I'd argue the area of Casual games could use an entry for party games (often mixed with drinking games). Also trick taking games are probably a relevant category (be it traditional games like Skat or more modern games like Wizard)
I had a similar thought for "vibes-matching" games which includes things like Pictionary and Taboo but also more board-game-y ones like Wavelength or Mysterium
Eurogames are also called "German-style" because board gaming was super popular in Germany in late 20th C. The lack of direct conflict, as well as the lack of war themes, is for... historical reasons. Can't imagine why Germany wouldn't want to make war look cool and fun...
This is dumb and tbh quite offensive. Germany is not a hive mind, it's a country with over 80 million people, each with their own tastes and preferences. There is no national ban in Germany on war-adjacent products, and even this very video explains how "German" and "American" are not very helpful terms to classify boardgames.
@@xavisiobluttemberg5563 I’m glad you brought this up..cause now I can tell the world just how uniformed you really are… after ww2 Germany’s new chancellor made a law that come Friday afternoon everything in the country had to shutdown..this was meant as repopulation efforts in Germany..so naturally what happened..folks started playing and inventing games in Germany…hence the speil des jahres was born in Germany because of the popularity of games in Germany, an award that started in 1979.
@@xavisiobluttemberg5563the German boardgame culture of the 80s/90s and mostly 2000s is focused on the points they described here. Sure, there was no ban or anything, but making war games was just not part of the German boardgame culture at this point. The links between the designers are quite strong, and conflict was definitely a part of the games, just not open conflict as in "I destroy your army and take your territory". Bidding games for example are in their nature targeting other players with your actions. Btw, not even naming bidding games as a mechanic feels weird, but the mechanic mostly disappeared in the last 10-20 years Edit: he mostly doesn't the seem to like the term ameritrash and that's fair. If you take it as a description for games it's a way to categorize different schools of thought behind game development
I heard the Eurogames were designed in Germany in the 1960/70/80/90's to keep away from Wargames, elimination and dictatorial games, particularly as the end of WW2 was too close and softer competitive, more cooperative strategies became the norm.
My native language is Spanish. We only have the term "juego de mesa" which roughly corresponds to "table-top game", and I was thus surprised to see in this video that there would be things considered "table-top games" but not "board games". In my mind, they were all the same thing.
It makes me a little crazy that, when you tell someone that you are in a boardgaming group, they still think that you get together with other adults to play Monopoly and Risk. At least most people are clued in that, when I say I play video games, they no longer think Pac Man and Asteroids.
Great video and I love the map. Just a few tweaks I'd suggest for it: - Drafting and Deck-building are really two separate mechanics. Drafting has a lot of subset styles (pass and pick, markets, rivers, etc.) and Deck-building (or bag-building or hand-building) usually uses the components purchased (cards, tokens, etc.) as a currency to buy more or to do other actions. Also, Drafting is often about using the drafted item right away, where as Deck-building is about building up a collection of cards or something else that you cycle through that gets stronger as you add to the collection. - You could add "Activity Games" to the Casual realm for games that have players involved in activities like acting things out (charades, Happy Salmon), drawing (Bunny Bunny Moose Moose, Pictionary), etc. - Trick-taking games could be in the Abstract area, near Interaction. - Puzzle Games should be on there somewhere, like Ubongo or escape style games (Unlock! Exit, etc.) - Tiles & Tokens could be their own component group. - Set Collection and Pickup & Deliver are two more groups that could be in the Optimization realm (though P&D could be called a blend of Route Building, Set Collection, and Resource Management) - Action Selection is another big enough mechanical category that I think it should be mentioned (e.g. Puerto Rico, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, etc.) - It might also be worthwhile showing hybrid tabletop/digital games that use apps, etc. to help (Unlock!, Chronicles of Crime, Beasts of Balance, etc.). Maybe as a bridge over to Video Game World...
I really love co-op board games, such as Gloomhaven (and Marvel Champions, which is a card game), where the players get to work together rather than against each other.
I'm really loving a game called So Clover, which is a cooperative word game where you have to give clues based on how these square cards with words on all 4 sides align on a clover. So one side might have "Switzerland" and "Stone", so you could give the clue "mountain," so that everyone else guesses it correctly.
I love your acknowledgement early in the video that the boundaries are fuzzy because board games are creative designs. This is very important. Many players (especially the board game geeks (like yourself) that lack certain (internet) social skills (I presume unlike yourself)) will point out various 'mistakes' or alternatives that your map could or even should show. Nobody truly has the right answers here. Take e.g. Catan: It's a race (first to 10 points). It's area control. It's resource management. Hand management. Trading. For 1-6 players. It's about economy/colony building. It features action cards and hidden information. Dice rolling (oh how we all have hated Catan's dice). It has bonuses. And the various expansions and versions change it even more. In a way it fits in nearly every corner of your map. Based solely on this single example game, one might even argue that your entire map is wrong because the map cannot show where that game belongs. But that argument's wrong. Your map is useful. It doesn't communicate that it is telling the truth. It communicates that this is a creative corner of humankind. Any map reader with a brain will understand that any game could be a combination of things from the map. And that's the beauty of board games (and your map): they're such creative works of art (often!). I mean: you wouldn't lie to close ones in real life. Or murder them. Steal from them. Fight them. But games allow that, and it's fun too. Now that's something.
Mate, I love your videos! It amazes me how clearly you can break down and explain each topic. I'm more of a bioengineering guy, so I can't wait to see a follow-up video to 'The Map of Plants,' That is focusing on mushrooms, which are way more fun. Hope you're having a great day, dude!
The only problem I have with board games is the social aspect of trying to find people interested in the same game in the same physical location, and coordinating what people play which games when there are multiple choices and larger groups than just the amount for one game. As someone on the autism spectrum who loves board games, I've basically given up on them because the social interactions in trying to start games is not something I'm very comfortable with.
There's online options like Board Game Arena which let you play a huge variety of board games with people all around the world! You can play almost all games for free (premium games need to be started by members but you can join one that a member has started) and the membership itself is like $5 a month! Super worth it imo and it's my go to for my phone instead of social media!
Find a local meetup if you can! It's daunting at first, but there is nothing like finding a good group of like minded people. Also, a huge strength of board games is that it can help soften the awkwardness of social interactions.
Same here! Hard to understand people criteria to invite each other, and also don’t know how to behave when win, nor when loose! 😂 Autistics can be very good at board games because of seeing rules. Other people see common sense, it helps them in life, but not in the board games! I hyperfocused for 2 years, then got disappointed with the invitations/social thing, and also lost purpose because when I win I get sad for the others, if I celebrate I sound arrogant, and in coop games I talk too much, can’t help if I like my ideas; so I changed to something else.
@52chances Soften? How so? For me board games make the social awkwardness much more evident. I get super competitive and take it seriously. Later I think “did I offend them?”
That interplay between setting and rules is one of my favorite terms! Ludonarrative consonance describes a piece of media where the two mesh, and ludonarrative dissonance (much more commonly used) is the opposite. Thank you for the video and for the game, whose new home will welcome it!
"Eurogames... generally avoid direct conflict between players" *Shot of Catan* My man, that game has so many direct conflicts between players that it may as well be an all-out war simulator.
I wouldn't say Carcassonne is a Worker Placement game (it's not categorised as such on BGG). I don't know if you are meaning Area Control/Influence when you're talking about this or if another example such as Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep or Stone Age should have been used instead? Other than that, great video and I think this is a great way to show gaming "muggles" what is out there and a bit of why us gamers love board games so much. I think you could easily make many maps within this map. A map of Co-op games, worker placement/movement games, game themes or game weights could all be interesting
100% agree. The defining characteristic of Worker Placement games are limited action spaces that you take by placing your worker on, making it inaccessible to other players. Stone Age would be a much better example of a worker placer game
I initially thought he did it because he wanted to make sure he used a Carcassonne example, but then tile placement came soon afterwards. That said, it's a pretty difficult exercise, and I appreciate him giving it a go.
I feel like the confusion comes from sub-genre. Carcassonne would probably be categorised as a Tile-placement game with worker placement elements. It is probably one of the most well known games in both categories, so I understand why he would use it for both categories as the example.
@@RoloFilmsWell, you place meeples, but they aren't really workers. They're not really doing anything for you other than scoring points. Monopoly is more of a worker placement than Carcassonne; though you don't get to choose where your worker goes.
@@domainofscience Oh, it's black's move, alright. After that first move (1... Rxc7) the solution is still 2. Re8+ Qxe8 3. Rxe8+, Rxe8 4. Bd5+, you just (eventually) mate on f7 with the bishop instead of the queen.
As a map lover and board game enthusiast I love this idea. I will say, though, that Codenames is not as much a word game as it is a guessing game, like charades and pictionary. I associate word games more with manipulating letters and words. Like Hardback or Scrabble. Also, in the play style section, I would add team games.
Really appreciate this take on outlining this hobby I love and all of the hard work that you put into it. That said, just wanted to mention a couple small corrections with respect to how enthusiasts refer to different games and one added category: - I've never heard anyone refer to Carcassonne as a worker placement game, though I see what you mean by describing it as such. Typically, games like Stone Age, Lords of Waterdeep, Caylus, and Agricola are put forth as entry-level and/or representative examples of the genre. - Similarly, I've never heard anyone refer to 7 Wonders as a deckbuilder. It's considered one of the earliest and iconic examples of a modern drafting game, where the hands of cards are passed between players with each player claiming a card from their hand before passing. Dominion is definitely the definitive example of a deckbuilder, but other clear examples include Quest for El Dorado, Ascension, Dune: Imperium (also a worker placement), or Great Western Trail (also using a rondel, a common and beloved mechanic in Euro-style games). - I know there are way more mechanics out there than can be reasonably showcased in a single video, but if I had to point out one notable gap, it’d be that of “X and Write” games. They take the core loop of Yahtzee as a basis for design and then iterate upon it, which has proven to be immensely popular. Beyond Yahtzee, other notable examples would be games like That’s Pretty Clever (more commonly known in its German name, Ganz Schön Clever), Welcome To, and Railroad Ink. Thanks for the video!
Fun thing about board games/wargames/roleplaying games - the early pioneers of RPGs were campaign wargamers, many of whom were inspired by Diplomacy, which here you've categorized as a board game! It all dovetails together, especially when innovation is involved.
I love the illustrations on all of these, they're super fun! all the players are very expressive, the scenarios they're in are creative yet immediately recognizable, ... and also now I want to know whether a Leman Russ Battle Tank beats a dragonrider on a red dragon! :D
The big thing I think you missed is "drafting", or perhaps a whole category of "execution", describing the specific way to handle randomness or release of information or replayability.
Thank you for the map, this is great for all fans of board games. And you need to teach us more about your skills to make a boardgame in such a way you did. My prints tend to look a bit dull compared to your shiny ones. Cheers!
My favorites: 1. Alchemists 2. Ticket to Ride (any board!) 3. Formula D 4. Camel Up ...and past favorites that I've worn out: • Killer Bunnies and the Conquest of the Magic Carrot - every card is started to peel the protective film. • Sequence - multiple copies were worn through!
I didn't see this mentioned in the comments, but I think a relevant category and one that I love are speed games. Like Ligretto, Dobbel, Jungle Speed etc
This is a real contender for nerdiest video I've seen 😅. Excellent work though as usual, as always, I love your maps and its fun to see games organized this way
In the 80s, in North America, there were a number of wargames put out by a company called Avalon Hill. I believe they were responsible for Diplomacy. However, they weren't all wargames as in miniature battles. They also made use of resource management, cards, trade, etc. Really, they were the only games available besides games such as monopoly, risk, etc. And RPGs. It is sad to me to see how utterly they have been forgotten.
the algorithm brought me here and I have no regrets. The video was entertaining. I have no interest in buying your map though. BUT... I found out about your game, checked your "stabbin' in the cabin - rules explanation" video, and ended up ordering your game. It seems real fun. Congratulations on the design and conception. Our players group is regularly 8-10 people, this will be an excellent new option to a rather short list of games that work with so many players. I have to say it comes at a quite expensive price for someone living in Belgium (transport and taxes), but I guess that is the price of Exception ! 🙂
Something I was expecting to see just at the end, along with co-op and asymmetric are simultaneous play games, like Robo Rally (or even Diplomacy if my memory is correct), where players make decisions in secret and then reveal plans simultaneously, causing a sequence of events with often unpredictable outcomes. This is very counter to classic turn-based game setups.
it's interesting because Scotland Yard in my country is a different game where you enter each place and get a clue to solve the murder case (which comes as a short story at the begging of the game)
Cosmic Encounters is very fun when you do 2/3 powers, The standard 1 power rule is fun/recommended, but if you have played it a lot, 2-3 powers is very bonkers/fun.
seven years ago, my friend took me to a board game convention here in central usa. I played my very first game of Dungeons and Dragons that day. I won. I nailed them when I planted a hotel on Boardwalk. About halfway through they thought that they had me with high, jack and game, but I put my straight flush against their dice and had their Bishop ready to convert.
I wonder if you'd also categorize a game series like "Civilization" and similar ones somewhere on the outskirts of this map since it's technically a turn-based game that works in tiles and with resources and such. I feel like it combines a ton of tabletop game stuff in digital form and can be played with others the same way.
The only games I have are Cosmic Encounter, Root and Onitama. Your table was only "missing" Onitama! Speaking of, I think it's a solid example of an abstract game that just has a hint of theme to help sell the concept; "chess, but martial arts" or "martial arts in the form of chess".
Great video but a little correction here the first board game ever which we have rules for is the royal game of Ur originating from the namesake sumerian citystate of Ur. I actually bought a copy from the british museum and its like a more fast paced version of backgammon.
Yeah I looked into this and I think the royal game of ur is the oldest game we have the rules for, but evidence for senet is older, we just don't have the rules. And there is good evidence people were playing games 30,000 years ago with radomisers like 2 sided shells that people threw, although we don't know if these were for games or for divination. I wanted to put all this in the video, but could fit it into 20 mins. But yeah, you are right, the royal game of Ur is the oldest game for which we have rules :)
Oh, I love this video ❤ I love maps, I love games, and I love analysing different fields of interest. Fantastic map! 👍 If shipping costs to the EU weren't exploding at the moment, I would love to order one. Your new deduction murder game also sounds like a lot of fun. 🗡 I wonder what a game with ALL of these components/mechanisms would look like. I own boardgames, where you have to fulfill different (dexterity, memory, knowledge, creativity) tasks to advance in a (choose your own adventure) story on the board. Add some strategic elements and resources, and you would get a very multilayered - and probably unplayable - game. 😅
Good on you for doing your own art. It looks good, and it cuts out leverage publishing companies can use when negotiating contracts. Did you publish it, or did you go through a publisher?
A really nice and creative video idea. I have never thought of DND not being a board game, but something different. For classic board games Dominion or Catan Cardgame are my favorites. I love deckbuilding :D
HeroQuest is absolutely my jam. I saw Root in the store a couple weeks ago and considered buying it just because I love anthropomorphic animals and fantasy theming, especially together.
4:49 I wish more people tookaway from The Landlords Game that the solution the designer was advocating was Georgism. The best economic theory yet to be tried.
wow I thought this was a parody of the channel that does maps. But this is the channel! I love board games thank you! I'll buy that of yours game it looks fun.
Another interesting category is single use board games, such as the escape room board games where in order to escape you have to make permanent changes to the content.
@@domainofscience Otherwise I really like the rest of map. You also explained very well why I get a different feel from roleplaying and war games! I also realize some of the categories can be applied more broadly (engine building to tableau building, though they aren't necessarily synonymous) and deck building to pool building (since some games use bags of tiles instead)
17:50 I think a good addition to gameplay would be Spotlight/Judge/All vs One all (being encompassed in a single category) where it is not Solo nor Coop nor Party game, it is its own thing
Paper pencil games are so wide open, I used to play one where each team would draw space ships then some asteroid and we would balance pens on their tip and kind of flick them to try to dodge asteroids and shoot your opponents ships. Also graph paper makes battleship a great paper pencil games. Loved that you threw magic with gambling, very telling (though I love a $10 poker night) I mostly play chess, but I love bughouse for a bit of extra randomness. Did you miss playing card games? Solitaire is my grandma's favorite single player.
I think you missed a common interaction "take that" a catch all term for appling a negative effect againts an opponet. Usually done with a randomly dealt set of cards a great example is flap jacks and sasquatch full of cards that benifit you or negitivly effect someone else.
Next you could take your basic game elements and give them "weights" that locate them in a multidimensional grid that would be impossible to visualize but could be used (with the help of a computer) to answer questions of "distance" between games. For example, "What are the five games that are most like Risk?" Or "If you like X, then you should like Y because it is mechanically similar but with a different theme," etc. These days, developing such a grid would probably be relatively easy with the help of AI. Ultimately, the assignment of weights would have some subjective element so there would not be just one objectively correct answer to every distance question, but seeing the AI's answers would be interesting, and you'd probably discover some new games and/or similarities/differences between games that you never thought of before. You might even discover new "continents" of games that have been mostly unexplored by game developers.
great video! love the idea and drawing. and fair that u cant put everything there and its a good overview. things i would suggest for a 2.0 version - make it X Builder (as Bag Building is a thing too), maybe add Boss Battlers as new one and maybe mention the point salad concept somewhere. if u wanna do another, one for board game mechanical/component terms would be fun.
I'd argue the area of Casual games could use an entry for party games (often mixed with drinking games).
Also trick taking games are probably a relevant category (be it traditional games like Skat or more modern games like Wizard)
I had a similar thought for "vibes-matching" games which includes things like Pictionary and Taboo but also more board-game-y ones like Wavelength or Mysterium
Cards against humanity type games could fall under party games
Eurogames are also called "German-style" because board gaming was super popular in Germany in late 20th C. The lack of direct conflict, as well as the lack of war themes, is for... historical reasons. Can't imagine why Germany wouldn't want to make war look cool and fun...
Original German games had a high level of player interaction and were quite simple..
This is dumb and tbh quite offensive. Germany is not a hive mind, it's a country with over 80 million people, each with their own tastes and preferences. There is no national ban in Germany on war-adjacent products, and even this very video explains how "German" and "American" are not very helpful terms to classify boardgames.
@@xavisiobluttemberg5563 I’m glad you brought this up..cause now I can tell the world just how uniformed you really are… after ww2 Germany’s new chancellor made a law that come Friday afternoon everything in the country had to shutdown..this was meant as repopulation efforts in Germany..so naturally what happened..folks started playing and inventing games in Germany…hence the speil des jahres was born in Germany because of the popularity of games in Germany, an award that started in 1979.
@@xavisiobluttemberg5563the German boardgame culture of the 80s/90s and mostly 2000s is focused on the points they described here. Sure, there was no ban or anything, but making war games was just not part of the German boardgame culture at this point. The links between the designers are quite strong, and conflict was definitely a part of the games, just not open conflict as in "I destroy your army and take your territory". Bidding games for example are in their nature targeting other players with your actions.
Btw, not even naming bidding games as a mechanic feels weird, but the mechanic mostly disappeared in the last 10-20 years
Edit: he mostly doesn't the seem to like the term ameritrash and that's fair. If you take it as a description for games it's a way to categorize different schools of thought behind game development
@@Hoellenseher I 100% agree. I was only criticizing the sentence "the lack of war themes is for historical reasons".
I heard the Eurogames were designed in Germany in the 1960/70/80/90's to keep away from Wargames, elimination and dictatorial games, particularly as the end of WW2 was too close and softer competitive, more cooperative strategies became the norm.
Worked out well for you guys. Hi from the US, we could have used more of that. 😢
source?
Wiki maybe?
After ww2 Germany passed a law where everything had to shutdown on Friday afternoon..for many decades everyone stayed home on the weekends
I’ve always thought of the genre as “table top games” seems to encompass more types of games than board games.
My native language is Spanish. We only have the term "juego de mesa" which roughly corresponds to "table-top game", and I was thus surprised to see in this video that there would be things considered "table-top games" but not "board games". In my mind, they were all the same thing.
In Russian we say "настольные игры" instead of "board games", which basically means tabletop games
It makes me a little crazy that, when you tell someone that you are in a boardgaming group, they still think that you get together with other adults to play Monopoly and Risk. At least most people are clued in that, when I say I play video games, they no longer think Pac Man and Asteroids.
lol - unfortunately when I say I'm playing video games, they think I'm playing WoW so I often have to say "retro video games"
@@udance4ever and THEN they think Pac Man and Asteroids
"Chance & Counters" is a PERFECT name for a board game cafe! Props to whoever came up with that one.
Great video and I love the map. Just a few tweaks I'd suggest for it:
- Drafting and Deck-building are really two separate mechanics. Drafting has a lot of subset styles (pass and pick, markets, rivers, etc.) and Deck-building (or bag-building or hand-building) usually uses the components purchased (cards, tokens, etc.) as a currency to buy more or to do other actions. Also, Drafting is often about using the drafted item right away, where as Deck-building is about building up a collection of cards or something else that you cycle through that gets stronger as you add to the collection.
- You could add "Activity Games" to the Casual realm for games that have players involved in activities like acting things out (charades, Happy Salmon), drawing (Bunny Bunny Moose Moose, Pictionary), etc.
- Trick-taking games could be in the Abstract area, near Interaction.
- Puzzle Games should be on there somewhere, like Ubongo or escape style games (Unlock! Exit, etc.)
- Tiles & Tokens could be their own component group.
- Set Collection and Pickup & Deliver are two more groups that could be in the Optimization realm (though P&D could be called a blend of Route Building, Set Collection, and Resource Management)
- Action Selection is another big enough mechanical category that I think it should be mentioned (e.g. Puerto Rico, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, etc.)
- It might also be worthwhile showing hybrid tabletop/digital games that use apps, etc. to help (Unlock!, Chronicles of Crime, Beasts of Balance, etc.). Maybe as a bridge over to Video Game World...
I really love co-op board games, such as Gloomhaven (and Marvel Champions, which is a card game), where the players get to work together rather than against each other.
I don't. It's not enough for me to succeed, others must fail
I'm really loving a game called So Clover, which is a cooperative word game where you have to give clues based on how these square cards with words on all 4 sides align on a clover. So one side might have "Switzerland" and "Stone", so you could give the clue "mountain," so that everyone else guesses it correctly.
@@stoopidapples1596Yeah, it's a great game !
I wish co-op games were more common, and that there were better ones. It seems harder to create though.
I love your acknowledgement early in the video that the boundaries are fuzzy because board games are creative designs. This is very important. Many players (especially the board game geeks (like yourself) that lack certain (internet) social skills (I presume unlike yourself)) will point out various 'mistakes' or alternatives that your map could or even should show.
Nobody truly has the right answers here.
Take e.g. Catan:
It's a race (first to 10 points). It's area control. It's resource management. Hand management. Trading. For 1-6 players. It's about economy/colony building. It features action cards and hidden information. Dice rolling (oh how we all have hated Catan's dice). It has bonuses. And the various expansions and versions change it even more. In a way it fits in nearly every corner of your map. Based solely on this single example game, one might even argue that your entire map is wrong because the map cannot show where that game belongs. But that argument's wrong. Your map is useful. It doesn't communicate that it is telling the truth. It communicates that this is a creative corner of humankind.
Any map reader with a brain will understand that any game could be a combination of things from the map. And that's the beauty of board games (and your map): they're such creative works of art (often!). I mean: you wouldn't lie to close ones in real life. Or murder them. Steal from them. Fight them. But games allow that, and it's fun too. Now that's something.
Mate, I love your videos! It amazes me how clearly you can break down and explain each topic. I'm more of a bioengineering guy, so I can't wait to see a follow-up video to 'The Map of Plants,' That is focusing on mushrooms, which are way more fun. Hope you're having a great day, dude!
I might be working on it ;)
Happy to see solo / cooperative games mentioned! It's definitely a growing area that is gaining more legitimacy among board gamers!
The only problem I have with board games is the social aspect of trying to find people interested in the same game in the same physical location, and coordinating what people play which games when there are multiple choices and larger groups than just the amount for one game. As someone on the autism spectrum who loves board games, I've basically given up on them because the social interactions in trying to start games is not something I'm very comfortable with.
There's online options like Board Game Arena which let you play a huge variety of board games with people all around the world! You can play almost all games for free (premium games need to be started by members but you can join one that a member has started) and the membership itself is like $5 a month! Super worth it imo and it's my go to for my phone instead of social media!
Find a local meetup if you can! It's daunting at first, but there is nothing like finding a good group of like minded people. Also, a huge strength of board games is that it can help soften the awkwardness of social interactions.
Same here! Hard to understand people criteria to invite each other, and also don’t know how to behave when win, nor when loose! 😂
Autistics can be very good at board games because of seeing rules. Other people see common sense, it helps them in life, but not in the board games!
I hyperfocused for 2 years, then got disappointed with the invitations/social thing, and also lost purpose because when I win I get sad for the others, if I celebrate I sound arrogant, and in coop games I talk too much, can’t help if I like my ideas; so I changed to something else.
@52chances Soften? How so? For me board games make the social awkwardness much more evident. I get super competitive and take it seriously. Later I think “did I offend them?”
There's a lot of great solo board games now. That's how I get around the problems you describe these days. It's different but still fun.
I love your map videos! Really breaks things down nicely.
Grear classification! Thank you, sir.
Hey thanks so much, much appreciated!
Board games that survive for enough time began to become more abstract. Chess was an thematic wargame, nos chess is chess, its an theme in itself.
That interplay between setting and rules is one of my favorite terms! Ludonarrative consonance describes a piece of media where the two mesh, and ludonarrative dissonance (much more commonly used) is the opposite.
Thank you for the video and for the game, whose new home will welcome it!
"Eurogames... generally avoid direct conflict between players"
*Shot of Catan*
My man, that game has so many direct conflicts between players that it may as well be an all-out war simulator.
The point is that it’s not a war game like chess or go is, not that it doesn’t involve conflict between players
Catan not causing conflict is like calling Codenames "casual" lol
I wouldn't say Carcassonne is a Worker Placement game (it's not categorised as such on BGG). I don't know if you are meaning Area Control/Influence when you're talking about this or if another example such as Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep or Stone Age should have been used instead?
Other than that, great video and I think this is a great way to show gaming "muggles" what is out there and a bit of why us gamers love board games so much.
I think you could easily make many maps within this map. A map of Co-op games, worker placement/movement games, game themes or game weights could all be interesting
100% agree. The defining characteristic of Worker Placement games are limited action spaces that you take by placing your worker on, making it inaccessible to other players. Stone Age would be a much better example of a worker placer game
I initially thought he did it because he wanted to make sure he used a Carcassonne example, but then tile placement came soon afterwards. That said, it's a pretty difficult exercise, and I appreciate him giving it a go.
I feel like the confusion comes from sub-genre. Carcassonne would probably be categorised as a Tile-placement game with worker placement elements. It is probably one of the most well known games in both categories, so I understand why he would use it for both categories as the example.
@@RoloFilmsit isn't worker placement though, it's area control.
@@RoloFilmsWell, you place meeples, but they aren't really workers. They're not really doing anything for you other than scoring points. Monopoly is more of a worker placement than Carcassonne; though you don't get to choose where your worker goes.
I like to include "speed" games as a subset of dexterity games. Slap Jack, Nertz, Spot It, Ricochet Robots, Pit, The Crew...
1:57 Solution: 1. Re8+, Qxe8 2. Rxe8+, Rxe8 3. Bd5+, Rxd5 4. Qf7#
Ha! I knew I had to make it a real position 😁 The previous shot is the first move
@@domainofscience Oh, it's black's move, alright. After that first move (1... Rxc7) the solution is still 2. Re8+ Qxe8 3. Rxe8+, Rxe8 4. Bd5+, you just (eventually) mate on f7 with the bishop instead of the queen.
Totally love this. You always put so much thought and effort into your maps. And i can tell this subject really matters to you.
I would love this to be a series! Would love to know about more categories in this way!
back again with an amazing content!!
As a map lover and board game enthusiast I love this idea. I will say, though, that Codenames is not as much a word game as it is a guessing game, like charades and pictionary. I associate word games more with manipulating letters and words. Like Hardback or Scrabble. Also, in the play style section, I would add team games.
Really appreciate this take on outlining this hobby I love and all of the hard work that you put into it.
That said, just wanted to mention a couple small corrections with respect to how enthusiasts refer to different games and one added category:
- I've never heard anyone refer to Carcassonne as a worker placement game, though I see what you mean by describing it as such. Typically, games like Stone Age, Lords of Waterdeep, Caylus, and Agricola are put forth as entry-level and/or representative examples of the genre.
- Similarly, I've never heard anyone refer to 7 Wonders as a deckbuilder. It's considered one of the earliest and iconic examples of a modern drafting game, where the hands of cards are passed between players with each player claiming a card from their hand before passing. Dominion is definitely the definitive example of a deckbuilder, but other clear examples include Quest for El Dorado, Ascension, Dune: Imperium (also a worker placement), or Great Western Trail (also using a rondel, a common and beloved mechanic in Euro-style games).
- I know there are way more mechanics out there than can be reasonably showcased in a single video, but if I had to point out one notable gap, it’d be that of “X and Write” games. They take the core loop of Yahtzee as a basis for design and then iterate upon it, which has proven to be immensely popular. Beyond Yahtzee, other notable examples would be games like That’s Pretty Clever (more commonly known in its German name, Ganz Schön Clever), Welcome To, and Railroad Ink.
Thanks for the video!
Love seeing you put effort into making sure your game is more accessible!
Thanks man! Brilliant mapping of board games. Thanks for spending the time to put together all that knowledge and artwork. Great inspiration!!!
Fun thing about board games/wargames/roleplaying games - the early pioneers of RPGs were campaign wargamers, many of whom were inspired by Diplomacy, which here you've categorized as a board game! It all dovetails together, especially when innovation is involved.
I love the illustrations on all of these, they're super fun! all the players are very expressive, the scenarios they're in are creative yet immediately recognizable, ... and also now I want to know whether a Leman Russ Battle Tank beats a dragonrider on a red dragon! :D
The big thing I think you missed is "drafting", or perhaps a whole category of "execution", describing the specific way to handle randomness or release of information or replayability.
The more I watched this video, the more I appreciated what you have done here. Amazing. Thank you!
Quite a fun video! Very interesting and informative. Thank you.
This video is the kind i never knew i needed
Thank you for the map, this is great for all fans of board games. And you need to teach us more about your skills to make a boardgame in such a way you did. My prints tend to look a bit dull compared to your shiny ones. Cheers!
My favorites:
1. Alchemists
2. Ticket to Ride (any board!)
3. Formula D
4. Camel Up
...and past favorites that I've worn out:
• Killer Bunnies and the Conquest of the Magic Carrot - every card is started to peel the protective film.
• Sequence - multiple copies were worn through!
THE MESSIAH HAS RETURNED
Man i love your videos, i even showed my wife all your videos, but never did i imagine you'd make such a video lmao
I didn't see this mentioned in the comments, but I think a relevant category and one that I love are speed games. Like Ligretto, Dobbel, Jungle Speed etc
What a great intro to board game design! And congrats on designing your own game 🙌 Thanks for the fun video 😊
As soon as you said, “I made my own game in this realm” I got so excited!
Please Please Please do a Psychology map, it's gonna be Huge!
Yeah that would be cool
Wow I've been following your channel for a while now, didn't expect to see a map of board games! Love them. Never looked back at video games
Thanks for the presentation about the nice map...i iust order it... greetings from Germany. 😀
I really like the challenge you put yourself through!
Categorising this "new" domain!
It definetly meets expectaions. Its like a 2D Projection of a hyperplane in a grpah of all games there are
This was such a fun video. And I love the map that you made. 😁👍🏼
this was really interesting! thank you for putting this together!
This is a real contender for nerdiest video I've seen 😅. Excellent work though as usual, as always, I love your maps and its fun to see games organized this way
And "the Cones of Dunshire" is the epitome of board games, where it somehow connects each and every element (besides themes) on this map.
It's all about the cones.
Haven’t heard of it, could you describe the game
Great video! I never knew board games are map worthy!
(Btw, Can you make psychology map?)
Great map and great introduction to the world of modern board games!!
Action selection in my opinion is a broader parent, with worker placement being one mechanism for it, along with dice selection/placement, etc.
Dude, this is awesome, it's all I ever wanted!
In the 80s, in North America, there were a number of wargames put out by a company called Avalon Hill. I believe they were responsible for Diplomacy. However, they weren't all wargames as in miniature battles. They also made use of resource management, cards, trade, etc. Really, they were the only games available besides games such as monopoly, risk, etc. And RPGs. It is sad to me to see how utterly they have been forgotten.
Gambling being right next to the TCGs should qualify as art.
this video is actually a valuable resource for board game designers. thanks!
Really glad to have sat through this video whilst I'm sleeving Slay the Spire, really well catergorised.
the algorithm brought me here and I have no regrets. The video was entertaining. I have no interest in buying your map though. BUT... I found out about your game, checked your "stabbin' in the cabin - rules explanation" video, and ended up ordering your game. It seems real fun.
Congratulations on the design and conception.
Our players group is regularly 8-10 people, this will be an excellent new option to a rather short list of games that work with so many players.
I have to say it comes at a quite expensive price for someone living in Belgium (transport and taxes), but I guess that is the price of Exception ! 🙂
19:01 for full map
Something I was expecting to see just at the end, along with co-op and asymmetric are simultaneous play games, like Robo Rally (or even Diplomacy if my memory is correct), where players make decisions in secret and then reveal plans simultaneously, causing a sequence of events with often unpredictable outcomes. This is very counter to classic turn-based game setups.
it's interesting because Scotland Yard in my country is a different game where you enter each place and get a clue to solve the murder case (which comes as a short story at the begging of the game)
As an avid hobby boardgamer, I approve of this video.
Cosmic Encounters is very fun when you do 2/3 powers, The standard 1 power rule is fun/recommended, but if you have played it a lot, 2-3 powers is very bonkers/fun.
Building maps like these is a fun game.
seven years ago, my friend took me to a board game convention here in central usa. I played my very first game of Dungeons and Dragons that day. I won. I nailed them when I planted a hotel on Boardwalk. About halfway through they thought that they had me with high, jack and game, but I put my straight flush against their dice and had their Bishop ready to convert.
You really had me when you said "I won"
… well played ;)
Oh, Man! A lot of work! Well thought out. Thank you!
Fun video! I do think games with an auctioning mechanic would be deserving of a spot given its unique and frequent role in games.
This is amazing - i wondered about this and know i get a summarization via video :-D
Has hecho un mapa espectacularrrr! Me encanta usar juegos en mis clases jeje Quizá pruebo algunos de los que mencionas
That presentation was actually quite well mapped out. Haha!
But seriously, well laid out and well conveyed information.
I'm in a happy place whenever Dom uploads.
I wonder if you'd also categorize a game series like "Civilization" and similar ones somewhere on the outskirts of this map since it's technically a turn-based game that works in tiles and with resources and such. I feel like it combines a ton of tabletop game stuff in digital form and can be played with others the same way.
I think an implicit basic requirement in this map is it being to be played non difitally, at a table
Seeing Ticket to Ride had so much nostalgia boil up... I won that game so often that my family still refuses to play again.
The only games I have are Cosmic Encounter, Root and Onitama. Your table was only "missing" Onitama! Speaking of, I think it's a solid example of an abstract game that just has a hint of theme to help sell the concept; "chess, but martial arts" or "martial arts in the form of chess".
"Memory games like Memory test people's memory."
Poetry sir, true poetry
Great video but a little correction here the first board game ever which we have rules for is the royal game of Ur originating from the namesake sumerian citystate of Ur. I actually bought a copy from the british museum and its like a more fast paced version of backgammon.
Yeah I looked into this and I think the royal game of ur is the oldest game we have the rules for, but evidence for senet is older, we just don't have the rules. And there is good evidence people were playing games 30,000 years ago with radomisers like 2 sided shells that people threw, although we don't know if these were for games or for divination. I wanted to put all this in the video, but could fit it into 20 mins. But yeah, you are right, the royal game of Ur is the oldest game for which we have rules :)
@domainofscience İ looked it up and you are right according to the british museum we have older dates reagrding senet. Sorry for the misinfo
Oh, I love this video ❤ I love maps, I love games, and I love analysing different fields of interest. Fantastic map! 👍
If shipping costs to the EU weren't exploding at the moment, I would love to order one.
Your new deduction murder game also sounds like a lot of fun. 🗡
I wonder what a game with ALL of these components/mechanisms would look like. I own boardgames, where you have to fulfill different (dexterity, memory, knowledge, creativity) tasks to advance in a (choose your own adventure) story on the board. Add some strategic elements and resources, and you would get a very multilayered - and probably unplayable - game. 😅
Good on you for doing your own art. It looks good, and it cuts out leverage publishing companies can use when negotiating contracts. Did you publish it, or did you go through a publisher?
Would love to see a Map of Music, but I guess this could be quite hard. Love ya videos!! 😊
I was hoping for a mention of card games or more specifically trick taking games like hearts, spades, bridge and all the modern ones too
A really nice and creative video idea.
I have never thought of DND not being a board game, but something different.
For classic board games Dominion or Catan Cardgame are my favorites. I love deckbuilding :D
HeroQuest is absolutely my jam.
I saw Root in the store a couple weeks ago and considered buying it just because I love anthropomorphic animals and fantasy theming, especially together.
4:49 I wish more people tookaway from The Landlords Game that the solution the designer was advocating was Georgism. The best economic theory yet to be tried.
wow I thought this was a parody of the channel that does maps. But this is the channel! I love board games thank you! I'll buy that of yours game it looks fun.
Hey thanks, yeah this one was a bit out of left field haha
Really informative vid nice one 👌🏼
Please do a map of video game genres next❤❤❤ i love your maps youre one of the most anticipated youtubers even though you dont upload that often.
@@PhillipAmthor hey thanks Phillip
Another game type I really like is the simultaneous play games vs turn based games, examples of the first are Quacks, Sushi go, and Nevermore
Another interesting category is single use board games, such as the escape room board games where in order to escape you have to make permanent changes to the content.
Blood Bowl! Classic. Cosmic Encounters is probably my all time favorite.
Very nice Map design thanks for sharing
Was disappointed hidden piece games like Stratego and luzhanqi wasnt given its own category since that's one of my favourite mechanics!
Oo I don't know this, I'll have to look it up, thanks!
@@domainofscience Otherwise I really like the rest of map. You also explained very well why I get a different feel from roleplaying and war games! I also realize some of the categories can be applied more broadly (engine building to tableau building, though they aren't necessarily synonymous) and deck building to pool building (since some games use bags of tiles instead)
17:50 I think a good addition to gameplay would be Spotlight/Judge/All vs One all (being encompassed in a single category) where it is not Solo nor Coop nor Party game, it is its own thing
Paper pencil games are so wide open, I used to play one where each team would draw space ships then some asteroid and we would balance pens on their tip and kind of flick them to try to dodge asteroids and shoot your opponents ships. Also graph paper makes battleship a great paper pencil games.
Loved that you threw magic with gambling, very telling (though I love a $10 poker night)
I mostly play chess, but I love bughouse for a bit of extra randomness.
Did you miss playing card games? Solitaire is my grandma's favorite single player.
The map looks really great ! I hope that wasn't too time consuming to make
Thinking of Twister, jacks, tiddlywinks, Chinese Checkers, and Racko as games with flat surfaces, spinners, marbles, and/or card racks.
Wow! Board games.. you chose a difficult set of elements to categorize and map this round.. well played.
I think you missed a common interaction "take that" a catch all term for appling a negative effect againts an opponet. Usually done with a randomly dealt set of cards a great example is flap jacks and sasquatch full of cards that benifit you or negitivly effect someone else.
I was waiting for real-time games to be mentioned. Shoutout to Captain Solar 19:04
Next you could take your basic game elements and give them "weights" that locate them in a multidimensional grid that would be impossible to visualize but could be used (with the help of a computer) to answer questions of "distance" between games. For example, "What are the five games that are most like Risk?" Or "If you like X, then you should like Y because it is mechanically similar but with a different theme," etc. These days, developing such a grid would probably be relatively easy with the help of AI. Ultimately, the assignment of weights would have some subjective element so there would not be just one objectively correct answer to every distance question, but seeing the AI's answers would be interesting, and you'd probably discover some new games and/or similarities/differences between games that you never thought of before. You might even discover new "continents" of games that have been mostly unexplored by game developers.
As a child I used to think they were bored games not board games, because you pulled one out when you were bored to cure the malaise of it.
great video! love the idea and drawing. and fair that u cant put everything there and its a good overview.
things i would suggest for a 2.0 version - make it X Builder (as Bag Building is a thing too), maybe add Boss Battlers as new one and maybe mention the point salad concept somewhere.
if u wanna do another, one for board game mechanical/component terms would be fun.