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Kingdom Builder is a game of putting pieces on a board in order to put pieces on a board. Your pieces do three things: they gain you abilities, they score points, and they limit where you can go in the future. You want to pay close attention to all three things.
This approximates my attention to thematic detail when I describe a game; everything gets boiled away until I'm talking only about how you win and which actions are available to move you toward that goal line. The theme is handy for remembering which piece does what and why some actions are allowed and others aren't, but otherwise I mostly don't even see it.Second, about Monster Factory, coming at some point from Rio Grande Games:
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We were not specifically trying to make a children's game, so there was no special challenge there. The game was just clearly appropriate for kids. If you aren't old enough to play, you can still make monsters out of the tiles. It has it all! It's the classic kid's game that you don't mind playing with your kids. And I know some adults who have played it on their own.
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The problem, as far as I understand it, is that some designers design games that children can play and others design games for children. The games above are examples of the latter. Someone said, I need to design a game with physical actions that children can handle; they spin a spinner, draw a card, roll a die. So now what? They draw a card and something happens. They spin the spinner, and move 1-4 spaces or don't move at all. The designer's concern is only whether a child can handle the physical aspects of the mechanisms involved, not whether the child would be interested in doing such things or whether these mechanisms even create a sound game.
I think Vaccarino's approach is better in that the thought process appears to be "design a game, get it how you like, then realize that the game is simple/straightforward enough that children can play it". Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm coming at this from the point of a view that a low suggested age range doesn't imply a bad or uninteresting game, but only one that's easy enough that people of a young age can also play. (They may be terrible at it, but that's not what's important!)
Finally is this brief statement of interests:
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I almost never play a game that isn't mine these days – basically since I made Dominion... Among post-Dominion games I haven't played but have at least read about, Galaxy Trucker and Innovation are two that caught my eye. I like that Galaxy Trucker has you build something in real time, then watch it be destroyed. Innovation looks like one of my games before the changes that make it not too complex for humans.
Agree on the appeal of Galaxy Trucker, and Innovation is my all-time number #1 bestest super-mega-joy fun overload surprise blast. With luck, one of Vaccarino's "too complex for humans" designs will see print down the road...• Speaking of Kickstarter, Tasty Minstrel Games' Michael Mindes has published "How To Create A Successful Project On Kickstarter" on the TMG website, with this 30-minute slideshow/video combination presenting all that you need to know to "become a Kickstarter Rockstar", according to Mindes.
• U.S. publisher Out of the Box interviews Brad Carter, designer of Run Wild, which, yes, is published by OotB.
• Yehuda Berlinger has posted his "2011 Game Industry Survey" on Purple Pawn. Berlinger surveyed nearly seven thousand companies in the analog game industry – whether retailer, distributor, publisher, or other – and compiled "health of the industry" statistics from the 391 that responded. The short summary: "Of those companies that didn't close, the overwhelming majority are doing fine or even better than last year – only 13% report doing worse than last year."
• While 100% outside the scope of BGG, I thought I'd point out the existence of RingStix, an outdoor activity played with "slightly curved 25-inch sword-like sticks and a 5-inch ring". You catch the ring on a stick, then launch the ring by having both sticks inside of it, then pulling them apart quickly. Sometimes press agents do have something interesting to show you, even if it's not appropriate for what you're supposed to be doing.
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