Sjors van der Werff (31) and Rik Koning (33) are two boys from Eindhoven who have made their dream come true: building and releasing their own game. Or a ‘digital board game’, as they call it. The official release is on Monday, September 25.
Sjors worked in the festival industry and found himself without work during the coronavirus epidemic. So he had time on his hands and started designing and developing a family game. “I just started developing a concept. This became ‘Project Planet’. It was still in its infancy, however. ‘Earth against humanity’, I didn’t get any further.”
However, things slowly became more and more serious and then Sjors made an important decision. “I thought: if I want to take this opportunity, I have to involve someone who knows about it. So then I ended up with my buddy Rik Koning because he has been involved with games for much longer and has also studied for. We then expanded it further and involved an investor.”
Setting
This was about three years ago now. In the game, humanity consists of scientists, world leaders, the media, and the people. Each with his or her playing tactics. Rik: “The setting is: one player plays the Earth, to exterminate humanity. The Earth has had enough of humans and it wants to protect itself by putting an end to humanity.
Up to five different players play humanity who want to work together to survive. But there is still a catch because, at the end of the game, there is always only one winner. So people are also competing among themselves for power.”
Login
‘Project Planet’ can be seen as a board game 2.0. A board game, but digital. You can play it on the couch with friends or remotely. You log in via a code on your mobile phone and choose your character. Then the game can begin. Sjors and Rik still have plenty of ambitions. In the long term, they would like to conquer the Asian market.”
For now, a childhood dream has come true, says Sjors. “Our game will soon be on the gaming platform Steam. I am on this platform myself many hours a month. And now our product is among them! Yes, that is very nice!”
‘Project Planet’ will be available for purchase on Steam from September 25.
Source: Studio040
Translated by Aysenur Kuran
