Introduction to Board Game Design
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Board Game Design Presentation - Final Project
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Types of Games
Worker Placement Games
Think of this one as a slower and more strategic game of musical chairs. There are only so many spaces out there, and you need to get to yours before someone else does. Except you're not the one jumping into the chair, you're sending a dedicated worker, toiling away to help you accomplish your objectives, and instead of a chair, it's usually a territory on a board. In Agricola, for example, players take turns placing their family members on action spaces in an attempt to grow more food, raise more animals and generally acquire more resources than their competitors. Getting to the prime real estate results in choking your competition off, leading to some strategic blocking. It's a result of this strategic blocking that Worker Placement Games can get quite competitive and heated. Who Will Love Worker Placement Games People who like strong themes and stories, deploying resources, managing and manipulating variables, people who like trying various, usually non violent strategies to win! Notable Worker Placement Games Agricola, Keydom, Stone Age, Lords of Waterdeep, Caverna: The Cave Farmers, Le Harve. |
Cooperative Board Games
Cooperative Board Games are all about teamwork. Everyone works together as a team and either wins or loses; it's that simple. In Pandemic for example, players take on a variety of rolls with different abilities to work together to save the world from a series of deadly diseases and it takes every ounce of of coordination and planning you can muster to avoid an extinction-level-event from destroying the human population. Who Will Love Cooperative Board Games Obviously non-competitive types! People that like team work, people that do not like to have a single winner. This is the game for the enthusiastic optimists, and highly social players, though there can be some lively debates on what course of action to take, so influence and persuasion play a definite role. Notable Cooperative Board Games Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert, Lord of the Rings, Arkham Horror, Mole Rats in Space, Mysterium. |
Deck Building Games
Deck Building Games have players start with a set number of cards (or resources) that grow, change and upgrade through the course of the game. Buried within these decks is usually a reusable currency that can be used to purchase additional, more powerful cards. Players focus on building and optimizing their deck to gain maximum value and utility out of each hand. This process is known as Engine Building. Games typically move briskly and have a pleasant sense of acceleration and achievement as play progresses and the real fun comes from figuring out how different cards interact with one another to come up with a winning, finely tuned strategy. Who Will Love Deck-Building Games Strategists who love optimization and trying different combinations to maximize scoring, there is also a collecting aspect to the game as expansions and evolving rules are sure to follow the base set. Notable Deck-Building Games Dominion, Roll for the Galaxy, Clank!, Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game, Mage Knight, Concordia, Star Realms, Above and Below. |
Area Control Games
Area control games typically have a military theme. The most-well known example is probably Risk, but there have been countless refinements in the decades since. Twilight Struggle, for example throws out the World War combat dynamics of Risk in favor of Cold War-era influence and political intrigue with no outright conflict. Not all area control games are military themed - Carcassone forgoes any sort of overt conflict whatsoever in favor of leisurely puzzle like building of a medieval town and countryside. Who Will Love Area Control Board Games People who dream of building great empires or conquering the world or expanding their territory to cover the entire table top in a glorious campaign of domination. Notable Area Control Board Games Risk, Star Wars: Rebellion, Twilight Struggle, Blood Rage, Scythe, El Grande, Eclipse, War of The Ring, Carcassone, Smash Up. |
Secret Identity Games
You trust your friends, right? Well two of them are working together, lying to your face in attempt to crush you right now. Deception and betrayal is the name of the game in Secret Identity Games. There has been a giant surge in this game genre with the likes of Coup and various iterations of Werewolf becoming immensely popular over the past few years. Perhaps more so than any other game genre, Secret Identity Games have been aided by technology. What used to cause either excessive memorization of rules and scripts or sacrificing a potential player to the role of narrator can now by solved with a simple app. Who Will Love Secret Identity Games Poker players, mystery solvers, flexible debaters and tricksters will love secret identity games - they are also usually rules light and easy for larger groups to play in a variety of settings. Notable Secret Identity Games Mafia, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Code Names, Battlestar Galactica, Two Rooms and a Boom, The Resistance. |
Legacy Games
Rip up those cards. Write on the board. Open a secret envelope. Things change in Legacy Games. Permanently. The most exciting and controversial new game genre in memory, Legacy Games have only been around for a few years, but they have dramatically altered the possibilities available in a board games. Long-term story lines become possible, characters live and die and actions have serious consequences. Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy took existing game templates and catapulted them to unimaginable heights. Who Will Love Legacy Board Games People who love a good story, gamers with a tight, dedicated group of friends who want to play a recurring campaign. You'll play these games over and over again with the same people, but the experience will be brand-new each time. Notable Legacy Board Games Risk Legacy, Pandemic Legacy, Seafall, Gloomhaven, Charterstone, Ultimate Werewolf Legacy. |
Puzzle Games
Who needs a story? Puzzle games are about numbers, pattern recognition, combinations and arranging things. While most games have some sort of puzzle mechanic buried under the surface of story, theme and other mechanics, puzzle games don't need any fancy themes or narratives. Puzzle games emphasis on the joy of optimizing and solving problems and riddles. Who Will Love Puzzle Games Math lovers, engineers and strategists. If you couldn't put a Rubick's Cube down until it was solved as a kid, you'll probably suffer a similar obsession when you pick up a good puzzle game. Notable Puzzle Games Sagrada, Qwixx, Labyrinth, Patchwork, Potion Explosion, Q-Bitz. |
Combat Games
Combat Games pit you against another player or group of players. You attempt to defeat one another. Usually with weapons. Players typically have some form or health or quantity of troops that are directly under assault by other players. You run out, you are out! Who Will Love Combat Board Games Ruthless competitors, people who love decisive games with a winner and a loser, most of these games are dice rollers with a degree of luck and careful planning and bold risk taking Notable Combat Board Games Risk, Diplomacy, King of Tokyo, Chess, War of the Ring, Checkers, Stratego, Paths of Glory, Star Wars: Rebellion, Coup, Twilight Struggle. |
Roll and Move Games
Roll and Move Games involve rolling dice (or spinning a wheel or drawing cards) to determine the number of spaces you may move in a primarily linear direction. Players may be racing from a start point to a finish line or racing to control resources. Either way, what you roll plays a large role in whether you win or lose. Think the majority of the "Classic" Board Games: Monopoly, Clue, Sorry!, Candyland, The Game of Life(shudder).
This type of game has fallen out of favor in a major way in recent years, in large part due to luck playing a much larger role than strategy. Though there are still some excellent recent examples of this, such as Camel Up or The Magic Labyrinth, think of this one as the silent film of the Board Gaming world: it may be fun to revisit from time to time, but times have changed and things have simply improved.
Who Will Love Roll and Move Games
Mainly non-gamers who remember these games fondly from childhood. They can still be great early Gateway Games for kids, as the heavy reliance on luck means that they always have a chance to win without pulling any punches.
Notable Roll and Move Games
Monopoly, The Game of Life, Clue, Candyland, Sorry!, Camel Up, The Magic Labyrinth, Xia: Legends of a Drift System, Zombies!!!, Talisman.
THIS INFORMATION ADAPTED FROM:
https://nonstoptabletop.com/blog/2017/7/30/the-10-types-of-board-games-everyone-should-know-about
Roll and Move Games involve rolling dice (or spinning a wheel or drawing cards) to determine the number of spaces you may move in a primarily linear direction. Players may be racing from a start point to a finish line or racing to control resources. Either way, what you roll plays a large role in whether you win or lose. Think the majority of the "Classic" Board Games: Monopoly, Clue, Sorry!, Candyland, The Game of Life(shudder).
This type of game has fallen out of favor in a major way in recent years, in large part due to luck playing a much larger role than strategy. Though there are still some excellent recent examples of this, such as Camel Up or The Magic Labyrinth, think of this one as the silent film of the Board Gaming world: it may be fun to revisit from time to time, but times have changed and things have simply improved.
Who Will Love Roll and Move Games
Mainly non-gamers who remember these games fondly from childhood. They can still be great early Gateway Games for kids, as the heavy reliance on luck means that they always have a chance to win without pulling any punches.
Notable Roll and Move Games
Monopoly, The Game of Life, Clue, Candyland, Sorry!, Camel Up, The Magic Labyrinth, Xia: Legends of a Drift System, Zombies!!!, Talisman.
THIS INFORMATION ADAPTED FROM:
https://nonstoptabletop.com/blog/2017/7/30/the-10-types-of-board-games-everyone-should-know-about
https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-learn-board-game-design-and-development--gamedev-11607