The vision

– for the game arose in November 2023. I wanted to create something unique. The ambition is a game that ranks in the top 100 on BoardGameGeek (BGG), featuring 4X aspects, epic gameplay moments, and a unique win condition! It should be like nothing else, in a familiar pirate/sci-fi theme but with a twist.

But let’s take a few steps back before we really dive in!

If you’re interested in knowing more about me, you can read it under “about us” in the tab next to this. But let’s look at my board game career.

This is actually the third game I’m starting, and therefore, I have a strong desire to see it through. The two others died for different reasons.

The first game I started with my brother-in-law was called Heir of Sumaro, and it simply became too vast of a sandbox for me to handle. I think we reached over 1,000 unique cards when I pulled the plug on it. It was a sci-fi game with exploration, quests, NPCs, combats, mining, and more. A gigantic project! Maybe we’ll return to it after Sky Empire, who knows?

The prototype of the game

The next game was Reservoir, set in a large underground ocean in a steampunk universe after a nuclear war. I put it on the shelf after a fundamental mechanic related to exploration didn’t work. It leaned towards the PC game Sunless Sea, and that was the atmosphere I wanted to capture. Well, the first playtest of this game led to it being shelved because I was more interested in the new game that was rumbling in my head.

I’m actually a bit against talking about my game by comparing it to others. But how else should one approach it? I remember being a big fan of the airships in Scythe (Wind Gambit) until I found out they didn’t really have any combat significance. But airships are just cool! Additionally, I saw the game Windward, and I thought the flying ships were amazing. However, I’ve never played it, I should mention.

My favorite game is probably Twilight Imperium 4th edition. It’s epic to finish after 12 hours of delightful battle with comrades! I’ve played it 26 times, always on a physical board, not Tabletop Simulator (TTS). Furthermore, there are elements in Merchant and Marauders and Xia that I really like. I’ve tried to take the mechanics I really liked and incorporate them into Sky Empire, remove those I didn’t like – and add my own :) That was the ambition, at least!

I’ll try to briefly outline how the game is structured:

Each player has a unique character called a doppler – a telepathic lizard-like creature (yes, it sounds strange, better check the lore). Each player has two minis with their doppler, serving as worker placement, and can be placed either on the board for specific bonuses or on the council board for other unique bonuses.

The council board consists of 6 cards that change position on the board depending on how often they are chosen. The least chosen card last round moves to the top, and if you choose it in the next round, it will provide a range of bonuses. The cards have a primary part where only 1 doppler can stand and a secondary part that can be chosen by everyone. One must choose the primary part of the card to qualify for the bonuses. The 6 cards have different abilities, such as getting action cards, developments (techs), being able to produce on one’s tiles, etc. Initially, they were inspired by strategy cards from TI4, which I think is a cool mechanism. I made several twists to this mechanic to (try to) improve it.

On the board, you can explore, find resources to mine or harvest, build buildings, etc. NPCs spawn via events that can be fought against, etc.

You start with 2 unique airships that belong to the character you’ve chosen.

In the game, there are no identical airships. There are approximately 40 airships, each with different abilities.

The game is won by collecting 4 different crystals, obtained in four different ways, and placing them in a monolith on the board. This ensures that players must go through different goals and then finish by having map control over a monolith to win.

Does it sound complicated? Yes, perhaps a little, but the next section will tell a bit about the lore, and that might help you understand the concept :)