Used it for a while and will stick with it. I think I have to accept though that short videos aren't going to happen. Even on this new format, it's an intro plus overview plus six separate categories and a verdict. You just can't do it fast. This is why I don't go for reviews where I see less than 10 min.
Great review brother. Just like you agreed with me about the duration on my video, I agree that this needed some player aids. I usually hit on that but it didn’t bother me as much in this game.
In shops with kitchen stuff you can buy round trays that you put in the middle of the table and you can spin them around. I think I'm going to buy one of those and Tang Garden and then will put a garden board on that tray :D think it could help
I love this game and agree with you regarding the graphic design errors. The one that annoys me the most, is they could have fixed SOME of the problems, by making the icons on the character cards coloured like on the landscapes. I don't know why they didn't do this. It wouldn't fix all the problems, but it would help.
That's funny that you pointed out that the characters don't look Chinese. As an artist, that was one of the first things that jumped out at me (and to be honest, a lot of board games, anglosize their ethnic representations, which I've always assumed was a European thing?). But yea, ur not wrong in pointing that out.
Heya! Really enjoy your stuff, but if you're concerned about growing your view counts I've got a piece of constructive criticism for you: thumbnails. I'm gonna use a few other board game youtubers, big and small, as some examples here: Rahdo: Channel icon in a corner, big picture of game box. When scrolling past this, the relevant information (Channel / Game) is very readable without needing to take any effort to do proper work. SU&SD: Channel icon in a corner, big picture showing one of the reviewers with the game taking up 80%+ of the image. As soon as you scroll past this on mobile, each piece of information (Channel / Reviewer / Game) is super easy to get at a 1 second glance. Quackalope: Channel icon in a corner, big picture showing either game art or reviewer and game setup. Text right next to the icon to indicate the game. Colour coded so you know without even reading the top left corner what style of video you're going to watch, and if you don't know the colour coding the type of video is very clearly labelled at the top. Relevant information (Channel / Game / Content Type) is readable at a glance. BoardGameCo: No channel icon in corner; instead, icon indicating video type in the spot that usually goes. Easy to read title and sub title in big, contrasty fonts at the top of the image. Image of the game / games if it's relevant, image of the reviewer if it's not. Makes good use of empty space to really quickly make your eyes jump to the three pieces of relevant information (Content Type / Game / Image), but if the other channels are any indicator, it might be worth sliding in a channel icon just to the left of the title text as other channels have been finding success with. I actually missed this video in my recommended feed earlier today, and only saw it when I went to check through my subscription box much later; your thumbnail is set up in such a way that, at least for me, it exactly avoids easily giving me the information I need to make it stand out against the other ~23 videos being displayed at the same time on my computer, or giving me information in a fast and readable enough fashion to get me to click it when scrolling quickly on my phone. Some suggestions, then: - Straight text is WAY easier to read than crooked text, especially on a phone - Game cover, publisher, channel icon, and each text element are all at different angles, and all spread across the thumbnail; this makes it feel busy and disorganized, and doesn't provide the observer any kind of cohesive flow as to where their eyes should be moving. Grouping like elements (Title text + icon / publisher + game box for example), separating them, and straightening them would (in my opinion) make these thumbnails a lot easier to immediately comprehend at a glance. - Like the background, like having you in it. Gives it a style, lets people know who you are. I think making these a lot less busy and more readable might help you get more clicks / taps from more random board game fans scrolling around. I think Shelf by Shelf and your Top Ten lists owe some of their view success to being easily readable and highly clickable suggestions in people's recommended feeds, and I think the new thumbnail direction might be too chaotic and cluttered to have a similar affect. That's a lot of words from just one guy who really likes your stuff, and you're obviously more than entitled to ignoring all the feedback entirely. Just something I've noticed and thought I should point out, as even as someone who actively wants to watch your new stuff, I scrolled past it because it looked like a bit of a busy mess. No offense, just trying to be clear. LOVE the addition of footage of the game throughout these. Cheers! :)
Thanks for the feedback, I'll certainly take it into account. The inspiration for what I've done so far came from people like Think Media and Primal Video but I'll see if some tweaks can be made while keeping the branding there.
@Pawkkie Hi, I've changed the thumbnail to a more "straight and simple" look taking out the extra bits I don't need and enlarging my personal pic. An improvement? The text is easier to read, the logo is big and bold in the bottom corner which hopefully doesn't need the blog name under it and I reduced the opacity of the board game photo in the background. Thinking of the examples you got. I was never a fan of Rahdo's version as it's literally just the game box. Quackalope I like their icon and colour coding a lot but they make the mistake of putting the title where the RUclips time counter goes so it covers it. SUSD I don't think has much info on their thumbnails. BoardGameCo are pretty clear and concise if maybe could use a little more colour. But there are aspects I can cherry pick from them.
@@TheBrokenMeeple Personally I LOVE this change. I was less giving the examples as a "you should do it this way" and more to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. Again this is tremendously personally biased, but I find this a lot more readable and identifiable. Also looks really good on mobile, I think you did a great job keeping your flavour while making it much nicer on the eyes :)
Thanks for sharing. That game does look beautiful. Components are amazing. Yes, I like DETAIL too. Too bad the little icons are really small, their playtesters must have perfect vision. Lol.
Glad you like them! Just want the view count to support it also for the editing time - but I do feel a bigger sense of satisfaction with what I'm producing from a quality standpoint. I think my next step is to hurry and make streaming a thing.
Thanks for this review, you hit the nail on this one, agree with most of your comments. I like this game but for non-gamers this is too much, tried to play it with my family and some friends who don't play a lot of games it was not a success it dragged on and I had to help with most of the turns - not an enjoyable experience. Hopefully there will be a player aid soon on BGG.
Seal of Endorsement isn't bad, but Seal of Distinction sounds a bit odd. Blends in too much with the dice tower's Seal of Approval / Excellence. Maybe something like a rating of 0-7 would be a Broken Meeple, 7-8 Silver Meeple, 8-9 Gold Meeple , 9-10 Platinum Meeple. Either way good content and format. Keep it up!
Well I am part of their network. I did consider bronze etc but I thought it seemed too easy or maybe not as interesting. For now I'm happy as I also had those seals designed for me so I don't want to waste them!
I had been looking to Tang Garden ... but yeah that colour scheme is weird :p Holding out for the moment, maybe Iwari will be better ... colour seems to be a problem with that one too but while more abstract than Tang Garden god that game is gorgeous.
I agree with mostly everything here, but I put more emphasis on the annoyances and less on the fun aspects of the game so ended up with a 7. It's a good example of a game held back by design decisions that could have been very, very easily averted. I wonder how this game was play tested... Either the testers were too focused on the gorgeous art and presentation, or they actually gave this feedback but Thundergryph just decided that they knew better.
Yeah I really wish I would have seen this review before I bought this game. I was going to Kickstart it originally but noped out for some reason I don't remember. However I recently purchased it at retail simply because of the art work but as I didn't do my research at BGG or here on YT I now feel it was a mistake. We have read the rule book a couple times, wrestled with the iconography and found that it's just an annoying, confusing mess and haven't gotten around to playing it. I think is yet another example of what happens when designers and playtesters get so used to a game that they forget to look for annoyances.
I'm not sure I'm going to be so nice to this game and I think it's a pretty good game. My friends were looking at me crazy when I explained the issue with the icons and lack of the player aid. I also brought up the characters to the publisher, crickets. We feel exactly the same about this game. Crazy
Great minds mate! 👌😉 And certainly I'm not nice about the fiddly aspects but I love everything else. Also depends how much weight some of the aspects get, particularly for example the immersion part.
Does anyone have info if Luckyduck will distribute the expansions as well ? I was crazy not to back this one on Kickstarter to have it all. This is really my thing!
Michel Mertens Should be fine except for Ghost Stories which as listed as an exclusive. They should have an expansion kickstarter at some point that will give you an opportunity to pick up the exclusives.
Yup, we played 2p and had the same confused, anoyed and painful experience with the graphic design choices and color gradients. Liked the game but man is it hard to digest, those tokens blend so much with the picturesque tiles we replaced them with cubes
I like the DETAIL acronym. Really helps focus the review.
Used it for a while and will stick with it. I think I have to accept though that short videos aren't going to happen. Even on this new format, it's an intro plus overview plus six separate categories and a verdict. You just can't do it fast.
This is why I don't go for reviews where I see less than 10 min.
Brilliant review! I have always enjoyed your reviews, but the new format is an improvement on an already thoughtful process. Thanks.
Great coverage thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it! Just need say 10,000 others to agree also! :P
Yeah Alex he is doing great reviews :-)
Great review brother.
Just like you agreed with me about the duration on my video, I agree that this needed some player aids. I usually hit on that but it didn’t bother me as much in this game.
In shops with kitchen stuff you can buy round trays that you put in the middle of the table and you can spin them around. I think I'm going to buy one of those and Tang Garden and then will put a garden board on that tray :D think it could help
Great tip! And i think it's a lazy susan.
I love this game and agree with you regarding the graphic design errors. The one that annoys me the most, is they could have fixed SOME of the problems, by making the icons on the character cards coloured like on the landscapes. I don't know why they didn't do this. It wouldn't fix all the problems, but it would help.
Totally rad new intro Luke!!
Really loving the changes I made, it just makes it that much different from just a talking head.
Love the B-roll! I know it's a lot of work but it really adds to the video
Glad it gets noticed, just needs to translate to views!
Love the new look of your videos!
Thanks! They take ages to edit though, but that's why I'm keeping to one full fledged video a week plus podcast /streams
That's funny that you pointed out that the characters don't look Chinese. As an artist, that was one of the first things that jumped out at me (and to be honest, a lot of board games, anglosize their ethnic representations, which I've always assumed was a European thing?). But yea, ur not wrong in pointing that out.
Heya! Really enjoy your stuff, but if you're concerned about growing your view counts I've got a piece of constructive criticism for you: thumbnails.
I'm gonna use a few other board game youtubers, big and small, as some examples here:
Rahdo: Channel icon in a corner, big picture of game box. When scrolling past this, the relevant information (Channel / Game) is very readable without needing to take any effort to do proper work.
SU&SD: Channel icon in a corner, big picture showing one of the reviewers with the game taking up 80%+ of the image. As soon as you scroll past this on mobile, each piece of information (Channel / Reviewer / Game) is super easy to get at a 1 second glance.
Quackalope: Channel icon in a corner, big picture showing either game art or reviewer and game setup. Text right next to the icon to indicate the game. Colour coded so you know without even reading the top left corner what style of video you're going to watch, and if you don't know the colour coding the type of video is very clearly labelled at the top. Relevant information (Channel / Game / Content Type) is readable at a glance.
BoardGameCo: No channel icon in corner; instead, icon indicating video type in the spot that usually goes. Easy to read title and sub title in big, contrasty fonts at the top of the image. Image of the game / games if it's relevant, image of the reviewer if it's not. Makes good use of empty space to really quickly make your eyes jump to the three pieces of relevant information (Content Type / Game / Image), but if the other channels are any indicator, it might be worth sliding in a channel icon just to the left of the title text as other channels have been finding success with.
I actually missed this video in my recommended feed earlier today, and only saw it when I went to check through my subscription box much later; your thumbnail is set up in such a way that, at least for me, it exactly avoids easily giving me the information I need to make it stand out against the other ~23 videos being displayed at the same time on my computer, or giving me information in a fast and readable enough fashion to get me to click it when scrolling quickly on my phone.
Some suggestions, then:
- Straight text is WAY easier to read than crooked text, especially on a phone
- Game cover, publisher, channel icon, and each text element are all at different angles, and all spread across the thumbnail; this makes it feel busy and disorganized, and doesn't provide the observer any kind of cohesive flow as to where their eyes should be moving. Grouping like elements (Title text + icon / publisher + game box for example), separating them, and straightening them would (in my opinion) make these thumbnails a lot easier to immediately comprehend at a glance.
- Like the background, like having you in it. Gives it a style, lets people know who you are.
I think making these a lot less busy and more readable might help you get more clicks / taps from more random board game fans scrolling around. I think Shelf by Shelf and your Top Ten lists owe some of their view success to being easily readable and highly clickable suggestions in people's recommended feeds, and I think the new thumbnail direction might be too chaotic and cluttered to have a similar affect.
That's a lot of words from just one guy who really likes your stuff, and you're obviously more than entitled to ignoring all the feedback entirely. Just something I've noticed and thought I should point out, as even as someone who actively wants to watch your new stuff, I scrolled past it because it looked like a bit of a busy mess. No offense, just trying to be clear. LOVE the addition of footage of the game throughout these. Cheers! :)
Thanks for the feedback, I'll certainly take it into account. The inspiration for what I've done so far came from people like Think Media and Primal Video but I'll see if some tweaks can be made while keeping the branding there.
@Pawkkie
Hi, I've changed the thumbnail to a more "straight and simple" look taking out the extra bits I don't need and enlarging my personal pic. An improvement? The text is easier to read, the logo is big and bold in the bottom corner which hopefully doesn't need the blog name under it and I reduced the opacity of the board game photo in the background.
Thinking of the examples you got. I was never a fan of Rahdo's version as it's literally just the game box. Quackalope I like their icon and colour coding a lot but they make the mistake of putting the title where the RUclips time counter goes so it covers it. SUSD I don't think has much info on their thumbnails. BoardGameCo are pretty clear and concise if maybe could use a little more colour. But there are aspects I can cherry pick from them.
@@TheBrokenMeeple Personally I LOVE this change. I was less giving the examples as a "you should do it this way" and more to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. Again this is tremendously personally biased, but I find this a lot more readable and identifiable. Also looks really good on mobile, I think you did a great job keeping your flavour while making it much nicer on the eyes :)
Thanks for sharing. That game does look beautiful. Components are amazing. Yes, I like DETAIL too. Too bad the little icons are really small, their playtesters must have perfect vision. Lol.
Yeah I agree
Hey Luke thnx for the video. Your videos are amazing. Keep up.
Glad you like them! Just want the view count to support it also for the editing time - but I do feel a bigger sense of satisfaction with what I'm producing from a quality standpoint. I think my next step is to hurry and make streaming a thing.
Thanks for this review, you hit the nail on this one, agree with most of your comments. I like this game but for non-gamers this is too much, tried to play it with my family and some friends who don't play a lot of games it was not a success it dragged on and I had to help with most of the turns - not an enjoyable experience. Hopefully there will be a player aid soon on BGG.
Seal of Endorsement isn't bad, but Seal of Distinction sounds a bit odd. Blends in too much with the dice tower's Seal of Approval / Excellence. Maybe something like a rating of 0-7 would be a Broken Meeple, 7-8 Silver Meeple, 8-9 Gold Meeple , 9-10 Platinum Meeple. Either way good content and format. Keep it up!
Well I am part of their network. I did consider bronze etc but I thought it seemed too easy or maybe not as interesting. For now I'm happy as I also had those seals designed for me so I don't want to waste them!
I had been looking to Tang Garden ... but yeah that colour scheme is weird :p
Holding out for the moment, maybe Iwari will be better ... colour seems to be a problem with that one too but while more abstract than Tang Garden god that game is gorgeous.
I agree with mostly everything here, but I put more emphasis on the annoyances and less on the fun aspects of the game so ended up with a 7. It's a good example of a game held back by design decisions that could have been very, very easily averted. I wonder how this game was play tested... Either the testers were too focused on the gorgeous art and presentation, or they actually gave this feedback but Thundergryph just decided that they knew better.
Yeah I really wish I would have seen this review before I bought this game. I was going to Kickstart it originally but noped out for some reason I don't remember. However I recently purchased it at retail simply because of the art work but as I didn't do my research at BGG or here on YT I now feel it was a mistake. We have read the rule book a couple times, wrestled with the iconography and found that it's just an annoying, confusing mess and haven't gotten around to playing it. I think is yet another example of what happens when designers and playtesters get so used to a game that they forget to look for annoyances.
Yes! What's up with the character designs?
I'm not sure I'm going to be so nice to this game and I think it's a pretty good game. My friends were looking at me crazy when I explained the issue with the icons and lack of the player aid. I also brought up the characters to the publisher, crickets. We feel exactly the same about this game. Crazy
Great minds mate! 👌😉 And certainly I'm not nice about the fiddly aspects but I love everything else.
Also depends how much weight some of the aspects get, particularly for example the immersion part.
Does anyone have info if Luckyduck will distribute the expansions as well ? I was crazy not to back this one on Kickstarter to have it all. This is really my thing!
Michel Mertens Should be fine except for Ghost Stories which as listed as an exclusive. They should have an expansion kickstarter at some point that will give you an opportunity to pick up the exclusives.
Yup, we played 2p and had the same confused, anoyed and painful experience with the graphic design choices and color gradients. Liked the game but man is it hard to digest, those tokens blend so much with the picturesque tiles we replaced them with cubes
We are still looking for solutions on how to deal with the landscape tiles
This games looks great but fdingers crossed there will be a 2nd edition, the problems will sadly be to much for my gaming group.
I would be down for that!