Board Gaming

[YorkeDaddy]

Originally Posted by MicShazam

There is a tendency for Euro style games to be thematically on the dry side, I'll totally give you that one. I guess theme isn't so important to me. I'd happily play a game if it was just a bunch of colored triangles and squares. Although an attractive theme does make it a bit better. I guess it's maybe not even so much the theme for me, but a question of visual aesthetics.

Samurai might just be my favorite game and it's... not exactly extremely imaginative on the visual and thematic side of things:



I Googled that wine making board game and it does look like something I'd like to play.

That game looks fine to me visually. I don't need some artistic masterpiece to have fun, but when a game looks like this:



It's just kind of hard to feel invested. I mean that **** is plain ugly. Like there wasn't much thought put into the visual aspect of the game at all, they just had an idea that would be fun and plopped some muted colors and dice images down. (This is Castles of Burgundy, by the way).

It's one of THE premier eurogames, and is currently ranked #12 all-time on BoardGameGeek. I definitely appreciate how intelligently the gameplay was built but yeah it's just rough to want to play that when I can play a eurogame that looks like this instead even if the game might be technically designed a little worse (this one is called Yamatai):

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

That game looks fine to me visually. I don't need some artistic masterpiece to have fun, but when a game looks like this:



It's just kind of hard to feel invested. I mean that **** is plain ugly. Like there wasn't much thought put into the visual aspect of the game at all, they just had an idea that would be fun and plopped some muted colors and dice images down. (This is Castles of Burgundy, by the way).

It's one of THE premier eurogames, and is currently ranked #12 all-time on BoardGameGeek. I definitely appreciate how intelligently the gameplay was built but yeah it's just rough to want to play that when I can play a eurogame that looks like this instead even if the game might be technically designed a little worse (this one is called Yamatai):

Spoiler for taming that big pic:

I agree Castles of Burgundy doesn't look very attractive. It seems clear the only concern was how many squares and hexagons they could possibly cram everywhere possible. Then someone said "wait, we should splash a landscape .jpg across the whole thing for a theme" and to the printers it went.

My personal pick for biggest eye sore I've played would be the Warhammer 40k version of Talisman, named "Relic":



I mean... what the hell am I even looking at here. It's everything and the kitchen sink visual design at it's worst. I've played this game and sometimes just spaced out to the point of the board conveying no information to my brain anymore.

[YorkeDaddy]

Originally Posted by MicShazam

I agree Castles of Burgundy doesn't look very attractive. It seems clear the only concern was how many squares and hexagons they could possibly cram everywhere possible. Then someone said "wait, we should splash a landscape .jpg across the whole thing for a theme" and to the printers it went.

My personal pick for biggest eye sore I've played would be the Warhammer 40k version of Talisman, named "Relic":



I mean... what the hell am I even looking at here. It's everything and the kitchen sink visual design at it's worst. I've played this game and sometimes just spaced out to the point of the board conveying no information to my brain anymore.

Yeah that's a pretty awful design. It's colorful, which people like, but people like controlled, readable color which this board does not convey.

Now I'm trying to think about which of my games is bad visually because it's trying too hard rather than not hard enough. Give me some time and I'll probably have an answer lol

Appreciate the discussion though dude, everyone else here appears to be uninterested in the hobby or interested but hasn't played enough games to really discuss it

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

Yeah that's a pretty awful design. It's colorful, which people like, but people like controlled, readable color which this board does not convey.

Now I'm trying to think about which of my games is bad visually because it's trying too hard rather than not hard enough. Give me some time and I'll probably have an answer lol

Appreciate the discussion though dude, everyone else here appears to be uninterested in the hobby or interested but hasn't played enough games to really discuss it

I guess the fact that this thread hasn't been done before now speaks to the relative lack of interest in board games in here.
I'm nerdier than most with this stuff, since I've been making my own board and card games on and off since I was about 10 years old.
Not that they're necessarily any good, but I like thinking about board game design in depth sometimes.

[YorkeDaddy]

Originally Posted by MicShazam

I guess the fact that this thread hasn't been done before now speaks to the relative lack of interest in board games in here.
I'm nerdier than most with this stuff, since I've been making my own board and card games on and off since I was about 10 years old.
Not that they're necessarily any good, but I like thinking about board game design in depth sometimes.

Oh same, I've actually been developing a concept for a board game on-and-off for the past 6 months or so. Only semi-serious as I don't see any way that this could ever be created...I know kickstarter is a thing but I would need artists and whatnot to get anyone to kickstart for me and I doubt that's gonna happen. I do think it would be a fun game though. A general overview:

The game would be a Wizard battling deckbuilder in a fantasy world where you're all competing to be crowned the Grand Wizard. Each player would start with a wizard who specializes in a certain element, and each element would have a vastly different playstyle than the rest. Say the base game came with Fire/Ice/Thunder/Earth for example. Fire would be a good all-around beginner character, Thunder would be a very aggressive character with high attack/low defense, Earth would be the opposite with high defense/low attack, and Ice would be a more technical character with lots of ways to draw cards and play combos. Like a basic combo idea would be a card that Freezes an enemy, and another card called "Shatter" that does big damage to a frozen enemy.

So anyway whatever character you pick would have a starting deck of weak spells, and a bunch of cards that move you around the board or give you mana to cast spells. If you've never played a deckbuilder like Dominion or Clank, basically you start every turn by drawing 5 cards from your deck which are your options for the turn. At the end of the turn you'll discard any unused cards and draw a new hand of 5 cards. Throughout the game you'll be adding cards to your deck while also having the option of removing weak cards from it, so your deck will become more and more powerful as the game goes on and you'll be able to cast better spells/move farther/etc by the endgame.

The board would have spaces that let you do a variety of things, like battle a monster to get XP so you can level up your Wizard, and when you level up you'll be able to access stronger spells for your deck. You could also complete "quests" for people in towns which will grant you money to spend on things like better movement/mana cards, or you could give money at a Temple (placeholder name) which lets you remove cards from your deck (which is, again, a key mechanism in deckbuilding games). Each wizard would start on the outer edge of the board and would have to work their way toward the middle, where there are stronger monsters that grant higher XP and whatnot. The very middle space of the board would be where the "Grand Wizard" lies in wait, and defeating him wins you the game. Throughout if you move to a space where another player is you'll be able to battle them to steal their gold or XP. This kind of game would easily lend itself to expansions as well obviously, as you could just design a whole new element to play, like Wind, Water, Light, Dark, etc, and that would add a ton of new content.

Obviously there are a ton of details here and there that need worked out and if I were to ever make this a real thing there are dozens of hours of work that would need to go into design and testing but I really think the overall idea has a lot of potential.

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

Oh same, I've actually been developing a concept for a board game on-and-off for the past 6 months or so. Only semi-serious as I don't see any way that this could ever be created...I know kickstarter is a thing but I would need artists and whatnot to get anyone to kickstart for me and I doubt that's gonna happen. I do think it would be a fun game though. A general overview:

The game would be a Wizard battling deckbuilder in a fantasy world where you're all competing to be crowned the Grand Wizard. Each player would start with a wizard who specializes in a certain element, and each element would have a vastly different playstyle than the rest. Say the base game came with Fire/Ice/Thunder/Earth for example. Fire would be a good all-around beginner character, Thunder would be a very aggressive character with high attack/low defense, Earth would be the opposite with high defense/low attack, and Ice would be a more technical character with lots of ways to draw cards and play combos. Like a basic combo idea would be a card that Freezes an enemy, and another card called "Shatter" that does big damage to a frozen enemy.

So anyway whatever character you pick would have a starting deck of weak spells, and a bunch of cards that move you around the board or give you mana to cast spells. If you've never played a deckbuilder like Dominion or Clank, basically you start every turn by drawing 5 cards from your deck which are your options for the turn. At the end of the turn you'll discard any unused cards and draw a new hand of 5 cards. Throughout the game you'll be adding cards to your deck while also having the option of removing weak cards from it, so your deck will become more and more powerful as the game goes on and you'll be able to cast better spells/move farther/etc by the endgame.

The board would have spaces that let you do a variety of things, like battle a monster to get XP so you can level up your Wizard, and when you level up you'll be able to access stronger spells for your deck. You could also complete "quests" for people in towns which will grant you money to spend on things like better movement/mana cards, or you could give money at a Temple (placeholder name) which lets you remove cards from your deck (which is, again, a key mechanism in deckbuilding games). Each wizard would start on the outer edge of the board and would have to work their way toward the middle, where there are stronger monsters that grant higher XP and whatnot. The very middle space of the board would be where the "Grand Wizard" lies in wait, and defeating him wins you the game. Throughout if you move to a space where another player is you'll be able to battle them to steal their gold or XP. This kind of game would easily lend itself to expansions as well obviously, as you could just design a whole new element to play, like Wind, Water, Light, Dark, etc, and that would add a ton of new content.

Obviously there are a ton of details here and there that need worked out and if I were to ever make this a real thing there are dozens of hours of work that would need to go into design and testing but I really think the overall idea has a lot of potential.

I've never played a real deck builder, but I know roughly how they work. I like the idea of the various sides having their own approach to winning. It's not easy to pull that kind of thing off as it makes balancing a thousand times more tricky than if all sides played the same, but it's something I feel attracted to in games. So that's a promising aspect of your game. Do you have rules all written out in detail yet?

I usually make my games by hand in paper. Only the rules are in a Word file. I've got about 80 hand crafted cards done for a card game I started doing last year. But I need at least a 100 more for it to really work fully. I just put in a little work here and there when I feel like it.

Have you ever considered making the game as a rough mock up, or perhaps with simple icons for graphics (I've seen people do this) and simply making it available as a print-and-play?

I've thought of doing that with a card game I'm making, since I have no intention of ever trying to sell it. Board Game Geek has a print-and-play sub forum. I wouldn't mind just giving the game away once it's done. I just think it would be cool if any strangers bothered playing it. It's far from finished though. Plus I made all the cards and the rules document in Danish, so that would need translation.

[DwnWthVwls]

I like dis ones:

[YorkeDaddy]

Originally Posted by MicShazam

I've never played a real deck builder, but I know roughly how they work. I like the idea of the various sides having their own approach to winning. It's not easy to pull that kind of thing off as it makes balancing a thousand times more tricky than if all sides played the same, but it's something I feel attracted to in games. So that's a promising aspect of your game. Do you have rules all written out in detail yet?

I usually make my games by hand in paper. Only the rules are in a Word file. I've got about 80 hand crafted cards done for a card game I started doing last year. But I need at least a 100 more for it to really work fully. I just put in a little work here and there when I feel like it.

Have you ever considered making the game as a rough mock up, or perhaps with simple icons for graphics (I've seen people do this) and simply making it available as a print-and-play?

I've thought of doing that with a card game I'm making, since I have no intention of ever trying to sell it. Board Game Geek has a print-and-play sub forum. I wouldn't mind just giving the game away once it's done. I just think it would be cool if any strangers bothered playing it. It's far from finished though. Plus I made all the cards and the rules document in Danish, so that would need translation.

Yeah balancing is a huge concern with a concept like this. I've considered dropping it for now and trying to make a game with a bit less broad of a scope. This kind of thing might be too ambitious for a first project. I've had ideas on how to spice up certain eurogame tropes, maybe I could do something like that and brainstorm an interesting theme.

I've never print-and-played a game but the fact that it's even possible to do that for little to no budget is very exciting for people like you and me. I'd definitely do it if one of these ideas got even further off the ground. I have nothing tangible completed, just a lot of brainstorming and card ideas just written out rather than actually drawn. Seems like a pretty huge undertaking even so, though. If you made one print-and-play I'd definitely do it!

Originally Posted by DwnWthVwls

I like dis ones:

Those games are awesome little co-ops. If you ever feels like you're wanting more out of the genre there are much more co-ops out there with elements I know you enjoy. A good next step I'd say is Pandemic, a co-op where you play as various doctors/scientists and try to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases while also trying to discover a cure. It was one of the first games I got when I started getting into the hobby, and while I loved it at the time it's not one of my favorites anymore. However it's incredibly popular and many people consider it a modern masterpiece so I think anyone that likes board games should play it at least once.

And then if you want something that gets pretty extreme, the game I talked about in the first post of the thread Spirit Island should definitely be checked out. You play as various spirits with unique abilities and starting cards that you use to fight back against colonists that are trying to invade your island. I know you love card games and all of the combat is done via cards, with costs and abilities and elements and all kinds of juicy stuff that I'm sure you'd like. It's a very deep and complex board game so I would not recommend it to most beginners but you're a smart guy so if you're dedicated to learn the game I know you'd figure it out after a play or two. I would honestly currently rate is as the greatest board game I've ever played, so that's hopefully worth something too.

[DwnWthVwls]

My cousin had pandemic at the shorehouse they rented. 20+ people and couldnt get a game going

Nice. Now to find people to play with! I wanna join Geek and Sundry!

New HS expansion get on it newb. Dust all your dated gold crap

[YorkeDaddy]

Couple new titles coming today, I jumped on a recent Amazon sale



A pickup-and-deliver game with a wacky theme and artstyle. Love the Borderlands feel to it. Hopefully the gameplay backs up the art.



Another one with beautiful art. This game was a lot cheaper and looks to be a relatively simple dicerolling game. There's always room in my collection for easier games. Looking forward to this one less but still excited.