Under the Hood of Rallyman GT - an interview with Jean-Christophe Bouvier
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Dec 05, 2018 at 08:32:52 PM
Si vous êtes francophone, vous pouvez regarder la vidéo de cet interview sur notre page Facebook! Cliquez ici: https://www.facebook.com/HolyGrailGamesTT/videos/2212824288960202/
Last week, I was lucky enough to sit down for a chat with Jean-Christophe Bouvier, the author of Rallyman GT. The Rallyman games have a really rich history, and JC was happy to share some of the highs - and lows - of being a game designer. Our discussion was in French, but I’ve translated what was said and added a few photos that he supplied for you all to enjoy!
So, what do you do when you’re not designing games?
I’m a teacher! After working in the industry for a few years I became a replacement teacher, and now I’m a full time Maths and Science teacher. I’m technically actually still a trainee! This year I will get my full qualification. Rallyman was published for the first time in 2009, but of course the project started long before then.
When did it all start?
The first prototype was made in 2001! I was actually a fan of Formula D long before I first started working on Rallyman.
I loved Formula D and I wanted to create a game of a similar style, but for rally driving. There didn’t seem to be any games on that theme available at the time – the only thing I found was an Italian game published in the 70’s called Rally.
However, I had no idea how to make the game I wanted! I wasn’t a game designer, and I didn’t really have a lot of experience with board games at all. I was took some inspiration from Formula D, but in the end I used the mechanics of actual rally driving to make Rallyman. I really wanted it to emulate to feel of the core concepts of rally, like sliding and skidding, bumps on the track, tricky turns, going off the track, and of course, time trial. I spent years designing the timing mechanic so that at the end of the race, each player would have their time in minutes and seconds, which adds a bit of extra pressure to the game. This was the main reason that the game took me so long to design! I tested the first prototype in 2001 on my brother, who was also my Rally co-pilot!
Would you say that your love of cars and racing is what truly inspired Rallyman, as opposed to a love of gaming?
That’s exactly right! I am a huge Rally fan. I watch it, and read about it, I’ve even driven in rally myself. I love cars in general, I always have!
The aim of Rallyman was to share and transmit my passion. One of the things I enjoyed the most about my Rallyman adventure was organising a Championship of the game in my home town back in 2013.
Most of the participants weren’t hardcore rally fans. They were mostly gamers and a few car-lovers, and yet they were all sitting around tables, getting excited and yelling rally jargon at each other. Listening to them was like being at the real thing: “Which tires are you using, what was your time?” and so on.
I genuinely love listening to people really getting into Rallyman, even more so when they’re not car fans! It’s great to hear someone who doesn’t even have a driving license talking about which gear they’re going to be in to tackle that tricky hairpin bend. That was how I knew I had achieved my goal of getting other people to love rally.
Developing a game is a difficult, time-consuming process - what was your process?
I had been dabbling and messing about with Rallyman for years, without ever having done anything serious with it. But one day, my whole life got turned upside down. In 2008, I lost my job, separated from my wife and sold my house, all in the same week! When something like that happens to you, it really puts everything into perspective. The first thing I did was go to London to buy a Lotus with my severance pay! It was my dream car. I’d just turned 40, and I still had a lot of my bucket list to get through, so I felt that it was at least one thing I could manage. I spent all of my bonus on this little second-hand Lotus.
As far as Rallyman was concerned, it was a real catalyst for me. As I no longer had a job, I decided to throw everything I had into the game. I shut myself away for about 6 months to work on the prototype. I hardly saw anybody, except during the Cannes games festival where I went to show the game. At that point I’d been messing about with the prototype at home for 8 or 9 years. I’d shown it at events, been nominated for a few prizes for it, and even though I never won, each time I went away with lots of feedback. I’d done so much work on it that it was well-advanced. So I took it to Cannes in 2008, and the reactions were pretty enthusiastic! There were a lot of fans of Formula D there that came to try Rallyman, such as Alain David, president of the FFFD (the French Federation of Formula D).
So he turned up at my table wearing his FFFD t-shirt, and I have to admit I was more than a little nervous! A such a well-known member of the Formula D community, his opinion on my game was kind of make or break. I had this little author’s table, and I’d brought 2 prototypes with me just in case. They liked it so much that I gave them one! One of the authors presenting on a table next to mine must have decided that the event wasn’t for him – he left and his table became free. As I was having so much interest in Rallyman, I took it over. The Formula D guys sat down at the table and basically proceeded to run the game for the entire festival!
I couldn’t believe it, the response was so good. It was so overwhelming, and I actually got a bit emotional at one point! The feeling of seeing people sitting and playing something that you’ve worked so hard on - and loving it – is indescribable. That was when I knew that I’d made the right decision. I had to go for it, the game had to be published.
Alain David actually helped me to perfect the Seconds system (what is now the Focus token system in Rallyman GT). Originally, each die only cost one token to secure, however many you chose to do. But Formula D fans convinced me that this was too easy and needed to be more costly. That was basically the only change I made, other than removing a Danger sign from one of the dice. That was it, I started the process to get it published!
Did you ever attempt to have the game managed by a regular publisher?
I did, but nobody wanted it! I actually got very far with Days of Wonder in 2005. I had several meetings with them, we were on first name terms. We’d played the game a lot, and all of their feedback was positive. I was so sure that it was all going to happen! And then, at the very last moment, they turned it down. I was crushed.
I had so many similar disappointments along the way: at one point I thought Citroen was going to publish it, I almost got a partnership going with Sebastian Loeb, I was in negotiations with Total – so many failures before I finally made it!
What would you say to someone who’s trying to get their game published and is having similar experiences?
If you really believe in your project, then go for it! Talk to people, show it to people, make contacts, ask for help. I moved heaven and earth to make Rallyman, I made countless calls, I spoke to so many people. Don’t give up - it may be a really rough ride, but when you do make it, it will all be worth it! I’ve had so many low points. When I got turned down by Days of Wonder, I actually abandoned the game for a year or two - just put it in a cupboard and left it.
It turned out that it was the best thing I could have done! When I took it out again, I could immediately see where all of the problems were – so many parts of the game were overly complex and clunky. I stripped it all down to bring it back to what it was always meant to be: a fun, simple homage to the joys of rally.
The next time I showed the game was at Essen, and I knew straight away that the game was better : it was so much easier to explain to people! I think that’s what shows a good game: something you can explain to people easily.
So how did you proceed with publishing on your own?
I found a printer in France for the tiles and rulebook, the dice were from the UK, only the cars came from Asia as they were painted. Fun fact: the original Rallyman cars were made in a corner of the Formula D moulds!
At Cannes I met Philippe Mouret, who was one of the heads of Asmodee at the time, and we got talking. He really liked Rallyman, and he told me that if I ever needed help with anything, I should give him a call. One of the things that I had a really hard time getting produced for Rallyman was the cars. Cards and dice are easy enough, but an injection mould was going to cost 5 or 6 thousand euros to obtain, and I just couldn’t afford it. So I called Philippe Mouret to ask for advice, and he gave me his suppliers’ number. They told me there was some space left on the Formula D moulds, and that I could have it!
I accepted of course, and so for a few years my Rallyman cars were produced right next to the Formula D cars. A huge thank you to Philippe and his team for helping me out!
What did you do about distribution?
In October 2009, 1000 copies of Rallyman showed up at my door, ready to sell! I decided not to go for classic distribution. Instead I decided that I would sell them on my own, directly to car lovers. I took out loads of ads in all of the biggest car magazines, in France, as I was convinced that my buyers would be car fans. But I was completely wrong of course, it was the gamers who really wanted Rallyman! So I sat down in front of my computer and waited for my first order to come in. I had a thousand games sitting in my garage (I had to put my car outside to make room), and I remembered feeling terrified when they arrived, thinking “Now I have to sell them all!”. It was very daunting.
So my first order came in, and I was ecstatic…until I saw that it was my mother who ordered the first copy! So my first customers were my parents. In spite of that, real orders did start coming in, and all I could do was hope that word would get out, and that some big site would pick up on my project.
Well, my 6th or 7th order actually came from Bruno Cathala, who is a very well-known game author. It was a great moment for me! I actually sent him a note with his copy of the game, saying that I was sorry that it didn’t look very good. Then I found out that he was due to appear on Tric Trac, a huge French board gaming channel, and that he would be talking about my game! I was biting my nails for days waiting for him to be on the show. He actually called me just before and said “Bouvier, I hate you!”. Obviously I was a bit taken aback, and then he said “Your one die for one space of movement idea is great, I’m so angry at myself for not having thought of it before!”. High praise really! He has a great sense of humour, and we chatted for a while. He was very enthusiastic about the game on Tric Trac, which really got Rallyman off the ground!
I sold the first 1000 copies, so I made another 1000, then another 3000, then another 5000, so 10 000 copies in total, in several editions. The first edition was illustrated and designed by my brother. The cover showed the inside of a Subaru, and the tracks were very simple but functional - just flat colours.
The different levels of danger were shown with light green (field) for safe, dark green (forest) for a little more dangerous, and they grey rocks were the most dangerous! It didn’t look very good, but people liked the mechanics so I had very few complaints.
The second game was illustrated by Clovis, which is the most well-known version of Rallyman. As by that point I was selling the game to stores, they asked me to have the cover redesigned, to make it more recognisable as a car game. Clovis, who very sadly passed away this summer, was a renowned car illustrator who also worked on the Michel Vaillant comics, and it was a pleasure to work with him!
Then Asmodee agreed to sell the game, so that was a proud moment for me. That was when I decided to go ahead with Rallyman Dirt, which was also quite a nice success. I only made 1500 copies as I wasn’t confident that many people would want it- it was an expansion that couldn’t be played without the original game. But it sold out! I have just one copy left, which I’m keeping of course. I couldn’t believe how much support I got for it. I had to ask people to pay in advance so that I could afford to have the game produced, and they trusted me enough to hand me their money and wait for their games, which was very touching.
All of the original editions of Rallyman have “110% Rally!” on the cover, where did that come from?
“110%” is a typical rally saying! You always say that you were driving at 110%. I actually found a lot of interviews with big stars like Sebastien Loeb using that expression all the time, so I knew it had to be on the cover of the game.
So how did Rallyman GT come about?
I was introduced to Olivier and Jamie from Holy Grail Games by a third party. Olivier was a fan of the original game, and was really interested in taking it on. On top of that, Holy Grail Games is based in Nancy, and I was born and grew up there! I loved the idea of them being so close, and so tied to my personal history. It seemed like fate!
However, they told me that they didn’t want to just remake the old game, they wanted to put a new spin on it! So they asked me to make it multiplayer.
How did you feel about making a whole new version of Rallyman?
It was challenging, but fun! Jamie and Olivier wanted there to be more player interaction, with players overtaking and blocking each other. But of course, in real rally driving, you never do that! I agreed that we would keep the Rallyman name, but that it would have to be based on another type of racing. That’s how Rallyman GT was born! I kept all of the key features of the original game, with the dice and the basic movement mechanic. I really wanted to keep the idea of throwing lots of dice at once and being able to combo them together in fun ways. It’s what I loved the most about the original game - rolling lots of dice at once feels really satisfying.
I had actually been thinking about making a circuit racing game for years (and lots of others too), so I already had plenty of ideas. The mechanics of GT are based on the core concepts of Gran Turismo racing. One of the new features was the introduction of the Brake dice. One of the biggest characteristics of GT racing is that you overtake while others are braking, so it’s all about being the last one to brake! And of course, there was the overtaking – I had to introduce a new mechanic for that too: making it so that to overtake, a player’s speed had to be at least equal to that of the car they’re overtaking.
I also wanted to include a new mechanic that would allow players to catch up if they fell behind. I find that one of the things that makes Formula 1 racing so boring to watch is that once a car is ahead, it tends to stay there, and the gap only gets bigger. I wanted to avoid that with Rallyman GT, which is why I came up with the changing turn order rule: the fastest player always goes first on the next round, no matter how far behind they are!
Finding the ideal trajectory was also something that I really wanted to include. It’s a huge part of circuit racing: taking the corners at an ideal angle and cutting across as much as possible. That’s why I created the circuits with several lanes, so players could choose the best, fastest path – unless another driver was blocking them of course! I also added the Speed limitations for that reason – to simulate the best and worst trajectories through a corner.
The GT theme allowed me to add some other fun things too, like the Damage token bag and the Yellow flags.
Overall, I’m really happy with the result. I think Rallyman GT is great fun, and I’m glad to have been able to make the changes that Holy Grail Games wanted while creating something that feels so true to the original game, yet so different at the same time.
How does it feel to see your game on Kickstarter, and doing well to boot?
I’m so grateful to everyone! Not just to the new backers who have put their trust in my design, but to the loyal fans who have come back year after year. I see familiar names on the Kickstarter every day, which makes me really happy! Some of these people have been following the project since the very beginning – they were testing Rallyman at my table in Cannes way back in 2009. I’m so touched that they’re still here and still loving Rallyman after all this time.
I didn’t even know what Kickstarter was before I met the Holy Grail Games team. The team ran me through it, and I have to admit I was amazed that such a concept could ever work. But there’s no denying the results.
The campaign has been amazing and exhausting and fun! I love reading the comments and answering people. For an author, it’s brilliant to be able to have such close contact with people who like the game. You can really dig down into the nitty gritty, some of them really want to know everything there is to know, and I’m more than happy to tell them.
It’s also really nerve-wracking though - I’m always a little nervous each time I look at the page. When you’ve worked so hard on something, you really want people to like it. The campaign is going really well and I almost can’t believe it – each time I look at the page I worry that it will all have gone wrong! But the Holy Grail Games team have done a great job, I trust them completely.
I can’t wait to see the game fully printed and back on shelves again, it’s been my dream for so long!
Si vous êtes francophone, vous pouvez regarder la vidéo de cet interview sur notre page Facebook! Cliquez ici: https://www.facebook.com/HolyGrailGamesTT/videos/2212824288960202/
