YORKTON - “A group of archaeologists just made the headlines. After decoding an ancient Mayan manuscript, they found the location of a secret temple in the jungles of El Salvador. The document revealed the existence of an unknown secret city, that can only be seen from the top of a large, circular temple.
“The secret passage to reach the temple is a set of very large stone slabs sitting on stone rolls. These sit above an ancient river, believed to be a passage from the living world to the Underworld …
“Slide stone slabs and race to create a path to discover stelae (monuments) and perhaps even ascend the temple to view the ancient city. But beware of the boulders that will be triggered along the way. They may trap you forever if you don’t move quickly!”
Sounds a bit like a new Indiana Jones movie script, but it was really a description from the publisher of a new game launching this year; Mayan Curse a game for one-to-six players.
“Mayan Curse was actually the idea of my co-designer, Sylvain Plante,” said Joe Slack publisher and co-designer.
“Oddly enough, it started with a bunch of letters. More specifically, letters on long slabs of foam board that were slid up and down to line up with each other to form words. He brought this to a game design night and I shared my feedback with him. I thought it was an interesting idea but I wasn’t sure if it was a fully-fledged game at that point (also, word games are notoriously difficult to get published, no matter how good they are).
“The next time I saw him, he had this cool Indiana Jones-like adventure game, with similar sliding slabs --however they now had these neat Mayan symbols on them -- and a crazy pyramid-like temple at the end. It was very cool!”
The game had players take on the role of explorers, using sacred stones to determine which spaces were safe that they could cross, and having them traverse these paths to get a bunch of gems or a skull (depending on the current version) from the top of the temple and get back out. I immediately saw lots of potential in the game.
Slack was sold on the concept.
“I shared some ideas and suggestions for improving his new ‘Mayan Curse’ game and shortly after this, Sylvain asked if I wanted to work on the game with him as a co-designer,” said Slack. “I jumped at the opportunity, knowing how much fun it was to work with Sylvain based on my previous experience, along with how awesome I knew this game could be.”
That Slack was interested probably wasn’t a surprise. Most avid gamers dream of designing games, and he does like playing board games.
“I’ve been playing games -- cards, board games, and video games -- all my life.” He said. “I started off with the classics like Monopoly and Clue, along with some obscure titles like Big Deal and Dweebs, Geeks, and Weirdos, then graduated to games like Risk and Balderdash.
“We used to play a lot of card games at family functions like Euchre, Bug Your Neighbour, and Cribbage as well.
“I even played D&D for a while with friends in my youth and again in early adulthood.
“I got into party games with my friends, followed by being introduced to modern board games like Pandemic and Forbidden Island, which really opened my eyes to what was possible with a board game. I’ve never looked back and I lovingly blame my wife for getting me hooked on board games and becoming a full-time board game designer.”
But back to Mayan Curse which has a great theme – and hopefully the production quality will match it.
Playing a prototype is always a tad troubling as a reviewer, because little things like card quality, can impact the overall impression, and enjoyment long-term of a game, and that is unknown when not yet in production.
But, what were the designers trying to achieve with Mayan Curse?
Well as eluded to at the beginning, they were really going for an Indiana Jones-vibe with the game, said Slack.
“We wanted players to feel like they were on an adventure with a clear goal in mind that they needed to achieve before trying to escape,” he said,
“We both love puzzley games and wanted to incorporate some puzzley aspects into the game, getting players to figure out how to make the best path using only the sacred stones they had at their disposal.
“As the game progressed, we knew that we wanted players to feel a sense of tension, not knowing if they would be able to achieve their goal and also escape in time. The boulders we added were a late development that really heightened this tension while also feeling super thematic.
“So, all-in-all, we were aiming to create a puzzley tension-filled adventure game and I like to think we met that goal with Mayan Curse.”
With the current interest in escape room experiences, Mayan Curse just might scratch that itch as the gaming table as Slack noted players can expect a puzzley experience with a lot of interaction between players.
“Players slide slabs before moving, which can change the configuration of the board quite a bit before your turn. You’d think this would be a downside, however, other players will often set you up by making a great path that you can use to your advantage and sometimes even bypass them, especially since you can trade in any two stones for any symbol to move across, giving you a lot of versatility and options to advance further,” he explained.
“You can also expect a tension-filled experience that increases throughout the game, as players advance further and have to make the decision about when it’s time to head back and when you can be a bit greedy and try to pick up more knowledge from the scattered monuments or even attempt to reach the top of the temple.”
So in Slack’s mind what is the best element of the game?
“It really comes down to the feeling – specifically, the feeling you get when you’re moving towards the temple and the boulders are rolling back to seal off the entrance,” he said.
“There’s a point during every game of Mayan Curse at which you can visibly see the anguish on players’ faces when they start to realize that if they don’t head back soon, they could get trapped and not make it out. Some players decide to play more conservatively and head back to the entrance at the first sign of danger, while others brave the risk, and rush to the top of the temple to take a picture of the distant ancient city, gaining a lot of knowledge for doing so (the player with the most knowledge who also escapes is the winner). Then, it’s a race against time to see if they can get out before the third boulder seals them inside.
“It usually comes down to the last turn. Sometimes they make it out and sometimes they fall just a few steps short. But it’s always a great finish.”
This is one that, if production matches theme and game play should be very well-received by board gamers.
