In my first foray into trying to create a design orientated “functional” boardgame review, I look at a game I have distinctly mixed feelings about: Century: Golem Edition Why this approach and a crucial caveat As I explored in my previous post on the topic, what I want to create is the kind of review I want to read more than any other. A review that really gets under the skin of how a game operates, for the benefit of an audience of designers. Not a description of the mechanics, but the bit where the real magic happens: how the mechanics create experience. It seems from the success and interest in my previous post that this is something other people...
There’s something missing from the boardgame review landscape. This is what I think it might be – and what I am going to experiment with to fill it. Why even bother with more reviews? I’ve wanted to do more reviews for a long time, but I’ve not had the courage to even make the effort. It’s not just that the space seems saturated; everyone seems to have a review-oriented youtube channel or a blog these days. But that the prospect of trying is genuinely daunting, because so many of the reviewers out there are doing what they do so well. While most reviews may still only be exploring their subject at a relatively basic level, as the recent editorial from...
Some people hate Ticket to Ride; people who do not appreciate its brilliance. I hate the United Kingdom expansion as much as they hate the basic game. But unlike them, I’M ACTUALLY RIGHT… right? I like to think that I am a pretty positive person. Generally, I don’t like writing about things that I dislike – there are enough things that I do like to write about and enough to say about them. And I’m not a reviewer really, so I’m not here to save you money from games that you might not enjoy. But like a moth to a flame, I am constantly and mysteriously drawn back to writing about TTR: United Kingdom. Not to bathe in its glow...
The MDA framework is now well known in design circles. Here I take it a step further putting forward my own riff on the model for tabletop games specifically; incorporating the notion of access and mapping out some critical detail. Why build a model? I have always had a penchant for systems and frameworks. Huge geek that I am, I’ve always enjoyed a good railway network diagram or process map. In my professional life I’m the person who took on the job of mapping out my company’s technology stack’s to give us a comprehensive picture of how it’s 38 distinct components interacted (or over-interacted in many cases!). Such frameworks or models aren’t just fun for people like me though. They...
