Learning Game Design™

This is not really a review, but more of a remembrance.

I think any proper gamer has certain classics in mind in terms of what games have stuck with them from childhood. Something that really defined a particular period of childhood and influenced drawings, writings and so on. For some, it’s the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Ice Climber (the favorite NES game of a certain old Finnish president) or Halo. Then there’s the guys who spent countless days and nights with roleplaying games or old, incomprehensible Avalon Hill strategy boardgames. For me, it was something different…

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Invisible Elegancy

Race for the Galaxy is another card game of recent times that has really struck a chord. Already sporting two expansions, it has been playtested and experimented on to death and even the expansions were ready before RftG was even published. It is a game of subtle elegance, which looks like a solitaire game with multiple people for the new players, but once it opens up the subtle and often important interactive elements pop up.

I didn’t like it at first, but it has grown on me, just like any other good boardgame.

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If you haven’t played this gem yet, go do it now. For those that require some extra convincing, here’s some. Dominion is a game of reverse deck building and making your deck eventually to be the lean, mean machine that starts getting those points before the game ends.

I got this for christmas present last year and even though it took a few games to get the gears rolling, I’m nowadays absolutely in love with the game.

It shares many qualities with MTG, most importantly the deckbuilding that you actually do on the fly and also hand-management and combos that you can hopefully generate. It’s about having a deck where each draw should be useful. Add in to the mix the fact that each game is different (since a different mix of action cards is always chosen) and it gives you plenty of playability.

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Wasabi is a recent boardgame published by Z-Man games that could be compared to the match-3 games like Bejeweled, but with a few twists that make it more interesting.

In short, up to four players draw ingredients from the pantry and put them behind their covers, where they also hold up to three different recipies. Recipies range from easy 2 ingredient pieces to a maximum of 5 piece culinaristic explosions of gastronomy.

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