My friends and I played Axis & Allies: 1914 recently, and while I had fun, I was disappointed and irked about a fundamental design flaw in the game end conditions. The rules require one side to capture two opponents' capitals, of which one must be Paris or London (for a Central Powers victory) or Berlin (for an Allied victory). After five turns and eight hours, we had reached something of a stalemate - or at least a realization that the end of the game was still a long way off.
Ridere, ludere, hoc est vivere.
Monday, August 27, 2018
Monday, August 20, 2018
"Magnificent Marvels" signed
Almost two years ago, I recounted an initial foray into a collaborative design with Keith Ferguson. We have come a long way in those two years, and that work has paid off. On August 6, Hexagram 63 Game Studios announced that we had signed with them to produce "Magnificent Marvels," our contraption-inventing game. Keith and I are excited to be working with Anthony Racano and his team to make "Magnificent Marvels" a reality on the tabletop.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Notes on Games with Sequential Moves
In this second post in a series exploring games of strategy (begun last month), designers Aaron Honsowetz, Austin Smokowicz, and I explore strategic games involving sequential moves, i.e. those in which each player's decision happens in the context of knowing opponents' previous decisions. This exploration has its foundation in Chapter 3 of Dixit, Skeath, and Reiley's Games of Strategy.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Notes on Games of Strategy
Over three years ago, I wrote about my effort to approach a simple three-player race game using game theory. Economist and game designer Dr. Aaron Honsowetz responded, which led to his recommendation that I look up the book Games of Strategy by Avinash Dixit, Susan Skeath, and David Reiley. I finally obtained the third edition recently, and that has led Aaron, fellow designer Austin Smokowicz, and me to explore Dixit Skeath and Reiley's text in a kind of virtual book club.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Papal Pilgrimage: A preview of the sequel to Avignon
The microgame format that Love Letter popularized poses a considerable design challenge. Fewer cards mean players face statistically fewer different situations. Pared down to a skeletal structure, a microgame really has to make every card significant and capitalize on every opportunity for interaction. John du Bois introduced a clever two-player tug-of-war in this format with the 2016 Button Shy game Avignon: A Clash of Popes. To that tight little design Button Shy Games is Kickstarting a sequel, Avignon: Pilgrimage, that introduces new characters that can stand alone as a separate game or that players can mix in with the original Avignon for a variety of interactions.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Getting to Know "The Grid"
Games in some ways, like people, have personalities. Some, like Ticket to Ride, are friendly, fun, and easy to get to know. Others, like Two Rooms and a Boom, are gregarious and a little crazy; if you can handle the energy, they are very entertaining. Some are obtuse and a little intimidating, like a Phil Eklund simulation or a heavy wargame. And some are subtle, reserved, and a little introverted; they don't want to show you everything right away, and if you base your opinion on a first impression, you'll miss what's hidden underneath.
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Congress of Gamers 2016
Every fall there's a little weekend convention in Rockville, Maryland that I've always enjoyed. Hosted at the unassuming Rockville Senior Center, Congress of Gamers features a series of Euro tournaments, an auction store, and a game design room. The Games Club of Maryland sponsored the convention, and Break My Game ran the prototype testing event this year's session, which convened last weekend.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Collaboration
Monday, September 5, 2016
Summer vacation gaming
Our friends gave us access to their beach house in Rodanthe, North Carolina, for a week this summer. For me, the best part of a summer vacation is simply sitting without a care in the world and reading a book or playing a game, and we did plenty of both. I finished three books (including Girls on Games, reviewed in my last post), and we played games every day, including my sons, who are not normally enthusiastic gamers.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Hearing Women Tell It: A Review of "Girls on Games"
At a time when the board game community has become gradually
aware of the unique experiences of women in the hobby, the gently feminist Girls on Games, an anthology on gender
perspective in gaming particularly and in geekdom more generally, successfully
Kickstarted in 2014 with over 900 backers. Elisa Teague - designer of games, events, costumes, and props - compiled 15 essays by women
and a foreword (by a man) and herself wrote six more plus an afterword. She also interleaved “Share My Story
Spotlight” anecdotes by two women, three men, and a girl, plus a poem – or
perhaps a song lyric – by “The Doubleclicks.”
And to read and hear women tell it, despite a consistently optimistic
tone throughout their essays, they experience some ugly behavior in our gaming hobby
– from condescension, to scorn, to challenges to their bona fides as game lovers. After
reading of these experiences, frankly,
I don’t know how they put up with it.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Fifth annual-ish "What to pack for a vacation"
This summer we're headed to the North Carolina Outer Banks for a week at a beach house. We just threw together a list of games to bring based partly on recent acquisitions, partly on old favorites, and partly on family stand-byes that we think we can get the normally reluctant sons to play. Here's this year's packing list:
Friday, July 22, 2016
Can one house rule make an old game new again?
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Kramer and Kiesling recommendations
A couple of weeks ago I tweeted my realization that I have no games in my collection that are designed by Wolfgang Kramer nor Michael Kiesling, arguably two of the biggest designer names of our time. They collaborated to design such high-flyers as Tikal, Torres, and Maharaja. Kramer also designed El Grande, Princes of Florence, and Colosseum. So I solicited recommendations from Twitter followers, and here are the titles that came up:
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Perspectives on Origins 2016 - Saturday 18 June
Part 1 - Thursday 16 June
Part 2 - Friday 17 June
My last day at Origins saw more displays, demos, publisher pitches, games, and new gaming acquaintances.
Part 2 - Friday 17 June
My last day at Origins saw more displays, demos, publisher pitches, games, and new gaming acquaintances.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Perspectives on Origins 2016 - Friday 17 June
Continued from Part 1, Thursday 16 June
East India Company
My primary purpose at Origins was to pitch "East India Company" to publishers. At noon on Friday, my first appointment went well, but the publisher had issues with some of the liberties I'd taken with history in terms of which commodities were produced at which colonies. I'd certainly made some "convenient assignments" in the interest of making the math work in the gameplay, but he seemed to think I'd gone too far and ought to revisit the historical basis of the game.
East India Company
My primary purpose at Origins was to pitch "East India Company" to publishers. At noon on Friday, my first appointment went well, but the publisher had issues with some of the liberties I'd taken with history in terms of which commodities were produced at which colonies. I'd certainly made some "convenient assignments" in the interest of making the math work in the gameplay, but he seemed to think I'd gone too far and ought to revisit the historical basis of the game.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Perspectives on Origins 2016 - Thursday 16 Jun
Keith Ferguson and I drove to the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday 16 June. Most of what I recorded at Origins manifested in the medium of tweets.
What follows are a few highlights, and as the opportunity arises, I may
elaborate on some of them.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Dice, Dexterity, and Tactics: A One-play Review of "Barrage Battle"
The application of dexterity to combat resolution in modern game design appears to be an emerging phenomenon, the Western-themed Flick 'em Up the most notable example. Raechel Mykytiuk and Matthew Kuehn bring a new innovation by blending dexterity with the card-character skirmish format of such games as Up Front and Summoner Wars in the fantasy-themed combat game Barrage Battle, currently on Kickstarter with a funding date of Friday June 24.
Friday, April 29, 2016
Gaming in a hospital room - revisited
A little over four years ago, I wrote a couple of posts on what works and what doesn't when playing games in a hospital room or waiting room. We find ourselves in a similar situation this week, although the medical circumstances are decidedly more serious. All the same, it is helpful to revisit the principles that make for a good pasttime under such trying circumstances - portability, compactness, simplicity, humor, interruptibility, and brevity. What follows is an amalgamation of highlights from the two posts.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Games for a one-armed mother-in-law
My mother-in-law was in a rather severe car accident a few weeks ago. She is home from the hospital and recovering from surgery to her elbow, arm, and hand. We plan to visit soon, but we are faced with a dilemma: What three-player games are appropriate when one player can't easily hold a hand of cards and really only has use of one hand?
Friday, April 15, 2016
UnPub 6: Adjustments to "East India Company"
"East India Company" demo at PrezCon 2016: (l. to r.) Darrell Louder, T.C. Petty III, Paul O., Matthew O'Malley, Jessica Wade Photo by Chris Kirkman |
Friday, March 18, 2016
Ninja Countdown: A one-play review of San Ni Ichi
In the quintessential neo-tradition of first-time game designer/publishers, Ironmark Games has successfully crowd-funded and released debut designer Mike Sette's rather fascinating little trick-taking game with a Ninja martial arts theme. San, Ni, Ichi, whose title translates from Japanese as "Three, Two, One," features simultaneous card play with a rock-paper-scissors resolution mechanic.
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