Sjors van der Werff (31) from Eindhoven has used the corona crisis to make his dream come true: building and releasing a board game, but as a game. He calls this Project Planet a ‘digital board game’. The official release is on Monday, September 25.
Sjors worked in the festival industry and ended up at home during the corona crisis. So he had time on his hands and started designing and developing a family game. “This became Project Planet. It was still in its infancy at the time. Earth against humanity, I didn’t really get any further.”
However, things slowly became more and more serious and then Sjors made an important decision. “I thought: if I want to take this opportunity, I have to get someone who really knows about it. So then I ended up with my buddy Rik Koning, because he has been involved with games for much longer and has also studied for. We then expanded it further and brought in an investor.”
Setting
That was about three years ago now. In the game, humanity consists of scientists, world leaders, media and the people. Everyone has his or her own playing tactics. 33-year-old Rik: “One player plays Earth, which wants to eradicate humanity with all kinds of disasters. Actually, Earth has had enough of people and she wants to protect herself by putting an end to humanity.”
Up to five other players play the people and want to work together to survive. But there is still a catch, because at the end of the game there is always only one winner. So people are also competing among themselves for power.”
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You can play Project Planet on the couch with friends, but also remotely on your mobile phone. Sjors and Rik still have plenty of ambitions. In the long term they would like to conquer the Asian market.
But Sjors says that his boyhood dream has now come true. “Our game will soon be on the gaming platform Steam. I play there many hours a month. And now our own product is among them! Yes, that is very nice!”
This is the promo of Project Planet: