Gaming's new guru – Uwe Eickert

Mark Bonington talks to CEO of Academy Games Uwe Eickert about breathing new life into board games, playing the game of business and receiving $400,000 on Kickstarter.

How important are new ideas?
It’s 100%. All of our games, particularly those in the historical or war game context, are concerned with re-working how they are presented in play. Many of the games in the” old school”, or the ‘Ameritrash’ way, are concerned with that ‘role a die, move, do what that square tells you to do’ mode of play. And gameplay is now moving into critical thinking, which is more exciting for us.

Modern game design is changing and growing rapidly. A lot of the war and historical gaming is very stuck in the Eighties. We don’t play war games; we design, develop and publish them. We play ‘Eurogames’, and that’s where we get a lot of really good ideas. There’s a big difference.
We take the ideas and develop them further. We implement them into tactical games, which are currently being used by the military and the school system.
Are the ideas totally new? No.
Is how we’re implementing them into our market system new? Definitely.
How are you pushing gaming forward?
We’re putting the rules and requirements and limitations of the game into the game itself. This means players don’t have to memorise an entire rulebook before play.
The slicker and more modern games can teach the rules to a player in two to five minutes, max. They are ingrained. It requires more cognitive brain function, which is what we’re really working on.
We’re going with co-operative multiplayer games, but we’re also trying very hard to develop unique solo game AI systems. We’re trying to gravitate away from the standard board game, or even computer game AI. It’s very limited as AI doesn’t think dynamically, the way a human would think. We have developed a system with a multi-thought pattern and building that into the solo game system, which is also very fluid and simple. We’ve got it to the point where the AI consistently wins both offensively and defensively. That excites us.
You received pledges totalling more than £400,000 on Kickstarter for new game Mark Bonington. How did that come about?

The game, interestingly, is all diplomacy. You are playing a family patriarch in medieval France, building up the power by trying to gain royal or ecclesiastical titles.
In terms of game development we are trying to bring more of an educational message. Something which is not just a great game to play, but where you learn something as well. With Fief we began adding expansions to the initial game such as the Templars and Teutonic Knights and how they operated. It’s easier to win with two, so players need to make alliances by ‘marrying’ their in-game families together with the families of other players.
It’s a subtle component we are trying to incorporate more and more, this idea of co-operation. We take the philosophy that gaming should be enticing and a lot of fun, but you can also put an emotional message in there. You’re being entertained but also gaining something.
Where do you find your inspiration?
History! I’ve been reading a book recently, for example, on how in the early Twenties everyone in Britain and America was very pro-Hitler. And I’m thinking, ‘how can I create a game which has a very well-known end point historically?’ You bring it forward a few years before the things that made history hadn’t happened yet. You try and capture the perceptions of how people felt at the time. They are often so contrary to what history thought or tells us they should have been.
That’s where things can get really interesting.
It doesn’t have to be Hitler and Germany, it can be anything. InMark Bonington
we looked at slavery. We look at all sides of something maligned historically, before it was looked upon as evil. We then take people on an emotional roller-coaster with it, allowing them to make a journey. And experience it from all sides. It’s like a good movie. Not a boring documentary, but which plays with your emotions. You turn around halfway through and realise you’re rooting for the wrong person. In that game, for instance, do you sacrifice one of the in-game characters you’ve grown attached to so the others can escape? We force people to make these tough emotional decisions.
As a company we are playing with people’s conceptions. It could be religious, historical, political, whatever. That’s where my fascination comes in.
How did you start Academy Games?
I’m an engineer, specialising in plastics, metallurgy, things like that. I’ve been very good at designing and building new products through my previous work – my first job was taking everyday items and making them work better and be designed better. That’s my
background.
I had some businesses which I sold to a multi-billion dollar company, and that came with a five year non-compete. Now that’s a long time where you can’t do anything in a field you’re good at. I created and sold an internet gambling company, Networld Online, which was then sold to the Ivana Trump Group – brilliant businesswoman, by the way – but that got me into the whole psychology of what makes a successful game.
What goes into a successful game?
You have to ask what keeps people playing.
Basically, how often can we pump dopamine into your brain?
Now, dopamine is released whenever you have to make a decision. It gives you that ‘good feeling’. It’s like the primal instinct that makes us get up off our lazy butts and search for food. Most people assume the satisfaction comes when you take the first bite. It actually comes from the decision and working towards the resolution to that decision. It’s the anticipation that gives us the high.

We want to get that cycle of decision-making as quick as possible. Like a slot machine.
In ‘1775 Rebellion’ about the American Revolutionary War, you play as teams. So you’re making these decisions, talking, but everyone is rolling their own dice. So everyone is always doing something, every 10 seconds. The conclusion to those decisions we have happen every three to four minutes. Then the cycle begins again.
That’s what we concentrate on in our game designs. Getting people emotionally attached over and above the gameplay is absolutely key.
What makes a business succeed?
You can’t be emotionally attached to the contents of the business.
I’ve bought and sold seven businesses in my life now, and every business was successful. I was going to retire a few years ago, but that lasted about two months. You need that sense of urgency to get up every morning. The fun part for me is the game of business itself.
It all comes down to the money. That’s where I get the rush. The profit ratios. Making it more efficient. Making our account system flow. Making online orders automatically book themselves into the accounting system. To me, that is a fascination.
You have to understand cash flow, efficiencies, bringing timeframes down, minimising your inventory and stock. That is the path to success. Many people are too caught up in the fun, creative part.
Where did you get the idea to use Kickstarter?

Kickstarter was completely out of the blue. I was made aware of it by Richard Bliss, or GameWhisperer as he goes by on his website. We put some money into it, and it paid off.
We have certain guidelines that we use which other people don’t. It’s a tough industry, as the margins are so tight. So we need to do things a little differently. But I remember thinking “holy cow, this is something different”.
It’s all about the cash flow, which is why we don’t give huge discounts on our products on Kickstarter. We need to keep the price integrity so we’re not competing with the stores that sell our games.
So we needed to give pledgers a reason to pay $70 for our game. And that’s where we began to get very creative with our marketing strategy.
It’s why we introduced stretch goals. Not a coffee mug or a t-shirt, that’s lame. We began offering whole expansions to the game. So in Fief, we added attribute cards for different members of the in-game families. You may not want your allies to know the attributes of you family members if they’re negative, your duke might be known as ‘Robert the Cruel’, for example, but it’s details like that which really add to the game play with a new level of detail.
We hired a guy who just worked on marketing from within. We targeted every Facebook group who could possibly be interested. Medieval women’s groups, Swiss Guard re-enactment societies – we’d target little ads specifically for them, tailored to these different segments. You do that with 100 different groups and you’re in business. You don’t have to be a gamer to be interested in our games.
But we really planned ahead of time. My goal was to get $70-90,000, and that’s really pushing it. But then the game was hitting a chord and taking off. That meant we really had to work on finding a balance between creating new stretch goals and not bankrupting ourselves. What you can’t forget is that the cost of that stretch goal also includes people who have already pledged to you. That can add up very quickly and people have ended up losing a lot of money that way.
What is the best piece of advice that you would give an entrepreneur?
Work for someone else who is successful. Learn what they do. Make the right contacts. That’s what’s it’s all about, knowing the right people. Then, when you have the right idea, just go for it.
A lot of people are too hesitant in life. Here I am – what did I know about the gaming industry? Nothing. That’s why it’s taken me five years to get the ball rolling.
But don’t go for it out of the blue. Make sure you have the financial backing. Any company is going to succeed or fail in three years. So you need the money to support you for three years. You’ll work your butt off 14 to 16 hours a day to pay other people, initially. You need the passion to have the vision to get that company going and grow. It can be rough.
Nothing is as stressful as money worries. But with a little luck you’ll get there – and luck is where preparation meets opportunity, remember. If it’s not the first business it will be the second business, or the third business.
You’ve also gotta be kinda smart about something. Foster a good mental attitude between yourself and other people.
And always think long term – don’t screw people over.
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