If you had the opportunity (or requirement) to create a reskin or variant of Dominion based on an existing IP, what IP would you want to use?
We were approached some years ago by FFG with the idea of making a Star Wars version of Dominion. Either a new game, or just a reskin.
I did some research. My two sources of information were Amazon and BGG. For Star Wars themed games based on an existing game, the existing game sold way better - people buy way more Operation than they do Star Wars Operation (it's R2-D2, so that's cute). For new games, Star Wars didn't look like it applied any kind of magic to sales; there were tons of complete duds with the Star Wars theme. One that stands out: the Wizards of the Coast TCG. Made by people who might know something and everything, with a team of people working on it, and plenty of promotion. No sale.
At the same time, the rights holders expect to be paid a lot for the rights. In this case it was even worse, since FFG wasn't the ultimate rights-holder for either thing and yet of course needed their share of the take. So the deal just looked awful. It would have needed to be crazy successful, selling many times what Dominion was, to be worth doing, and there was just no reason to believe it would do anything like that.
So we said no and so much for that. This was all before the new movies were announced. Star Wars had gone from being "those three movies people remember fondly even though one of them actually sucked" to being "That endless parade of awfulness." The new movies... just make it some random sci-fi IP, like Star Trek is now. But I digress.
Your question!
- If no-one is approaching us with an offer, I have no special interest in pursuing an IP. I'm happy just having Dominion. If I make a spin-off, I'm happy making up flavor for it.
- If someone approaches us with an offer, we'll consider it, but given what I already know, I'm not optimistic. I wouldn't rule out any IP that didn't just suck, though of course some things would sound better than others. Listing the good ones is beyond the scope, I mean it's an endless task of thinking of entertainment I've enjoyed. We could list thousands of things and not get to say Lizard Music, and yet, Lizard Music, I wouldn't just rule that out.
- If I had to pick an IP to use, I was always struck by how much Dominion fans admired the prototype images that came from The Princess Bride. But like, there was a point where I was interacting with the company that I knew had those rights, and I didn't say, hey, what about...