* Creating the Game *

Through out high school I played pen and paper role playing games as much as I played computer games. I was always stuck being the game referee and had very little cash for buying new modules and campaigns. Hence, the world of Syrrith was created. It all started out with a small human city in a country called Zokkaria ruled by a fanatical group of priests that called themselves Zokkar. As the years went by I began fleshing out the other areas of Syrrith to what you see today in the Shadow Wars boardgame and the Legends of Syrrith expansion.

I had fancied the idea of becoming a computer game designer as early as 5th and 6th grade after being introduced to games like: Zork and Bards Tale. Thru trial and error I slowly learned QBasic and eventually the nuiances of Quick Basic 4.5. After many failed attempts and short lived ideas, I started on a grand quest to create a game based on being a ruler in my campaign world of Syrrith.

The game was originally called "Century: The Dark Ages", and was designed back in 1992-1994 with the Microsoft Professional Development System or for short PDS ver 7.1, ( basically a fancy name for the last release of a slick interface for Quick Basic 4.5). Unfortunately the game became the victim of changing times. With only one person programming and designing the game, it quickly became out of date before it was even completed. A simpler version of the game was released as a text based version in 1995 for an on-line BBS game. This is also around the same time frame when the name "Shadow Wars" was first introduced. The game was posted and tested on Jabberwocky's BBS, (Thanks Jeff!!!), and was functional but work stopped at that point.

Then Shadow Wars took on a different spin in 1997-1998. A card game was designed and playtested, but due to the nature of the game it was too slow, clunky and complicated to be played with cards alone. Looking back I'm glad I didn't pursue it any further as the card game market was being flooded with new games left and right. However, this little venture imbedded a small little seed inside my head which began to grow. By using my Graphic Artist tools and skills I was able to design different card layouts and put ideas onto paper that other people could see and play test. Thoughts of a board game had crossed my mind but were immediately dismissed. I couldn't get over the fact that I had no idea on how to create a playing board or even the mechanics behind such a thing?

At that point work stopped on the game for about two years as I changed career directions from a Graphic Artist to a Web Developer and moved to Colorado. Sometime in the fall of 2000 I started taking a look at my mistakes with the card game, as the rules and playtesting went well I decided to explore the possibility of a boardgame. With a sigh of relief I found a perfect way to convey my setting and play system by building a boardgame.

"Shadow Wars On-Line" is currently under construction, but the "Shadow Wars Board Game" is ready for sale now.

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