The Art of Design: interviews to game designers #18 – Andrea Chiarvesio

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Andrea "Liga" Ligabue

This time it was less than a month from my last interview and I’m also working on 3-4 more interviews. Of course the number of designers working on the game market since long time willing to be interviewed is not so huge and I’m starting to have problems finding new victims for my pencil. Of course Italians are much more easy for me to find and they have less possibility to avoid my long-winded curiosity. So, today I’m going to present you Andrea Chiarvesio, a really talented Italian designer that captured world-wide attention in 2007 with Kingsburg release but that was working in the game world long time before.

Chiarvesio is not a real pure German designer but he told us that usually the mechanic is his starting point. He also told us he puts a lot of effort in “schematizing” and “streamlining” finally stating his ambitious motto: “Easy to learn, difficult to master”.

I hope you got enough to be interested in the proceding of this interview. Have a nice read.

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Keltis und Einfach Genial: das Wurfelspiele

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Lucas Hedgren

Ok, so you are Kosmos executive. You have a successful duo of family level abstract games, designed by Dr. Tweak-and-Rerelease Knizia. One even won the SdJ! You have already done the base games, expansions, spinoffs, portable tile games, and card games, in both of the properties. You have seemingly exhausted all possible options to milk expand the options available to the consumer. If, only there were a way to release another iteration? If only there were some way to have completionists insightful gamers seek out another game in the line? Wait, what are these cube-shaped random number generators I’ve been hearing about?

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8 days, 7 nights, 0 sleep

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Talia Rosen

Eight days and 79 games later, I’ve survived another week of severe sleep deprivation, all in the name of trying as many new releases, old favorites, and upcoming games as possible.  The Gathering gave me a chance to play a couple months’ worth of games in the span of just one week.  I’m here to report back on the good, the bad, and everything in between.

Days 1 & 2 – Old Favorites, Dexterity, and Prototypes

I arrived very late on the first day so there was time for just one game – Tichu of course.  A perennial favorite at the Gathering, although far from a favorite of mine.  After a full day of traveling though, I didn’t have the energy for much more than this, which showed in the trouncing that my partner and I endured, ending on a flourish with a Grand Tichu even.  Fortunately I managed to rebuff all subsequent Tichu overtures throughout the remainder of the week, so this inferior game that pales in comparison to Was Sticht and Njet will not make another appearance on the list.  It’s so much fun teasing the many ardent Tichu fans that I just can’t resist.

Day two started off with Hawaii followed by Dominant Species.  I taught Hawaii to a group of new players and just barely managed to edge some of them out by trying a strategy of focusing on the 45 bonus points available from making all five rows sufficiently long.  It was interesting to try something new and this is definitely a solid game in the classic German mode, but I’m not sure there’s any hook there to keep me coming back more than a few times.  Dominant Species, on the other hand, is one that I can’t get enough of.  I’d say it’s easily the best game released in the past 5 years, since Galaxy Trucker in ‘07 and Imperial in ‘06.  I taught Dominant Species to two new players and then hung on for the roller-coaster ride that this game always provides.  Watching the landscape grow and morph over the course of the game, along with the shifting elements, and working to position your genus to thrive provides a thrill that never gets old.  13 plays later and I’m as eager to keep playing as ever (and thankfully did again a bit later in the week).

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POSTCARD FROM BERLIN #54: Gathering Every Week

Posted on April 27, 2012 by jeffinberlin

Jeffrey D. Allers

Summer is approaching, which means that Berlin, like most other European metropolises, will be swarming with tourists again.  Unlike many cities, however, Berlin’s wide sidewalks and vast public spaces absorb visitors quite well, so that the boost in population is not at all unpleasant for year-round residents.

Many of the visitors—especially those from my homeland—are only here for a very brief stay, booking a night or two in a centrally located hotel or hostel in order to allow just enough time for the whirlwind tour of the city’s important sites.  This is, of course, part of a larger “speed tour” through Europe, because one never knows if one will ever make it back to the Old World again.  Books published recently, such as those that list the “100 Places to See Before You Die” only compound the pressure.

When I was studying architecture many years ago, I reluctantly passed up the opportunity to take part in the Rome studio semester.  Those who went came back with tales of Euro-rail excursions through multiple lands, and photo albums and sketchbooks filled with images of the most important buildings from our history classes.  I admit that I was jealous of them. Continue reading →

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Mage Knight Review

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Andrea "Liga" Ligabue

Mage Knights
Design by: Vlaada Chvatil
Published by: WizKids
2 – 4 Players,
listed time 150 minutes
Review by: Andrea “Liga” Ligabue

I’m an avid consumer of fantasy adventure games like Runebound, Talisman or Prophecy and also I’m a real fan of Vlaada Chvatil production, as you can read in the interview I have done to him on this pages, so I’m been really excited about Mage Knight and I’m really happy about the final result. If I have to find something wrong in the game is just the length, but it is not really a problem since is nice to spend more than 2 hours playing something you really like!

Sometimes it happens to run into a board game, which by its very structure is more a game system than a simple game. Think titles Memoir’44, Commands & Colors, Runebound or Magestorm (unlucky Magestorm story seems to be ended together with Nexus). These games, I think, are designed with the idea and the possibility to be extended, expanded, enlarged.

Obviously when and how depends on many factors, not least the success of the basic game and the fortune of the publisher. Mage Knight jumped in the BGG top 30, ranked 3 in the thematic games special rank and WizKids seems to be a quite solid company so I hope the game will be probed to its full potential.
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Dale Yu: What I Played at the Gathering of Friends Part 1

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Dale Yu

Over the 8 days that I was at the Gathering of Friends, I managed to get in 74 games.  And, no I did not plan that.  When you take out short fillers (less than 15 minutes), the total comes down to around 50ish games played.  Generally, when I am at the Gathering, my goals are to play as many of the new games as I can get to as well as finishing up my “to play” list from the previous Essen.  After that, I like to spend time looking at the new prototypes of the games to come in the next Essen crop.  I was able to play almost everything there that was new to me (I wasn’t able to get to the new Queen games as I couldn’t ever find them).

I also had another goal of playing/demoing Suburbia, the new game from Bezier Games that I happen to be the developer of.  We had the chance to show the game to a number of foreign publishers, and I think that it was well received by them – as well as from the gamers who tried it.

Here is the list of what I played… Continue reading →

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