Three Irish board game developers talk about getting into board games, the awesome culture around it and creating their own board games.
Tabletop Culture:
In our last episode of the season, we test our social skills by trying to find the best social board games. We are looking for games where deception plays a key part or where communication has a unique style. So let’s dive in.
Today we are breaking down our favourite teamwork board games. These are games that engage a group of players as a whole. We are looking for games that ensure teamwork is at its core and encourage players to work well together. So let’s dive in.
Today we are breaking down our favourite chaotic board games. These are games that keep players engaged and active throughout the game. We are looking for games that keep the players on the edge of their seats as they deal with the chaos the game brings. So let’s dive in.
What can we learn about modern gaming from a look at our past? Today we are going to talk about Senet, an ancient Egyptian board game that is over 5000 years old according to the Smithsonian. It was played for over 2500 years and evolved significantly over that time.
Today we are breaking down our favourite strategy board games. These are games that give the best strategic experience to anyone playing. We are looking for very balanced games that allow for long term strategies so players can win using their expert skills. So let’s dive in.
DAG Debates:
Today we are debating player elimination. Does player elimination reduce fun? We will be discussing what games work perfectly with elimination and when does it fail to hit the mark.
That pretty much wraps it up for this debate. Did your opinion change on player elimination? Does it make you want to play an elimination board game? If you enjoyed it, share it.
Today we are debating Legacy and Campaign board games. Does adding legacy or campaign elements to a board game make it better? Are some games more suited to legacy and campaign aspects?
Did your opinion change on Legacy and Campaign board games? Does it make you want to play a legacy game? If you enjoyed it, share it.
Today we are debating silence in board games. How does modifying communication between players effect things such as social deception, strategy and cooperation. Did your opinion change on silence in board games? Does it make you want to play a silent game? If you enjoyed it, share it.
(more…)Today we are talking about dice versus deck randomness. There are plenty of awesome games out there using either dice or deck of cards for their randomness, sometimes both. We’re going to pit these two board game concepts at each other for the banter and see what happens.
(more…)Today we are debating one versus many board games. The proposition of this debate is do “one versus many board games reduce fun”?
Did your opinion change on one versus many board games? Who do you think won the debate? Does it make you want to play a one versus many board game?
(more…)Board Game Design:
Today we are talking about player experience in board games. What is the experience we want to give our players? Can the experience change as we develop our games? How can the player experience help us make better games?
Today we are talking about how to choose the art style for your board game. This is quite a big step in the creation of a board game and can be quite tricky to navigate. It’s all part of the design process and we’re here to flesh it out a little bit.
(more…)Today we are talking about our experience with Board Game Arena. We are going to discuss what board game arena is, what it was like adapting Dice Summoners and why we like it.
(more…)Today we are talking about how we balanced Dice Summoners. We are going to discuss the paths we focused on for players, balancing dice and cards and breaking the rules of balance, just for fun.
(more…)Today we are talking about balancing a board game. We are going to discuss where the worlds of fun and balance collide, what our process is and we discuss how to find the balance in your game.
Credits:
Podcast Editing from Episode 11 onwards by Brendan Russell (https://podcasteditor.ie/)
Music from Episode 7 onwards: Music Box & Sunshine by Daniel Birch (https://www.danielbirchmusic.com/)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/