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Who's your daddy?

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Tue, 12/21/2004 - 12:47
nickdanger
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Joined: 12/31/1969

Okay, let me first apologize for the stupid subject line but here it is the last few days before a holiday break and I have a stack of work and a deadline clawing at my back. I needed a little breather and decided to pop into BGDF for a bit and my creativity is running a little low at the moment.

Anyway.....

I was asked a question awhile back by someone who was interested in my designs and I thought it was a rather intriguing question:

If you had to choose one "well known" designer, who would you say your designs most closely emulate?

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Tue, 12/21/2004 - 22:52
#1
Joe_Huber
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: Who's your daddy?

Nick asks:

nickdanger wrote:
If you had to choose one "well known" designer, who would you say your designs most closely emulate?

Stefan Dorra.

Being an engineer, I tend to feel a closer connection to Sackson, but realistically my designs tend to be closer to Dorra's in nature. Not as _good_ as Dorra's, mind you, but otherwise similar in execution.

Joe

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Wed, 12/22/2004 - 06:18
#2
zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Who's your daddy?

Interesting question. I think my design philosophy is closest to that of Reiner Knizia. However, my designs more closely resemble the games of Moon, Schacht and/or Sackson, with the occasional tip of the hat to Kramer. I'm not a fan of Teuber designs.

- René Wiersma

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Wed, 12/22/2004 - 12:39
#3
IngredientX
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Who's your daddy?

It goes without saying that I want my designs to reflect me more than anyone else.

With that disclaimer out of the way...

I really like the way Friedemann Friese handles his designs. I love the unusual but compelling themes combined with fiddly/unique but compelling mechanics.

I'm not saying I'm dying my hair green or having the titles of all my games share the same letter. But I like how Friese isn't afraid to make his games nice and dense, as long as every rule fits and the game works. It's a nice contrast to the "minimalist" school of design that seems to be dominant (probably because it makes more sense).

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Wed, 12/22/2004 - 14:59
#4
nickdanger
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Who's your daddy?

You know, I can honestly say I don't really have a feel for Stefan Dorra designs. I guess I need to play some more of his stuff, or maybe more of yours Joe!

To answer my own question, I'd have to say Leo Colovini. Most my stuff has pretty simple rules, and is slightly abstract in nature with a theme that could usually be changed pretty easily if required. There tends to be some randomness included but can most always be overcome with superiour play.

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Wed, 12/22/2004 - 18:44
#5
FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Who's your daddy?

Great question.

I'm not aware of who my daddy is. For some bits of some games I'd say Kramer, other times Knizia, other times a bit of Moon, plus some lighter games that don't seem to have a daddy, plus some Schact... heck, I can't say that any of them are particularly close.

Which either means that I'm my own creative genius or that my designs are super-patchy and can't possibly hold together.

Or, more likely, that I'm just too close to them to see the resemblences.

-- Matthew

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Wed, 12/22/2004 - 22:25
#6
s2alexan
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Joined: 10/25/2008
A second vote for Dorra

Joe beat me to naming Stefan Dorra... now it makes me look like I'm just copying him :(

But, at least I demonstrated my dedication by taking on his first name. Beat that, Joe!

I love all of his games that I've tried - very few rules, very little luck, but very engaging gameplay. My designs usually succeed in the first two.

Funny story - after I had played a couple of Dorra games (and loved them), I came up with an idea for a game about a marketplace. Customers would come in, and you would have to set up shops to serve them. The placement of shops would be important, and affect the flow of customers in the marketplace, and you could also send customers into other people's shops for a share of the profits.

Shortly thereafter, I discovered Marracash - basically the game I had envisioned. The good news is, I managed to find a copy, and I love it!

My latest game seems a lot like a Dorra design. If he had made a deduction game, it would have been a lot like this. Hopefully he hasn't already invented it.

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Thu, 12/23/2004 - 04:01
#7
zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: A second vote for Dorra

Interesting that a few people name Stefan Dorra as their "daddy". As I have only played his "Intrige", I don't really have a feel for what is typical of Dorra's designs.

s2alexan wrote:
I love all of his games that I've tried - very few rules, very little luck, but very engaging gameplay. My designs usually succeed in the first two

That description also sounds a lot like a Schacht design. Anyone care to comment how a Dorra design differs from a Schacht design?

- René Wiersma

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Thu, 12/23/2004 - 12:02
#8
Joe_Huber
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: A second vote for Dorra

zaiga wrote:
s2alexan wrote:
I love all of his games that I've tried - very few rules, very little luck, but very engaging gameplay. My designs usually succeed in the first two

That description also sounds a lot like a Schacht design. Anyone care to comment how a Dorra design differs from a Schacht design?

Sure...

Dorra's designs _are_ a lot like Schacht's self-released (Timbuktu) designs. But Schacht's other designs tend to be lighter on theme than Dorra's; Dorra also seems to have the better feel for how to take advantage of traditional card game mechanics. Most of Dorra's best games are _small_ games - both in terms of time and shelf space. While I'd argue the same is true for Schacht, he's had more success with larger games, IMHO.

For me, one other difference is the durability; each of the 19 Dorra games I've played, I've averaged 15 plays. For the 16 Schacht games I've played, I've averaged 5 plays...

Joe

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