This year, 2017, marks the 20th birthday of Splotter as a company. We started in 1997 by going to the Essen games fair, not knowing what to expect. We had 20 handmade copies each of 3 simple games, in videoboxes. We sold about half of them. Since then, we have come a long way! We wanted to celebrate this history somehow with our fans. We considered printing T-shirts or making a book about our history, but we felt a game to be more appropriate!
KIEK, 20 years of Splotter is a special anniversary edition of the game KIEK. Kiek was originally developed in 1997 and published in 1998. As a game, it is much, much simpler than what we design these days. We are republishing it as a fan edition to celebrate Splotter's 20th anniversary.
KIEK, 20 years of Splotter features pictures of our games, prototypes and prizes made by our long-time friend, game photographer Henk Rolleman; in addition, we have added a number of historical photo's from Splotter's past. Although it is playable as a game, it's mostly fun if you've been following Splotter for a while. As we feel this is more a fan item than a Splotter game, we have printed a very limited quantity only.
The game was announced as a special surprise at Essen 2017. And yes, the box has a flavour text:
The key turns slowly in the heavy door. The lady leading the way lowers her voice: "We are now about to enter the Splotter vault. It contains all the games they published in the past 20 years; those they didn't; prototypes, game pieces, demo games. Please be very careful, because everything is exactly where it needs to be.". The door opens, and it reveals.... "Joris!!!" (she is shouting now), "you promised to clean up all this old Splotter junk!". Everything is everywhere... can you help to sort out 20 years of Splotter history?
KIEK, 20 years of Splotter is a re-edition of a game we published in 1998 (the second year of Splotter). It is also a set of 60 pictures that celebrate our Splotter years, the people who make and made Splotter to what it is now, and of course, all of our games. Be aware thatKiek is a completely different type of game from the ones that we publish today: it is short and simple. We invite you to see it more as a Splotter memorabilium than as a Splotter game. Or, if you like our set of rules, use them with your own set of pictures!
Changes from the first edition: made-up categories like "non-blue" etc. are no longer allowed (unlike in the earlier edition). It also has double the amount of photos, all new and with a common theme.