The Other Gateway

Here’s a story (a true story) for you: I once met a person who refused to be introduced into board gaming via Ticket to Ride, just to eagerly delve into the first edition of Descent. That person, who had had no experiences with any kind of gaming – including Dungeons & Dragons – was my wife: today an avid gamer by any conceivable standards.

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A Short Story of Civilization

It’s no secret we like civilization games at NSKN. You could say that it’s a company thing, but I’ve liked them ever since I played Through the Ages, and it was some time before NSKN Games was actually established. This love, a love probably also shared by every other board gamer alive, is bringing me today to talk about civilization games that were able to do two things: present a new take on civ games and amuse us enough to remain in our collections.

Before I talk about newer games, let me first pay my due to the two most important and formative civilization board games – at least in my opinion. The first one is (obviously) Civilization (later upgraded to Advanced Civilization) designed by Francis Tresham. It’s a game a too young to remember in its original incarnation, but its second edition still sits on my shelf – and I do play it on a semi-regular basis.

The second civilization game that seems a cornerstone of not only civ games, but board games in general is Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization. It was one of my first heavier Euro games (yes, I do believe TTA is a Euro game as well as a civ game), and one of the most fascinating experiences in my personal history of gaming. It’s also the civilization game I personally love to go back most often.

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

Through the Ages is a game I wanted to mention also for another reason. Although the game is not new by any stretch of imagination, it was quite innovative for its time, and in a way has never been successfully imitated by another game. Some innovative elements from TTA surfaced in other games, but only two years ago a game with a truly similar approach to civilization games emerged. Nations (if you’re a fan of civ games you probably already knew which game I was referring to) with its strong design and depth managed to find its way onto many gaming tables – but failed (in my opinion at least) as a civ game, remaining “only” a rock solid Euro.

Over the years we’ve had some novel approach to civilization games – as well as some games that would simply take the rather obvious, but still quite entertaining route when it came to game design choices. While extremely fun, FFG’s Sid Meier’s Civilization follows a rather safe path, not really trying to re-define the genre, but solidify it and create a kind of a template many other civ games would be compared to. It also certainly fared much better than the previous Sid Meier’s Civilization which, over the years, has almost universally attracted scorn from its players.

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

It seems that the way to innovate civ games lies in making them shorter. While no less than impressive, Francis Tresham’s design takes six to eight hours to play properly, and with both of its expansions, the FFG Civilization may take a good few (five or six) hours to complete. Building a game that would have this civilization feel without actually taking a whole afternoon (and/or evening) is something many have dipped their toes in. 

This is how we got the spectacular 7 Wonders, which reduced a whole civ game to a few decks of cards, a bunch of player boards and a pile of tokens. This is also where Golden Ages probably came from, this time not doing away with the map component, but still managing to squeeze the civ feel into a much smaller frame – and a smaller footprint.

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

And speaking of 7 Wonders, we’ve also tried out hand at a civilization game that consists mainly of cards and player boards – for that reason many people would instantaneously compare our Progress: Evolution of Technology to Antoine Bauza’s phenomenal design (which only made us blush a little), and will try again in the not so distant future, this time with a completely different design (a light sprinkle of deckbuilding, anyone?).

Innovating in civilization games is no easy task, as it’s very easy to misplace those precious few elements that make a civ game what it is: the sense of building something grand, and the feeling of great progression, of one thing evolving from another. That is why I personally never found Nations appealing as a civ game, that is why Innovation never really spoke to me. And that is why when come around to making another civ game, we’ll not forget its basic building blocks while trying to innovate.

Just to wrap it all up: are there any smaller civilization games you love? Perhaps you know of some undiscovered little gems we should definitely check out? And before you say anything: yes, we’ve Olympos, Historia, Uruk and Uruk II. We like them.

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Cardboard Conarium

For some time there had been a certain amusing acronym kicked around BoardGameGeek. Just Another Soulless Euro, or simply JASE, provided a way of expressing the irritation with a certain method of creating Eurogames, or a new and handy way to stick it to the “Eurosnoots”. Regardless of the term’s origin, its first purpose, and how JASE had been used by different gamers, it did pose an interesting question: what provides a board game with a soul? 

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

A soul is a pretty nebulous concept. There are many definitions and ideas when it comes to human souls, but in terms of inanimate objects, a soul only represents a certain set of almost undefinable features that make it stand out - and that makes us feel more attached to the said object. We often hear that a house, a car, even something as small as an old tape recorder might have a soul, and when we say it, we usually want to show that it is in some way special. Usually, special to us. 

Trying to pick apart the idea of a board game having a soul will thus be heavily biased by personal experiences. For that exact reason, I will always say that Puerto Rico is a game with a soul, as it was my first Eurogame - and my first step into a new world of gaming, a world hidden within the world I seemed to had already explored. Similarly, Through the Ages will (to me) remain a game richer and more beautiful than any other in the world, as it was my first step into tabletop civilization games - and a first spark of the type of love that never burns out. 

But both Puerto Rico and Through the Ages have one more very important thing going on for them: they were both innovative (apart from being solid games), which not only put them high on my personal list, but also made them games highly regarded by hobbyists around the world. The idea of an action picked by one player and then performed by others created almost a whole genre of games, and depicting the process of building a civilization through disassociated mechanisms (which, when coming together, create a surprisingly thematic experience) had proven beyond doubt how creative and diverse the board gaming hobby can really be.

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

With the above in mind, it seems that supplying a soul when creating a board game is a simple process - or, at least, simple if you are making a solid game with an innovative idea. And yet, it is not, and it cannot be, a precise science, as there are some games that seem to hit both of these marks, and yet people generally don’t seem to identify them as games with a soul. Dominion can probably serve as a great example here, being both innovative (so innovative in fact, that it did create a whole new genre of games), and more solid than many of its followers. 

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

Dominion had it all, and yet time has proven it to be a game many refer to as dry, which almost automatically makes a game soulless. So perhaps there is also a matter of theme to consider, an atmosphere created by the game’s elements, making it stand out, sometimes even placating the more critical gamers ready to condemn a game for its mechanical deficiencies. I believe there are many deckbuilders not quite as solid as Dominion, or at least not as versatile, which are still perceived as a bit more memorable, a bit more engaging (on a more abstract level), a bit more… soul-full? 

As I said in the beginning, a soul of a game is often a matter of personal preference, as much as it is a combination of more tangible factors. Our own Progress: Evolution of Technology and Versailles always seemed to me - and to many people from my gaming group - games with souls. And at the same time they were praised as mechanically sound but ultimately deemed soulless by many of those who I’ve played them with. 

Thus, it seems that there is no recipe, not even a final definition of a board game soul we could all use. But at least there are some definitions serviceable for personal use. So, what is yours?

 
Just to put a little plug (and date this note somewhat), we are running a contest now, with ten copies of Versailles - each supplied with this cute little depiction of King Louis. If you want to get your hands on one of them, just go here for details.

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A Refreshing Experience

During the last few weeks Andrei has shared some of what had transpired before Progress:The Evolution of Technology reached the first of its backers. Designing and developing the game was an experience NSKN Games is no stranger to. Crowdfunding it was a wholly different matter, both to spectate and be a part of.

The first time I played Progress was at a relatively late stage of its development. Some artwork had already been done, the card layouts looked a lot like what you get in the final game box. The working title was still different – it suggested a game about evolving species, which is why I had not been too keen to play it in the beginning. My interest was piqued however, when it was revealed to me, that I would be playing a civilization game.  

Every gamer seems to enjoy civilization games – myself included. The number one of my all time top ten games has been occupied by Through The Ages for several years now, and a civ-building theme is definitely enough to turn my head. However, for me to fall in love with a civilization game, it needs to... sing to me. Yes, well, I know it sounds tinfoil-hat crazy, but bear with me for just a moment longer.

Some civilization games capture me the moment I play them for the first time, with the theme, the scope and, most importantly, the potential to tell stories that spam through ages or even millennia. Sometimes the process is by far not instantaneous, it takes some time (I needed to expand Sid Meier’sCivilization to start really enjoying the game) and a big chunk of my spending money. Sometimes, the game just does not gel with me (I cannot believe everyone’s love for Clash of Cultures), and there is no way I can enjoy it despite the favoured theme. And sometimes, like with Through The Ages, everything clicks within a few turns. I look at the game and I hear its song – and the song is beautiful.

Progress was one of these games.

From the moment I looked at my first hand, from the time I played my first technology (Musical Instruments – the singing voice needed some company), understanding how I will be able to build upon it to move into an exciting future. As the game unfolded, it sang me a song of a technological civilization of poets and engineers, who finally came to rule the world (I won). My mind’s eye saw a magnificent gaming construct, a tree I was immediately ready to hang from for nine days just to see where the roots and branches fork, where they go, and where the beating heart of Progress was.

My first Progress game... in progress ;-)

Simply put, I fell in love with Progress and I got even more excited, when I heard of the plan to kickstart the game. In my heart I knew that with its solid gameplay, the gorgeous art and a most popular theme, Progress would be a great success on Kickstarter. My optimistic approach prevailed in the end, but Agnieszka and Andrei had been much more cautious about their plans before the campaign started – and during its first few hours.

It may be hard to believe, but repeatedly pressing F5 might become an activity that will keep you at your computer for hours – especially when you are following a Kickstarter campaign like the one Progress had. When it goes well – and it was going well for Progress – it validates the hard work put into the game and into its presentation. It clearly indicates that what you find interesting, what lures you into gaming, what makes you want to play a given game is shared by enough people to fund your idea. And the taste of this is sweet enough that, while not being a Kickstarter project creator, I could feel some of what is felt by those, who are directly involved. And by becoming invested I suddenly caught myself just sitting there, looking at my screen and pressing F5 from time to time to see a planted seed grow, much like a civilization during a game of Progress, before my very eyes.

A prototype wall on a prototype card.

But a Kickstarter campaign, even as successful as this one, is not something you just leave on its own, thinking of the benefits you will reap when it is over – and woe betides any project creator who thinks this to be true. It is an ongoing task, a job that needs to be performed almost 24/7, an effort common to both the creators and those backers who not only come on board, but also take it upon themselves to get more involved, actively helping to grow a sprawling sapling into an impressive tree. And as you press the F5 once again, you are not only watching the growth, but also the labours of those who tend to it on a daily basis.

Progress: The Evolution of Technology was a great crowdfunding success and from a personal perspective I am happy I could see the whole process – and even help a tiny bit to build the game’s initial success. Now, as the game reaches its backers, another chapter begins, and one we hope will be as fascinating as the previous one.

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