Parker Brothers dropped the game, and it dragged on until closeout a few years later. Board games bounced back a couple of years later but never recovered their dominance in the market. Unfortunately, computer games came out and the winter of '83 saw a massive 80% drop in the board game industry as people were buying the new computer games. At the time Survive! was selling 14,000 copies a week compared to Monopoly's 12,000. It was advertised coast to coast in the States and sold very well. They changed the name to Survive! and altered the game in a number of ways. They liked it and made it their lead game in 1982 in America. He became my agent and showed it to Parker Brothers. JCS: I took my 2D prototype to Graeme Levin, owner of Games & Puzzles magazine. I called the game "Escape from Atlantis" as the title summed up the game's objective.ĭM: How did you get "Escape from Atlantis" to market? That way the island could be removed piece by piece from the board during play to simulate it sinking. It was two years later before it dawned on me to change the sea tiles to land tiles.
When tokens were moved across these tiles, they all shifted and knocked down other meeples like men in boats. During play, the island was slowly covered by sea tiles to effect sinking. JCS: My first attempts at devising "Escape from Atlantis" didn't really work as I drew the island on the board.
These inspired me to devise a game with a sinking island.ĭM: Can you elaborate on the design process? JCS: After I'd invented Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs I was looking around for another strong theme when I chanced upon a row of books in my local library all about the island of Atlantis. Where did you draw inspiration for the game from? However, it was 17 years before I had a game accepted.ĭM: Survive: Escape from Atlantis! is your most well-known game. I worked in retail management and spent my nights and weekends inventing numerous games. My first design was a world domination game, akin to Risk. That was the moment I thought I can do that and become rich and famous! Ha! Easier said than done! It was by Waddingtons, publicizing their new product Mine A Million. In 1965, whilst I was making up my mind as to what direction to go in, I read an article in a magazine about games.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, probably architecture. Didn't care for it so went on to art college. After I left school, I went into catering. JCS: When I was a child I loved playing board games. Please can you tell us how you got started in game design? Survive: Escape from Atlantis! designer Julian Courtland-Smith joins Neil Bunker from Diagonal Move to discuss his remarkable forty-year career designing board games:ĭM: Hi, Julian, thank you for joining us.
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