Top 100 Games ~ #100 - #91 ~ Making the Cut!

Okay, I'll bite.

I love engine-builders. And while there are a great many fine examples to choose from, I think the archetype must be Saint Petersburg, because of its simplicity: the core elements of engine-building are there, unobscured by a lot of extra, unrelated mechanisms.

In Saint Petersburg, you buy cards representing people. Each card you buy will grant you either money or victory points or both, every round. The more valuable the card, the higher the cost, of course.

So in the early game you (mostly) buy cards that give you money, so that you can eventually afford the expensive cards that give you lots of points. This is the essential decision of any engine-building game: when is it time to stop improving your engine and instead start milking it for all the points you can get?

Of course it's not as clear-cut as that sounds. Cards pay off every round, so a high-VP card obtained early will have time to generate a huge number of points. But if you do that, you won't have money left over to continue improving your engine, so it may take you quite a while to acquire any other good cards. Cards come out mostly at random, so the game often presents you with a difficult choice: should you take an expensive card now while it's available (and before an opponent can get it), or be patient and continue to build your engine first?

There are other mechanisms in Saint Petersburg, but not too many and they all brilliantly serve the purpose of raising the stakes and making the decisions more interesting and difficult.

This game is always in my mind when I'm designing anything with the engine-building element... which I usually am.

A few other well-designed engine builders: Dominion (like SP, fairly basic), Navegador (more complex), Russian Railroads (quite complex, but a powerful engine-builder), To Court the King (a simple game with dice, nicely balanced).

Were I to suggest a couple games for one of my personal favourite mechanics - "press your luck" - it's a dead heat between Incan Gold and Can't Stop.

Curiously, the first seems better at higher player counts, while the sweet spot for the latter looks to be 3 players but plays well even at two.

[EDIT] Oh, and were I to combine engine-building and press-your-luck into a single game, I'd consider Port Royal.

Hmm... Board Game Arena is BGA?! I wonder HOW you get your OWN game (as a Game Designer) among that long list of games that players can enjoy??? I'm curious because I'd love for a 2 Player "TradeWorlds" game be offered to people for FREE. Obviously I don't want Single or 3+ players as I reserve those experiences for people who OWN the game... But still a 2 Player like TableTopia ... Could be of VALUE to me.

Any ideas??? I couldn't see any e-mail links to contact or Customer Support or ANY e-mail at all...! @The Professor... Since you have used this service do you have an e-mail to contact for questions?!

Many thanks.

I don't think you can, unless you're a major publisher. BGA seems to want only established, well-known titles. Somewhere on their site (don't remember where, sorry) there's an info page that says that they are not open to unpublished/self-published/wip titles. If it were otherwise, I'd have a couple of my own titles up there by now.

I don't know how "real" publishers get in contact with them, either; my interest dropped off when I saw that they weren't interested in doing business with designers. I'd much prefer to playtest my designs with a smoother UI than Tabletop Simulator provides, but BGA sadly isn't the answer.

(Apologies to the OP for this digression. Back to talking about games now!)

Yeah ... Well I get the impression that if Asmodee takes over ... Only Asmodee games will be featured. They don't OPEN doors, they CLOSE them. Granted if you are Parisian ... They can go a long way to help a fellow Patriot. In Montreal, we had a fairly unknown French Designer who made a minis game called V-Commandos... He went all-in for $100k through a Kickstarter. His name is "Thibaud de la Touanne".

Taking inspiration of that game (V-Commandos) he later collaborated and published with the help of Asmodee a Board Game for "Assassin's Creed" (A Ubisoft IP). Anyways they made like over $1.3M CAD ... It was a huge success... And thanks to the support of Asmodee.

They are like that, they support "their own". I don't know how much PROFIT there was... But I'm sure he made off with some monetary return... In addition to a HUGE BOOST in his "pedigree".

He's a nice guy (Thibaud) ... I've met him at the Montreal Comic Con on a couple of occasions.

So good for some people, bad for most. I just read not too long that "Plaid Hat Games" which was bought by F2Z Entertainment which got bought by Asmodee (again) the owner decided to take back "Plaid Hat Games" and will no longer be a part of the Asmodee Family.

He left on good terms ... It not often you see someone BUY and then LEAVE to continue doing business on their own... So like I said, they work for some people and not for others.

Backgammon-games that combine skill and luck are fun. Backgammon falls in the idea spot on the skill versus luck spectrum form me.

Settlers of Catan-knowledge of game state is important to competitive play. Though I probably played this game way to many times.

Roll for the galaxy (also race for the galaxy) . Wow graphic design can be really important to the game experience.

Medici the game that best represent bidding.

Who's the boss-game that best represents negotiation.

Sushi go vs sushi roll- allowed me to grok information leaking.

Tzolkkien and azul-tweaking simple mechanics can lead to interesting game play. Worker placement for tzolkkien and drafting for azul.

Glory to Rome/San Juan wow cards can have a lot of different uses.

Glory to Rome-since the same cards are used in all the different game "systems", it demonstrates how the output from one system can be the input for other systems.

Word Slam-simultaneous action means less down time, this game is also probably the best example of this.

That sounds more like IGA than BGA.

I'm not "bashing" on them... It seems like they require independent developers (programmers) to code the various games. So it's not really a Black-Box, it's more: "If you have the time and energy to code up one of your favorite games, we'll add it to our list of games"...

Game Publisher that have their own Software Developer(s). I think Rick was the one who mislead us saying that: "They don't publish Game Designer games..." From the FAQ (which is only available through Google not the webpage itself; weird) they look for independent developers to CODE the game for future use on BGA.

Maybe I was a bit "harsh"... But again mislead too... There are more links to other HIDDEN areas of the website via Google. Including a section for Developers (or Programmers). You can register to have access to their API and code your OWN favorite game... Which would mean that anyone can partake IF you have the coding skills to make a game "happen".

That's very different from: "We only accept known games from certified Publishers..." Again was mislead... From the FAQ it says all the development is done free of charge and then the offer most games freely or you can go premium to help support the site and its owners.

Can't help to think that all those INDEPENDENT Developers (Programmers) put in all the time to make the games possible and BGA makes all the monies... Go figure. Somebody always has an ANGLE.

- What games do you enjoy and would make your Top 100 and why?

A&A, Risk, ASL, Settlers of Catan, (MtG), Monopoly, Tradewars

- What games have engaged you as a designer?

I don't understand this question TBH.

- What games, IYHO, best epitomize a particular mechanic?

Well, I like developing a strategy. And all the named games have a certain simplicity to start with. Then need strategy for me as player to develop on. I guess, it is the combination of the mechanics. Especially the combat mechanic, with of course 2 games being the exception.

A&A
Excellent combat mechanic. Simple to do. And it depends on the combination of units if it is effective or not. Of course stacking units on units will render the strategy useless in the long run. So I Always play this game with a limit per region.

Risk
Well, let's just say I got my own rules for this game. I like development to be slow and limited. Other than that, I often remove the extra troops for continents. I find this rather unfair. And the starting troops income starts at 3. It isn't just a minimum.
Troops have to be divided equally. At the end of a turn a player can move from one region to another. Limited to half of that region.

ASL
Played as how it is meant to be.
It has been a year or 2 now. I lost the game, don't ask me how...
I used the maps for some testing too.

Settlers of Catan
Played as how it is meant to be.
We drink a lot with this game. Actually, we now play this more than my own board game. Our number of players is very limited these days.

MtG
It has been years ago.
But with my own rules for the mirror games. I would still love to play it. However, I sold all my cards. There was simply no one to play with anymore at those times.

Monopoly
Since there are also simpler people to play with...

Tradewars
Some rules where different and we had a lot of fun. We still remember this day. However, we don't play this game anymore. Since we where waiting for the newer additions...
Maybe we play again since I own 2 decks instead of 1.

"Projectile"
Although we play the hobby game. This game is never finished and only consists of pen and paper every time when we start playing.