Scheduling
The posting schedule is going to be weird for the foreseeable future. Some current life errands and some longer projects have eaten up my time. As a guy who writes these posts same-day, that is not a good thing. I’m making an effort though.
The Subject of Board Games
I like board games. I like them about as much as I like video games, especially the board games based off of video games (Dark Souls the Board Game) or the board games that have been turned into video games (The Witcher, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.) For those in the know: the XCOM remake started life as a board game the developers used to map out how the game would work. They are often priced prohibitively, however, often exceeding the $60 mark that modern video games reach nowadays. This always struck me as unusual, until I started collaborating on a board game myself.
A ton of work goes into making a board game. From the concept to the gameplay, from the rule making to the artwork, so much time and effort goes into making even a relatively simple board game. Let’s not forget play testing, loads and loads of play testing to ensure the game has what I call the Three F’s: Fair, Fun, and Frictionless. Fair and Fun should be easy to understand, everyone has an equal chance to win while enjoying the gameplay loop, but Frictionless is more subjective than that.
There are two kinds of board games: those that are easy to set up, learn, and play and those that are almost the exact opposite. For example: Cards Against Humanity is simply shuffling decks and dealing cards, whomever is the most depraved hilarious wins. Eldritch Horror on the other hand takes about an hour to set up regardless of experience, an hour to learn the rules, has a specific method of moving the pieces, and takes about six hours to complete one play through. Markets certainly exist for both types and people who are super into board games will like both, but games like Pandemic and the aforementioned Eldritch Horror are terrible choices for a first time player (as difficult as it is to believe, there are adult aged people who have never played a board game.)
As for the board game I’m working on: it’s about three layers away from being too complex for newcomers, but does have both board and card game variants. Nothing much more to say about it, still very much in the early stages. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted.
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