First Rat is a special game. Not only does it include a new, never-before-seen theme, cute illustrations by Dennis Lohausen and an unusual mechanism, but it is also an in-house development. In-house developments – in contrast to localisations – are developed by the designers and our editorial team from start to finish. For localisations on the other hand, a finished game already exists so it is translated and, if necessary, editorially revised. In the case of First Rat this means that our editor Sebastian accompanied designer team Virginio Gigli and Gabriele Ausiello from the first idea to the finished product.
First Rat, at its core, is a worker movement game – but one where you don’t throw a die and move accordingly. Instead, you decide on your own how far you move your rat(s) along the junkyard, the home of your rat families. Your goal: fly to the Cheese Moon! To do so, you must collect building materials (rude people might call it junk) for the rocket and Provisions for the journey. Every space provides different resources or advantages. You can, for example, collect Apple Cores to feed your young rats in the burrow and send them on the journey, too. Or you can find Comics to learn how to move farther or collect more resources. To find more material, you can also brighten the junkyard bit by bit using a Light String. Or you can encounter a frog, a hamster and a raven and buy or steal their precious boosters.
But how does one come up with the idea for such a game? How was it developed and how do the designers even know each other? We asked Virginio, Gabriele and Sebastian!
Virginio, Gabriele, let’s go back to the start: how did you come up with the idea for First Rat? Did the mechanism or the theme first come to your minds?
“Definitely the mechanism for the movement! This mechanism has barely changed since the first version of the game. In the beginning, we had a different, less original topic: the game was about a caravan of four camels. Four Camels, that was also the working title. About six months before Pegasus Spiele started working on the game, we decided on a different theme: rats moving around a house to build a rocket in the attic.”
So aside from the mechanism, there was already a theme when Pegasus Spiele was first introduced to First Rat. Sebastian, is this always the case?
“No! For many games in the early stages, I would guess about 75 percent, the mechanism is in the foreground. Of course, designers propose a theme, too. But that’s not always convincing. There are even designers that only approach the game from the mechanism-side, Stefan Feld for example.”
Let’s stay at the beginning of the development for a second, Sebastian. How long ago was the game on your desk?
“The designers showed me the prototype at SPIEL in Essen, 2019. From the very beginning, I really liked the composition and the mechanism. And I also stood by this in our house. The publisher accepted the game after only one week – that’s very quick.”
So, Virginio and Gabriele, how long had you been working on the game at that point?
“Oh, the development took a lot of time. We are both nitpicky and for a long time we were not 100% happy with the details. That’s why, for over two years, we kept constantly developing and modifying it, from August 2017 to the fair in Essen, 2019.”
Wow, that’s a long time – but it was worth it! 😉 How do you two know each other?
“We’re friends and both live near Rome. For more than ten years, we have met up every week to play and test games together. So, working together was fairly easy and pleasant.”
OK, let’s go a bit more in depth. Sebastian, can you tell us more about the combination of worker movement and Core game? That’s a pretty uncommon connection!
“Exactly. A game where players simply move their pieces towards a finish line sounds like a family game and a bit outdated. But First Rat offers many options and a lot of strategies. To give just one example: I can do well without using all four rats in the game but instead work with special abilities.”
Well, the outcome is a tricky Core Game which still enables an easy entrance. So, it’s perfect for everyone who plays many games and enjoys strategic planning, but also for those who are looking to slowly start playing more weighty games. Who would you recommend the game to, Virginio and Gabriele?
“Virginio loves to play complex games; Gabriele prefers more plain ones that still offer many options and in which you have to make interesting, strategic decisions. Both of our preferences are reflected in First Rat. It was especially important to us that new players and older people could play along as they are often included in our game rounds. It is supposed to be fun and intelligible and we believe that we’ve accomplished that. :)”
Sebastian, aside from the exchange with the designers, the cooperation with the illustrator is a key focus for in-house developments. In this case, it was Dennis Lohausen, an illustrator who we have worked with often and gladly so. At which point was he included in the development? Did he also contribute to the definition of the theme?
“We try to include the illustrator quite early on. If possible, the best option is an in-person meeting where we play the game with him. In this case, Dennis visited us in Friedberg, he enjoyed the game right away – but he also quickly came up with a suggestion for improvement: the original idea was, as Virginio and Gabriele have already said, for the game’s storyline to take place inside a house. Dennis explained to us that this would look like a hoarder’s house when it came to illustrations. Instead, he suggested a junkyard as the location and that is what we ended up implementing.”
To end with the most important question of all: Sebastian, why does the future belong to Rattronauts?
“Humanity is still working on its moon programme. Rats in contrast already have a clear idea of why they want to fly to the moon – and they are almost there! ;)”
If you now want to get to know First Rat, you can play it for free on the digital gaming platform Tabletopia. You can find many other of our titles to try out there in our gaming library!
Questions, comments, feedback? Share your thoughts with us at blog@pegasus.de.
