The gaming community is constantly evolving, whether by acquiring new players or through the creation of new games. In this case it’s both. There is a Kickstarter for a new board game named "Wizard School." The Kickstarter has been extremely successful, having garnered 284,281 out of the 15,000 dollars that was requested when I first discovered the game and there were still 15 days left to donate.
The reason for all the hype is not only because the game sounds amazing and fills a niche market, but also because Hank Green, one of the creators of Wizard School, is using his fame to promote Wizard School at every opportunity. He has a successful Tumblr, Twitter, Podcast and many YouTube Channels that he utilizes constantly. He also has a community following that was established in 2007.
Wizard School is going to be a cooperative card and board game. The player will begin by selecting a student card and begin facing challenges to complete all four years of high school. To quote Hank Green, “It’s important to note that this is a cooperative game so everybody is going to be involved all the time. You are allowed and encouraged to discuss your plan of attack before it happens.” This is a game where either everybody wins or everybody fails. There are not too many games like this and it is refreshing to see so much support behind such a game.
Hank Green continues, “The mechanics of the game are pretty simple and don’t take long to pick up. But the strategies that develop as you play the game and work towards tackling some of the more difficult graduation challenges make strategy vital [for] having a chance of graduation.” The game is for children 8 and up, so this makes sense. With simple mechanics and complex strategies, the game will be easy to play but have a lot of replayability. The game is also designed for 2 to 6 players, so an entire family or group of friends could play.
Wizard School is aimed not so much at the gaming population, rather more so at a different nerd population. Nerds who aren’t that into games are becoming interested. If this game turns out to be as rave-worthy as the hype around it makes it seem it will be, then this could be the gateway game for a lot of non-game players. As an example of how successful it has grown to be, there is now 461,583 dollars invested in it. That's about 50 dollars per person who invested. The actual game will be released in June so, even in infancy, this game seems like a success.
