In this week’s blog post, our art director, Mark Casha, talks about the choices behind our games’ art style. Whether it’s the bright, tactile beauty of Azul, the richly-painted world of Scythe, or the cute-yet-autumnal cartoon style of Root, beautiful artwork can make a board game stand out on increasingly crowded shelves. Of course, it’s …
An occasional series of reflections on concepts from game studies, applied to board game design. Let’s talk about play. ‘Play’ is a big word. We play a board game, sure, and we play a videogame. We play a game of tennis. An actor plays a role on stage. A chamber ensemble plays a sonata. Shakespeare …
The term ‘worldbuilding’ is going to be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in genre fiction: it’s increasingly grown to be much-used, perhaps even overused. It’s a cliché for a reason: any work of fiction worth its salt should leave you with the distinct sense of having breathed in deep and filled your lungs …
What is the germ of a board game? Before the long, long processes of design, testing and production, what form does a board game take, when it first springs into the mind of its creator? Most often, for us, it’s an image: a vivid picture conveying a strong emotion. Take, for example, Vengeance: a lone, …
UPDATE #34 Delay announcements are never pleasant to write. No one likes delays unless it’s a mutant virus manifesting itself creatively on your body parts… and I guess it’s one way you can look at this one. In the last update we stated that final assembly was expected to be around the end of June …
This is the second in a series of designer diaries in which I talk about the challenges of narrative design for board games. Just about every academic definition of what narrative is understands it as a story – a sequence of events in which a story-world of characters and other existents undergoes changes – conveyed …
The Dev Vlog series continues with the third episode documenting the journey towards the Kickstarter campaign! We’re exploring the Posthuman world through the eyes of Daniel, the writer, Gordon, the game designer, and Mark, the art director. Watch them discuss about posthumanism, what the Posthuman universe looks like, and the roles of the mutants in it!
When I was approached to work on the writing and narrative design for Posthuman Saga, my interest was piqued, but I was hesitant. In the other, parallel life I inhabit when I’m not working on Posthuman – the one lived out in university lecture halls and academic conferences – I study and teach narrative theory …
The second episode of the Dev Vlog series has landed! Cardboard Rhino interviews our game designer on design challenges, means of evaluating the quality of a game, and his goals for Posthuman Saga. Also, lots of behind the scenes footage and the team discussing design decisions! Following the full journey on making games, the series will take us from development all the way to Kickstarter!
The prominence of narrative in board games is increasing. We are seeing renewed efforts at fusing board games with narrative; not just in what are generally called “thematic” games, but also in euro games that have had a reputation of a stark division between mechanics and theme or story. —Wooahh, not so fast there, Gordonius! …