Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves will be my third game. The scheduled launch is Nov 2024. I looked at my playtesting records, and found that my first ever playtest was Aug 2022. So it took me about two years to bring this game from initial idea to publication. This game started with the mechanism. It didn't even have a theme initially. I decided on the Ali Baba theme quite late. However I think it is quite fitting. It matches well the feeling I try to convey through the game. It was a moving moment for me when I first saw the concept art for the cover. Two years is not that long, but not short either.
My first two games Dancing Queen and Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs had art in the style of 80's Japanese manga. For Ali Baba I engaged the same artist Edwin. I thought he might continue with the same style, and make it a branding thing for Cili Padi Games. It wasn't what I anticipated, but I was delighted. I fell in love with the characters.
Card back
This is the leader of the thieves. In the first prototype, this was not called the boss. It was called the bomb. If you draw it, you die. OK, it isn't that dramatic. You just lose the round and you lose money. What's your favourite part of the boss? The beard? Or the hippo teeth?
There is a reason I made this x2 card a genie. In Ali Baba when it is your turn and you flip over a card, you usually want to reveal small numbers, so that the sum of all visible cards do not reach or exceed 12. So revealing the x2 is usually bad news. Its value will be double that of the previously revealed card. However sometimes the x2 can be a lifesaver. If the previously revealed card is a 0, then 0 x 2 is still 0. That was why I chose a genie to represent the x2 card. A genie is powerful. It can hurt you, but it can also save you.
What's your favourite part about the monkey? For me, it's that bad boy earring.
Ali Baba is set in mythical Arabia. I did not limit the art to using only elements from the original Ali Baba story. I added in other Arabian fairy tale elements. Thus the genie, the magic lamp and the magic carpet. In an earlier version I had a bit too much influence from Disney's Aladdin, and I had to tone that down.
The art for Ali Baba is now done and submitted to the manufacturer. So this is it! I look forward to bring you my next creation in November!
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