Recent BGA plays (10/24-4/25)

 Lately I've been playing some board games with Corbin -- he's almost 7 years old now. He has even played some grown-up games, like Puerto Rico, and he's played a couple of my prototype as well. One day maybe I'll make a blog post about playing games with him...  But outside of those games with Corbin, I haven't really played much of anything in person since before COVID. I'd be lost if it weren't for online portals such as BoardGameArena.com! I've played some games on Yucata.de, MaBiWeb, boiteajeux.net, and Brettspielwelt in the past, but I never liked it as much as playing with my friends face-to-face across the table, and manipulating the tactile game pieces with my hands, etc. More recently it seems that some or all of those portals have died off or shut down. 

Board Game Arena is another online portal, and one which focuses more on the look and user interface... when the pandemic hit, they became very popular, and eventually sold themselves to Asmodee, one of the biggest forces in the boardgame industry! Ever since the pandemic started, I've been playing games on BGA regularly with some of my oldest friends, like Jeremy in Seattle and Steve in California. I like to play games I know on there but nowadays I also try to discover new games. I often enter a game without even reading the rules first, and just sort of "kludge" my way through it (no ideas where that term came from, but it basically means to stumble through the game and figure it out as you go). That's one nice thing about an online implementation, since it enforces the rules, it'll tell you what you can do, and it won't let you make illegal moves :)

Every once in a while, I compile some mini-reviews of games I've played on BGA for my friend David, but I think it would be smarter to post those here for a wider audience. So here's my latest round of mini-reviews for new-to-me games played on BGA:

Apiary

Finally getting to try this worker placement game where your workers level up! It's pretty cool... not sure if I like it as much as I thought I would, and it's maybe a bit more fiddly thank I expected for a Stonemaier game? Or maybecnot? I dunno --- it's pretty cool so far though (midway through a 2p and a 3p game)

Architects of Amytis

Fairly abstract game that kind of uses Tic-Tac-Toe as a mechanism. Place tiles on your 3x3 grid, try to make the configs on scoring cards, but tiles also score based on type and where you place them. Draft the tiles from a 3x3 display and leave a pawn there, and if you get 3-in-a-row, gain a bonus scoring condition. Cute, not bad. Was annoying when I couldn't get the building that lets you gain scoring cards, but I don't know how common that is

Azul Duel

2p specific Azul game, seems worse than just playing Azul with 2 players. I get the impression that these 2p "duel" versions of games are meant to be... smaller, more compact. Maybe that's a mistaken assumption though. Meh.

Bonfire (on Yucata)

Played some games of Bonfire on Yucata, and while it's pretty opaque, and the theme does not help much, and the costs/requirements are kind of arbitrary... once you get the hang of it, the game is pretty cool!

Botanicus

A not-too-bad game about gardening, where you maneuver your gardener for access to spots on your board, then plant and tend flowers. The action selection is kinda like Kingdomino - you're drafting actions as well as turn order for the following round. It's a little bit flexible, as you can pay money for otherwise blocked actions, but that's not trivial to afford. There's a side hustle of collecting animal tokens, and so far I think that might be a bit "overcentralized" because they seem to be worth a ton, and you can't really be blocked from getting them, so it seems like you kind of have to make sure you get your 5 animals to be competitive. I've enjoyed my first few games, not sure if it'll have legs, but it's at least a nice new game to consume
Edit: There's an "advanced" game that makes the animals more than just a set collection mechanism and gives players more variety in unique gardens and endgame goals. I think I probably like that better. It's a decent game!

Carpe Diem (on Yucata)

I've played a couple games of Carpe Diem on Yucata now, and so far - while it's not my favorite Feld title - it's also not my least favorite -- I kinda like it. Maybe like, B-tier Feld for me, where In the Year of the Dragon and Notre Dame are S-tier, and Trajan and Castles of Burgundy are A-Tier...

Dead Cells

This cooperative rogue-lite game with a videogame IP was... well, I didn't really grok it very well, and I didn't really enjoy trying. Maybe better on the tabletop, in real time, live with other players would be better so you could discuss what to do like, out loud.

Eternitium

A very straightforward deckbuilder, where taking better cards makes you negative progress. Every turn you have to take a bad card into your deck, then you get to make some progress, then you may optionally take a Basic or Advanced tech card into your deck (at the cost of -1 or -2 progress). There's a sort of PYL option on the progress as well, which may be interesting if you are tracking the contents of card piles/decks adequately. So far (1.5 games in) this game isn't knocking my socks off. the card effects are few and uninteresting, the game is very straightforward, and it's just not that fun for me

Finca

I played a couple games of Finca and was thoroughly unimpressed. As one player said after the game: "this was not fun."

Forum Trajanum (on Yucata)

I stumbled through a game on Yucata.de, without reading the rules first, and it did not work out at all! That game is done, and I only understand about 20% of it! What I do understand doesn't really excite me much... you take two tiles pretty much at random from your board, think about the one you might want, and pass the other to your opponent... then you get what they pass you, and you have to think about whether you want that more than what you already decided you wanted (seems like double effort to me). Then you do stuff that I don't fully understand, and I'm sure some of it is worth points... In fairness, I should really learn the rules properly and not try to just kludge my way through, and I'd be happy to try it again (hopefully after at least watching a how-to-play video), but I don't expect this to be my new favorite Feld or anything

Garden Rush

I enjoyed a couple of games of this cute little head-to-head abstract, and I'd play again. You draft vegetables from a common pool, but there's a strong geographic element to it as you place them into your garden grid.

Guild of Merchant Explorers

Still figuring it out (might need to check the rules), but so far the hype seems justified -- seems like a solid twist on the roll & write genre

Edit - just finished my first game, and I like it! Probably the best R&W I've seen an a long time!

Edit again - OK, this game is SOO GOOD! I really like the main mechanism, and the whole thing just works really well. I've played on all the different maps, and they're all interesting and a little different. Great game!

Let's Catch the Lion

This game was a little abstract that I did not care for at all. You have 3 units, with specific move patterns, and like Chess, you want to capture your opponent's Lion. Do not recommend.

Let's Go To Japan

I'm really enjoying this drafting/set collection (sort of) game! I've played a handful of times, and it's pretty great.

Living Forest Duel

New 2p spinoff of the really good Living Forest... not really much like LF at all. Reminds me of RA a bit --- the PYL card draw in this Duel version is from a shared deck, and on your turn you either add a card, or use an action. You get 2 actions per round, and the round ends when both players are out of actions, OR when 3 solitary animals show up. After a couple of games I'd say it's alright, pretty good even, but I think I prefer the base game personally.

Mapmaker: The Gerrymandering Game

Cute little area control game where you spread out tokens at random, then surround areas such that you have a majority in the area... you just take turns placing 4 border pieces on the hex grid until all the areas are 4-7 spaces big. Not really my kind of game, but it wasn't bad for a simple, light game, I think

Mesos

I heard this compared to In the Year of the Dragon, which I love, so I gave it a try. Turn order draft like Kingdomino or Viticulture... events you have to prepare for... I can see the comparison to ItYotD, but this feels "smaller" somehow. I enjoyed a few games of it 2p, haven't finished a 3p yet.
Edit: I like ItYotD better, but this ended up being pretty good (especially head-to-head)

Middle Ages

Aside from a boring title, I think I like Middle Ages (after 1 play, where I learned as I went). It feels a lot like Kingdomino as you are drafting tiles for your board as well as turn order for next round, but there's no geographical element (kind of a bummer), and the tiles are a lot more sophisticated - they each have an effect, and then you collect income for that tile's type. I look forward to playing it some more, it's definitely grabbed me more than Moon River (another Kingdomino-like game)

Mythicals

This little 2p rummy variant left much to be desired

Naishi

card game - don't re-order your hand, try to get cards in the best place to score well. This one was hard for me to grok at first, it's not very intuitive, but after 1 game I think I've got it now. This is not my favorite type of game, so I don't think I'll play much more, but I do want to play at least once now that I've got the rules down

Revive

Took a minute to really figure it out, and the implementation benefits from a big screen and tooltips (so harder to play on my phone), but now that I think I know what's going on I think I kinda like it. Not sure if it'll have legs though. Basically you have 3 resource types, and 3 main actions (each costs 1 of the resources), and you have multi-use cards (one of my favorite things in games). Beyond that, it's kind of like Concordia or something -- you play your cards and take some actions until you're out of juice, then you "hibernate" and reset things a bit.
Edit: I almost didn't remember this one even reading he description! But now I remember it, I think it was pretty fun, and I'd play it again

Stonespine Architects

This is a solid booster draft game (like 7W) where you build a dungeon and populate it with monsters, traps, and treasures. There are various goals to compete over and while it's nothing earth shattering, it seems like a very solid game to me
Edit: after a handful of plays, I really like it!

Tower Up

Solid game mechanically, and production seems like it's probably very nice (I've only played on BGA) -- but feels very abstract to me, no thematic consonance at all. Therefore I'm not sure how 'fun" it is

Toy Battle

Simple, quick head-to-head game from Repos -- and it's really good! Either draw 2 tiles, or play one - each tile has an ability and a value. You can always cover your own tiles, and you can cover an opponent's tile IF yours is bigger. Some spaces have an effect when you place there as well. Surround areas to gain stars, 50%+ stars wins. OR, win by placing a tile on the opponent's HQ. If someone runs out of tiles, most stars wins. A little bit of tug-o-war style back and forth, a touch of card advantage, two routes to victory (maybe 3), and the ability to pivot between them... great game!

Umbrella

This is a weird little abstract that, TBH, I didn't love. You draft marbles from the left, right, top, or bottom... left and right are shared pools with your neighbors, everyone shares the top pool, and the bottom pool is just for you, but it's bad to have marbles in there at game end. When you pick a marble, you "push" it onto your board from that side, pushing other marbles in that row, and sending the last one off into the next pool. Your goal is to make specific arrangements of marbles to satisfy cards

The White Castle

A VERY short (9 turns) dice-drafting/worker placement game that feels a bit like it's procedurally generated. Lower valued dice tend to trigger your lantern income (which is upgradeable), but they potentially make you pay more for actions, while larger valued dice gain money instead of losing it. You can end up connecting multiple actions in a big chain sometimes which is always fun and satisfying

Zenith

2nd release from PlayPunk (Captain Flip was great!), thought I'd give it a try. I like it pretty well so far. Can be a bit dependent on drawing the right suits at times, or if you need money, sometimes you need specific types of cards and if they don't come then that's rough, but that seems to be just occasional so far and goes with the territory of a card game.

I'd like to see a Diplomacy option that cost any card type, gave you Leader, and let you draw 5 cards, keep 1 (like RftG's Explore+5) OR maybe just the ability to optionally discard 1 card at the end of each turn before refilling hand

Quick check-in for the new year

 I've been meaning to post more in this blog, like I used to. Some of the stuff I would normally have posted in here has instead gone into game channels on the Discord server* I set up for playtesting, but that's dangerous:

Tangent: I had been using Slack for exactly that purpose before, and a few years ago they decided to change how they do their free accounts: instead of a limited number of posts that last forever (which was plenty for me and my game notes), they changed to an unlimited number of posts, but only accessible for 90 days -- to see posts beyond that you need to have a paid account. There's a bit of a loophole in that threads appear to be visible, and if I'd known that, I would have replied to all of my posts, even if it was with a nonsense reply, just so I'd be able to see them now. I did try to export the info before I lost access to it, but there's really no good way to do that, so it wasn't very successful. I lost a lot of thoughts and info on a lot of game ideas!

I don't expect Discord to go that route, it seems a lot more established and set in their ways, but it never hurts to have a backup, and it can help to write things out in different ways. So I would like to make some catch-up posts here about some of the game projects I've working on. Let's call that a New Year's Resolution.

* Apparently, the Discord link expires after a while, so if you want into the server, leave a comment here that the link is bad and I'll edit a new one in or something

It's been a while since I've made any resolutions, or explicitly thought about ambitions, and I think it's a good idea. So here are a few:

Progress on signed games 

I have 2 games that are signed but still haven't come out yet: Apotheosis (to be called Usurpers), from a small publisher, so I don't know if or when it'll finally come out, and Eminent Domain re-release, which includes Eminent Domain: Coalition (a solo mode that I should probably expand on, TBH), from Rio Grande so I feel good about it, but it's a year late at this point. I'd like to see those both come to fruition. 

More games signed

I've had a few pitches recently, but none of them led to anything. I do have one promising lead currently for Division of Labor, so hopefully that'll pan out. Taiko Kiri (co-designed with my friend Steve) is under review by a publisher, so hopefully they'll choose it over their other options (and I just got word that it got a step closer, edging out one of two competitors!). But I've got a pretty big list of games to pitch, and I'd love to see some of those published.

Seth Jaffee Development

I have been doing some development projects for a few publishers, but it's been a while. I have recently picked up 2 consultation gigs, which could turn into full-on design/development projects. I'd like to do a little more of that this year.

One of the games I did freelance development on hasn't come out yet, and I wonder what its status is. It would be good to see that in the wild as well.

More blog posts going forward

And as I said above, I plan to post more in this blog going forward. I find it useful to write out my thoughts on a game, and I like being able to go through old posts and revisit (and sometimes revive) old ideas.