But in July 2002, I was at last holding a prototype that seemed to work well. At this time, two friends of mine had just finished their first video game and had decided to make it available on various websites in order to reach a larger audience. I then had the idea to do the same… with a boardgame.

During the summer 2002, I therefore launched officially the website “Hexagames.com”. As I didn’t believe too much in the fact that a publisher could be interested in Merchants of Empire, I decided to put it online on this site so that all the elements of the game as well as the complete rules could be freely downloaded. The internet surfers had now just to print everything out, do some manual works (sticking, cutting…) and start to play.

A screen of the prototype

There were some adventurers right from the beginning to share this experience with me, in particular Krazey who was one of the first to build the game, test it and give his review on Tric Trac. The internet story of the game had started and by word of mouth, it was spreading on its own. Months passed and I received numerous nice messages from all over the world. Merchants of Empire was translated in English and Japanese and many websites were talking about it. I was delighted but the story was just beginning and many good surprises were still to come.

The same year, Merchants of Empire was selected for the “Tric Trac d’Or" (organised by a famous French website) thanks to many positive reviews. And there, once again as if the fate of the game was intimately linked with Fabien (Krazey), he was the one who brought the prototype of Merchants of Empire (mine having been delayed in the postal maze) which allowed the game to be played by all the participants.

Merchants of Empire during the Tric Trac d’Or 2002 ©photo : M. Phal

The game took certainly advantage of its “newly designed” aspect, many players having never heard of it, since it managed to reach the third place on the podium at the end of the week-end. Nice success for a game that was still at that time just a prototype…

One evening in January 2003, I received an e-mail from someone called Guillaume Blossier that I didn’t know at that time. He explained me that he had thought of a theme which would match perfectly the game mechanism of Merchants of Empire. We then met a few days later and his Himalayan vision of the game convinced me immediately. Indeed, I didn’t like the mercantile side of my prototype… merchants whose only goals were power and money. Saying that the game had just gained a “spiritual” dimension with the new Himalayan theme would probably be a little bit daring, however I can say that this new version suited me perfectly.

In parallel of the web publication of my game, I sent it to the Boulogne Billancourt’s game designer contest (in its medieval version, the Himalayan one being not yet ready), that same contest in which my friend Jean Louis Roubira had won a prize two years before with his game Jericho. After a few months of waiting due to a long elimination process (from 200 prototypes to only 5 finalists), I had the pleasure to discover Himalaya among the winners and better realised the great confidence placed in my game by the jury.

I was not dreaming… Himalaya was among the 5 finalists ! If I had been told in 2002 that what was only at that time Merchants of Empire would become one day nominated for the most prestigious game award in the world… I wouldn’t have believed it !

I would like to thank many people who have helped me to turn this game into what it is. All these names still remind me nice meetings.

Thanks to Guillaume Blossier for suggesting me such a beautiful theme and for all his work.

Johann Aumaitre, for illustrating the game so nicely,

Pierre Nicoli, for supporting and encouraging me during the starting phase of the project,

Jérôme Renaud for his precious help and his great humanity,

Jean-LouisRoubira for accompanying me for about 3 years now in the world of game design,

M. Phal et Dr. Mops for their support and their love for games that they share with passion,

D.U. Thibault for translating the prototype in English, the members of the “Réel” association for their passion for games and their kindness

Krazey for doing so much for the game,

the Tilsit Team for believing in this project and more particularly Nicolas Anton and Georges Gill,

all the internet surfers who took the time to download, build and test what was only Merchants of Empire,

the big family of the Hexagamers who will recognize themselves,

toute l’équipe de la ludothèque de Boulogne Billancourt qui se sont occupés du concours et qui ont pré-selectionné le jeu,

all the members of the Boulogne Billancourt’s “Ludothèque” who organised and selected my game plus all the members of the game designer contest’s jury for awarding it a prize as well as those of the Tric Trac d’Or for believing in this game,

and last but not least Alexandre, Muriel, Nadia, Mathilde, Jérôme, Ludovic, Jean-Louis, François, Mathieu, Jean-Marc, plus all those I forget and who will pardon me I hope, who allowed me to test the game and to improve its rules.