The first edition of the game Elementals Unleashed was first created as a Christmas present for my brother and sister. However, the Elementals have been floating around at the back of my mind (creator – Rowan Clark) for a lot longer than that!
It all started at some point during my PhD in Chemistry. The research group I was in (University of Edinburgh) was made up of great people – and we chatted quite a lot about science, life and other nonsense. As well as occasionally doing some actual research. One chat with Adam (who’s now doing research in Berlin) stands out, as somehow we got onto the topic of the personalities of the elements, namely the halogens iodine and fluorine. Thus, the gentle, older, Papa Iodine was born, as well as the reactive youngster, Fluorine. The initial sketch of these two is still on the office whiteboard to this day.
I went on to digitally redraw these characters, as well as coming up with designs for a few other elements. Initially, I had the idea to make a children’s story based on the adventures of a lonely Hydrogen searching for an electron, and meeting different elements on the way (I still have plans to do this in the future)!
The personification of the elements (known now as the Elementals) had been milling in my mind for a good couple of years. It was three weeks before Christmas, and I didn’t have a gift for my brother and sister yet. Both of them enjoy card and board games, so the idea struck me to try and make one! (Nothing says unique gift like a card game that no one else would have). The theme seemed obvious – both my siblings were scientists too – Pip’s a physicist and James is now a computer scientist (although he also did Physics at uni). I already had some designs for the elements, so it was an obvious choice. As for the game mechanics, I wanted the game to be quick paced, something portable that you could could throw in your pocket. So I wanted it to initially be based on cards only, no extra pieces to lose. I also liked the classic ‘class’ system used in many medieval and fantasy based games – warrior, rogue, defence and healer. I decided to combine this with the elements, initially coming up with a prototype of 24 cards made from bits of cut up folder separators.
As it was just before Christmas, it wasn’t too difficult to persuade some of the office to help me test the prototype. The initial testing showed that 24 cards would not be enough for a well-rounded game, so I increased the number of Elementals to 32. I also started adding special skills to each card – trying to relate these back to the chemical properties of the element, as well as making it a usable card game mechanic. Eventually, after more playtesting (special thanks to Hayleigh, Rebecca, Lisette, Pete and Genady) the rules were more or less in place.
I then spent every free waking moment of the next week designing the cards (which was a tad stressful!). Finally, the cards were finished, and luckily printed just in time for Christmas. The first edition of Elementals Unleashed was born!
From then on playtesting has continued with family, friends and strangers! Elemental skills and the rules are constantly being improved upon, to make this game the best it can be! It’s been played on a table, the floor, a train, and even a bed! The design is constantly being tweaked – not only improving the appearance of the Elementals, but also the design and layout of the cards. I want this game to be accessible for as many people as possible – who knows, maybe we’ll produce it in Braille eventually!
