Besides metal coins and inserts – both of which are usually game-specific – poker chips are one of the most popular ways to enhance the playing experience. The most common used variety among enthusiastic board gamers are Iron Clays by Roxley Games. I recently replaced my Iron Clays 100 set with the larger Iron Clays …
Ryan Laukat (and in extension Red Raven Games) is best known for his story-infused big box titles such as Sleeping Gods, Near & Far, or Empires of the Void II. The degree in which story is the driving factor varies from game to game – from being at the forefront in Sleeping Gods to pretty …
Over the past year, I have been on sort of a deep dive, trying to explore as many games from Dutch design duo / boutique publisher Splotter Spellen as I can. If you are not aware of their oeuvre, their games are highly diverse in topics and mechanisms – from managing org-charts of a fast …
Read more “First Impressions of Bus – A Masterclass In Board Game Design”
As part of my continued deep dive into Splotter titles, I finally got myself a copy of Bus as well. Since I wasn’t sure when I would be able to get it to the table, I started designing another solo mode as I’ve done with Horseless Carriage and Indonesia. It’s still in an early stage and …
The base game of Kingdom Legacy, Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom, has been one of my favourite solo experiences of 2024. As a small package of 140 card deck and some stickers, it is affordable yet packs a mighty punch. In 3-4 hours, you’ll build your kingdom from untouched grasslands to castles with knights, astronomers and …
Read more “Review of Kingdom Legacy: Distant Lands – Onwards to New Horizons”
I’m toying with the idea of a more edited, stylised type of playthrough video format. I usually write reviews and do interviews and I always enjoy the story telling aspect of it the most. I want to take that to videos and especially playthroughs. So I’m wondering if there is a way to do boardgame playthroughs almost more like …
Hi all, The other day, I was taking a game out of my collection and my eyes passed by one of those games I always enjoyed but haven’t played in years. We all know them: we keep them in our collection both due to fond memories and because a lot of people in the hobby …
Hey everyone, hope you had some lovely holidays! It’s been a while since I did an “On The Table”, so let’s clear my backlog of what I’ve played before heading into the new year. For those that don’t know me: “On the Table” is my short, quick impressions format for games where it’s either way …
Read more “On The Table: Tidal Blades 2, Civolution, Daitoshi, and More”
This is part 2 of my conversation with Dani in which we are talking about prototyping digitally in Tabletop Simulator, balancing, the eventual release of Barcelona, and of course designing the expansion Passeig de Gràcia. If you haven’t read part 1, you can find it here. Playtesting & Solo Modes Earlier, you mentioned TTS. Do …
Read more “Origin Stories: Barcelona – An Interview With Designer Dani Garcia – Part 2”
While the minis and maps look amazing, it felt a bit odd to me that the initiative/round tracker which one constantly interacts with isn’t dual-layer. So using the techniques I learned while creating my overlays for Horseless Carriage, I quickly created a similar overlay for the initiative/round tracker. Designing It This was rather straight forward. …