It is no company secret that we are exploring a new playing ground: creating board games in Egypt. Now, four years after the first version of Baladna and 2 years after the second…. Yes, we are working on a third one! This will be the outcome of years of learning and evolution of a board game about Egypt. The game is still the same, you travel around Egypt answering questions and doing the tasks that come along. The first team completing the trip around the country wins.

 

In 2014 we launched a crowdfunding campaign where more than 120 people supported us in making our project possible and was the platform that made us reach where we are now. But if it’s going so great, why are we creating a new Baladna game you ask – or I ask since I am the one typing here! Mainly to make it better (surprised? I guess not) in its design, game dynamic and its production.

 

We are lucky to have found Nour and Ramadana to work on this project. Since we could not afford a designer for the first editions, and Walid Taher basically donated most of his time to make the illustrations, we ended up doing the design in-house with our limited design skills. So now it will simply look nicer.

 

Another big change is the game dynamics. It’s now a shorter game to play; it will take you less time to go full circle around Egypt.  We also took out two of the five question types, and highlighted to role of the ‘Yalla’ cards.

 

Lastly, we have learned in the past year a great deal about producing things in general. So, this time the pieces, map and box will make more sense, and most importantly, will be lighter hence, shipping will be cheaper. So not only the game will look nicer but also more accessible to Egyptians living abroad; who are becoming more and more these days.

 

Oh did I say lastly? I forgot a very important piece of information, as soon as we launch the new edition we will be working on creating expansions; meaning that we will provide new questions, new game dynamics, new themes, new anything we want really. This will make it easy for you to tailor your gaming experience as you like it most, so you would never get bored of playing the same game too many times.

 

More things will change in the game, but it will be tough to mention them all without boring you. Be sure to know our updates by subscribing to our newsletter, so you know when we produce the newest edition of Baladna.