How did you go about updating
Colditz
for a modern audience without losing the game's origins?
Duncan Molloy
: Once we knew the things we wanted to tighten up, it was a balancing act – because it's asymmetrical – of 'Well, we've made this change and we think this is the right change to capture the type of tension we want in the game, but as a result that has X consequence and then we have to balance again a bit better. We maybe have to tweak something in this direction a little bit and then something in this direction a little bit, just to make sure that it still feels even.'
Traditionally, the Germans always had it slightly easier, which feels right, so we wanted to keep certain elements of that, or certainly that feeling of power playing as the German guards. We also wanted to give them more to do in the early game. The things that people remember about this game as being hugely fun tended to come in the second half of the game, and we wanted them to get to that fun bit more quickly while still changing as little about the game as we possibly could.