Interview - Anthony Gill - Dungeon Scroll

Dungeon scroll is a game I discovered as an app a while ago, and more recently as a card game. Anthony Gill was kind enough to give me a few minutes to talk about how this game went from an app to a physical game.

It is an odd path for a game to go from a digital format to a board game
rather than the other way around. How did this come to be an actual board
game?

I think the timing just worked out. At the time there were plenty of
companies porting board games to mobile devices, but very few doing
mobile-to-board conversions. So as I was playing random games in the app
store, I started to view them from that angle. I stumbled across Dungeon
Scroll, published by RTSoft.com, and was flooded with ideas on how it could
be a fun little card game. I ran them by Seth Robinson of RTSoft and we
were able to work out a fair licensing agreement.


What rules were changed if any from the digital to the physical version?

Quite a few rules had to be changed. Prototype #1 was almost an exact port, but it just didn't play right. For one, the mobile game is a solo game, so I had to adapt it for multiple players. I also didn't want player
to have to keep track of what words they played, so I tweaked the play mechanics. Lastly, I wanted it to be fast and wanted the players to cover a decent amount of ground in 20-30 minutes. Instead of dealing damage, the
mechanics were changed to a contest to see who could hit the hardest. Also, though it's not well advertised, there is a Dungeon Scroll Companion
App available for ITunes and Google Play that adds ambiance, sound effects and a
built-in timer to the Dungeon Scroll Card Game. I honestly don't play the
game without it!


You have some very accomplished artists on this game Dann May & David
Prieto. Were they both on the on the project right from the start?

I pitched the prototype to GameSalute and they picked up the title almost
immediately. Dann May is on the GameSalute team and does a fantastic job.
David I've known from prior projects and he helped make the prototype worth
looking at. I really enjoyed working with both of them!


There are a few blanks cards. If i have blank cards for a game I like to
try to find cards that were taken out of the game (such as in my Kolejka
expansion) and add them back in. Were there any cards taken out?

In this case, I think the blanks were just print overage. The original
design only had 30 or so dungeon cards. They decided to leave in blanks so
players could add their own challenges. A few cards didn't make it into
the game, but they weren't illustrated either.


Was the final battle always just one card?

Yes - I tried a few alternatives, but they were needlessly complicated. I
wanted the ending to be a big free-for-all casting frenzy. Simple rules
helped make that possible.


Are you currently working on a game right now? Perhaps Bone Barter 2.0?

I'm going to pretend you never said that.  =)  Aside from Death Angel,
which is actually still pretty darn fun, I don't advertise any of my
earlier games. But of course with the internet, nothing ever dies...


Finally, what is a game that you love that we may have not heard of? 

There's an old-school Milton Bradley game that I love to play with the kids
called Prize Property. It's got cool cardboard bits and just takes me back
to the good 'ole days.  =)