The last diminisher drafting in Thief's market. It's a better version of I-cut-you-choose for 3+ players since the burden of fair division isn't just on one player; everyone has to pseudo-collab for it. shame the confusing iconography made the game hard to play
@@revimfadli4666 very interesting! I will have to check that out. And yes it always sucks when a good game is hindered by bad graphics or a poorly written rulebook or other things not related to the actual gameplay.
The mechanic in Ark Nova - how action choice works -- actions you don't take get better (up to a value of 5) and the last one you took goes to 1. There may have been a game before Ark Nova that had this mechanic but I can't remember what it was.
@@HoganLong civilisation? I'm sure that mechanic alone carried most of Ark Nova's depth. It makes me wish there's gonna be a wave of elegant midweight games with that mechanic to show how powerful it is without needing Ark Nova's overt bloat
@@revimfadli4666 Yes - "Civiliztion: A New Dawn". I also don't agree about Ark Nova -- the combination of personal play mats with polyominoes and a big "deck of variety" give the game a lot of depth and good theming. I don't feel like it has bloat. It is hard to get to the table (set up), which of course is not true on BGA. It seems BGG is lumping this mechanic in with "Increase Value of Unchosen Resources". I think they need a new one called "Variable Action List" or something.
One of the most mechanically interesting games I've played over the past 21 years that I've been heavily into the hobby is Expedition: Northwest Passage. As players race against each other to reach the Northwest Passage, they are exploring the map by laying square tiles that are part ice and part water onto the board. But there is a "seasons" disc that travels around the board that is half yellow and half blue. All tiles on the map the are above the blue line have frozen water, which is impassable to the player's ships. However, players can send some or all of their crew to their sled (thus reducing the number of actions their ship can perform), and cross that frozen ice by that means, but they have to be careful that their sled doesn't get stranded when the changing seasons cause the ice to melt again. Similarly, their ship can be trapped by ice for a period of time until it thaws out. It's all incredibly clever!
Ahhhhh that sounds so cool!!!! I LOVE when the mechanics merge with the theme so well like that. That is such a cool idea, and I love the tension it creates! Thanks so much for sharing, I will keep an eye out for this game, I’d love to try it.
Regarding Verdant and Cascadia, there's a great Board Game Design Lab episode where Fabio Lopiano talks about this and calls it "entangled decision-making." Forcing players to make multiple decisions at once can really make players' choices more interesting.
Ahh yes! I love that, I will have to remember that, “entangled decision making.” Ah now that’s making me think of making a game called Entangled and every decision is an entangled one …. Hmmmm…. 😆
Anthony Faber also calls it Entwined Drafting. Glad to see it finally grabbing attention, since what surprised me was that Vinci not only introduced it back in the 90s, it also blended entwined drafting with the oldest known example of Century-style market where you place currencies on skipped cards
@@revimfadli4666 That’s a good term, “entwined drafting.” I’ve been working on a game and tinkering with that concept, but didn’t have a name for it. In the game, at the end of your turn you refill your hand by choosing among 3 face-up cards, or from the draw deck, before ending your turn. Drawing a face-up card triggers a small action you must take but may prefer not to. But there may also be one of those small actions you want to take, but the card you’d need to draft to trigger it just isn’t optimal. “Entwined drafting”. I like it.
@@ludwigmises I like how you are pairing cards with actions, that sounds very cool and different from the other "entangled drafting" games I've seen so far. Best of luck with the design 🙌
I've never seen a campaign done quite the way the solo only Legacy of Yu does. Both the concept of playing an unknown number of games until you either have won or lost 7 total and the specific way it makes things more or less challenging based on your results were new to me, and wonderfully implemented.
@@edwardlane1255 oh that sounds interesting! I have heard about Saving Dr Lucky but haven’t played it. I’ll add it to my list, thanks for the recommendation 🙌
I did! I was at a local board game cafe and looked over to my left and was like “ummmmm is that Alex Horne sitting at the table next to me??” He was on vacation with his family and I was so nervous to ask for a photo!!! All I remember saying was “Taskmaster got me through covid” and he said “A lot of people have said that!” 😆
Among abstract games, I consider Hive to have very original mechanics. The way all the different insects move is clever, and the overall feel is quite different from ordinary chess.
I really struggled to like Hive until I read up on some of its strategy. I wouldn't normally give a game so many tries, but my wife really liked it so I felt I should do what I could to enjoy it and once I read what I read it really opened my eyes up to it. The only bad thing of that was we went from where she was kicking my butt in it to I was kicking hers. She'll still play it I'm sure, but how much skill matters in it probably prevents what is a brilliant game from being a more popular game.
Good designers, I agree, also play a lot of games and gain (by osmosis) ideas from that! Here are some recent mechanics that I came across that have inspired me to start thinking about a new game to design: 1. Dwellings of Eldervale - This is a worker placement game but once you run out of workers for the round, you recall them one at a time and then get to place them again on one of the spaces in your Tableau, creating a sort of "double" worker placement aspect to the flow. Any workers that were lost in battle on the map, don't get to do this second placement, but do come back to be used the next round, also gaining you a sword to use in a future battle (as a sort of consolation, like you mentioned from Too Many Bones). 2. Black Rose Wars: Rebirth - This is an arena mage combat game, that has splashes of deckbuilding and action programming elements. 99% of the spell cards have an upper half and lower half that are vastly different, and as you are selecting what 4 cards from your hand to ready for the round, you have to orient them with the exact half of the card you wish to use, facedown closest to you (and you can't change it after the planning phase). You have 1 quick spell slot that can be played at any time, but your other 3 slots have to be casted/played in order from slots 1-3. 3. Marvel Champions - This is a deck-construction (more basic though), super-hero game where you control a hero to face a villain. The villain works to achieve their agenda or defeat all the heroes. You try to thwart their agenda and defeat the villain. The unique part of this game is that your hero card has a "alter ego" side and a "hero" side. Once per round, you can flip sides. Many of your cards in hand can only be played if you are on one of the sides. And the villain, during their turn, will work toward their agenda if you are on the "alter ego" side or they will attack if on your "hero" side. The way in which this works is super clever and the game is extremely fun as you puzzle out how to manage the situations thrown at you. 4. Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood - The boss battles in this game (especially #2 and #3) were some of the most epic experiences I have ever had in a game. You can't talk about it though because of spoilers. But the story in the game is where I picked up several ideas. As you make choices in the game, it affects the outcome in unique ways and this is recorded in large part by which allies join you in your story. Since they have a card, and can even help you fight in the battles, you sort of grow to love when they show back up in the narrative and open up options that otherwise would never happen. It's a LONG game, taking 3 hours to fight the bosses at times and an hour for the story part. But it is one of those games that (for me) has opened up my eyes to an entirely different realm of what a boardgame can bring to the table.
The most surprising mechanic I recently met was in Between two Castles. Where you have to collaborate with the players you are competing against, since castles are built by pairs of players, makes for a fun and odd dynamic. One that I thought was a clever solution and plays really nice was the way actions work in Ark Nova. Your 5 actions are cards in a line. And whenever you use an action it moves to the first position and the others move forward. The more forward an action is, which kinda translates to the time since you last used it, the stronger it gets. Só while you can take any action during your turn, you are incentivezed to take different actions and think ahead. Something that frequently bothers me about upgradable base actions is that it pushes players to perform a single action on every turn, which gets boring pretty fast. I didn't feel that in Ark Nova, since even when actions were upgraded you still had reasons to play the unupgraded ones.
Very cool! I haven’t played either of those games but have heard both are great, especially Ark Nova. It was on sale at a store a few months ago and now I’m thinking I should have bought it 🤦♀️
Ark Nova's action selection is so good it makes me wish there's gonna be a San Juan-level super filler game which also uses it, to showcase how powerful the mechanic is without needing Ark Nova's overt complexity (for an otherwise midweight swingy decksifting game)
With the thousands of games out there, finding originality is quite challenging. I suspect that being a game designer is akin to being a writer; most of the originality comes from expression, putting things together, and adding character that sets one's creation apart. Many of the underlying stories in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones aren't really all that different from so many others, but the way they are put together and presented makes them distinctive. (I'm quite new to board game design and facing what seems to be an overwhelming amount of existing game content, so that thought is part of my coping mechanism. 😉)
That might be part of it, but I do think you need to add something new mechanically, not just thematically, otherwise you’re just reskinning an existing game. But taking inspiration and bits and pieces from different games while adding your own twist can make for some very cool things!
@@PamWallsGameDesign To me, "reskinning an existing game" mostly means copying. (Perhaps, this may be useful as a learning experience in the same way that beginning art students are encouraged to copy "the masters" to learn from them? ) I was thinking more along the lines of assembling theme, structure, and mechanics into a hopefully unique expression ... and, along the way, maybe discovering some unique elements or combination of elements. A lot of the successful games I have seen so far I would consider to be more along the lines of variations, what I term "unique expressions," primarily due to assemblage. Anyway, those are my beginner thoughts while trying to piece together an approach. 🤔 I'll be quiet now...
From my perspective, it's nigh impossible to set out to design a game and it be exactly like anything else. And so I don't worry too much about it. At the same time, I will not even start to design a game unless I have a good idea. But, very few ideas are truly unique or novel, as you mentioned. There are only 12 notes in music. Yet millions of songs. 26 letters in the alphabet, yet.... It's more about HOW you put it all together, like a composer, not the individual things that you are implementing, that make or break a game.
Tobago, of which I havent played yet, has a neat deduction mechanic where as you hunt for treasure on the island board, the players decide(manipulate via card plays) where it might be near, until it gets to the point, when it becomes obvious where it is, and then it becomes a race to obtain it. Really, there are a few unique mechanics in the game. I really need to get this off my shelf of opportunity already! After playing over 100 or so different games, watching over a thousand videos, etc. I dont feel like ive seen anything like the mechanic ive mentioned.
Learning that you're a fan of Taskmaster was the cherry on top in this video. Absolutely Love Taskmaster and Greg & Alex's chemistry + the show's format.
Taskmaster is the best show!!! I'd love to go to a live taping. Jealous you got to meet little Alex Horne; I would also be as chill as you! Another great video; looking forward to another of the same theme.
Ah I would love to go to a taping too! I’m sure it’s so much fun and I bet they cut a lot of funny stuff for time. I’m glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!
Before Karuba, "Take it Easy!" used that mechanism where each player populates their board with an identical set of tiles. It's much more abstract--you're just trying to connect same-colored tubes all the way across your board. By the end, you're pretty much breaking every tube you haven't already completed. You won't like this game if you don't like Calico.
Skyrise have great area-bidding system, where you can often end auction in a place which will guarantee instant win on next auction. Blood on the Clocktower has scripts with different roles for players. Since there are more roles than players, not every role will be present in game, but players don't know which are/aren't. Basic script is called 'Trouble Brewing' and has been modified by addition of Marionette ('String Pulling'). This slight addition changes everything and create vastly different strategy, even if Marionette is not in game.
I have heard great things about Blood on the Clocktower! Their events at cons usually fill up super fast. I’m not a huge fan of social deduction games, but I’ll try it out. And I’ll keep my eye out for Skyrise too! Thanks for sharing those 🙌
Yeah it’s a really cool system and I love the lore they created for it too. I can see how you could get really invested in it! And being able to roll all those dice with a physical copy must be so fun. I’ve only played it digitally online.
Far-away a new game that just came out had a deceptively simple mechanic. You play cards left to right but score them right to left. Seems simple at first but gets more interesting as you go.
Also Architects of the west kingdom. It's worker placement but you start with all your workers and you can capture other people's workers. A neat twist on a popular mechanic.
@@randito2387 ooohhhh yes, I really like that! I’m on a mission to play every worker placement game out there that exists so will add this to my list! Thanks 🙌
The action system in Honga is really interesting: players get round cards that have quadrants, which have 0, 1,2,or 3 hand symbols. If 2 hands are pointing at a resource, you get 2 of those and so forth. So you have to decide both where to place the circle tile and how to orient it.
Oh that sounds so cool!! Even just the idea of circular cards sounds cool, but then also having to figure out the optimal orientation is super interesting. Thanks for sharing 🙌
Very interesting! I'm going to have to try this out. I'm not sure I would have ever come across this game had you not mentioned it so thanks. The way you describe it makes me think of Targi and while I love Targi's mechanisms I don't love its theme/look. I wonder if you've played Targi and can compare them. Honga is definitely more colouful and I like prehistoric themes.
My favorite mechanic lately has been joint missions that the players are trying to fulfill, but no one cashes in until the whole card is done. ive seen a couple that mixes this with a press your luck mechanic and it has you having to choose if you want to complete a hard card that might give a few points to the lead player at the table, just to eek a few points for yourself.
Interesting how people only started talking about entwined drafting after Cascadia, when Vinci not only did it back in 1999, but also combined it with the self-balancing market that Century would later use.
@@revimfadli4666 yes, thank you for this! Another person also let me know about Vinci and I talked about it in my camping video, I’ll link to it below. Very cool that the designer of Vinci (Philippe Keyaerts) introduced two very cool mechanics!
I'd really like to know where I can play the simulators for these games. I checked out Tabletop Simulators on Steam, but I can't find the games you list in this video, which sound great! And the physical games are quite pricey for me right now. Any tips? Thanks
The card mechanism is Libertalia (2012) may have been based on Mission Red Planet (2005). MRP is a fun area control game, where corporations are sending spaceships and crews to Mars to mine resources. At the start of the turn, each player has the same hand of 9 different character cards and you choose to play one character that turn. The card actions are completed in descending order, and each card's unique power is "stronger" with ascending numbers. But, I wonder where the designers for Mission Red Planet got their idea :) Enjoyed the video.
Ah, very interesting! It sounds like the Libertalia designer may have been inspired by that game. I’ll keep my eye out for it, it sounds very cool! Thanks for watching 🙌
Citadels is very likely the answer to your question since Faidutti was a designer of both. I also love that mechanism, but you have to be careful to make it scale well. For example, Vaalbara uses it too, but it scales (down) terribly. And as much as I love Citadels, I don't love it at 2 either. Man, I really wanted to like the new Libertalia. I love the mechanism tweaks they made to the game, but the anthropomorphic animals were such a turn-off. I'm still tempted to buy it, but I don't know if it's worth it. I should find out how well it scales down to 2.
@@PamWallsGameDesign Just finished season 17 which was really good. I think 4, 5, and 9 are my favorites. Loved the contestants and some of my favorite tasks. I haven't tried New Zeland or Australian TM yet but those are next until season 18 comes out.
I just discovered your channel. Bad ass!!!!!! Your knowledge of the board game industry, mechanics, board game design is pro!! Thank you! Lots of good board game design tips also I learned the origins of the word Meeple. Awesome content! A+++
It's hard to get the gist of a mechanic like the restrictions in Verdant and Cascadia for example, without more context. Plus I personally find myself lacking in interest in games with such boring themes like animals and potted plants. I love the concept of the dice buffs in Too Many Bones. I rate worker placement just below having a root canal performed through my nasal passage.
Tzolkin definitely has an intriguing mechanic with its rotating cogs. I would also say the card mechanic in Dominare is incredibly cool and I don’t know why someone hasn’t taken that aspect alone and made a card game out of it. 🤷🏻♂️
What is this card mechanic in Dominare? I watched Vasel's review on it, but I failed to really understand how it plays. I read BGG's summary and the game does sound interesting.
@@kq76 It’s an oldie, but goodie! One of my top 5 area control/engine builder games. The cards are all denizens of Dominare and they have various abilities based on their position in front of you. In each round you select a new denizen and add them to the row of denizens you have, from left to right. The trick comes in deciding what position to put them in. A denizen in the first position (ie all the way to the left of your row) Has a weaker ability that sure would be useful right about now (to build your engine), but if you wait and play them in position 5 (ie wait until round 5) they have a much more powerful ability. The problem is you’ll miss out on 4 rounds of potential benefit he/she would have provided! These abilities are listed on the card as #s, representing their position in your row. Abilities that are higher than their rank in your row, can’t be played. As if that wasn’t enough, denizens give you money and influence (the area control side of the game). Also! Certain denizens placed next to other denizens of similar type, grant BONUS resources. It can get quite “thinky” and it’s awesome! Highly recommended!
@@kq76 oh also, be warned, this IS a confrontational game. You WILL be vying for control of areas in Dominare, taking away influence cubes of opponents (and having your own taken away!). If clashing with other players isn’t your thing, this may not be the game for you.
@@Tennethums1 Oh! Thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, I'm not really into take that games. I don't hate them, but I do prefer games that don't have that mechanism.
I think too many new games is a bad thing... You will get fatigued on games quickly or lose interest. So many games have deep concepts that you need to play 5+ times through just to understand what makes them really click. A new game a week not only seems unrealistic; I think its a good way to burn out of enjoying gaming, and miss the hidden greatness that some games hold if you move on from them too quickly to the next game. But to each their own.
@@Faramous I don't know what that means, but I recently heard from someone linking a video with such a thumbnail that he got downvoted to oblivion, where comments were like we hate such faces in thumbnails because they generate a lot of clicks (and money of course). OP can do what she wants with this information.
@@kosterix123 I heard from someone that saying you heard from someone that popular things get downvoted is a strange and round about way of saying something. They recommended you just say what you mean. What did you mean? Just saying.
What's a cool mechanic you've seen in a game you've played recently?
The last diminisher drafting in Thief's market. It's a better version of I-cut-you-choose for 3+ players since the burden of fair division isn't just on one player; everyone has to pseudo-collab for it. shame the confusing iconography made the game hard to play
@@revimfadli4666 very interesting! I will have to check that out. And yes it always sucks when a good game is hindered by bad graphics or a poorly written rulebook or other things not related to the actual gameplay.
The mechanic in Ark Nova - how action choice works -- actions you don't take get better (up to a value of 5) and the last one you took goes to 1. There may have been a game before Ark Nova that had this mechanic but I can't remember what it was.
@@HoganLong civilisation?
I'm sure that mechanic alone carried most of Ark Nova's depth. It makes me wish there's gonna be a wave of elegant midweight games with that mechanic to show how powerful it is without needing Ark Nova's overt bloat
@@revimfadli4666 Yes - "Civiliztion: A New Dawn". I also don't agree about Ark Nova -- the combination of personal play mats with polyominoes and a big "deck of variety" give the game a lot of depth and good theming. I don't feel like it has bloat. It is hard to get to the table (set up), which of course is not true on BGA.
It seems BGG is lumping this mechanic in with "Increase Value of Unchosen Resources". I think they need a new one called "Variable Action List" or something.
One of the most mechanically interesting games I've played over the past 21 years that I've been heavily into the hobby is Expedition: Northwest Passage. As players race against each other to reach the Northwest Passage, they are exploring the map by laying square tiles that are part ice and part water onto the board. But there is a "seasons" disc that travels around the board that is half yellow and half blue. All tiles on the map the are above the blue line have frozen water, which is impassable to the player's ships. However, players can send some or all of their crew to their sled (thus reducing the number of actions their ship can perform), and cross that frozen ice by that means, but they have to be careful that their sled doesn't get stranded when the changing seasons cause the ice to melt again. Similarly, their ship can be trapped by ice for a period of time until it thaws out. It's all incredibly clever!
Ahhhhh that sounds so cool!!!! I LOVE when the mechanics merge with the theme so well like that. That is such a cool idea, and I love the tension it creates! Thanks so much for sharing, I will keep an eye out for this game, I’d love to try it.
Regarding Verdant and Cascadia, there's a great Board Game Design Lab episode where Fabio Lopiano talks about this and calls it "entangled decision-making." Forcing players to make multiple decisions at once can really make players' choices more interesting.
Ahh yes! I love that, I will have to remember that, “entangled decision making.” Ah now that’s making me think of making a game called Entangled and every decision is an entangled one …. Hmmmm…. 😆
Anthony Faber also calls it Entwined Drafting. Glad to see it finally grabbing attention, since what surprised me was that Vinci not only introduced it back in the 90s, it also blended entwined drafting with the oldest known example of Century-style market where you place currencies on skipped cards
@@revimfadli4666 That’s a good term, “entwined drafting.” I’ve been working on a game and tinkering with that concept, but didn’t have a name for it. In the game, at the end of your turn you refill your hand by choosing among 3 face-up cards, or from the draw deck, before ending your turn. Drawing a face-up card triggers a small action you must take but may prefer not to. But there may also be one of those small actions you want to take, but the card you’d need to draft to trigger it just isn’t optimal. “Entwined drafting”. I like it.
@@ludwigmises I like how you are pairing cards with actions, that sounds very cool and different from the other "entangled drafting" games I've seen so far. Best of luck with the design 🙌
I've never seen a campaign done quite the way the solo only Legacy of Yu does. Both the concept of playing an unknown number of games until you either have won or lost 7 total and the specific way it makes things more or less challenging based on your results were new to me, and wonderfully implemented.
Very cool! I’ll have to check that out. Thanks for sharing, and for watching 🙌
save doctor lucky - with its shrinking board as the titanic sinks forcing the players into a tighter space
@@edwardlane1255 oh that sounds interesting! I have heard about Saving Dr Lucky but haven’t played it. I’ll add it to my list, thanks for the recommendation 🙌
You met Alex Horne!! SO JEALOUS!!
I did! I was at a local board game cafe and looked over to my left and was like “ummmmm is that Alex Horne sitting at the table next to me??” He was on vacation with his family and I was so nervous to ask for a photo!!! All I remember saying was “Taskmaster got me through covid” and he said “A lot of people have said that!” 😆
Among abstract games, I consider Hive to have very original mechanics. The way all the different insects move is clever, and the overall feel is quite different from ordinary chess.
Yes it is a very clever game! I’m not a huge fan of abstract games, but I do see why a lot of people enjoy it.
agreed! Hive is one of the best games ever created IMO.
I really struggled to like Hive until I read up on some of its strategy. I wouldn't normally give a game so many tries, but my wife really liked it so I felt I should do what I could to enjoy it and once I read what I read it really opened my eyes up to it. The only bad thing of that was we went from where she was kicking my butt in it to I was kicking hers. She'll still play it I'm sure, but how much skill matters in it probably prevents what is a brilliant game from being a more popular game.
Good designers, I agree, also play a lot of games and gain (by osmosis) ideas from that!
Here are some recent mechanics that I came across that have inspired me to start thinking about a new game to design:
1. Dwellings of Eldervale - This is a worker placement game but once you run out of workers for the round, you recall them one at a time and then get to place them again on one of the spaces in your Tableau, creating a sort of "double" worker placement aspect to the flow. Any workers that were lost in battle on the map, don't get to do this second placement, but do come back to be used the next round, also gaining you a sword to use in a future battle (as a sort of consolation, like you mentioned from Too Many Bones).
2. Black Rose Wars: Rebirth - This is an arena mage combat game, that has splashes of deckbuilding and action programming elements. 99% of the spell cards have an upper half and lower half that are vastly different, and as you are selecting what 4 cards from your hand to ready for the round, you have to orient them with the exact half of the card you wish to use, facedown closest to you (and you can't change it after the planning phase). You have 1 quick spell slot that can be played at any time, but your other 3 slots have to be casted/played in order from slots 1-3.
3. Marvel Champions - This is a deck-construction (more basic though), super-hero game where you control a hero to face a villain. The villain works to achieve their agenda or defeat all the heroes. You try to thwart their agenda and defeat the villain. The unique part of this game is that your hero card has a "alter ego" side and a "hero" side. Once per round, you can flip sides. Many of your cards in hand can only be played if you are on one of the sides. And the villain, during their turn, will work toward their agenda if you are on the "alter ego" side or they will attack if on your "hero" side. The way in which this works is super clever and the game is extremely fun as you puzzle out how to manage the situations thrown at you.
4. Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood - The boss battles in this game (especially #2 and #3) were some of the most epic experiences I have ever had in a game. You can't talk about it though because of spoilers. But the story in the game is where I picked up several ideas. As you make choices in the game, it affects the outcome in unique ways and this is recorded in large part by which allies join you in your story. Since they have a card, and can even help you fight in the battles, you sort of grow to love when they show back up in the narrative and open up options that otherwise would never happen. It's a LONG game, taking 3 hours to fight the bosses at times and an hour for the story part. But it is one of those games that (for me) has opened up my eyes to an entirely different realm of what a boardgame can bring to the table.
The most surprising mechanic I recently met was in Between two Castles. Where you have to collaborate with the players you are competing against, since castles are built by pairs of players, makes for a fun and odd dynamic.
One that I thought was a clever solution and plays really nice was the way actions work in Ark Nova. Your 5 actions are cards in a line. And whenever you use an action it moves to the first position and the others move forward. The more forward an action is, which kinda translates to the time since you last used it, the stronger it gets. Só while you can take any action during your turn, you are incentivezed
to take different actions and think ahead.
Something that frequently bothers me about upgradable base actions is that it pushes players to perform a single action on every turn, which gets boring pretty fast. I didn't feel that in Ark Nova, since even when actions were upgraded you still had reasons to play the unupgraded ones.
Very cool! I haven’t played either of those games but have heard both are great, especially Ark Nova. It was on sale at a store a few months ago and now I’m thinking I should have bought it 🤦♀️
Ark Nova's action selection is so good it makes me wish there's gonna be a San Juan-level super filler game which also uses it, to showcase how powerful the mechanic is without needing Ark Nova's overt complexity (for an otherwise midweight swingy decksifting game)
@@PamWallsGameDesign You can play it on BGA Pam.
With the thousands of games out there, finding originality is quite challenging. I suspect that being a game designer is akin to being a writer; most of the originality comes from expression, putting things together, and adding character that sets one's creation apart. Many of the underlying stories in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones aren't really all that different from so many others, but the way they are put together and presented makes them distinctive. (I'm quite new to board game design and facing what seems to be an overwhelming amount of existing game content, so that thought is part of my coping mechanism. 😉)
That might be part of it, but I do think you need to add something new mechanically, not just thematically, otherwise you’re just reskinning an existing game. But taking inspiration and bits and pieces from different games while adding your own twist can make for some very cool things!
@@PamWallsGameDesign To me, "reskinning an existing game" mostly means copying. (Perhaps, this may be useful as a learning experience in the same way that beginning art students are encouraged to copy "the masters" to learn from them? ) I was thinking more along the lines of assembling theme, structure, and mechanics into a hopefully unique expression ... and, along the way, maybe discovering some unique elements or combination of elements. A lot of the successful games I have seen so far I would consider to be more along the lines of variations, what I term "unique expressions," primarily due to assemblage. Anyway, those are my beginner thoughts while trying to piece together an approach. 🤔 I'll be quiet now...
@SteveRB511 very interesting! I think we might be saying the same thing 😆
From my perspective, it's nigh impossible to set out to design a game and it be exactly like anything else. And so I don't worry too much about it. At the same time, I will not even start to design a game unless I have a good idea. But, very few ideas are truly unique or novel, as you mentioned. There are only 12 notes in music. Yet millions of songs. 26 letters in the alphabet, yet.... It's more about HOW you put it all together, like a composer, not the individual things that you are implementing, that make or break a game.
Tobago, of which I havent played yet, has a neat deduction mechanic where as you hunt for treasure on the island board, the players decide(manipulate via card plays) where it might be near, until it gets to the point, when it becomes obvious where it is, and then it becomes a race to obtain it. Really, there are a few unique mechanics in the game. I really need to get this off my shelf of opportunity already! After playing over 100 or so different games, watching over a thousand videos, etc. I dont feel like ive seen anything like the mechanic ive mentioned.
Learning that you're a fan of Taskmaster was the cherry on top in this video. Absolutely Love Taskmaster and Greg & Alex's chemistry + the show's format.
Yes it is so good!!! Coming up with the tasks would be a dream job :)
Taskmaster is the best show!!! I'd love to go to a live taping. Jealous you got to meet little Alex Horne; I would also be as chill as you! Another great video; looking forward to another of the same theme.
Ah I would love to go to a taping too! I’m sure it’s so much fun and I bet they cut a lot of funny stuff for time. I’m glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!
Before Karuba, "Take it Easy!" used that mechanism where each player populates their board with an identical set of tiles. It's much more abstract--you're just trying to connect same-colored tubes all the way across your board. By the end, you're pretty much breaking every tube you haven't already completed. You won't like this game if you don't like Calico.
Skyrise have great area-bidding system, where you can often end auction in a place which will guarantee instant win on next auction.
Blood on the Clocktower has scripts with different roles for players. Since there are more roles than players, not every role will be present in game, but players don't know which are/aren't. Basic script is called 'Trouble Brewing' and has been modified by addition of Marionette ('String Pulling'). This slight addition changes everything and create vastly different strategy, even if Marionette is not in game.
I have heard great things about Blood on the Clocktower! Their events at cons usually fill up super fast. I’m not a huge fan of social deduction games, but I’ll try it out. And I’ll keep my eye out for Skyrise too! Thanks for sharing those 🙌
Too Many Bones is the best, most expensive game I own (I have all the expansions). There is nothing like it in the world.
Yeah it’s a really cool system and I love the lore they created for it too. I can see how you could get really invested in it! And being able to roll all those dice with a physical copy must be so fun. I’ve only played it digitally online.
Have you tried out Oathsworn?
Far-away a new game that just came out had a deceptively simple mechanic. You play cards left to right but score them right to left. Seems simple at first but gets more interesting as you go.
Also Architects of the west kingdom. It's worker placement but you start with all your workers and you can capture other people's workers. A neat twist on a popular mechanic.
Oohhh that is very cool, sounds like a very interesting puzzle! I’ll keep my eye out for that one, I’d love to try that out.
@@randito2387 ooohhhh yes, I really like that! I’m on a mission to play every worker placement game out there that exists so will add this to my list! Thanks 🙌
The action system in Honga is really interesting: players get round cards that have quadrants, which have 0, 1,2,or 3 hand symbols. If 2 hands are pointing at a resource, you get 2 of those and so forth. So you have to decide both where to place the circle tile and how to orient it.
Oh that sounds so cool!! Even just the idea of circular cards sounds cool, but then also having to figure out the optimal orientation is super interesting. Thanks for sharing 🙌
Very interesting! I'm going to have to try this out. I'm not sure I would have ever come across this game had you not mentioned it so thanks. The way you describe it makes me think of Targi and while I love Targi's mechanisms I don't love its theme/look. I wonder if you've played Targi and can compare them. Honga is definitely more colouful and I like prehistoric themes.
My favorite mechanic lately has been joint missions that the players are trying to fulfill, but no one cashes in until the whole card is done. ive seen a couple that mixes this with a press your luck mechanic and it has you having to choose if you want to complete a hard card that might give a few points to the lead player at the table, just to eek a few points for yourself.
That is very interesting! What was the name of the game that uses this mechanic?
@PamWallsGameDesign moonrollers, which comes out this summer I believe.
Interesting how people only started talking about entwined drafting after Cascadia, when Vinci not only did it back in 1999, but also combined it with the self-balancing market that Century would later use.
@@revimfadli4666 yes, thank you for this! Another person also let me know about Vinci and I talked about it in my camping video, I’ll link to it below. Very cool that the designer of Vinci (Philippe Keyaerts) introduced two very cool mechanics!
I talk about entwined drafting and Vinci starting at about 5:35: ruclips.net/video/w6rBKbR9vtE/видео.htmlsi=y0iNsGujQSxutYZz
I'd really like to know where I can play the simulators for these games. I checked out Tabletop Simulators on Steam, but I can't find the games you list in this video, which sound great! And the physical games are quite pricey for me right now. Any tips? Thanks
All of the games I mentioned can be played on Tabletopia! There’s also Board Game Arena. Let me know if you try them out 🙌
@@PamWallsGameDesign Wowow, thank you!
The card mechanism is Libertalia (2012) may have been based on Mission Red Planet (2005). MRP is a fun area control game, where corporations are sending spaceships and crews to Mars to mine resources. At the start of the turn, each player has the same hand of 9 different character cards and you choose to play one character that turn. The card actions are completed in descending order, and each card's unique power is "stronger" with ascending numbers.
But, I wonder where the designers for Mission Red Planet got their idea :)
Enjoyed the video.
Ah, very interesting! It sounds like the Libertalia designer may have been inspired by that game. I’ll keep my eye out for it, it sounds very cool! Thanks for watching 🙌
Citadels is very likely the answer to your question since Faidutti was a designer of both. I also love that mechanism, but you have to be careful to make it scale well. For example, Vaalbara uses it too, but it scales (down) terribly. And as much as I love Citadels, I don't love it at 2 either.
Man, I really wanted to like the new Libertalia. I love the mechanism tweaks they made to the game, but the anthropomorphic animals were such a turn-off. I'm still tempted to buy it, but I don't know if it's worth it. I should find out how well it scales down to 2.
Great channel Pam. Keep up the game design work.
oh yes and the programmed steps in space--alert which nudge along if you 'stumble' and put the card the wrong way up
I did not expect a Taskmaster reference when I came here but I was not disappointed. Love that show!
@@chadraw9256 omg it’s so good!! What is your favourite season?
@@PamWallsGameDesign Just finished season 17 which was really good. I think 4, 5, and 9 are my favorites. Loved the contestants and some of my favorite tasks. I haven't tried New Zeland or Australian TM yet but those are next until season 18 comes out.
@@chadraw9256 I think season 5 is my favourite too! The songs they came up with and performed is probably my favourite task of all time.
I just discovered your channel. Bad ass!!!!!! Your knowledge of the board game industry, mechanics, board game design is pro!! Thank you! Lots of good board game design tips also I learned the origins of the word Meeple. Awesome content! A+++
It's hard to get the gist of a mechanic like the restrictions in Verdant and Cascadia for example, without more context. Plus I personally find myself lacking in interest in games with such boring themes like animals and potted plants. I love the concept of the dice buffs in Too Many Bones. I rate worker placement just below having a root canal performed through my nasal passage.
Tzolkin definitely has an intriguing mechanic with its rotating cogs.
I would also say the card mechanic in Dominare is incredibly cool and I don’t know why someone hasn’t taken that aspect alone and made a card game out of it. 🤷🏻♂️
I’ll have to check both of those out! Thanks for sharing 🙌
What is this card mechanic in Dominare? I watched Vasel's review on it, but I failed to really understand how it plays. I read BGG's summary and the game does sound interesting.
@@kq76 It’s an oldie, but goodie! One of my top 5 area control/engine builder games.
The cards are all denizens of Dominare and they have various abilities based on their position in front of you. In each round you select a new denizen and add them to the row of denizens you have, from left to right.
The trick comes in deciding what position to put them in. A denizen in the first position (ie all the way to the left of your row) Has a weaker ability that sure would be useful right about now (to build your engine), but if you wait and play them in position 5 (ie wait until round 5) they have a much more powerful ability. The problem is you’ll miss out on 4 rounds of potential benefit he/she would have provided!
These abilities are listed on the card as #s, representing their position in your row. Abilities that are higher than their rank in your row, can’t be played.
As if that wasn’t enough, denizens give you money and influence (the area control side of the game). Also! Certain denizens placed next to other denizens of similar type, grant BONUS resources.
It can get quite “thinky” and it’s awesome! Highly recommended!
@@kq76 oh also, be warned, this IS a confrontational game. You WILL be vying for control of areas in Dominare, taking away influence cubes of opponents (and having your own taken away!). If clashing with other players isn’t your thing, this may not be the game for you.
@@Tennethums1 Oh! Thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, I'm not really into take that games. I don't hate them, but I do prefer games that don't have that mechanism.
Great video!! Thank you
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching 🤗
I think too many new games is a bad thing...
You will get fatigued on games quickly or lose interest.
So many games have deep concepts that you need to play 5+ times through just to understand what makes them really click. A new game a week not only seems unrealistic; I think its a good way to burn out of enjoying gaming, and miss the hidden greatness that some games hold if you move on from them too quickly to the next game.
But to each their own.
How do I play a game with you?
These are "cool mechanics"??
Someone hasn't played a lot of games...
🙄
That’s rude
Huh? Did you just wake up grumpy today or something?
that stupid face thumbnail thing is looked down upon, just saying.
The loaded statement method of issuing feedback removes any actionable quality from it.
The thumbnail was fine for me.
@@Faramous I don't know what that means, but I recently heard from someone linking a video with such a thumbnail that he got downvoted to oblivion, where comments were like we hate such faces in thumbnails because they generate a lot of clicks (and money of course).
OP can do what she wants with this information.
@@kosterix123 What an odd thing to say. 🤔
This comment needs to be downvoted into oblivion
@@kosterix123 I heard from someone that saying you heard from someone that popular things get downvoted is a strange and round about way of saying something. They recommended you just say what you mean. What did you mean? Just saying.