Interview with the creators of Escape from Roshan Pit board game

Rômulo Pacheco: I wanted to do something fun that everybody could easily enjoy. My first idea was a board game, but the concept was a lot different. It would be something like Radiant x Dire, and each player would control his pieces more like in a Chess game. But I realized it was going to take too much time, and I would probably not gonna make it before the end of the contest. So I decided to make something easier to play and more simple.


Carolina “Sattie” Teixeira: He was the one who came up with the idea, I just went along helping him out. The concept and how it would work was mostly his, since he’s the one who has played DotA since he was 11 years old. I started playing it when we started dating, I’m not really good at it but I enjoy playing and collecting items.

Rômulo Pacheco: I’ve always played Dungeons & Dragons with my friends, but they grew up and the RPG sessions became more and more rare. So when I was making the game, I decided to put some stuff I missed from our old RPG sessions. One of them was the d20 dice, and that would also give Roshan a real boss status, cause it can move 20 spaces in one round. I also wanted the game to have no clear winners or losers. Of course the player who cross the finish line first is the “winner”, but just surviving the wrath of Roshan is already a reason to be happy about!


Carolina “Sattie” Teixeira: We haven’t won the contest yet. It’s still going till 14th of May. We both played D&D when we were younger, but where we live it’s really impossible to play this days, we don’t have many people interested or places to play... or even events. It’s sad because even board games aren’t popular, just the regular Monopoly, War and Scotland Yard.

Carolina “Sattie” Teixeira: At first it was totally different from what it is now. I guess it was as Paul Rand says that is never the first try, you have to try over and over again till you have something you like. And even that it only ends when it’s printed. I have a graphic design bachelor so I guess that helps with the graphic concepting, haha.

When he came up with the idea it was supposed to be a mountain and the race would be around the moutain but we thought over and over again how we could build a mountain, then we decieded to simplify it. I researched images of DotA map and started tracing the linear board, the courier was picked to be the icon for the special spaces because it was something of DotA 2, the donkey courier, and I always thought it was cute (I even bought the one from the official store). The cards are really inspired on the in game cards of the hero pick screen, I wanted to translate the feeling of the game to the board game so the association would be easier.

Rômulo Pacheco: It might not be the end. I will always take criticism and advice into consideration. My main goal with this game is to see people having fun with it, gathering with their friends and have the old Lan House experience I was so passionate about when I was younger. So yes, why not? If people want to play and they think something is not good, I’ll accept what they have to say and I’ll try to improve my game. Also, many people asked us to make a Dota 2 TCG (trading card game), and I am already studying the mechanics of different card games to create our own DOTA 2 TCG, I hope we can do it so people can enjoy Dota in different ways than just playing on the computer.


Carolina “Sattie” Teixeira: I’m guessing I’m a really messy person, lol. The Roshan piece is there somewhere, the new version I uploaded yesterday night has it all tidy, so he should be near the character cards. Romulo is already studying modern game board mechanics and the TCG, since the community was very helpful with links and tips, we also talked to a few friends who are crazy about TCG and they offered to help. So I guess you will be seeing us in the future.

Rômulo Pacheco: There were no stressful moments for me, at least. She gave me the freedom to work on my idea, I gave her the freedom to work on the graphics. Once in a while we would advise one another to do something different, but that’s all.

Carolina “Sattie” Teixeira: We are really alike to be honest, I sometime lose my temper mainly because I’m always so stressed with my other stuff. He’s the one who keeps his calm. As I said we really are a good team, we have worked together before making championships of DotA in our city!

Carolina “Sattie” Teixeira: Hahahahahaha oh yeah, I’m not that generous, he begged and said that it was he’s dream, and to be fair, it is. He’s always been talking about going to TI since the first one. When our friend went last year, he even made plans to go this year with his brother and me, but I have plans to study abroad (post graduation in Game Art & Animation) and we are saving every money that comes in, so he’s the generous one. I’m currently working on papertoys of the character for the game, and I’m also trying to sew them, I probably won’t finish the sew in time or the other way around, lol.

Rômulo Pacheco: I've played Dota since I was a little kid. If I’m correct, the first time I played I was only 11 years old. So this game has pretty much been with me my whole life. We went through many different situations together, we never split lol. My love for Dota has given me many good friends, many laughs and much joy.

I don’t know who I would like to meet first haha. Tobiwan, my english teacher, because I learned english watching his stream when he was still in Australia, or Artstyle, my biggest Dota idol since I was a kid… I don’t know, they are all legends and if I could meet them all, I would be the happiest man on earth xD

Rômulo Pacheco: We run a small Dota 2 community in our city, it’s been there for 5 or 6 years now, and we first published there. They all liked it, so we posted it on Reddit. For me, at least, the most satisfying moment was when I realized that people actually liked it. I hope they can have fun playing it so I’ll be even happier.


Carolina “Sattie” Teixeira: I never thought that the feedback would be this positive. I got really excited when we made the frontpage on reddit. And the community of our city was really warming towards us, we will be gathering soon to play the game, some of them already printed out to play. It’s amazing and I’d like to thank everyone for all the positive feedback, tips, help… well.. everything. You guys can always e-mail us for any doubts, feedback on the game, adjustments, really, anything.

Thanks to everyone who's supporting the game. Thanks for all the kind words, the criticism and everything else. It's a pleasure to give something back for the community we've been part of for so long. I hope you enjoy playing this game as much as we enjoyed making it. Be sure that more stuff is coming soon. We'll work hard to do everything people asked us for, specially the TCG. Thank you again, big hug to everyone, and thank you for the interview!