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• Takuya Ono is a board game journalist who runs the Japanese site Table Games of the World, and I republish his coverage of Tokyo Game Market events in this space courtesy of translations from Saigo. Ono is also a member of the International Games Award jury and, in his day job, a student of Buddhism and the 33rd resident priest of Soto Sodomatsuji in Nagai City.
In this January 2019 interview by Taku Kawakami, Ono examines the best games of 2018, highlighting Azul, Piece o' Cake (which had a new edition released in 2018 by publisher New Games Order), and Tricks and the Phantom and talking about those latter two titles from a philosophical perspective instead of a gameplay perspective.
I'm relying on Google Translate for an understanding of the conversation, but I appreciate his thinking about Piece o' Cake, which I'll summarize this way: "The idea of the 'cake separation problem' corresponds to 'Ritagyo', one of the basic practices of Mahayana Buddhism that is prevalent in modern Japan, and it is the idea of making people happy." You can't play Piece o' Cake from a selfish perspective and ignore the needs of others because you will inevitably be disappointed when what you want is taken by someone else. Says Ono, "But what do you want everyone to do? Thinking about this, it is easy to divide things that are pleasing to this person and that are joyful to this person. Then the rest that comes to you will be a nice cake. Naturally it becomes a win-win relationship."
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Takuya Ono (Photo: Kazunari Onoseki)
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A 1950s vibe runs through the line, which Wild plans to Kickstart in 2020. Says Wild, "Each fabric will be available as either a button-up shirt or a skirt — and yes, the skirts have pockets! The shirts will be available in sizes S-4XL, and the skirts in sizes 6-24. Currently we have five unique fabric designs, but are already looking to expand to game-specific ones and a variety of garment types."
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Hova's short take: "It is vital to be able to tell the difference between a game that needs improvement and a game that's not to one's taste." A slightly longer take from Hova:
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The larger issue is that Westerfeld is a player who derives enormous pleasure from figuring out emergent narrative from a story. There's nothing wrong with this; it's a popular way to enjoy a game.
But the problem is, in the context of Westerfeld's talk, it's the only way to enjoy a game. And just as it would be absurd of me to stand in front of a bunch of writers and tell them that the kinds of stories I enjoy are the only kinds they should write, it's absurd for someone to tell me that the way they enjoy games is the only proper way to enjoy a game.
I also appreciate this bit from Hova:But the problem is, in the context of Westerfeld's talk, it's the only way to enjoy a game. And just as it would be absurd of me to stand in front of a bunch of writers and tell them that the kinds of stories I enjoy are the only kinds they should write, it's absurd for someone to tell me that the way they enjoy games is the only proper way to enjoy a game.
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I know that it's a fashionable thing right now to look at game design as storytelling, and to look at game design as a way of telling stories.
But there's no way around it: It's not a game designer's job to tell a story. Well, not directly, anyway. Rather, it's a game designer's job to create a system capable of telling stories that are always compelling, but not always the same.
• In February 2019, Matthew Ross compiled a GeekList of playing card game systems, that is, a list of various standard and non-standard card decks that can be used to play a variety of card games. Examples include the Decktet, the Badger deck, the Mystique deck, and the Rainbow deck. That info was already publicly available, mind you, but it's nice to have it in one place for comparison (and so that I can find it in this blog via search in the future when I forget where I saw it previously).But there's no way around it: It's not a game designer's job to tell a story. Well, not directly, anyway. Rather, it's a game designer's job to create a system capable of telling stories that are always compelling, but not always the same.
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