the game’s key piece, but not assign this card any numeric rank.  This meant it had to be played alongside another card from your hand, which would actually be the one that goes to battle. We laughed that this is similar to many military officials who do not actually go to battle because they have others do the fighting for them.  If this card loses the battle, then the high-value card goes along with it. Ah, yes, this is how we can get these high-value cards to change hands.

As we continued to play, we also decided that when this high-value card gets played, it should also include drawing 2 new cards from the deck to bolster your hand for a better chance of protecting the high-value card.  We liked the way this rule impacted the gameplay.

Generals

From these simple concepts, we saw a particular Military theme starting to emerge, and it made sense that each card could be associated with ranks in an army.  And so, we called our game Generals. The objective was to capture your opponent's Generals, which made complete sense.  We thought that the Jack, Queen and King cards could be changed to Military ranks like Captain, Major, and Colonel.

Ok, so we dubbed the #2 cards as the ‘Generals’, and we made sure that we both got two Generals each at the start of the game. Now the goal became to capture all the #2 cards to win the game.

We also had 2 Joker cards in the deck and immediately brainstormed some ideas of how to include them.  Surprisingly, we came up with an idea quite quickly where the Jokers could be assigned the function of a bomb, so when played, it ‘blew up’ the other player's hand, and you collected all their cards. Yes! It was all coming together!

We were shocked that in 20 minutes we created a whole new game, and both looked at each other and said, “Hey, this is pretty cool!”.  So, like 2 little kids finding a new toy, we told everyone at dinner that we had just created a new game.  Not surprisingly, no one showed the same level of excitement, but nonetheless, we had to test our new creation on someone.  Who was it gonna be?  Naturally, after dinner, we cornered the person who passed down his passion for card games to us, our Dad.  We grew up watching our parents play Bridge and Crib, so playing cards is in the Desmarais DNA.

We played a couple of hands with the patriarch of the family, expecting nothing more than just to see if the gameplay made sense to someone outside the creative circle.  Mission accomplished.

And that was it…for my brother anyway…but not for me.  I had no intention of letting this creation slip away. 

Bringing Generals home to Canada

Within a week of getting home from vacation, I took a deck of cards over to my friend Steve, who is also a game fanatic, for an in-depth analysis of Generals.  After one game, I looked at him with great anticipation and said, “So…?”   And I remember it well…
His one sentence of feedback, combined with his facial expression, was all I needed to propel the game to the next level.  He said, “This is a fun game!”

YES!  A worthy stamp of approval!  So on to the next step…more test subjects.

I had 2 built-in test subjects at home, so I started playing with my 13 and 15 year old kids to accumulate more feedback and establish some detailed groundwork on the gameplay.   I was able to see various scenarios that I hadn’t seen before and make sure the game mechanics were solid.  They both understood the game easily, and their enjoyment became instrumental in pushing the game to the next level (and there were lots of levels).

Now that I had some reliable feedback, the next logical step was to create a custom prototype deck.  This would allow me to better display the game's dynamics to more people, and creating relatable artwork would achieve a better game experience for players.

So I started looking for graphics on the internet related to the Military.  But it wasn’t long before I realized that a medieval fantasy theme would have a much wider appeal and also be easier to create, given the vast amount of artwork available on the internet that I could use.

From Generals to Warlords

So by making this switch, I realized that I have to find a new name for the game.  We originally called it Generals to reflect the most valuable card in the game, so now I needed something related to the same concept in the medieval world.  Surprisingly, it didn’t take long before I discovered the term Warlords, and it seemed to be a perfect fit.  

I searched online to see if there was another card game with the same name, and I was happy to see that there wasn’t. As a result, I decided to keep the Jack - Queen - King titles instead of the military titles we assigned them in the beginning.  These ‘Royalty’ titles seemed consistent with a medieval theme, and their function is universal to thousands of other card games. 

The Dragon

In turn,  I had to also figure out a new name for the ‘bomb’ card because it didn’t seem to fit with this new direction.  As I pondered the question of what powerful element in a fantasy world could wipe out soldiers in an instant like that of a bomb, the answer was almost instant and obvious.  A Dragon.  Perfect!  Now with a Dragon in the mix, I felt that this new theme opened up all kinds of possibilities.

The Clans

The suits associated with the cards really had no role in the game, so it made sense to change the suits to different clans or tribes.  This change did not make the clans functional, but in regard to the overall design concept, creating 4 different fantasy clans gave it some depth.  

I thought about every fantasy movie I ever saw, looking for inspiration for tribe names, and came up with some obvious ones right away.  Knights for sure. What about Vikings?  Oh, and I love Lord of the Rings, so Orcs have to be in there too. Hmmm, I need a fourth group. Nothing came to mind right away, so I figured the internet would trigger some ideas.

As I started surfing the internet, I found literally hundreds of images related to medieval warriors, so I knew I was on the right track.  I started downloading different images of Vikings, Knights, and Orcs and keeping them in separate folders.

Along with my searches, I would keep a separate folder of random warrior images I thought were cool and just titled it as a ‘Warrior’ folder, just in case I could use them later.  This was a really enjoyable process and through several weeks of surfing, I started to refine my searches with specific keywords to see if I could find Warrior images that looked like Kings, Queens, and Jacks.  

With dozens of images in each folder, I was able to eventually narrow them down to my favorite ones and assign each a number from 3 to King.  The four Warlord cards would take the place of the four number 2 cards in a standard deck, and the Dragons took the place of the two Joker cards.

The Assassin

The Ace card seemed to be a stumbling block, as all the other letter cards have a specific look to them.  What can I do about the Ace?  So I started thinking about words that start with the letter A that would fit the theme, but also occupy the top rank in an army.  The term Assassin was included on a short list of words that made sense.  I was also able to find some cool images of cloaked warriors in each of the clan themes that looked like Assassins.  It's a lock!

The Wizard

As I continued to play with the kids, I realized the game was still a bit rudimentary and needed some additional flair, so this triggered the idea for some sort of WILD CARD.  We had already developed a Double rule where 2 cards of the same value defeated an opponent's single card.  But now I thought of a Wild Card that could be played alongside another card and would function as a chameleon, taking on the same rank, therefore creating a Double. Yup, this card made a lot of sense.

Hmmm, what would this card be called in the medieval world…that's easy, a Wizard.  The Wizard cards could take the place of the number 3 card, so each player gets two Wizard cards.  But I wasn’t sure about having 2 Wizard cards for each player. I still felt I could come up with one more ‘wild card' function idea.

The Phantom

By this time, it’s summer 2019, and my family and I are on vacation in Vernon, BC, staying at this amazing cabin, and I am making great progress on all the images.  As my wife knows all too well, I am not much of a sleeper and spend most nights staring at the inside of my eyelids.  But this particular week, I spent my sleepless nights thinking about Warlords.  I could not help thinking that the game needs one final addition, one more special card to make an impact on the game. 

During my efforts to count sheep one night, I was trying to think of a card that could capture an opponent's card without going to battle, but still had some limitations, so it didn’t have free rein. I first thought that this card, when played, took a card directly from the opponent's hand. Oh, I like that idea.  

But then it occurred to me, what if it took a card from the opponent's deck instead?  This way, the card that is ‘captured’ is a surprise to BOTH players.  Perfect!  In addition, I came up with a rule that this card would have to be played first into the Battlefield because if it were played second, it had no power.  Oh, even more perfect!  

Now I needed a name for this card that reflected its covert yet mysterious function and also fits in with the medieval theme.  So I went to the image folder on my laptop to look through all the random Warrior images to see if something caught my eye.  I found a few underworld winged type creatures that I had always hoped to use, and they served as perfect inspiration for… the PHANTOM card.  

The bonus part of inventing this card was that it balanced the Specialty Cards dynamics; With a total of 54 cards in one deck, there are 2 Dragons, 2 Wizards, and now 2 Phantom cards, and each player has one each.  The remaining cards would be numbered 4 to 10, with the Jack, Queen, King, Assassin, and Warlord. There are 4 of each of these cards, so when the deck is divided in half, both players would get 2 each.

The Prototype

It has been 8 months since starting this project and Warlords has a lot of momentum.  I have collected enough feedback from multiple players to take it to yet another level and make a Prototype.

I assigned all 54 cards an image and a function in each clan. We have The Vikings, The Knights, and The Orcs. The 4th clan name was still up for grabs, as I still had not found another name I liked.  So, strangely enough, I just simply decided to keep the same name as the random image folder I named earlier and ‘Warriors’ became the 4th and final clan.  The images I found for this group all fit perfectly anyway, and I liked the name, so it was all set. 

I began looking for a custom card-making website to create the prototype, which was more difficult than I imagined. I found a few options out there that were ok, but I was disappointed in their functionality.

However, I then found an absolute GEM that was far superior to any other, and best of all, it is a Canadian site: theplayingcardfactory.com.  This site was a game-changer as it featured an amazing software program for making custom cards, and the pricing was quite reasonable.

I took all the images and downloaded them into the software program.   I meticulously arranged each image into the card templates and marveled at how cool they looked.   Oh, but wait: although it is easy to tell the difference between Knights and Orcs, there needs to be some other distinction between clans now that the cards have no suits serving that purpose.  Each clan needs its own COLOR to help organize them, and what about these specialty cards: Dragon, Wizard, and Phantom?  Oh yes!  The card design just got an instant upgrade.

OK I had a cool decision to make.  What color should the cards be for each clan, and how do I decide that?  Well, my first thought is there are obvious ‘go to’ colors like Blue, Green, Red, Black, White, and Yellow.  But to start, I just simply thought, what color do I immediately think about when I say Knights?  I think Blue.  Done.  What about Orcs, Green for sure.  Hmmm Vikings?  Hmmm Warriors?  Well, I know one of them has to be Red, so I thought the Warrior name fits with Red.  Done.  Ok, last one - Vikings.  Hmmm.  What colors are left?  

I thought of UNO cards, which use the colors Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. I really don’t like Yellow all that much as a color, but I really like Orange.  Ha.  OK, Vikings are now orange.  Done!!!  And the specialty cards??  Can I pull off a purple or something like that?  I could, but then I thought of the color Black, of course…no contest.  OK, I have the color assignments completed.

Backing Image 

Now I needed the final touch, and that was an image to go on the back of the cards.  This image had a big responsibility as it had to represent the entire game.  OK, it’s another really interesting decision I get to make.  

I combed through my random image folder and pulled out my top 5 images that I did not use so far and ranked them.  Out of all the images I had, there was one that stood out to be a perfect image for the back of the cards. It was a unique-looking warrior with a face-covering helmet with horns and really cool-looking armour, holding a dagger.  It is a solid choice. Things are looking great. 

Within a couple of weeks of fine-tuning and over-analyzing…I had a prototype ready to go. I pressed the ‘get it done’ button, and in 7 - 10 days, I would receive a very special package.

War is Coming

On September 18, 2019, 10 copies of Warlords arrived, and a major milestone had been achieved (9 months after its conception…sound familiar?).  There was cause for celebration!  This accomplishment also signified that the next stage of development was about to begin.

Warlords followed me everywhere as there were copies in my vehicle, at home, and at work.  I believe the industry term is ‘Beta-testing,’ where the goal now is to accumulate as much feedback as possible from as many different players as possible.  With the prototype deck in hand, I was able to evaluate the game more effectively as the new card images more accurately represented the theme and its functionality. 

As this stage evolved, I began writing the rules down in anticipation of one day, if all the stars aligned, selling the game somewhere.  Although it's a simple game concept, writing rules is strangely more difficult than explaining the game to someone in person.  

To be truthful, the idea of taking the game all the way from ‘pretend to product’ entered my brain the very day we invented it, albeit only in the smallest of fractions.  However, with every day forward, that fraction gained traction.  And it was during the Beta-testing stage that I started to ask these questions: What is my goal?  Is this even possible?   How far do I want to go?  What am I willing to do? And the key question any person with an idea has to ask: how much money will it take?

The Ultimate Goal

My ultimate goal with this project was simple: Sell one copy to someone I don’t know, just one.  In other words, someone in this world would buy a game that my brother and I made while on vacation in Mexico.  That's a pretty darn cool story, I must say.

So with that inspiration, I started looking a little more into it by considering all the factors and steps I needed to take to bring it to reality.  As far as I knew at the time, I needed 2 key elements in this endeavor: an official product and a place to sell it.

I figured the selling part was the easier of the two, as I visited a couple of local stores and chatted with store owners regarding the process involved. It seemed quite simple: bring in the product, and they put it on the shelves.  In addition, there is always Amazon, and at the time, I was experienced working with Amazon FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon), so I set up an affiliate account.

The biggest obstacle was going to be the creation of a legitimate Warlords card deck because the most critical element was going to be creating original artwork.  So I turned to my niece Rae, who is an exceptional artist.  We discussed the project and decided together that the level of artwork needed would be better suited to a professional graphic illustrator.  Rae then introduced me to a local artist whom she knew from school, and I presented the project to him.  Unfortunately, the cost to create 55 original images in full color was far beyond my financial reach.  

I then looked into Kickstarter, which has an excellent reputation for projects exactly like mine.  But there were a few things that did not align with my timeline, so I was hesitant to place my efforts there.  Shortly thereafter, my boss, Darren, directed me to the online platform Upwork to find an artist.  

This option was far more reasonable in terms of pricing, and I was able to post my project, submit my budget, and receive multiple bids from artists all over the world.  After a few weeks of vetting these artists,  I selected one from Abu Dhabi who was going to do the project.  

Although the budget with Upwork was far better than a local artist, I still needed financial help to ensure the project was palatable.  I began setting up an account with GoFundMe, which was set to launch once the Upwork artist began the project.  However, just after the artist accepted the offer to begin the work, he ghosted me, and the project was dead.

That was it.  I lost all inspiration to pursue the project any further.  It was December 2019

What's Crib got to do with it?

When one door closes…you make another door.

Every so often, a group of us who went to high school together gather for a night of reminiscing. These nights usually are marathons of fun, and this particular night we got together was right after the prototype cards arrived.  As the night extended into the wee hours of the morning, there were only 2 of us left: yours truly and once again, my good friend John Wakulich. 

I had patiently waited all evening to unveil Warlords to him as his contribution to its conception, at the time, was unbeknownst to him.

It was a highly gratifying experience to show him not only the new card game that my brother and I invented, but also to let him know that he indirectly provided a spark to its creation by showing me that version of European War.  In addition, the best part of this unveiling with John is that Warlords was about to get a review from someone who I consider to be on the Mount Rushmore of game mastery, so his opinion has a very high value. And he did not disappoint.  We played one game, and I’m happy to say, Warlords passed its toughest test to date.

Now, you would think that this review was all Warlords needed, but no, Mr. Wakulich is at another level.  He spots a crib board that was on the table and suggests that we should play another game, but this time, use the crib board to track points.  

Wow, interesting idea.  Ok, so we reviewed some of the basic plays and assigned points to them.  We start another game and begin counting points using the crib board along the way.  And wouldn’t you know it, this point system added another intriguing dimension to the game. Of course, no surprise, John wins the inaugural Warlords/crib board game, and just like that, we created yet another project I could sink my teeth into.  A Warlords Board Game version….

Enter the Battlefield - February 2020

So now, with this newest jolt of electricity, Warlords has a heartbeat again, albeit only from a completely new creative standpoint.  I must admit the idea of creating a board game for Warlords was intoxicating, so I wasted no time jumping in with both feet.  Although I had no idea where to start, I knew that I wanted to create something epic with intricate scoring, in-depth strategy, and would take hours to play.  I had all the elements of Risk in mind, but liked the idea of keeping the peg-style scoring system like Crib due to the small footprint a peg needs in comparison to a figurine or marker. 

A World Project

So my first thought was to create a large game board divided in half, with one side as a card play area and the other with a continent-style map that players trek across from one end to the other. The obvious question is, what does that world look like, and how does each clan live amongst the other?  Perhaps if they are all at war, they should have their own territory and have some kind of separation from each other.  To gain some ideas, I looked at famous fantasy worlds for inspiration: Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings world maps were first up for viewing. 

I studied how these worlds were laid out with continents, islands, bodies of water, mountain ranges, snow regions, etc.  From this inspiration, I started my first sketches.  And yes, I figured that I would draw out the first version by hand to see how things shaped up.  I loved drawing when I was a kid, so I should be able to design something that conveys the concept. 

I grabbed some paper and some pieces of MDF wood and just started drawing random shapes to get the juices flowing.  I figured that creating the world on paper was the easiest, as I could erase and edit elements more easily to get some momentum.  I used the MDF board to see how it looked when I drew on it with Sharpies and colored it with pencil crayons.

The goal was to create a long and epic journey, so I made a starting point in the top left corner, and players would move through the entire world to the bottom right corner, where the final peg hole would declare the winner. 

I initially thought of drawing one main continent for the entire world, but thought that crossing the water to an island would be cool, so I changed the design accordingly.  I drew 1 large continent on the western hemisphere that would have 2 clans living on it, and then designed 2 large islands on the eastern hemisphere to house the other 2 clans.

Once I had the general shape of the land masses, I started to design the characteristics of each region.  There had to be a bit of everything I could think of on the map somewhere: winter zones, desert, forest, mountain ranges, volcanoes, cliffs, canyons, etc.  So I started adding these elements to the various regions.  The goal was to make each region unique so that they each had their own characteristics.

As I was drawing these elements, I also had to plan out how the players would cross each region, and thought that maybe there could be multiple paths that players could choose from, and provide some variety.  As a result, I designed 2 paths that went east and west, and 2 paths that went north and south across the world.

Even though it is a 2-player game, players could still choose from multiple paths, but each path had to be equal in the amount of distance being covered, so there were no advantages to path selection.

In addition, since there are 4 clans in this world, each with their own color, it makes sense that there was a Blue, Red, Green, and Orange path.  Since the player movement was based on Crib pegs, I designed each region with 40 holes per path. This particular amount of peg holes per region allowed me the opportunity to have them interconnect at certain points and design obstacles and elements that players have to navigate.  

From the starting point in the top left corner, the winning player would then have to peg 161 holes to win the game.  That sounded good…But I really had no idea until I drew it all out and tested it.

The drawing was quickly progressing as I added more and more detail to the world.  I now had bridges, mountain ranges, capital cities, and boats with water paths.  I even named a few key elements after my family and friends who helped me to this point.  The final touches were to add color to the drawing, which gave it some sort of finished look.  I colored each region with the color associated with the clan living there.  The Viking region is Orange, the Knight region is Blue, the Orc region is Green, and the Warrior region is Red.

Now that the drawing is complete, I have to create an actual board that holds the pegs.  My drawing was made on 24 x 14 construction paper, so I found a piece of ½ inch plywood in my garage and cut it to fit the paper dimensions.  I glued the paper onto the plywood and then began to drill all the holes for each path…and there are a lot of holes!  About 700 holes, as there are 4 paths, each with 160 holes, plus the water paths, bridges, and the starting point.  And as the final hole was drilled in Champion Island, the World of Warlords Game Board - Version 1 was complete.

At the same time as the design was coming together, I had to formulate a point system for the card game so that when certain things happened in the game, players would move their pegs accordingly.  John and I had created a few ideas with the first-ever crib/warlords game we played a few months earlier, but now, with the board game,  there were a few more opportunities for creative scoring.  I came up with a list of potential scoring ideas and borrowed the pegs from one of my crib boards, and I now had a working board game ready for testing.

During this development stage, my team at work was extremely helpful in testing the card game as we found ourselves playing during many lunch breaks.  Matt and Levi were experienced card players, and their feedback on the gameplay was invaluable.  

Bruce was particularly enthusiastic and wanted to get involved in testing the board game version.  As a result, I built a custom card table for my basement so we had a dedicated space perfect for developing the board game. The table was built with dimensions to fit 4 people and could be taken apart and stored when needed.  It’s awesome, if I do say so myself.

Bruce and I spent several hours a week playing the board game, making adjustments, and coming up with new ideas. I started writing out the rules we created and made notes of anything new we came up with.  The game was progressing fast!

The Tactical Cards

After just 2 months of testing, we had so much new material that I started drawing a new version of the board game, incorporating all the new ideas so we could continue moving forward with its development.  

As the dynamics of the gameplay improved, it provided so many situations where the idea of adding an ‘action’ card gave the game even more depth and strategic options.  So we came up with the idea of adding a whole new deck of cards that could be integrated into the game as players navigated their way through the world.  Players would draw a card from this deck at certain times during the game.  

This new 'action card' concept was incredibly fun to create as we came up with literally dozens of ideas that brought an entirely new level of strategy to the game.  We originally made blank cards out of some thick white cardstock and simply wrote the actions on the cards to test them out.  If they worked as planned, then we added them to our approved list.  

The goal was to create 54 new action cards so I could get a completely new prototype deck made.  I included a space on the new game board to place this additional deck of cards.  We called this new deck the TACTICAL cards. 

Once we had all 54 ideas, I started the design process for the TACTICAL cards. I found really cool images on the internet that represented the action on each card.  I also got lucky and found an image depicting a crest of all 4 clans that worked perfectly for the back of the cards. This process was so fun, I could have created hundreds of cards.  

Once again, I used the software program at theplayingcardfactory.ca to produce the new Tactical deck.  It took approximately 2 months to design each card with images and text, ensuring the verbiage made sense for the action to be taken. 

On February 25, 2021, the Tactical deck arrived!

Oh man, they look so good!  I even built custom card holders so they could be hidden from your opponent but displayed at an angle to make them easier to organize for strategic planning.

One of the byproducts of inventing action cards is that it allowed us to also add a set of Dice into the game.  We created several scenarios where the roll of a dice determined actions on the game board.  Now the game instantly had improved dynamics yet again with an additional deck of cards and dice interacting with the gameplay.  I even took Sharpies and colored some dice with the clan colors and applied a couple coats of varnish to protect them. 

I also added a special set of BLACK dice, which I dubbed ‘Boon Dice’  Boon meaning: something that is helpful or beneficial, a bonus.   The Boon Dice have their own unique design: There are no 1 or 2 faces on them, as I added dots to these parts of the dice, so now there are an additional 3 and 4 faces on the dice.  These dice are used in special situations where a player rolls them to gain an advantage. 

Version 2.0

As we continued to test drive our new ideas, behind the scenes I was planning the new 2.0 board game with all our upgrades.  One of the main upgrades for Version 2 was having an actual Battlefield where players play their cards.  Instead of just a 24 x 15 game board like the original version, I bought a 24 x 30 piece of MDF board and simply drew a line down the middle, which divided it in half.  

I spray-painted the board WHITE and then sanded it so it would be easy to draw on and look sharp when I colored it with pencil crayons.  One on a half, I drew the new world with all our upgrades, and on the other half, I drew a battlefield where players played their cards. I drew card locations to help players keep their Army and Troop Piles organized while playing.  I added new features like separate Islands used to keep track of Warlords, Royalty Points, and conduct dice battles.

Part of the Battlefield portion of the game board housed another one of our new ideas - The Battalion.  The Battalion is actually an original idea that my brother and I had during its creation, but I shelved the concept until the Board Game gave us the opportunity to experiment with it.  It is an interesting process where if you collect 3 of the same color in your hand, these cards can be placed face down on the Game Board and used in future battles.  The main idea is that they are played blind, where the player knows the card numbers but does not know what position they are in.

After drilling another 700+ holes into the board, Version 2.0 was ready for testing.

This newest version made the playing experience much more enjoyable, so I was able to bring in other gamers to play and get some additional valuable feedback.  I brought in game mastermind Steve Doak to play with Bruce so I could take on the role of spectator and statistician to study the gameplay while making detailed notes as the battle progressed from start to finish.

I also had the good fortune of having my son Brandan and his buddy Nick Poitras take a big interest in the game, and they spent hours playing and discovered scenarios that I had not seen before, which is a critical component in game invention.

As we continued to play, I began writing the Rule Book for the Board Game version, which, like the game itself, is expansive in detail. With every sentence written, this venture seemed more and more worthy in its game play, strategy, and legitimacy as an actual entity in the board game world.

Bruce and I continued playing version 2.0, further refining the rules and game play into an epic journey across the World of Warlords.  We recorded more new ideas and continued to make notes along the way as Version 3.0 was strategically being planned in the background.  And this newest version….was going to be a big step up.

Inkarnate 2021

The next logical step was to design the game board with digital graphics and find a software program that could give the game a professional look.  I found several programs that had this level of design capability and settled on one called Inkarnate.  It is a robust and versatile program that has all the elements to create detailed world maps perfect for the World of Warlords.  In addition, it is so easy to use and incredibly fun!

The program had thousands of highly detailed elements to choose from, which provided a visually stunning landscape.  The extensive catalog also gave me dozens of new ideas to enhance the design.

One of its main features is the ability to include text within the maps, so I could name all the different regions and elements on the map. 

As the world map developed, I chose to name key elements after people in my life who had contributed to Warlords up to this point as a tribute.  All the major structures, mountain ranges, bodies of water and land masses are dedicated to some awesome people (and 1 memorial tribute to a real life hero, K.J.)

But I still needed some names for regions that aligned with the fantasy theme, so I looked to the internet to help me get some ideas and found several sites, including my favorite: fantasynamegenerator.com.  As I experimented with these different sites, I found a procedure that seemed to work well:  I would collect a few for each element that I needed a name for, change the letters around if necessary, pick my favorite and BINGO!

Eventually, after naming almost every element on the map, I realized that I actually needed one for the world I was creating.  I wanted a really cool name for this universe as I knew how impactful it could be…and from my favorites list, I found one that I liked the most.  The World of Warlords is now known as Ophyrion.  Oh yeah!

In addition to making a new digital design for the world map of Ophyrion, I also used the same software program to create the other half of the game board... the Battlefield.  I was able to incorporate cliffs, medieval weapons, rugged terrain, and remnants of a war-torn landscape worthy of an Opyrion Battlefield.

So while I tinkered with this program for months, enjoying every single minute of it, I had to figure out how to get these upgraded images onto a new Game Board. Well, I know a guy…

I chatted with my friend Richard Korbyl at Columbia Awards, who does all kinds of engraving and printing projects.  He has done several other unique projects for me in the past, and I knew this one was right in his wheelhouse. We discussed the project and came up with a plan where all I had to do was provide the board and the digital print file; his magic would do the rest. 

Inkarnate has a fabulous option where you can print in 8K, so the detail on the images is incredible when printed. I bought a new piece of MDF, 24 x 30 in dimensions, but this time I cut it in half so it was easier for Richard to work with. I even routered the edges of each board so it has a slick look.  

I sent the image files to Richard and dropped off the game boards at his shop.  And then, two very long days later…on February 27, 2022, the Warlords Game Board Version 3.0 was born.  

So here is a look at the metamorphosis from Version 2.0 to Version 3.0, along with new Tactical cards.

What an incredible difference.  We now have a professional-looking, legitimate board game with an integrated rule book, dazzling gameplay, and an epic journey across the Ophyrion Realm.

With such a tangible achievement, I now had to share it with other board gamers that I knew would appreciate it.  I brought in my friends Jordan Jennings, Tanner Chambers, and Matt Mohrluk, who are seasoned game board aficionados, to give it a go.  I am proud to say the feedback was all a clear triumph!

And that was it.  I was quite happy with the satisfaction of creating the Warlords card game and the Game Board Version.  And then…

From Hobby to the Market

It is now the Fall of 2022, and I’m going to lunch with my boss, Darren, and his nephew Ethan, who are both fans of Warlords.  They had seen all the work I did with Warlords and the board game and wanted to discuss the possibility of starting a Game Company and taking Warlords to the market.  

Say what?!

I was blown away!  They saw Warlords as a very good game with widespread appeal due to its fantasy theme and strategic gameplay.  In their view, it is a proof of concept and has strong marketability.  

This is an astonishing opportunity to have financial investors and a savvy entrepreneur like Darren, who has many successful businesses and connections all over the world.  It's a dream!

So in January 2023, R.E.D. Games - Randy, Ethan, Darren - was born.  The first order of business was to look at prototype cards in great detail and review all the specs regarding the characters, clans, and colors so we could start looking for an artist to redesign the artwork. 

One of the main changes we made was to the clans.  To this point, I had Vikings, Knights, Orcs, and Warriors.  Ethan and Darren thought the Warrior clan was too bland and we needed something more distinct.  Ethan had a few suggestions that brought some great discussion to the table, and from that list, we selected the Samurai as the final addition to the roster.  

Step 1 - The Artist

In January, I began looking for an artist who would be the key element to design the new look of the game.  I canvassed both Fiverr and Upwork, looking for an artist who could capture the vision of where we want to go.  We received a dozen or so applicants for the job and asked each of them to submit a Warlord image they felt would win them the project.  When I saw the image below submitted by an artist in Serbia named Nenad, I knew the contest was over:

Nenad understood how we wanted the characters to look, including the Wizards, the Phantoms, and Dragons.  He was tasked with creating 55 original images that would comprise the game cards.  As each card design came in, we grew more and more excited as the project started coming together.  Over the next several months, we neared the final design, and there was just one last image that needed attention.  The card backing image.  What we were really hoping for was a stunning and impactful image that would represent everthing that the Kingdom of Warlords was all about.

We experimented with dozens of concepts and nothing really grabbed our attention, until finally, one emerged that shook me to my core.  He absolutely nailed it, and this image became exactly what we needed it to be…AWESOME.

This image represents everything that Warlords is about.  A medieval fantasy world where a brave warrior stands in front of the game's most powerful character, the Dragon, and challenges him on a war-torn battlefield.  I felt that this image alone would capture the attention of any gamer and compel them to see what the game is all about.

Included in the project parameters was the design of the tuck box and instruction sheet to be folded up and placed inside the tuck box.

Writing instructions is tougher than you think.  Explaining the game to someone in person is much easier, as you have the game itself in front of you as a visual aid.  Writing instructions took weeks to get it right, with dozens of revisions, as it had to be clear enough to someone who knew nothing about the game.

The tuck box was quite simple, but I wanted to make sure that no matter what, it had one critical element included on it.  ‘Created by the Desmarais Bros.’  To this day, my brother has taken no credit for creating the game since it had gone through a massive metamorphosis since we invented it, but without him, there would be no Warlords. As a result, sharing the credit for its invention by including him on the packaging was important to me.

After 7 months of communicating with the artist halfway around the world, on July 17th, 2023.  Warlords was complete.

Step 2 - Manufacturing

Surprisingly, this was quite a simple step.  Darren does business with a printing company in China that makes some products for one of his businesses, so they quoted us on making 500 decks of Warlords.

Over several weeks, we reviewed the specs with the manufacturer, worked through certain variables such as templates and card stock.  As part of the process, we ordered 1 card deck as a sample to make sure it met all our requirements.  

Several weeks later, our first official sample of Warlords arrived.  It's truly amazing to have come this far, where a real sample of Warlords was in my hands. Now, with a simple approval sent via email, 500 decks of Warlords were officially being made!

Step 3 - Website and Social Media

Behind the scenes, we had been building our Website: shopredgames.com and securing our Instagram handle @kingdomofwarlords and our YouTube channel kingdomofwarlords. 

All the little pieces required to market the game were coming together just in time

Step 4 - The Launch

On November 27, 2023, just as 500 decks of Warlords arrived at our warehouse, R.E.D. Games was officially launched.