I’ve never made a print and play (PnP) game before. Is that ok? Well… maybe I’ve been missing out. There are lots of reasons to create a good PnP game, even if you don’t think of yourself as a ‘crafty’ person. Read part I? You can read Part II here. I have a confession – and as far as the board game industry goes, it feels like a pretty embarrassing one. Until recently I had never, ever printed a game from the internet. Not a card game, not a dice game, not an enormous eurogame. Other than a brief fumble with a 2 player Brass board which lasted all of 5 minutes (before I spilled coffee on the poorly sellotaped,...
Want to know how Magnate works and get a closer look at its components? This is the post for you… As I announced before Tabletop Gaming Live last week, the Magnate art prototype is now ready. Since it’s starting to look like the game that was always in my head, I thought it’d be good time to tell you more about the game itself and its components. But rather than walk you through a bland component list, I thought it might be nice to give you a tour of the game; the closest thing in written form to being on the stand with me, with a real-life copy of Magnate. Ready to get going? Then follow me… At the heart...
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...
With the receipt of renders I take a closer look at some of the game’s buildings and the source of their inspiration Everyday that goes by Magnate starts to come together a little more. This week was a major milestone: I received the first ever renders of the game’s 3D buildings from my sculptor. While these are only the first iteration, they already look fantastic. Why do they matter? A big pleasure of the game – for me and many of my playtesters – is the way the city emerges in Magnate. It starts off small, but it grows physically as the player’s fortune grows. Happily, it tends to grow in semi-realistic ways: An office in the middle of nowhere...
This is the first post in an occasional series examining design choices that were critical factors in the overall success of a game’s design. In this entry, I go right in with one of the greats and look at Dominion’s powerful victory point (VP) card mechanic. In choosing Dominion, I have selected a stupid subject to kick this series off. Why Dominion is hard to write about but good to write about Being effusive about great games is relatively easy. There is usually much to love and much to comment on. But writing about parts of great games – trying to understand the particular elements that make them great – is really hard. By nature, a great game is usually...
