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A Gaming Life
Lorenzo Il Magnifico Digital on Kickstarter Now
One of the popular games in the last couple of years has been Lorenzo Il Magnifico, a game about, well, an Italian guy named Lorenzo in Renaissance Italy. (Amazing how that works).
The game, designed by Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, and Simone Luciani, came out in 2016 and was published by Cranio Creations (published in North America by CMON, I think?).
And now it’s coming to digital (Steam, at least) with a Kickstarter that opened a few days ago and has already funded 10 times over. The Steam version has been developed by Cranio Creations (so they’re keeping it in-house).
Having never played the board game (though I’m hoping to rectify that soon), let’s blurb this thing!
It looks pretty cool. They’re also offering a new expansion for the board game as part of an additional pledge level. The Pazzi Conspiracy (No Anson Williams in evidence, unfortunately) is a new deck that will consist of 24 expansion cards but may get up to 48 cards with stretch goals.
This expansion will not be available in stores (unless your store backed this at the “Mercante” level in which case they will get 20 packs to sell). They will be available through Cranio Creations (so maybe CMON too, but maybe not, who knows?) and through some other promotional purposes, but these won’t include the Kickstarter exclusive cards (so only 24 no matter how many are unlocked during the campaign).
It also won’t be available in the digital version. In fact, the only expansion material that will be in the digital version at start is the pack of 4 promo leaders.
What’s extremely disappointing to see is that all of the stretch goals are for the expansion and have nothing to do with the digital version at all.
With one exception.
Multiplayer will only be unlocked if they reach 86,868 Euros.
Wow, that is not giving me much incentive to back it. I don’t own the game and wouldn’t be backing it to the level to get the expansion anyway. So basically I would be backing it to get a 40% discount on the Steam version when it comes out and the slight hope of multiplayer. And it *may* come to iOS and Android at a future date.
Without any kind of multiplayer, I may get a few plays out of the game but then I doubt I would play it that much.
If you’re a fan of the game, it may be worth backing it in order to get the expansion cards. Though reading the comments, there are a number of people who have no interest in digital and are begging for an expansion-only tier.
Cranio has responded saying they’re using the expansion to support the creation of the digital version. To me, the digital edition almost feels like an afterthought. The pledge levels are mostly digital, though (including 130 pounds (approximately $196 CDN) to get your digital likeness as an avatar in the game, holy crap!!!) so I guess that’s something.
I’m not sure what that says about their confidence in the digital version if they’re using 24 (or 48!) new cards as an enticement to back it.
Still, it’s at almost 22,000 Euros at this moment (maybe more by the time it publishes), so it’s obviously working to some extent. I’m not sure if it’s working enough to make multiplayer a realistic possibility, but who knows? (I seem to be asking that question a lot today)
There are 16 days left in the campaign.
Take a look at the Kickstarter campaign and see what you think.
Let me know in the comments. Do you think this is a good way of doing things? What do you think of the game? Are you in just for the expansion and don’t care about the digital game?
Dude! Take Your Turn! 
Um, no, this is not a good way of doing things on KS. There is no backer level that just allows you to get the game, only a 40% discount on the game (which we don’t know the actual price of). I’m a little surprised KS hasn’t put the hammer down on this campaign.
And to your point about the cards, this is a publisher offering something that people actually want at a higher price than they should ever have to pay, so that it can make something people do not care so much about. Clearly, the publisher does not think the digital game is interesting enough to people to get funded on its own merits, so they have to resort to this.
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I’m assuming the amount you’re pledging for just the digital game is the actual amount you’re paying for the game (which is 40% less than what it will be when it actually releases). So it’s $14 CDN (approximately, depending on exchange when this funds).
They’ll just send you a Steam code when it’s ready to release (and you get it 2 months ahead of actual release).
However, the rest of what you say definitely gels with my opinion, even though some in the Comments do appear to be willing to essentially say “I’m paying 20 Euros for the expansion, since I’m not interested in the digital” and they are ok with that.
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Hmm, you may be right–their wording is a bit weird. That would also mean the game’s retail will be $25 US, if I get my math right.
20 Euros plus shipping and exchange fees is like $50. For 24 cards. No thank you.
And what’s with all the wacky Canadian dollar amounts you’re using? Are you Canadian or something? : )
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yeah, no way I’d pay that if I wasn’t interested in the digital game too (which I’m really not that much, especially if there’s no multiplayer).
And yes, sadly I am Canadian. What gave it away? 😛
Oh, and the expansion actually comes out to $26 CDN, so US it should be just over $20 I would assume (it’s 17 Euros).
At least according to Kickstarter’s conversions. 🙂
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