BoardGameGeek News

To submit news, a designer diary, outrageous rumors, or other material, contact us at news@boardgamegeek.com.

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5  Next »  [518]

Recommend
8 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Hide

Publisher Diary: Calico Goes Digital...and Starts a New Adventure

Molly Johnson
United States
Seattle
Washington
flag msg tools
Board Game Designer
Microbadge: Point SaladMicrobadge: I was here for BGG's Twentieth Anniversary!Microbadge: Calico fanMicrobadge: Point City
Board Game: Calico
I don't play a lot of digital games. In person, at the table, holding a deck of cards in my hand, moving pieces on a board — that's my preference. My colleagues Shawn and Robb at Flatout Games, however, really love digital games. They have played a lot over their lifetimes.

When we were developing the first Flatout Games CoLab board game, Calico, the team — which included designer Kevin Russ, developer David Iezzi, and graphic designer Dylan Mangini — decided that the rulebook should include scenarios and achievements, "like a video game would". We've heard that many players, particularly those who play solo, like this feature, and we've since included it in all of our bigger box games: Cascadia, Verdant, Fit to Print, and Nocturne.

I don't think we ever had digital implementation in mind exactly, but the team would tell you that having their board game turned into a video game is an ultimate achievement.

By the time Calico fulfilled its Kickstarter backers, we were several months into the Covid-19 pandemic. We'd all been playing more board games digitally — thanks, Board Game Arena! — and digital games, specifically digital implementations of board games, were on our minds.

And out of the blue, in 2021, Monster Couch reached out. Would we consider making Calico a digital game? Holy noodle! Would we ever!

Video Game Publisher: Monster Couch
Monster Couch is a small company of about 25 people based in Poland, whose previous project was Wingspan, including all of its expansions. The team at Monster Couch was looking for games that could be adapted to include new — and stand out — content, and we were excited to be working with a company that focuses on a small number of projects at a time.

With Calico, they wanted to take the concept (making a quilt, attracting cats) and create a digital game with its own identity. One of the biggest ways that they have done this is by adding a story mode. Players take on the role of an aspiring quilter in a series of mini-games that use Calico's mechanisms, and you visit an extraordinary world inspired by the works of Studio Ghibli in which cats have great power and influence over people's lives. This has taken Calico far beyond its original puzzle and has the potential to appeal to both fans of the original game and new [digital] audiences.

We really like this approach. The adaptation of an analog game into a digital game should build on the features that lend themselves to digital games. For example, cats are clearly the stars of Calico. In the digital version, players are able to customize their cats, allowing each player to personalize the game. The Monster Couch team also focused on the 3D animation of the cats, making sure, for example, that the quilts yield under the weight of their paws when they inspect your handiwork.

The Monster Couch team also built on the scenarios and achievements of the board game, taking the "Master Quilter" challenge further than we had in the analog version, although as with the analogue version, this remains a great way to test your skills.

The perk everyone probably talks about with digital implementations of board games is that the scoring is programmed. Can I place a tile here? Does it score? The digital version will tell you! I've certainly stumbled through many first plays of digital games, learning the rules as I go. While the Flatout Games team spends the time figuring out the best phrasing in a rulebook to support this, a digital games development team needs to make sure all the coding is spot on.

For Monster Couch, they aim to make learning the rules of a game as seamless as possible. As anyone who has played digital games knows, this is done through a tutorial. This part of digital game development is challenging and demands lots of trial and error.

While the Monster Couch development team pushed themselves in new areas of animation and story building, there was also one tiny change we had to agree on: What to name the game? There was already a digital game called Calico on Steam, and Monster Couch was clear that we needed to distinguish the games. The team landed on Quilts & Cats of Calico, which is a mouthful, but I think it conveys a bit about the digital game's story mode.

From gallery of mollyj

A lot of people play the Calico board game because of its solo mode. In some ways, this probably makes the design a more natural fit for a digital implementation. An element of Quilts & Cats of Calico that the Flatout Games team appreciates is that it is easy to play a quick game, without losing the charm of the analogue version. This new implementation means that people who prefer digital games will have the opportunity to try out the Calico puzzle.

Additionally, one of the reasons that Monster Couch looks at analog games to bring into the digital world is to allow friends and family to play these games even if they live in different parts of the world. The Monster Couch team, while focused on digital games, really enjoys tabletop games. It was a big task to create four-player games in which each player can have their own set-up and be able to see other players' boards, but the Monster Couch team believed it was worth taking on.

From gallery of mollyj

This whole process has been a window into the digital games world and piqued my interest in coding. I have also been trying out more digital games, such as the Monster Couch implementation of Wingspan (love it!), the new Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (Hyper Games), and even (so so late to the party) Slay the Spire — but I am happy to stick to making analog games and letting the experts run with their skills and creativity.

And now Quilts & Cats of Calico is out there in the world on Steam — and coming soon to Nintendo Switch! It has been fascinating to see a digital version of our game come to life. I can say with a lot certainty that Monster Couch poured many, many hours of heart and soul into the implementation, and we hope that Calico fans, old and new, are enjoying it!

Molly Johnson

Twitter Facebook
0 Comments
Today 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
57 
 Thumb up
1.01
 tip
 Hide

The Fellowship of Bauza, Cathala, and Dutrait Head to Middle-earth

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Let's retroactively add one more item to my teaser post from Thursday, April 25 thanks to this late-in-the-day revelation from Belgian publisher Repos Production:

From gallery of W Eric Martin

An Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala design from Repos Production? The team responsible for 7 Wonders Duel?!

In case this illustration from Vincent Dutrait — yes, him again! — doesn't clearly indicate the setting of this game, the image features a MEE (Middle-earth Enterprises) trademark and copyright notice and an Asmodee France post bearing this image declares: "One game to rule them all."

The teaser is all we have for now, so maybe this illustration can double as a representation of every gamer checking their phone late at night to see whether Repos has posted anything else about what this design might be...
Twitter Facebook
11 Comments
Today 3:33 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
99 
 Thumb up
6.60
 tip
 Hide

Jamey Stegmaier Offers a New Vantage for Gamers

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
For several years, U.S. publisher Stonemaier Games has announced games, then shipped them to direct buyers shortly afterward, with the title then hitting retail outlets shortly after that. In short, the publisher has stock of the game in hand before even announcing it, which means Stonemaier can't fail to deliver the game on time.

For Vantage, though, Stonemaier is taking a different approach. In the Stonemaier newsletter, designer Jamey Stegmaier writes, "Vantage is nearing the end of the playtest process and will start production later [in 2024], but the journey to bring this game to life is too big to cram into our standard 10-day pre-launch reveal."

Board Game: Vantage

Maybe when you read this description, you'll understand why Stonemaier is taking a different approach for this 2025 release:
Quote:
Vantage is an open-world, co-operative, roguelike adventure game for 1-6 players that features an entire planet to explore, with players communicating while scattered across the world. With nearly eight hundred interconnected locations on cards and over nine hundred other discoverable cards, the world is your sandbox.

You begin each game of Vantage on an intergalactic vessel heading towards an uncharted planet. After crashing far from your companions, you have complete freedom as to how you explore, discover, and interact with the planet. You view your location from a first-person perspective, and you can communicate with and support other players, but you are separated by vast distances, so you can see only your current location.

Vantage is not a campaign game, and it is completely self-contained with no expansions — just a few accessories like metal coins.
Twitter Facebook
32 Comments
Thu Apr 25, 2024 3:34 pm
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
74 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

Corey Konieczka Invites You to The Mandalorian: Adventures

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
U.S. publisher Unexpected Games has announced its next game release: The Mandalorian: Adventures, a co-operative design by Corey Konieczka and Josh Beppler for 1-4 players.

Board Game: The Mandalorian: Adventures

In a press release announcing the game, Konieczka writes, "I've always dreamed of making more Star Wars games, and The Mandalorian was the perfect inspiration. I think we really captured the spirit of the show in a compelling way, and I can't wait for folks to play the game!"

Here's an overview of this Q3 2024 release, followed by a trailer that shows off bits of gameplay:
Quote:
When offered a lucrative job, a lone bounty hunter begins a journey that will put his skills to the test and redefine his world.

Board Game: The Mandalorian: Adventures

The Mandalorian: Adventures allows players to experience a new part of the Star Wars universe on their tabletops. Navigating unique maps and missions, players must co-operate to accomplish their goals and avoid defeat. Play as one of eight unique characters, each with their own deck of cards and strategies that will help you fight enemies and solve dilemmas to complete mission objectives. All of the action takes place in an illustrated map book as players recreate iconic moments from season 1 of the hit Disney+ series. With an intuitive system that's easy to teach, the game grows with new rules, components, and mission types added over time – some even featuring a hidden traitor mechanism...
Twitter Facebook
22 Comments
Thu Apr 25, 2024 2:45 pm
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
51 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

Teasers for Australis, Luthier, Purrballs, Multiple Exits, and The Devil's Advocates

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
• Throughout April 2024, German publisher KOSMOS has been teasing its late 2024 game releases on Instagram, and in addition to what I covered in mid-April 2024, KOSMOS has announced five more titles, starting with Australis, a 2-4 player game from Leo Colovini and Alessandro Zucchini that bears this short description:
Quote:
Stand your ground in the East Australian Current where you have to make your way as a sea turtle!

Board Game: Australis

You have a chance of winning Australis only if you have a wide range of strategies. Choose the right dice cleverly to form growing schools of fish and settle corals on different coral reefs. At the end of each phase, you will compete with your dice in an exciting contest.

Which of you will be the best in this ecosystem of incredible diversity?
Inka and Markus Brand's EXIT: Das Spiel series of escape room games will expand by three titles, the first two of which are co-designed with daughter Emely Brand:

EXIT: Das Spiel Family – Schloss Gemeinstein/Mission Candyland, in which 2-4 players aged 8+ represent "a cool team of animal superheroes" that forms a secret club to solve riddles.

EXIT: Das Puzzle – Die Bibliothek der Träume ("The Library of Dreams"), in which any number of players first construct a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, then use the details in the image and the included story to solve seven riddles.

EXIT: Das Spiel – Adventskalender: Das Intergalaktische Wettrennen ("The Intergalactic Race"), in which you help "Team Santa Claus" in a race across space.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• Finally(?), we have Adventure Games Family: Dimension Fünf-Sieben ("Dimension 5-7"), the newest title in the narrative-based, co-operative Adventure Games series from Matthew Dunstan and Phil Walker-Harding, with Jan Cronauer being co-designer on this title that's aimed at players aged 8+ instead of the usual 12+.

• In March 2023, I wrote about Luthier, the second title from Paverson Games following its 2023 debut with Dave Beck's Distilled.

More than a year later, in preparation for a July 2024 crowdfunding campaign, Beck revealed the final cover of Luthier, and artist Vincent Dutrait has outdone himself:

Board Game: Luthier

• In a January 2024 post, I mentioned that Rio Grande Games had an upcoming title from Tom Lehmann and Matt Leacock titled "Meep Crisis". RGG's February 2024 newsletter had a new, far more geeky title for this release: The Trouble with Purrballs.

• Speaking of Tom Lehmann, he says that the next Res Arcana expansion is due out in Q4 2024, with online development work for Res Arcana: Perlae Imperii being underway for playing on Board Game Arena.

• U.S. publisher Fort Circle Games hosted its first gaming event, Circle DC, in early April 2024. I followed pics of gaming and prototypes from afar, and the one that caught my eye most was Mar Hepto's The Devil's Advocates, mostly because of the theme...although I'm hoping that the treatment is mocking rather than serious given how ludicrous the "Satanic panic" was and how foolish its spinoff moral panics still are today.


• At GAMA Expo 2024, I spoke briefly with designer Bennett Payne of new publisher B Field Games, and he gave me an overview of Magneterra, which he plans to bring to Kickstarter.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Magneterra mock-up at GAMA Expo 2024

The short take on the game is that you move figures around the board to battle monsters as well as other players, with the long-term goal of claiming the magnet from the tallest pillar on the game board (which sits in the middle front of the image above). As you can see in the video below, your figures are magnetic, and when you move next to a pillar, the magnet on top of it will jump onto your head(!) — but you are not tall enough initially to claim the magnet atop the tallest pillar. You must travel the board to claim other magnets, possibly stealing them from others, until your magnetic strength is strong enough (and tall enough) to yank the winning magnet down onto you.


• In May 2024, info will be spilled about the item named below. Will it consist of more than a scented plastic playmat? We'll see...

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Twitter Facebook
6 Comments
Thu Apr 25, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
65 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

New Walls around a Larger Orléans

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Board Game: Orléans
We have a late entry for my April 22 post about giant collector's editions with new material, with German publisher dlp games announcing a tenth anniversary edition of Reiner Stockhausen's Orléans.

The appropriately named Orléans Jubiläumsbox includes the Orléans base game, the three large exapnsions — Invasion, Trade & Intrigue, and The Plague — all eight Ortskarten expansions (Neue #1-5 and Promo #1-3), and three new Ortskarten tiles, along with the dice to make use of them.

Unlike most of the items included in that earlier post, Orléans Jubiläumsbox will not be crowdfunded. Instead dlp games is taking pre-orders on its website for delivery late in 2024, with a note that this item will not be available through retailers, but might show up at SPIEL Essen 24 should the publisher still have copies available.

Anyone wanting a more on-brand "Hundred Years" edition of Orléans must wait until 2114...

Board Game: Orléans Jubiläumsbox
Twitter Facebook
17 Comments
Wed Apr 24, 2024 5:07 pm
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
55 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

Construct the City of Chandigarh, and Perform Rituals in Pagan: Fate of Roanoke

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
• U.S. publisher Capstone Games will release Pagan: Fate of Roanoke at Gen Con 2024 in August, marking the North American debut of this two-player asymmetric game from Kasper Kjær Christiansen and Kåre Storgaard that German publisher Wyrmgold released in 2022 following a crowdfunding campaign in 2021.

Board Game: Pagan: Fate of Roanoke

Here's an overview of this design:
Quote:
The essence of this game is a witch's struggle against a witch hunter. As the witch strives to complete a ritual of renaturation, the hunter tries to discover her true identity among nine villagers. Each turn, the two players use their action pawns on active villagers to draw cards, play cards, and gain influence. Each player has their own variable card deck of fifty cards; with these cards, the witch can brew powerful potions, improve their familiar, and cast enchantments and charms, while the witch hunter enlists allies, claim strategic locations, and ruthlessly investigates the villagers.

As the witch, your objective is to collect enough secrets to perform a ritual so potent that the entire region will fall under your spell and Mother Nature will reclaim the island. As the hunter, you gather all the allies and support you can muster to bring the witch to justice before her fatal ritual comes to fruition.
Wyrmgold has released a handful of expansions for Pagan: Fate of Roanoke that introduce new scenarios, introduce new villagers, and allow for deck customization, and Capstone notes that it will release Pagan expansions in the second half of 2024.

• Capstone Games has partnered with German publisher Spiolworxx to release new releases from that German publisher in North America, with the first three titles to appear being Raising Chicago by Matt Wolfe, EPOS: A Gentes Game by Stefan Risthaus, and Dolcissima Vita by Giansimone Migoni.

Board Game: Raising Chicago
Board Game: EPOS: A Gentes Game
Board Game: Dolcissima Vita

• What's more, Capstone Games will release Uwe Rosenberg's Tangram City in North America in April 2024, with Pirates of Maracaibo from Ralph Bienert, Ryan Hendrickson, and Alexander Pfister debuting at Gen Con 2024 ahead of a Q3 2024 retail release.

• U.S. publisher Barrel Aged Games debuted in 2017 with the golf-style card game Stool Pigeon that it's now licensed in five countries, and at Gen Con 2024, it will debut two games in the U.S. that it has licensed: the trick-taking game Fruitoplay from Romaric Galonnier, Luc Rémond, and Explor8 (covered here in September 2023), and the tableau-building, card-comboing game Plantopia from Daryl Chow of Origame.

Board Game: Tangram City
Board Game: Pirates of Maracaibo
Board Game: Fruitoplay
Board Game: Plantopia: The Card Game

• In January 2024, I covered two upcoming titles from Spanish publisher LudonovaFlatiron, a SPIEL Essen 24 release from designers Isra C. and Shei S., and a new edition of Junk Art from Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim — but Ludonova has another game hitting the market earlier than those two: Toni López' Chandigarh, which was released in Spain in early April 2024 and which Asmodee will release in North America on May 24, 2024. Here's an overview of this 2-4 player game:
Quote:
In 1951, the Indian government commissioned the renowned architect Le Corbusier to design a new capital for the state of Punjab. Thus, Chandigarh was born.

Board Game: Chandigarh

In the game Chandigarh, players in the role of urban planners are in charge of building this modern city from scratch. They will construct buildings, try to take advantage of buildings constructed by others, use the abilities of the different municipal employees, and try to position themselves in the key locations of the city, all with the aim of achieving the patterns of the plans they have chosen. Whoever scores the most prestige points wins.

In more detail, the city of Chandigarh is represented by a 4x4 grid of sector tiles, with each sector having multiple plots. These sectors intersect at junctions, with the edges of these tiles creating streets between the sectors. You each start with a project card that shows an arrangement of buildings, along with two different colored buildings from the four colors available; your architect starts on a junction in the city.

On a turn, you can move your architect up to the total numbers of footprints on your active project cards, stopping at each junction (if you wish) to place a building from your reserve on an empty plot next to a street that's adjacent to the junction you occupy. If you occupy the final plot of a sector, place one of your supervisors on this tile. Alternatively, on a turn you can choose a new project card from the display, placing it on the left or right side of your row of active project cards and taking buildings from the reserve based on the card you just placed and the card adjacent to it. If you now have four cards in a row, you immediately score the card at the opposite end of the row from the card you just placed. Score the points listed on this card each time the pattern on it occurs in the city.

Board Game: Chandigarh

Four specialist tokens start in the corners of the city, and if you construct a building of the specialist's color in the sector where they are located, you gain the power of that specialist for the remainder of the game and move them to a different sector. Each specialist has six different abilities, some that score you bonus points and others that give you special powers during play.
Twitter Facebook
4 Comments
Wed Apr 24, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
54 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

Trek Into The Unknown, Reload Bolt Action, and Revive Rackham

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Board Game: Star Trek: Into The Unknown – Federation vs. Dominion Core Set
• U.S. publisher WizKids is bringing Star Trek to game tables once again, but instead of a design that focuses solely on combat, as with Star Trek: Attack Wing, the game attempts to cover more aspects of the Star Trek universe.

Here's an overview of the 2-6 player game Star Trek: Into The Unknown – Federation vs. Dominion Core Set, which is designed by Max Brooke and Michael Gernes and due out in July 2024:
Quote:
Teleport to the bridge of the most legendary starships from Star Trek as you launch an epic adventure across the galaxy!

Star Trek: Into the Unknown features the most detailed Star Trek ship models in tabletop gaming, all designed to scale. Large ships like the U.S.S. Enterprise or the Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser will tower over the smaller ships, and all come pre-painted to an incredible amount of detail.

Board Game: Star Trek: Into The Unknown – Federation vs. Dominion Core Set
Miniature on display at GAMA Expo 2024

Traverse headlong into the unknown where you'll negotiate and fight alongside iconic characters using your quick wit and tactical maneuvering to overcome complications and challenges. True to Star Trek, research and diplomatic actions and not just combat have lasting impacts on the game, causing missions to evolve in surprising ways.

Choose your officer, deploy your crew, explore the galaxy, navigate anomalies, position your ships to strike, or negotiate terms with the enemy. Players will instantly immerse themselves as the egalitarian Starfleet or as the oppressive Vorta and Jem'Hadar as they decide how to handle tense mission objectives and unexpected complications.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Preview kit on the table at GAMA Expo 2024

Embark on a journey to remember through an extensive campaign narrative. Your decisions matter, and they affect the outcomes of your unique story. With upcoming expansion featuring new missions and new ships to command, Star Trek: Into the Unknown is dedicated to delivering an expansive universe to your doorstep.
Warlord Games and Osprey Games have announced a third edition of Bolt Action from designers Alessio Cavatore and Rick Priestley for release in September 2024. Here's an overview of this miniature game system, which has more than three dozen expansions to date:
Quote:
Bring the great battles of World War II to your tabletop with Bolt Action. Strike out from the beaches of Normandy towards Germany. Sweep across the deserts of North Africa in lightning raids. Battle the enemy and the sweltering heat in the jungles of Asia and on the islands of the Pacific. Fight doggedly from street to street in Arnhem, Stalingrad, and Berlin.

Board Game: Bolt Action
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Battle of the Bulge
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Market Garden
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – The Western Desert

Whatever your preferred style of play or your historical interests, the diverse army and scenario options will allow you to build a force that fits. Field everything from standard rifle platoons to heavily armored tank forces, fast-moving reconnaissance patrols, and even artillery units.

Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Stalingrad
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Mariana & Palau Islands
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – D-Day: US Sector
Board Game: Bolt Action: Campaign – Italy: Tough Gut

This third edition features refined and updated rules and starter army lists to get new players straight into the action. Seasoned veterans, meanwhile, will find new tactical depth in the detailed force composition mechanics and a wide variety of fresh challenges in the scenario generation system. Rally your forces, study the terrain, and prepare for battle — the fight continues!
• French publisher Monolith Board Games — which has released several miniature-heavy games since its founding in 2016, such as Conan, Mythic Battles: Pantheon, and Batman: Gotham City Chronicles — has acquired all of defunct publisher Rackham's assets, announcing this development as follows:
Quote:
2024 is a year of rebirth for many universes, from the forces of Light, Fate and Darkness readying their forces anew in the seething kingdom of Arklash, to the struggles at the galactic fringes of another universe, warring in Ava and Damocles.

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have acquired all the universes developed by the late Rackham. These universes have been by our sides for a long time — and will now be with us for many years to come, complete with new adventures!
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Twitter Facebook
15 Comments
Tue Apr 23, 2024 3:00 pm
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
34 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

Designer Diary: Evil Corp.

Jérémy Ducret
France
Grenoble
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
flag msg tools
new user
Board Game Designer
Board Game: Evil Corp.
1. The General Idea

February 2021: My game Daimyo: Rebirth of the Empire comes out in stores, which paradoxically leaves me with a big gap in my schedule. I need to quickly find a project that excites me to occupy my free time. Unfortunately, no old prototype seems worthy of interest to me now.

Starting from a blank sheet, I'm going to try to make the game I want to play:

Idea 1: Deck-building with alternating activation.

I want to offer confrontational deck-building (Star Realms-style) but more strategic in the way of playing the cards. I don't want to "empty" my hand every turn, but the order of play of the cards has great importance and is strongly influenced by the actions of my opponent. This naturally results in the idea of creating an alternating action system in which after drawing five cards, each player plays one card alternately until their hand is exhausted before drawing again and starting a turn again. This should bring about the desired action/reaction feeling.

Idea 2: A very tactical game in which each action is a strong dilemma.

I want to get closer to the feeling of the Legend of the Five Rings-style confrontation TCGs, one of my best gaming memories. I try to remember what I liked so much about this game: a constant tension that came from managing timing and priorities. I want a game in which timing is essential, in which we will delay an action in order not to be countered, a game in which we will try to offer a target to an opponent to make them play actions that could counter us in order to be able to play our showpiece quietly. Also, I would like us to be able to use the cards in different ways to offer choice and dilemma. The card will necessarily be of interest for its power, but it must be able to be used in other ways at the same time. I don't know yet how...

Idea 3: Not a deck-building game, but bag-building.

One day, I ordered some coin capsules, thinking it would make interesting hardware for a game. I wondered whether this hardware would be relevant for this new prototype. What is initially a material desire quickly influences the game design because using round 2cm tokens allows me to quickly consider having a board and different locations that take up little space. I wrap this concept up quite quickly with the previous idea: these locations could offer an action or a bonus, a bit like a worker-placement game. I am therefore going with the idea of having several colors of tokens (in place the cards), colors that will mainly be used to define on which location they can be played. It’s taking shape...

Well, I don't have a game, but I know precisely where I want to go and the main idea is very clear:
confrontational bag-building with alternate activation, timing management, and priority management.

2. From the Idea to the First Tests

I gave birth to a first prototype quite quickly. I'm going with a space opera atmosphere. (Who knows why? It's not at all a theme that fascinates me.) The goal will be to conquer planets (plateaus) to dominate the galaxy. The planets will have to be conquered over several turns to create the feeling of "I lost the battle but not the war", while allowing players to abandon positions for a while, then return to them later. To take the planets, I will use a tug-of-war mechanism. Whoever has the most strength at the end of the turn wins the effect of the planet, then advances the conquest marker, and at a certain level, the planet is definitively mine and a new planet opens. There must always be several battlefields simultaneously.

I'm going on the principle of having three types of ships (tokens/cards). Each color has a specialization: combat, technology, and purchase. That's good as it comes full circle with the idea of locations that allow effects to be triggered, and it allows strategies to be combined.

I grind it all out and get a first prototype:

From gallery of W Eric Martin
First test at the end of May 2021

I am excited about the test! The feeling I want is already quite present...

...but everything is heavy/complex, there are lots of useless powers, the development part is poorly integrated into the game, and the balance is obviously very random. Also, my partner hates the theme — a bit like me in the end! I do a huge cleansing and switch to a classic medium/fan theme, which is important to be able to put the design through the dozens of tests to come.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Second test on June 1, 2021

The test is super conclusive. There are obviously plenty of flaws, but what I'm trying to check at this moment is the overall feeling, the feeling of how it plays and the interest in the game — and on these points, I am more than satisfied. If only all my prototypes were like that...

At this level, we will say that 80% of the game's mechanisms are present: The bag-building, the four different locations, the tug of war, and the deploy/activate/recruit action triptych. The game now needs to have better balancing to start seeing the flaws more deeply. In any case, we're already having a lot of fun playing it.

3. The "Improbable" Signature and the Final Edition

It turns out that at the end of June 2021 I have to see Benoit from La Boîte de Jeu, publisher of Daimyo. I'm curious to show him this work-in-progress to get his feelings, to know whether I'm imagining things or I actually have something promising. As a Magic player, his advice will be invaluable. At this moment, I'm not thinking about publishing; I'm just happy to have a project that motivates me.

Anyway, at the time, I knew almost no one else in the gaming world. The fact is that the day before seeing Benoit, after a few balancing tweaks and a pretty cool last game, my brain said: "And if he likes it?"

From gallery of W Eric Martin
The presentation to Benoit at the end of June 2021

We test the game, and as it progresses, I think I can see interest in Benoit's attitude. We don't finish the game for some reason, so we play it again the next day. Quite a good sign to want to play again...

After the second playing, Benoit shows a real interest in the game, editorially speaking. We talk a lot about the design, how it could be published, the possible artistic directions, and (obviously) the points to work on. There is no commitment, but we still went very far in the discussion.

Board Game Publisher: La Boîte de Jeu
A few weeks later, La Boîte de Jeu comes back to me to validate this interest and offer me a contract. I am very satisfied to be setting out again on an editorial adventure with a team for whom I have a lot of respect, both personally and professionally.

We found the artistic direction of the game early after deciding to reverse the roles. We will play the "bad guy", and our goal will be to terrorize human villages, with a little quirky side. It takes around three months of intensive work to complete the game's development. During this period, I was able to benefit from the expertise of the publisher to remove all the blocking points in the game. Changes will mainly occur on three major points:

• The beginnings of turns are too often identical => We add the chests to loot and the power stone. This allows for more varied openings and adds tension and rhythm between the players.

• Magic poses a lot of balancing problems => Its management was personal, so we implant the demons to stabilize the balancing and once again bring tension thanks to a "race" effect on their activation.

• The game's increase in power is too slow => We go to eight monsters in the bag (instead of ten), and we reduce the purchase cost of all the monsters to make the game more explosive from turn one.

Most problems are therefore resolved within three months. Game balancing and micro adjustments will then be made throughout the edition, which will last more than a year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank La Boîte de Jeu, who did some crazy editorial work — and a big thank you to Djib and Olivier Derouetteau, who brought the game to life with superb graphic work!

A very striking anecdote: Evil Corp. was the strict opposite of Daimyo on all points. Daimyo took seven years between the idea and its release, whereas Evil Corp. was signed three months after the idea in a version quite close to what the game is today. In short, day and night...

Board Game: Evil Corp.

Now It's up to You!

I hope you like the game. From now on, the game is in your hands; it no longer belongs to me. How will you welcome it? In which configuration will you play it the most?

In any case, for my part, it is a satisfying feeling to be able to offer you a game which is the exact feeling of what I had in mind on the first day.

Jérémy Ducret
Twitter Facebook
2 Comments
Tue Apr 23, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
52 
 Thumb up
5.05
 tip
 Hide

BGG's Origins Game Fair 2024 Preview Is Live

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Given all that happened today — Asmodee becoming (sort of) independent again, Goliath buying Lucky Duck, me gushing about a game that's both new and nearly thirty years old — I almost forgot to publish BGG's Origins Game Fair 2024 Preview.

Thankfully, I caught that oversight in time to meet my self-imposed publication deadline. Go, me!

The preview has only sixty titles at the moment, with more than a dozen of those titles available solely for demo. The Origins 2023 Preview ended up with "only" 124 titles, so maybe I'm halfway done at this point, roughly two months before Origins Game Fair 2024 opens. If so, that would be odd — but also normal, given that the not-yet-live Gen Con 2024 Preview already has more than one hundred listings. That show is the centerpiece of U.S. tabletop gaming events, so everyone's already looking ahead to that show in August. If you're looking to look ahead, too, look for that preview to go live on Monday, June 3...assuming that I remember in time.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Some of the titles you can lay your hands on at Origins Game Fair 2024
Twitter Facebook
2 Comments
Tue Apr 23, 2024 3:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5  Next »  [518]