Où va-t’il ?
In a thriving kingdom far away, an invisible creature haunts the streets, houses, and even castle rooms.
Description
Only the gentle Red Dragon, friend of the inhabitants and protector of the Kingdom can help them locate the creature and intercept it. He is indeed the only one who can see it and since he cannot speak the language of humans, he makes them listen to the noises corresponding to the squares it moves (thanks to an electronic box).
WO WAR’S? (OU VA-T'IL? In French) is therefore a game to put between all ears, for 2 to 5 players, from 5 to 99 years old and not afraid to travel the whole Kingdom in pursuit of a disturbing invisible creature.
The electronic box includes more than 200 pre-recorded tracks, which makes for a huge amount of playing possibilities. It also includes four different playing modes (From the simplest to the most "advanced").
How did I create the game?
The story behind the creation of OU VA-T’IL? is typical of my creative process.
In 1999, I watched an American detective movie, the name of which I forgot (but not the sequence!). in this movie, a group of thugs capture a person and sequester them in order to demand a ransom. The police inspector who is handling the case asks as a prerequisite for any negotiation to see the kidnapped person with his own eyes.
The thugs therefore take the policeman in the car, blindfolded, to the place of kidnapping. Back at the police station, the inspector (who is a smart kid!) Notes all the noises he heard, in order, while driving, blindfolded.
He remembers hearing noises from the schoolyard, then from a jackhammer on a construction site, then the bells of a church, etc ... and thanks to a map he manages to find the district of the city where the kidnapped person.
Immediately, it gives me the idea of making a game where we find the traces of an invisible fugitive thanks to the noises of the places where he passes, reproduced by a spy microphone that he carries on him. We hear the series of sounds and try to identify its position on the game board. The prototype was finally called LE FUGITIVE. Not being able to make an electronic box, I had simply recorded dozens of tracks (sound suites) on a CD.
For some obscure reason, I dropped it in 1999, and pulled it out of the blue in 2007, to rework on it up, then present it to many publishers. Finally the game was released by Ravensburger under the name WO WAR’S (OU VA-T’IL?) As the 2nd game in a new line, just after WER WAR’S by Reiner Knizia.
The detective theme has been changed to a Fantastic Kingdom theme, more suited to the target audience, and the illustrious Mathias Menzel did the illustrations.