What Information Should You Print on the Board?
The vast potential expanse of a game board invites placing lots of fiddly little text. Good idea? Not so much.
The vast potential expanse of a game board invites placing lots of fiddly little text. Good idea? Not so much.
I previously identified commonalities in game art that players called awesome. In this post, I test if those generalizations apply to top-ranked fantasy games.
What do the art pieces in successful games have in common? Let’s compare a sample of top-rated games that have reputedly “awesome art” to find commonalities.
The inadequacy of parking space was a limiting factor that ultimately led to the fall of the Empire. Just saying.
Martin runs the awesome little “Print and Play Hideaway” group on Facebook and is, as far as I can tell, the king of table presence when it comes to PNP’s.
Some games feature cute creatures. Shamelessly cute creatures. Creatures so cute that you have to grab the box when browsing your friendly local game store.
Big in every way. Big table presence. Big wallet presence. Big wall presence (huh?) Big cognitive presence. Big player presence. Let’s go for a ride on 18OE!
Dear designers, consider this easy way to grab attention: don’t mindlessly emulate the Monopoly layout, with a board and a few rows of other components nearby.
Visualizing a tech track/tree is easier said than done. You must make the mechanic learnable, flexible, and replayable, all while maintaining player agency.
The publisher of Nut Hunt took intentional steps to draw attention to key aspects of the game.