History of The Boatmen summer 2009, still on the wave Issy-Les-Moulineaux and Stonehenge contest, I decided to do another contest ... seen in the press and on the web, the competition Grisolles: Make a game around the Canal de Garonne, the winner is released!
Published: you imagine? Yes, at first, we imagine ... and then it calms down. I just buy regular shoes ever wider, I think it would be really nice too if I were released.
I read the announcement, there will be two awards: The prize is the publication of the jury, the audience prize is a voucher and then nothing for others. It's good to have a local competition.
Grisolles is Tarn et Garonne (82).
Communication through the game , promotion of a place, a region through the game, it's so obvious that we've all seen the game boxes touting the merits of our resorts. But we are often disappointed by the approach 'Trivial Pursuit' and 'Snakes and Ladders' (or worse a combination of both). It's not like games like ... Why? because these are games that have a short lifespan ("4, 5, 6 Tower Vésonne ... again!") or are infeasible (How you do not know who said "
In contrast to some other, I would rather have the adventure, being the second or third in Perigueux the first in Paris. "
you kidding? ; D)
A small booklet accompanies the competition and describes the side channel of the Garonne Canal de Garonne called today. Extension of the Canal du Midi between Toulouse and Bordeaux (well almost stops because
Castets en Dorthe ) was built in the nineteenth century by Jean-Baptiste and Jean-Gratien Baudre of Job. The dream of Louis XIV, Pierre-Paul Riquet and Vauban, is made too late: the railway encroaches on their niche market and is in the early years of operation, which kicks of through this channel by entrusting the management of it its main competitor the railroad company ... You can learn more about the disappointments of the Canal de Garonne
on the site of F. Vieillefosse an enthusiast who regularly updates his site.
I have a little nostalgia on the canals in general, personal memories and above the obvious: the channels are not natural rivers, the water that is diverted from flowing natural watercourse. Each passage through the locks is an expense incredible water, we must save passages.
is my original idea, to save water!
Managing water! A mini-game management, because the audience is clearly family. This game will go to all.
I begin to scribble stuff with drops of water that run off the plate and manage stock ... difficult to implement. I decide I do not know enough. The game Panazol being sent, and having a little time to Grisolles, the holiday had begun several days, I put my palms, my snorkel and I dove into the net ... Canal de Garonne should no longer have secrets for me. I quickly discovered the site of Mr. Vieillefosse, but mostly I find the blogs of
Mariners ... uh Boatmen (called Mariner north of the Loire ... but hey, today it is lost;)).
There is a shock. The boatmen tell several generations, describe the barges on which they were born, they have become, which has taken retyped or deconstructed. I understand now that you're born
boatman, and when the economy has caught up, they could not leave the channel, the river, and they moved next door. Lock keepers, farmers, restaurateurs ... always near water. These are but
marine freshwater , and we know the commitment of the sailors at sea, well it just ready for the same channel.
I get out of my immersion internet 'Canal de Garonne' three days later (I can assure you, I ate and slept well) head full of memories by proxy.
early July, my wife and I will be leaving at the other end of the canal of the Garonne to Castets-en-Dorthe make photos and build a true air channel. I note with chagrin that the lock houses are empty, the fully automatic locks ... what remains of it this story? A walk, a greenway, a plan of water, picnic areas, fossils of modernization.
I wanted to put it all on paper, return the emotion of these people. The cruelty of the market towards sailors, artisans or workers crushed by the economy. That's when I had my second certainty on my game: you had to manage the human and more water.
So I'll make a game of easy management. A set of family-run, because I do not lose sight of the goal. Each player is a family of boatmen, at the beginning, many are drawn to the barge ... necessarily the combustion engine does not exist, and steamboats quite large and rare (but there). Pull a boat? It's called the tow. If it is strength of man is hauling to the breast: the breast is the leather belt for men to go around the waist for ... s'arnacher the boat. Horses or oxen is better but more expensive ... So players start with no livestock but can buy ... argh! Buy!
BUY!
I'll have a third resource: money! Ok! I'll make the victory points, the greater the sub, the more you win! Plus, it's a classic theme, to be the richest ... yes, but being rich is also making fun of how one becomes ... and if it means moving to drain the canal, there is no hesitation, we earn money! So, my approach to water management disappears.
So I changed my tune. I added a system of victory points, plus the decision we make is in connection with one aspect of ecological / tourism more you earn victory points, the more we despise these aspects for profit unless you earn more points victory (PV), or you lose. So players can bet on tourism and ecology or otherwise sub ... which will be converted into endgame in PV.
To this I added the passage of time, modernity with its good sides (eco-tourism, recycling) and bad (Industrialization, expressway and nuclear) and marking local Tarn et Garonne by adding event card which embodies the places and characters in this department.
The game, to read, to share Grisolles the form of rule ... I finally have a game a little too big to be family, but very rich, very informative ...
The jury will say 'very immersive'. And it's true that when you are in, there really is. What to Buy? The motorboat? The hydro-electric? Should I build or not the 'slope Montech water'? Is not it more profitable to build the Greenway? My boatmen will they go to study or work in the field to help the farmer out of the corner?
I am selected for the final 3 and 4 October 2009 where I should submit my game to the public in hopes of having the audience award ... or 200 € in vouchers .. super no?
I not won, but I'll tell you the festival Grisolle again. It was so good, I go back this year, while my game is not even selected ...
By cons, today's sailors await the deliberations of Boulogne-Billancourt contest ... THE contest! It is July 13 ... is tomorrow!
The Boatmen by Sylvain
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