After almost 6 months of being restricted to being inside the house, we wanted to get out and we felt there was no better place to go than Hampi. 25 years ago, we visited as “students of Architecture” but it is a place that keeps pulling us back. This time around, we took our 10 year old son.There really is something magical about Hampi and everyone who visits feels it but cannot describe what it is ! It just surreally captivating.
It is maybe the landscape with boulders, paddy fields & banana plantations interspersed with amazing ruins of temples, meandering roads, river and ponds that beckons you to wander gathering many magical stories of myths, legends & treasures. It feels surreal in totality - A visual journey - Almost frozen in time!.
Our 10 year old was totally mesmerised by what he saw and heard. About the beautiful landscape and stories about markets where people from all over the world came to trade for Precious jewels, Spices and cotton which was abundant around the land.
Legend says that the first jewels were first found around the confluence of the rivers, Krishna and Tungabhadra. Jambuvnta, the possessor of one of these jewels was the bear-king of Kishkinda (Hampi). The jewel originally belonged to the Sun god, who wore it around his neck. It was said that whichever land possessed this jewel would never encounter any calamities such as droughts, floods, earthquakes or famines, and would always be full of prosperity and plenitude. And one day, it was lost !
Today, Hampi is a UNESCO World heritage site with important monuments and locations for people to see. But there is more to it than that. Conversations with villagers, sadhus and the locals makes it more intriguing. It seems that till many years ago, adventurous seekers still dug around Hampi, in search of treasure and jewels. Around the region, it is a common wit to ask anyone visiting Hampi if they were going to dig for treasure.
All this was making up for a very interesting story ! and yes at the end, we had found a timeless theme for our first board game :-). We wanted to bring together everything we loved about Hampi so landscape became the main content of the game and we felt that the beautifully simple idea of tile placement as the base mechanics suited this best. People are the life of the land and the legend of the Sun jewel completes the picture, binding all elements of the experience of Hampi in totality.
In this game, you will recreate the beautiful landscape of Hampi with roads, villages, farms and ponds. In turn, you win the hearts and support of the wise people of the land.
Those who make judicious placements will gather the support of the people required to win the game. They will help you to build Hampi and acquire the Sun Jewel. True to its nature the Sun Jewel passes among the players to finally reach its true seeker - who wins the game and will make Hampi prosperous.
We now have our base game out and we are working on how to bring in the important Hampi elements (monuments) carefully into the gameplay. But now, we hope to have brought to people the timeless experience of Hampi.
For more details about the game and to get your copy, Visit us at https://www.tacitgames.in/ and Enjoy playing it !
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