Data Sphere

Simple question- would any of you guys (or girls) who have been involved with Infinity since the really early days be willing to share a sort of "history" of how the game (and Corvus Belli) has progressed over the years? It is my understanding that Gutier and a small group of friends (Carlos, maybe?) started it as a RPG, and it just grew from there, but I would LOVE to hear the details if anyone knows them. I assume that, at some point, you GenCon dudes have gotten a few IPA's in the Corvus Belli guys and heard all about the good ol' days. . .

I've always been really interested in hearing how games grow through the years, and with Infinity being my first love now, I would really like to hear the story of how it all came to be. Thanks in advance.

All I can say for certain is that Bostria was brought in because he had no prior wargaming* experience, and they wanted to see what such a blank slate thought of it the game.

*I'm fairly certain he's played RPGs, etc, but not 100%

How Corvus progressed? Good question.
In the begining, Fernando Liste and Carlos Torres created Corvus..... This was in 2000-01 .They started with 15mm celts and romans, because they liked miniatures and History ..and to have their own business.
Gutier ( interruptor) and Alberto Abal ( Brandocastro) came later to Corvus (...mmmm, maybe 2002-2003) when they started with 28mm fantasy miniatures . Angel Giraldez started in 2003 ,as he said in his blog.
Soon, a new scifi project born They were more people and they wanted to grow the company, make something of your own in a market segment in which there was nothing like that., And 28mm figures are more profitable, especially if they have a game to back it up.
If I remember well, they have some ideas based in our RPG adventures for a comic ( with characters as Brandocastro or Carlota Kowalsky,) that finally becomes in the core Infinity universe. Tunguska was the name of that project. Later, we choose the definitive name between a list of different possibilities.
So, we played every friday ( sometimes saturday) we can in Fernando Liste´s house for years, some days with RPG to develop background ( for example, the dogwarriors appeard after Carlos Torres saw the movie Dog soldiers and directed a RPG in Ariadna.) . It was funny, using proxies like stone figures as TAGS, little boxes as scenery...
Two years later,almost three, they have ready the first miniatures, the core rules, some traslations ( probably the part with more problems) some artbook and a webpage. And plans for at least three books( there is still some things people do not see, as the O12 army, promised for the next book , first Tohaa designs are from that years) .
Gutier in 2006, showing their conquer plans in the world map


Here Angel Giraldez working with the metal, everyboy does everything in that times...

It was not easy, that was time and money spent . And they only had the 15mm and the fantasy miniatures to sell.
Growing 20% per year,more or less now, they are near of 30 people working in Cangas ( here -minute 11:09- a video of Corvus HQ in july, working 23 persons) , it was a long way. But I think it was worth it, isn´t it?.

Whoa! Thanks Yasbir! This was exactly what I was hoping to read about- I really appreciate your taking the time to share with us. It was very cool learning, for example, that Angel was so intimately involved with the company from the very beginning. Pro painters, with a few notable exceptions, are usually guns-for-hire. It is awesome learning that one of the guys involved with creating so much of the "look" of the current game was actually part of its creation, as well.

If you don't mind answering a few questions about the origins of the game. . .
-How did the rules that make Infinity so unique (things like ARO, the order pool, AD, TO camo) come about? I mean, I know that you guys started out playing an RPG game, but how did Infinity (or, I guess, "Tunguska") evolve from that into what we know today?
-Speaking of the RPG days, do you remember any player characters in particular that grew from an RPG background into what we know of them today?
-Any memorable "Game Night Friday" stories worth telling? Carlos ever get too "into his cups" and end up doing something nutty that ended up becoming Infinity canon?

Again, I really appreciate your sharing. Thanks so much.

Really fascinating Yasbir, thanks for sharing! So cool to hear about how it all came about, want to hear more!

I remember this company through the 15mm figures. I was thinking of getting into 15mm ancients and the Corvus Beli figures where the ones I likes the best. That's how I first knew Corvus Beli.

ok, I´ll try...

VeronaKid wrote:Whoa! Thanks Yasbir! This was exactly what I was hoping to read about- I really appreciate your taking the time to share with us. It was very cool learning, for example, that Angel was so intimately involved with the company from the very beginning. Pro painters, with a few notable exceptions, are usually guns-for-hire. It is awesome learning that one of the guys involved with creating so much of the "look" of the current game was actually part of its creation, as well..

In his own words ,the last 2 of february:
And this is the day!........Today is 10 years since I became painter for Corvus Belli, a long way with a difficult start, where I bet my future on a small company from, Cangas with only 3 employees, little relevance and very low commecial power (These were very hard times indeed and those present them know of what I talk about)
but with great dreams and the illusion to become one of the best companies in the sector .Still remember the day I decided to became part of the project that Corvus Belli was.(...)[ Do you want to read more ? : YES / NO ]
( If you go to his blog, you´ll see his first Corvus miniatures painted, including the first Infinity miniautres, the Fiday and one out of production ninja by Fernando Liste )

VeronaKid wrote:If you don't mind answering a few questions about the origins of the game. . .

Sure...
-How did the rules that make Infinity so unique (things like ARO, the order pool, AD, TO camo) come about? I mean, I know that you guys started out playing an RPG game, but how did Infinity (or, I guess, "Tunguska") evolve from that into what we know today?

As far as I remember, ARO, order pool, AD and TO camo were even in the begining. ( It was horrible to play with the first quick start rules after that) . The playtesting process was more about testing troops.Sure, too about writing and rewriting, making changes...one problem for playtesters and Corvus staff is that you play with one set of rules, we sometimes with 20 different texts.And is amazing how can it change with little modifications.
Who made the rules?Well, they spend a lot of time in different Cafes of Pontevedra with hours and hours of team work. At first time, all of them wrote things,I think. But , soon, Gutier ( interruptor) was the man behind the rules. Not all can write well...or can be understood .

-Speaking of the RPG days, do you remember any player characters in particular that grew from an RPG background into what we know of them today?

Brandocastro and Carlota Kowalsky were Alberto Abal and Gutier charachters in Fading Suns and other RPGs they played. I think Zoe is another one. In Infinity´s RPG appears the guy in Ariadna´s core rulebook Cover , Vassily , he is a Fernando´s charachter. I supose he ´ll appear in next book.

-Any memorable "Game Night Friday" stories worth telling? Carlos ever get too "into his cups" and end up doing something nutty that ended up becoming Infinity canon?
First, here we are talking about Carlos Torres, no Bostria ( Carlos llauger), he started to work with Corvus later...
Oh well, he is a kind of berserker sometimes. Some people says " hey, this is a game with scotish in kilts,such a topic", but...ithe fact is that some of them use to fight softcombat in the middle of the wood only with kilts. And we did " warrior games " in 2003-2006 too . Follies of youth...or not. In this video you can see Brandocastro and other old playtesters ( me included)..and it was filmed last year.
Anyway, the first thing I remember about playtesting is to listen AC/DC´s Big Gun. And to see real knightmares as the CAskuda ( cockroach in galician) or Achilles ( a real humanoid TAG years ago). When playtesters wanted to change some troop, only had to fight against Carlos and defeat him...

VeronaKid wrote:Again, I really appreciate your sharing. Thanks so much.

You are wellcome. I´ll try to post more, with time. Weekend is coming!

Thanks again, Yasbir. You've totally made my day reading about this.

Vassily, eh? I assume that's the guy with the "Free Ariadna" spray painted on his armor, yes? Knowing his background now, he'll be an auto-buy for me.

Enjoy your weekend!

Thanks for the info Yasbir!

I remember Gutier showing us some of the rejected Tohaa concepts at GenCon - can you tell us about any other rejected ideas, or things that have changed drastically from, say, 2003 to 2013?

Thanks Yasbir! You've also made my day!

@VeronaKid,
I don't think the "Free Ariadna" guy is Vasiliy, with a name like that I expect he's a Kazakh... but I don't have the core rulebook.

Lamp-
Yeah, I am interested in hearing more about vassily, too. In the core rulebook, there is a big splash page of art where a fairly non-descript Kazak, along with a Russian hottie, just finished off some sort of pan-o armored beast with a d.e.p. I suppose that could be the character yasbir was talking about. The "free Ariadna" guy showed up in a couple of places in human sphere, and seems much more like a p.c., which is why I made that assumption. He is definitely a highlander grey, though, so I agree that the name vassily would be weird. I do look forward to hearing more. All this talk kinda makes me want to paint up the grey from the starter to match that artwork now. I love this sort of history lesson.

Yasbir wrote:

Am I the only one who thinks Angel is pissing in the corner in this picture?

No, I just didn't want to mention it. If your minis look kinda yellow, you now know why

VeronaKid wrote:Lamp-
Yeah, I am interested in hearing more about vassily, too. In the core rulebook, there is a big splash page of art where a fairly non-descript Kazak, along with a Russian hottie, just finished off some sort of pan-o armored beast with a d.e.p. I suppose that could be the character yasbir was talking about. .

QFT....yes, THAT big guy is Vassily ( if I remember well, the artist used Arnold S. as inspiration) . Fernando Liste used this nick the few times he posted in the forum. The girl in the art is Uxia Mcneill.
Vassily is a character after a RPG when he save the day with many criticals and a kind of ADHL weapon . Actually, it was in the "dogwarrior" day , they couldn´t eat us because of him.

Rejected things...? Cluster munition that makes Zone of Control as full of mines... PAtroclus being a alternative IA intelligence for Aquiles ( as a second brain in his pack). In fact patroclus and Achilles , with the Tohhas, where the troops with more changes. Achilles was a real humanoid TAG for a long time...
More: Three types of Luziges ( haqqislamic vehicle) . One yujing playtester cried for years asking for troops that can travel on remotes.
The equipment/ skills /weapons usually are written at the higher level and then the playtesters fight with corvus staff to balance it to lower levels of power and/or costs.... And, you know, there are a lot of things tested not for sale yet. Sometimes people posted different ideas, its funny to see how many of them were tested.

Well this has been a fun read! Thanks for sharing Yas!! Very cool to see how things developed.

"Hey everybody, an old wise person is talking."

(All gather and sit around Yasbir)

"Hello, my friend! Stay a while and listen..."

Oh, please, do not make me feel like the Old Man of the Mountain...
Currently they are already with the third generation of playtesters. How much is left behind , in people , rules and texts ....? The first book did not contain the 30% of what was written for him. I read for the last book more than twice than you can finally find in the book. Gutier aka Interruptor never ends compiling and writing .

So there is material enough for a sourcebook? Interesting.


Is there any concrete release day for Infinity? There should be big festival after the first decade of Infinity.

So there is material enough for a sourcebook? Interesting.

There is, there is. I remember pages talking just only about the planetology ( they used some books of astronomy ), one about minotaur space motors... The Bibliotek files ezine have this name because of the nomad information net, Bibliotek, there was 2 pages of text .

Is there any concrete release day for Infinity? There should be big festival after the first decade of Infinity.

mmmmm...maybe it could be when the first webpage was online, september 2005 more or less..

Wow, I just discovered this gem, thanks a lot Yasbir.

really, really interesting reading, thanks for posting!