First Turn
The Great Western Trail and Isle of Skye designer on his curious, swashbuckling debut: a 2009 tabletop console game called Buccaneers of the Caribbean
Interview by Dan Jolin
ALEXANDER PFISTER
Alexander Pfister with a rare copy of Freibeuter der Karibik (Buccaneers of the Caribbean) for the Yvio board game console
BACKGROUND
“I was born in the western part of Austria in a small village, and I came to Vienna to study economics. I always liked to play – especially economic games like Acquire and 1830: Railways & Robber Barons – and I always designed games for myself. But I’d never thought of sending any to a publisher. Then I read about a game-design agency called White Castle, and that was when I first thought: ‘Why not make a game and show it to this agency?’”