The Art of Design: interviews to game designers #26 – Jason Matthews

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Andrea "Liga" Ligabue

It is a long time since my last interview. More than 2 years ago I got my last interview with Paolo Mori. It is also a long time I’m not writing reviews, most due to Play – The Games Festival, that is absorbing most of my time. But I decided to come back to this web-site, both with interviews and articles.

Jason Mattews is a great game designer and Twilight Struggle is still #2 in the BGG rank. I have got the possibility to meet Jason in Modena, during the last edition of Play – the Games Festival (he was one of our special guest) and it is not only a great designer, but also a very nice person. In this interview we will discover that Jason like “games with tons of depth, situational complexity, and yet, relatively short rulebooks.“ and that the “downtime” is the things he try to avoid most!

Here my interview …

[Liga] Dear Jason, with this series of interviews I’m trying to explore the world of game designers with the idea that designing games is a form of art, no more or less than writing books or casting movies. Of course the boundary within art and craftmanship is usually thin and some designers prefers to describe as good craftsman instead of artist. What we try to do together is, looking through your production, to find your style, your special sign … common traits in your games. According to BGG you have designedfewer than 10 games, starting from Twilight Struggle in 2005, so you are really a young designer. On the other side Twilight Struggle is 1st ranked in BGG and also, in someway, refresh the 2-players wargaming scene much more than; I think, you was thinking about. Of course Twilight Struggle is your greatest success but is there a game you are particularly proud of ?

[Jason] Well, of course I am proud that Twilight Struggle has done so well — much better than either of us could have hoped. And all my games are special for one reason or another. But, I find myself most drawn to play Campaign Manager, to be honest. I think it packs the most punch in the least amount of time. And unfortunately, like many other gamers, time is a premium to me.
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Czech it out – 2016 Edition

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Dale Yu

Each year, at the Gathering of Friends, the nice guys from Czech Games Edition arrive in the States with their newest prototypes.  We here at the Opinionated Gamers have developed a tradition where we outline the upcoming releases based on our plays at that invitational convention.  While some of our regular CGE fanboys were not able to make the Gathering this year, we have taken a group approach to the preview this year.  

 

Please remember that all of the games are still in prototype form (though a few seem very close to a finished state) – and any details here are obviously subject to change as the development process continues over the next few months in Europe.  I know that Petr and the team from CGE get a lot of valuable feedback from the week, and likely incorporate some of those comments into the final version of the game.

 

Alchemists expansion – comments by Wei-Hwa Huang

alchemists box

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Posted in Gathering of Friends, Preview | 2 Comments

Dale Yu: Review of Birth

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Birth

  • Designer: Takashi Sakaue
  • Publisher: Product Arts
  • Players: 2-3
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Times played: 9 with purchased copy

 

BirthBirth is a game that has a release year of 2014, but it was new to me this month. As it is published by a small Japanese company, it really hasn’t had much press over here, so I really hadn’t heard much about it until it showed up on my doorstep last month.

The theme behind Birth is the “birth of the galaxy”, and the board shows an appropriately galactic background – but in the end, this is a fairly abstract dice game. (According to the rules, the rolling of the dice represents the Big Bang.) The circular board is split into 5 wedges – worth 1, 2, 3, 5, or 8 points. There are somewhere between 1 and 5 spaces on the exterior of the wedges forming a track of 15 total spots. Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: Review of Gipfelsturmer

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Gipfelsturmer

  • Designer: Friedemann Friese
  • Publisher: AMIGO
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 8+
  • Time: 30-45 minutes
  • Times played: 5, with review copy provided by AMIGO

Gipfel board

In Gipfelsturmer, you try to lead your herd of billy goats to the top of the mountain in this dice rolling game. The board shows you the mountain with a starting area at the bottom and five eventually converging pathways leading to the summit. There are signposts on each pathway alerting you to what sort of dice roll is necessary to traverse that path. There are helpful upward arrows on the paths to show you which way to go. There are also a number of mountain streams with downward arrows that you might use to go the other way… Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of Histrio

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Histrio

  • Designers: Bruno Cathala and Christian Martinez
  • Publisher: Bombyx / Asmodee
  • Players: 2-5
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: ~40 minutes
  • Times played: 3, with preview copy provided by Asmodee NA

histrio

Histrio is the new release from Bombyx, one of the French firms that distributes through Asmodee.  While I was lukewarm on their initial releases, their more recent games (Abyss and Sultaniya) have been well received here, and I was definitely interested in seeing their newest production.  One of the designers, Bruno Cathala, is well known to me, and I have found that his designs run the gamut in style and complexity.  The other half of the design team here, Christian Martinez, is more of an unknown.  The only other game of his that I am familiar with is Expedition Altiplano, a somewhat obscure game that I have seen at conventions but I have not actually played.

In the game – it’s that special time of year when the entire kingdom gathers at court for the Munificent Theatrical Festival. Acting troupes from all over the land will come together to perform plays of light-hearted comedy or soul-wrenching tragedy. Will their performance win the favour of the king or will his fickle mood spell a flop?  The catch is – the King has fickle tastes, and you will have to be table to tailor your performance to the changing desires of King Leonus XIV to earn the most money. Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of Urbis

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Dale Yu

Urbis

  • Designer: Alexander Rasputin
  • Publisher: GaGa Games
  • Players: 2-6
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: 30-45 minutes

urbis

Gaga Games was a new exhibitor (at least new to me) at Spiel 2015 in Essen – one of a growing number of game companies coming out of Russia.  They had a bunch of new games, and Urbis caught my eye as it was touted as a 30-minute city building game; and this is a theme that has always interested me.

 

The story from the rules: “You’ve been given a unique opportunity to become a head of the magnificent city of Urbis. There is always a plenty of those who are eager to take this place, so when such a chance comes up, they’re ready to take it by all means. Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2015, First Impressions | 1 Comment