Splotter Spellen

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Splotter Spellen BV
legal form BV
founding 1997
Seat Arnhem , Netherlands
management
  • Jeroen Doumen
  • Joris Wiersinga
Branch Game publisher
Website www.splottershop.com

Splotter Spellen is a Dutch games publisher. He is particularly known for his deep, complex strategy games and business simulations such as Food Chain Magnate , Indonesia or Antiquity . Games such as Roads & Boats and Bus , which are the forerunners of today's worker placement games , are also considered classics and are highly traded in second-hand markets.

history

First years

Splotter Spellen was founded in 1997 by the members of a student game group in Leiden : Herman Haverkort, Tamara Jannink and Joris Wiersinga. First, for reasons of cost, it was agreed to produce games as cheaply as possible, the first copies of Tetragons, Webu and D'raf were still individually produced by hand in an edition of 30 to 80 copies and packed in video boxes, since normal game boxes were too expensive. At the 1997 International Game Days, a stand was opened together with two other small Dutch publishers, where, in addition to the three available games, a first prototype of Roads and Boats could already be seen. Since Roads and Boats could not be published due to the large number of individual wooden parts, in 1998 Gossip !, Chameleo Chameleo and a new edition of Web and D'raf were published in video boxes, followed by the last game a year later, Kiek of this type, which was still produced by hand. There was also a booth at Spiel 1999 where, in addition to the Kiek game, 30 hand-made copies of Bus and Roads & Boats could be presented. However, all copies of the games had already been sold before the fair had started. It was decided in future to publish the games of higher quality in the usual game boxes and in good quality, especially after making enough money with the game Spöl for the city of Enschede, which ordered 70,000 of them. In 2000, relatively large editions of 500 copies of Roads & Boats and 150 copies of the bus game were finally produced, which could also be sold at the following fair in Essen.

Success with complex games

After the founders of Splotter Spellen went to work after completing their studies in 2000, the publishing house was continued as a part-time business. In 2001, Jeroen Doumen, a game designer from the very beginning, joined the company as a partner. In the same year, Ur, 1830 BC, its own modification of a game from the 18XX series was published, as well as Trains and Planes, an expansion to Roads and Boats, which was re-published in 2003 with the expansion & Cetera. Beest, which was sold out within an hour, was also presented at the 2001 game fair. In 2002 the game Oraklos was published, a new edition of Tetragons.

At that time at the latest, the decision was made to only publish complex strategy games and business simulations in the future. In 2004, Herman Haverkort and Tamara Jannink left the game publisher, and Splotter Spellen has been run by Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga since then. In the same year, another classic came out with Antiquity, followed by Indonesia, an economic simulation in which players in the regions of Indonesia have to set up various companies and supply the islands' cities with their goods. Both games have been reissued several times to date, Antiquity most recently at the 2017 game fair. The Great Zimbabwe, a game about building civilizations in ancient Africa, came onto the market in 2012, and in 2015 Food Chain Magnate , an economic simulation about building a restaurant chain and the most successful game of the Dutch to date. Food Chain Magnate has had six editions in the two years of its publication, a seventh was announced for the beginning of 2018. Due to the great demand, Splotter Spellen regularly publishes new editions of its own games, which, however, are usually sold out again in a short time.

In 2017, an uncommented photo of a previously unpublished prototype was posted on Twitter. At the 2017 game fair in Essen, on the occasion of Splotter Spellen's 20th birthday, a new edition of Kiek with images from 20 years of Splotter was published.

Games

Web links