Dharma Secret’s LOST-n-Found: A Blog Dedicated to the T.V. Show Lost

Thanks to Erik Arneson, writer for About Board Games and Card Games at About.com for e-mailing this to me. Aside from his interview with the game designer Keith Tralins about the upcoming LOST board game, Erik sent some links to a write up about the game as well as an image gallery with exclusive pics from the game.

Lost: The Game - Interview with the Designer
By Erik Arneson from About.com

An interview with Keith Tralins, designer of Lost: The Board Game

Keith Tralins, a big fan of Lost and designer of several online games, is the man who designed Lost: The Board Game (a general description of the game and an image gallery are available).
For Tralins, this is his first published board game; it was developed by his company, MegaGigaOmniCorp. Among other online projects, Tralins designed an online game for Alias, which like Lost was produced by JJ Abrams and aired on ABC. He also designed the original online game for Lost, although that one has since been replaced by another. Given his connection to the show and his knowledge of game design, he was tapped to design Lost: The Board Game.

“They wanted something that really captured the spirit of the show,” Tralins said. “I happened to be doing some game development on a project I can’t talk about yet, and they asked me to take a hack at this board game.”
Flashback to Talisman and Magic

Tralins immediately flashed back to his college days, when all-night sessions of Talisman were common, and his post-college life in New York City when Magic: the Gathering was first published and he played competitively. Both of those games inspired parts of Lost: The Game.

“Talisman was my thing. I didn’t care if it took three days to play with all the expansions, it was just so awesome to play it and pull an all-nighter,” Tralins said. “I wanted to recreate that feeling, which is the same feeling I get when I watch Lost.”

He soon decided that the island should be different every game. “They never know what they’ll find on the island,” Tralins said. “And compasses don’t work.” So players chose hexagonal tiles at random from a set of 75 total to form the island.

“You control the size and shape of the board,” he said. “With the advanced rules, the island can be whatever shape you want. You can create fjords, multiple beaches, peninsulas… You can really get creative with how you build the board.”

Next, Tralins worked on the card-playing element. “I tried to apply a card game mechanic that was competitive and strategic and also allowed people to play their characters, so they could get a little bit into the roleplaying element,” he said.

There is more to this interview, and you can check it out at the Board/Card Games page at About.com.

According to Erik’s write up, for those of you who are interested, Lost: The Board Game should be available at mass market retailers like Toys R Us and Wal-Mart starting in mid-August 2006. There are two versions of the game. The basic version comes in a tin box. The deluxe edition comes in a replica silver Zero Halliburton briefcase (similar to the one that Kate and Sawyer found while swimming near the waterfall) emblazoned with the Lost logo. It’s not yet clear where the deluxe edition will be sold.

Thanx again Erik for the heads up.

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