Flirting with the Classics

Every now and again someone comes either to some gaming forums, or directly to Kickstarter, and says that they are going to revolutionize modern tabletop gaming, just to follow it up with a roll and move game, or with a groundbreaking invention of a six-sided die with symbols instead of numbers. Gamers always get a good laugh out of such individuals.

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

There is no better way to prove that being familiar with some of the modern classics of board gaming is essential to becoming a designer – and a publisher. If you know what tabletop gaming is today, you’ll also instantly know that your revolutionary idea to make a game where you collect sets of cards and roll no dice (balsphemy!), is not as revolutionary as you’ve thought. That will allow you to save some time – and save yourself some grief. But what about designers and publishers who already know the world of boardgaming?

Well, if you’re business is publishing new games, you should know new games. You should know what’s going on. You should know who won the Spiel des Jahres (congrats, Colt Express!) and Kennerspiel des Jahres (congrats, Broom Service!), you might even want to know who received the Spiele Hit Fur Experten award (wink-wink, nudge-nudge, Progress!). You should go to conventions to see what people enjoy the most now, check the BGG Hotness… and still find the time to play the classics. 

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

Seriously, if you missed Goa and you’re design/publish Eurogames, go play it now! Go play Ticket to Ride, fall asleep over Caylus (oh yeah, I went there), sit down to a game of Puerto Rico and see what the original game of role selection is all about (or even try the famous corn strategy). Make your buddy put that old copy of StarCraft on their table and see where Forbidden Stars (and possibly a few dozen other Ameritrashy-wargames) takes its mojo from. I think you already get the gist.

Because, seriously, sometimes going back to the roots gives you a perspective no new game ever will. And I’m telling you this as a fan of deckbuilding, as a designer of a game that uses deckbuilding mechanisms (Mistfall, if you had any doubts), and as a person who goes back to Dominion regularly to bathe in the glory that is the fluidity, the speed, the unique dynamics of a simple and yet refined game another deckbuilder is still to achieve (with Ascension being the only one that ever came close – but trading in some of its depth for theme). 

The truth is that no matter who you are – a designer, a publisher, “just” a gamer – you really should not only follow the new, but also get down with the old. And it’s not because of some silly idea of paying one’s due, not because of some nostalgic fad, but simply because you might find some really good things you’ve been missing on as a player – and some pretty damn inspirational stuff perfect if you are a creative.

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

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A vegetarian and a butcher

Years ago, as a teenager, I participated in a class that would allow people only learning English to talk with actual native speakers. Each time we would discuss a specific issue based on a short text. I remember one of them specifically, as it discussed especially awkward mistakes made in all sorts of student exchange programmes. One of those mistakes was sending a vegetarian to a butcher’s family.

There is nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, and nothing wrong with being a butcher (although, I know some people might disagree with any of these statements). A problem may appear, however, if we try put these two together under one roof for at least six months. And as much as it looks like no more than a basis for a failed nineties sitcom, it does have something to do with board games. 

I’ve already talked about listening to your testers when you’re developing your game – and listening to them not only when they talk about what they think works or doesn’t work in your prototype, but also when they try to tell you that they feel uncomfortable with an idea your game might include, promote or be based on. However, there is one more thing you might want to actually do. 

A vegetarian is not out of place in most civilized western societies – and neither is a butcher. Still, by trying to make one work with the other might (just might) result in a disaster. Now, I specifically don’t want to point fingers at any particular games, but it often happens that a thing that is hardly worth a gasp in one culture, but perceived as deeply offensive in another, ends up in a family board game. To me that is a blunder you can easily avoid. 

There are many reasons somebody might feel offended, starting from the history of a given country or region, and ending with personal experiences that differ significantly, based on where you’ve been raised and where you live. And it would probably be impossible to be certain that your game will certainly not make anyone in the world uncomfortable. But some due diligence is necessary. 

To put it in simple terms: if you’re making a game about a specific region, specific people, specific historical events, just do your homework and be certain that you are not trampling the toes of someone whose ancestors or family members might have been involved. Don’t base it on just your assumptions, just spend a day making sure that you did not get anything horribly backwards, and you should be okay. 

But by all that is good an pure, spend that day.

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The thing with prototypes

I’ve recently heard that with specialist software and high quality printing services so widely available, there is no reason (and no excuse) for a prototype to look much worse than a finished game, and that designers should really make their prototypes look great to improve their chances of being published. Ladies and gentlemen, that is bad advice.

Image Source: BoardGameGeek

During the last few months at NSKN Games I’ve had some prototypes pass through my gaming table. Some of them looked really impressive, with “near final” artwork and graphic design. Some of them looked merely serviceable, with simple clipart or symbols representing different game elements. And we’ve both accepted and rejected games regardless of how lavishly or how simply their prototypes were produced. 

Now, I cannot speak for all publishers in the world, as maybe some of them will have a different approach to prototypes, but I’m still relatively certain that the following list of things you really don’t need to do (and a few things you most certainly do need to do) is one that will work with a lot of publishers. So, here we go: 

Do not overproduce your prototype. We will not be more impressed if you go with fancy stuff instead of simple stuff. We will honestly be looking at how your game plays, not at how your game presents itself on the table (in its prototype incarnation). Believe me when I say we’ve seen a lot of games, and we will be looking at mechanisms and ideas, not at shiny things. 

However, do make sure that your prototype is serviceable, easy to read and complete. Even the most lavishly produced copy will fail to engage us, if simply playing it seems the biggest challenge. So, make sure that we know which element is which, and that we can read what’s on them without a problem.

A simple but effective prototype.

Do not commission artwork or graphic design, unless you really know what you’re doing. If you don’t, you may end up with an expense that will never be covered, as the materials prepared may turn out to be unusable for the publisher you’ve chosen. And if you designed a Eurogame, it may also happen that it might be rethemed, which usually automatically means that none of what you’ve prepared will be in any way useful. 

However, do use the internet to help you with making your prototype more accessible. You can find caches of simple artworks and/or symbols, which you can download and use for your game. Some clean and simple icons or illustrations might make the experience of playing your game easier and more enjoyable for us. So, by all means, make your game look good, but don’t overdo it. 

Do not waste your time on unnecessary “improvements”. Unless you are an artist or a graphic designer, your job is to design a game – and nothing more. Spending months on making it look better will be a time wasted if you skimp on polishing the gameplay. Seriously, when it comes to production quality, we’ll have it covered. You just worry about making the game itself really cool. 

However, do make sure that what you send us is, well, neat. Some wear and tear is acceptable (it only goes to show that you’ve actually played your game), but be sure that none of the elements look like something we’d be afraid to touch without tweezers or latex gloves. Also, if some of them have more annotations than original content, you might want to redo them as well. 

The above tips cover the basics, and if you follow them, you should be fine. And if you would like to know how to actually make a prototype (as in: what materials to use and how to make your life easier), just reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter.

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Gaming Lessons

There’s been dozens of discussions, articles and forum posts on what skills one can acquire or develop while playing board games. From making informed decisions based on calculations, assumptions and experience, to teamwork, negotiation, and the ability to cope with defeat, both kids and adults stand to gain (or expand) some abilities that might come in handy in everyday, non-gaming situations. And how about life lessons? 

Image source: BoardGameGeek

One could argue that losing is always a life lesson, as defeat is something that everyone will come to experience sooner or later, and sometimes the reasons for that defeat (especially when they are more than a simple miscalculation) can steer us in the right direction for the future, teaching us to either minimize the negative impact on ourselves, or at least accept it more graciously. Still, is there more board games can teach us?  Are there more complex messages they can convey?

Well, if we take a look at games like Diplomacy or A Game of Thrones, we’ll end up with a few pretty horrible lessons, as victory usually belongs to the person best at lying and most adept at obfuscation. Although, I can also remember a very interesting game of Spartacus, which ended up with the player who would always tell the truth becoming the most successful lanista in Capua, beating everyone else by at least three points. 

Then there are the simplest of ideas, like “Never let your family go hungry!”, which is probably the only life lesson anyone can ever learn from Agricola. Uwe Rosenberg’s classic worker placement teaches us this very effectively, by making it extremely difficult to win, if you ever forget about feeding your kids - and do not have that one special helper that will allow you to literally discard some of the proof of your shame. 

More complex ideas (and on a more serious note) are more difficult or simply more risky to include in a board game. After all, we sit down to have fun, and although some of the more complicated and involved games are able to almost physically wear us out, people are less likely to play a game which might take them out of their comfort zone by touching upon subjects they find difficult, than simply playing one that does not come close to having an important or controversial message. 

Image source: BoardGameGeek

There is also one more problem with board games that may try to make any kind of a statement or make us think about something else than just our final score, and it is a simple, but meaningful obstacle. A game like Tales of the Arabian Nights (as noticed some time ago by Quintin Smith of the Shut Up & Sit Down fame) allows players choices, but seems to reward being a good person (which translates to picking certain options more often) than being a skillful gamer. And although that makes its message (stemming from the message of its source material) clear, it still creates a certain problem. By making some of the choices obviously better than others, it makes for a good story and for a clear message, but it does not necessarily make for a good game. Or does it? 

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