Game designer Luca Borsa on the magnetic magic of Geistertanz

Luca, it’s always great to catch up. We’re here to talk about your new game, Geistertanz – also known as Ghost Dance. This came from your design collective, Blob Factory – who else is part of Blob?
Blob is an acronym of four authors. Luca Bellini is the first B, Carlo E. Lanzavecchia is the L and Walter Obert is the O. And I’m the last B – so Blob!

How did you and Luca decide who gets top billing as the first B?
Well, he’s Bellini and I’m Borsa, so we went alphabetical… Hey, Billy Langworthy could work as the BL…

I’m in! I’m joining the Blob!
Ha! But yes, the four of us make games together because we felt we could work faster, more professionally and with more ideas by teaming up.

How did Geistertanz come about?
We were brainstorming and had a lot of ideas on the table – including a couple of magnetic concepts. We thought we could use magnetics to create a wow effect, where the polarization between the candle and the ghost would magically rotate the ghost.

Yes, you’re trying to collect toys in this haunted mansion, but you can’t take from rooms that the ghost is watching over! So you choose a room, shine the torch and hope the ghost dances off to a different room, freeing you up to take some toys!
Exactly! And initially it was not a candle – it was a butler. But the candle is better for children. And yes, the core of our initial idea was a simple game where children must collect toys and avoid being captured by the ghost. We had some extra rules initially, but Megableu wanted to keep the game mass market so we streamlined it a little.

And it looks terrific!
Yes, the production values are amazing. And it was not simple to produce, especially when it came to regulating the movement of the candles and the ghost. It looks simple, but it was a difficult concept to execute.

What made Megableu a good home for it?
We brought the prototype to Essen and almost immediately Megableu said they wanted the game. They asked us not to show it to anyone else for just one day – and at midnight, we received a WhatsApp where they said they wanted it. We immediately prepared an option with an advance and the rest is history!

I like that a haunted house game was signed in the dead of night!
Ha! Yes! I was in bed! But Megableu are great – we’ve worked with them before and have a good relationship. We knew that they could do a good job with a game like this – a game that has a ‘hook’.

Terrific! I also wanted to ask about another new title from Blob – Ice Split, published by Blue Orange.
Yes, it’s a very simple card game about building an ice cream display. Each card is double-sided, showing an objective on one side and an ice cream flavour on the other – so you have a choice… Build your ice cream display or add an objective that will score you points if you fulfill it. So it’s simple, but full of interesting choices.

Lovely – and what other new releases from you guys should we keep an eye out for?
We have Der Wald von Mystaria with Moses – a light strategy game in the vein of something like Carcassonne. And we also made a game in Italy for AIRC – an Italian non-profit that funds cancer research. It’s called Che Pizza le buone abitudini – an Italian pun to say that good habits are sometimes boring, but necessary! It helps teach people about healthy eating habits. And all the money from sales of the game goes to AIRC for cancer research.

Amazing. You guys also designed Magicaboo for Blue Orange, which launched last year. I think it’s great! For anyone new to the game, how would you pitch it?
Each turn, one player takes the role of magician. They spread a large cloth over all the wooden pieces in the centre of the play area, then pick one item up under the cloth and cart it away. The other players try to be the first to identify which item is missing, winning a star if they do.

And I imagine the magician theme was there from the start with this one?
Well, Carlo used to be a magician – so that helped! And we all liked the idea of game centred around magic. Blue Orange simplified the idea slightly so it was better suited for kids, but we’re very proud of how it turned out.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to ask about the Italian game design scene. What has helped this community thrive?
Well, Walter Obert was very important for all of us because he decided to create a convention for Italian game authors to share ideas and to share feedback together. The convention is called IDEAG and it takes place every year in his town Piossasco. It’s been going for 21 years now. We started with around 20 people attending, and now we have around 500.

And the game design scene is very healthy today. Look at Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini – they won the As d’Or for Toy Battle and they are great game designers… So yes, it’s a great community that’s working together to hopefully get great games out there.

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